[OSGeo-Discuss] RE: Insurance for contractors?

[Landon Blake]

Thank you for the summary MPG. The logic described in the example
response seems quite sensible.

Landon
Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Michael P. Gerlek
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 4:27 PM
To: 'OSGeo Discussions'
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] RE: Insurance for contractors?

I received a surprising number (+20) of responses to this, many
off-list.  My unscientific summary is as follows:

* some people responded privately, indicating they do not have insurance
and would rather I not
  publicize the issue lest their erstwhile employees suddenly take
notice :-)

* in the US, sole proprietorship is the way to go for simple one-person,
garage-based shops

* seems that a significant percentage of employers aren't going to ask
and/or just don't care,
  and of those that do ask many will waive it if you explain you're too
small to afford it --
  this is certainly the case for small employers (big employers may just
make it a hard requirement,
  knowing they will have enough bidders that someone will meet the
criteria)

* IEEE and possibly other such orgs offer professional liability
insurance at "reasonable" rates,
  (for some definition of "reasonable")

* if you're a (US?) govt contractor, seems like you'll almost certainly
need to have insurance;
  if you're bidding for contracts, things get messy fast

* and if you're doing contract work that seems to require it, just bake
it in as a line item
  in the contract bid -- see if you can just pass the extra costs along

* for longer contracts, some employers will offer the option of taking
you on as a temporary
  employee (which means you're covered by the company's policy)

* for some employers, having insurance might give you more "credibility"
as a professional
  player -- but it also may be that as open source itself gains more
street cred, this becomes
  less critical

* and, finally, like all insurance, the odds are overwhelmingly against
you ever needing to
  have to actually USE it...


Here's a pretty typical response:

> Do I carry insurance?  No.
>
> Insurance adds significant administrative and financial overhead to a
one man shop.  If you
> want the one man shop price, you more often than not need to be
willing to go without them
> having insurance.
>
> If you think about it, this isn't a bad arrangement anyway.  You're
not going to give the one
> man shop such an important thing that you're going to have to turn
around and sue them are you?
> You're one man contract is for doing dirty things that you don't have
time or motivation to do,
> not mission critical business work.  If you *are* having your one man
contract do mission
> critical work, you have bigger problems than whether or not they have
liability insurance 
> in my opinion.


The happy news is that I was able to (oh so gently...) push back to our
accounting and HR departments on the insurance requirement, using the
above typical response and the "prevailing evidence" I gathered from
this thread showing that most of you don't have insurance and yet,
happily, the sun still rises every morning.

Thanks to all who responded!

-mpg







> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael P. Gerlek
> Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 10:03 AM
> To: OSGeo Discussions
> Subject: Insurance for contractors?
> 
> In the past I've hired some people for contract or consultant work
> (both open source projects and more general stuff) -- generally these
> people have been independent, one-man shops found by word of mouth and
> reputation, as opposed to hiring someone from an agency.
> 
> I'm getting pushback now from the administrative side of my company
> saying that any contractor I hire needs to have proof of insurance.  I
> understand the legal reasons for this, but I'm wondering how many of
> you out there actually have business/contractors insurance?  Do
> companies you work for insist on it, or not?  And how many of you are
> formally set up as LLCs or sole proprietorships or such?
> 
> [while this is likely a US-centric issue from the hiring side, I'm
> interested in international responses too since I've hired some
> foreigners as well over the years]
> 
> -mpg

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


Warning:
Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately.