I wasn't really a loaned out employee, but about a year after I got out of college times were tough then too. I got a part time, as needed job with a local one-man show architect that worked out of his house. And I also worked as a security guard and on a ski-slope chair lift at the same time. About the time the snow melted a colleague of that architect needed a bit of help in his one-man show office, he worked from an office he shared with a contractor. So they stated sharing me and they arranged my schedule for me. Between the two architects and the security job I sometimes had 70 hours a week. Other weeks it was just the security gig but it averaged out to full time. It wasn't bad at all for a guy with no real life responsibilities yet and I gained experience for the resume. Eventually the second architect got more work and I ended up being the first of three regular full time employees in his firm and was there for over 4 years (he moved out of the contractor's office about this time too). At one point the first guy called to see if I could work on something for him and I relay couldn't, that was the only problem that ever came up. So anyway, it may be a good deal for the employees. And they would get a taste of how different offices work too. And if one architect shares an office with a contractor, you get to learn a bit about that as a bonus.
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Thomas Streicher AIA
Thomas Streicher, Architect
Monroe NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-25-2012 13:05
From: F. John Barbour
Subject: Loaning employees / borrowing employees
Back when the economy was better a few years back I was able to make that work quite successfully over a number of years. Our firms workload varied considerably over any given year, so we developed a relationship with 3 or 4 other firms that were interested and also had occasional needs for additional staff or quality staff they didn't want to lose, but didn't have the work at the time to support them. If you bring in employees from another firm, the employees continue to be employed by their firm and you reimburse that firm. The firm loaning the employees wins because they are able to hold on to quality employees during a slack period and the firm borrowing staff wins because they don't need to commit to full time staff for say a sudden surge in workload that they know will end at the end of a particular project. The key is in setting a rate that works for both firms. I think I ended up with something like 2x base salary - the firm loaning still has to pay benefits and the firm borrowing gets to earn some profit.
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F. John Barbour AIA
Shelter Architecture, LLC
Minneapolis MN
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