On Fried Chicken And Contracts

 I made fried chicken and biscuits last night and, after scouring this blog for lessons learned, put the breaded thighs into the fryer at 350 for 10 minutes. I burned the coating. Argh. I put the breaded legs into the fryer at 325 for 9 minutes and the crust was perfect, but the legs just a shade under cooked.

It's 325 for 10 minutes. Do you hear me? 325. 10 minutes. 

Geeze Louise, how many times do I have to learn that same lesson?

Proper fried chicken.

Contracts

I work for a company who does little more than take care of the paperwork to get money from the customer and pay me. They get a cut, naturally, but it's all hands-off for me. I don't need any benefits or marketing, I just need a home for my skills.

My contract got renegotiated and renewed in September. Despite my experience with proposal writing and negotiations, my company has shared nothing with me. I trusted them to take care of it in a professional manner. I was lazy and didn't want to deal with that part of the job.

I recently came to find out that their markup on my salary was 220%. In my industry, 75% is normal. That is, if I was paid $100K, the cost to the customer should have been $175K. Instead, it was $320K. The customer paid it, grudgingly, because my skill set is unique and they need what I do.

I have never been so professionally embarrassed in my life. I'm here to help the customer succeed, I'm not here to rob them. I get paid very well, but I'm not trying to use my leverage to squeeze them until they pop. I got into trouble because I allowed someone else to negotiate for me. I should have demanded that my company share their proposal with me. After all, it was all about my irreplaceable services.

I did not take responsibility for my professional reputation and now I'm paying for it. My company, knowing I'm close to full retirement and not having any real interest in the customer, saw a way to cash in one final time on me.

The Moral Of The Story: Manage your career and your professional reputation carefully. Your goal is to make everyone around you happy, including both your management and the customer. When you're deliberately ignorant, you lose control of both relationships.