Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 26, 2021

These are the kind of family members you don’t have to buy Christmas presents.

Kim, charge him ten times as much since you are now a free lance consultant.

Well, true. But as least some fired salaried employees, brought back as consultants when the suits realized the person had knowledge necessary for the company, can get a bit of revenge in charging twenty times more for consulting than they got in salary.

Bernie, it might be a good investment to audit the code Kim produces. It’s not standard procedure to hire someone that has been fired and will be again.

Got to give it Mike for the nice little zinger in the last panel.

Employees being treated as crap? Nothing new.

Staying on after the project is done is boring anyway, you usually just repeat the same work you just did

The phony definition of a corporate “family” in the last panel is right on. Family right up to the point where a business decision takes precedence.

Ask Uber & Lyft drivers if they feel like family.

She’s looking more “yellow” than usual. Jaundice? Hepatitis? Check the sclera.

And may God be with you if you even whisper the word “union”.

Her strap is back up. Must be getting serious….

As a contractor I got my benefits from my Contractor company, not the Government. Frankly, my benefits were better.

This is the story of the “gig” economy. Sounds like “skies the limit” until too many people try for the same gig, wages go down, and you’re wishing you hadn’t quit your “day job”. In the meantime, your wages are even lower because the employers are spending the difference between what you make and a living wage on lobbying campaigns to prevent you from being properly classified as an employee, rather than a disposable commodity.

Kim’s memory is a wee bit different from her history, she wasn’t fired. She quit.

Did it for 5 years, then got a permanent job ELSEWHERE

I’ve seen that exact same thing happen. Fired the guy in the morning, rehired as a consultant in the afternoon. He didn’t even have to empty out his desk.

Yes, but her hourly rate should be much higher to compensate…

When I was an independent contractor working with company employees, my hourly rates were considerably higher than their salaries (not twenty times, but more). Occasionally some of the employees would grumble about this, and I would point out that, as employees, they got sick days, paid holidays, personal days, health benefits, and pensions. That usually stopped their complaints.

Kim always wanted to be a Redheaded Stepchild and now Bernie has granted her wish.