EMEA Sweatshop
I had the misfortune, as did a colleague, of working via a particularly arsey outsourcing firm for six months. These miserly shite-pokes would dream up delightful ways to save money, like insisting my colleague has his parents drive him to the airport (rather than get a taxi).

Other cost-cutting exercises included not approving wages or expenses until the last second, in many cases missing the deadline - my colleague went three months without pay at first. Try getting round via plane and staying in hotels for three months with no cash or credit; not easy.

The only way to actually get these malingering toads to cough up was to send a shirty mail telling them unless they stuck to their side of the contract they'd be getting sued for breach - which inevitably got stuff moving. Unfortunately, I had to brandish the threat of legal action at them on a depressingly regular basis.

Particularly galling was the emotional blackmail they would try on younger workers, as well as the ridiculous mark-up they charged back to the client - while paying them pennies.

They're well known in the ICT and comms industry, and invariably not for all the right reasons. To say they specialise in bungling ineptitude and mismanagement would be akin to saying Fred West liked to do a spot of landscape gardening.

Luckily they were kicked out by the client after several complaints by myself and other colleagues, and we took the work on at the original mark-up. Woo and henceforth yay.

Stingy organisations deserve to fail, esp. those that attempt to treat their staff like battery hens.
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 16:39, 8 replies)

would i know
please give me a big hint about the ICT company so i can stay clear.
(tech_junky, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 16:52, closed)

Begins with "W"
ends with "o", rhymes with Front-Row. Indian.

Underhand scheming shitbags, the lot of em.
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 16:55, closed)

I thought
you might have been talking about the lot I work for which has a C, an S and a C in it...
(Prawn, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 17:02, closed)

i've undue cause
to have to deal with that mob as well. Does my blood-pressure the world of good, I tells yah.
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 17:17, closed)

Ah
well that doesn't surprise me - they're rather good at that.
(Prawn, Wed 29 Oct 2008, 11:26, closed)

what was the
emotional blackmail?
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 17:02, closed)

pretty amateurish stuff
like humming and hawing over expense approval, then threatening to bin the lot over 50p of a difference, hinting about not renewing the contract, then trying to barter the daily rate down.

Demanding foreign travel but not providing any form of support whatsoever was also a favourite.

TBH I was dealing directly with the client for three months with no problem before they stuck their nose in and buggered everything up.
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 17:12, closed)

Clicky
For Fred West. I laughed.
(Merrep, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 18:51, closed)