Writing and Research

Contract Researchers Guide to the Research Galaxy

My apoologies to Douglas Adams author of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, but just lately the research side of my life is encountering problems that I didn't know existed. Just to backtrack a little, I work on occasion as a contract researcher, and one of the projects I am dealing with is causing me more headaches than it's worth.

In my experience projects rise or fail depending on how they are managed, while I would not want to enter that murky area a research project that I have taken on has a project manager who is constantly unavailable. She contacts a third party involved in the project asking them to ask me to contact her, which I have dutifully done on at least four occasions, each time she fails to respond to messages left on her answer phone, so I follow up with emails, two out of three of these are ignored and it is now beginning to interfere with my ability to work on the project.

Freelancers are Not Employees

A lot of people who want the services of a freelancer then make the mistake of treating them like a third rate hired hand and I feel that this is what is happening on this research project. Information that I should have had at the start of the project is only now becoming available four months on, which means the project is now two months late as a result of this and the peculiar behaviour of the project manager - needless to say no extra funding has been offered for this extra time. 

I enjoy community and educational research but things are changing in the research sphere. People employ contract researchers to undertake mapping projects or evaluations that are often a requirement of the project funding mechanisms. Contract researchers only have to be paid for the work they have bid on, much the same as freelance writers, however, in the research world contractors are no longer treated as equals brought in to undertake a job they are qualified to do, rather they are treated as employees, and unappreciated ones at that.

I am ranting here because there is not really any other place to go with my complaints, other than to make them known to the project manager and to avoid working with this person again.