Our company requires you to undergo annual training on some of its policies. We must review the book on company policy. We also have to go over the company’s policy for working on government contracts. This is not unusual. The unique thing we must do is pass on online test. I found this test to be pretty lengthy and difficult. And you cannot get credit until you get all the answers right. The test helps you review the company policy when you get the answers wrong. This was all pretty impressive. Normally companies just make you sign something that says you got the training. My company makes sure you know what you need to know.
A good piece of evidence that the company is serious about following the rules is that they provide a separate charge number for you to do the training. Many other companies will skirt the issue. I guess those other companies are indirectly trying to get you to charge the hours to the client or do them on your own. This is not an accusation against some other companies that we compete with. It is what I experienced when working for a number of contractors. This is just life.
Here is the part that confuses me somewhat. My company goes through all this training and trouble to make sure we conduct business at a high level of ethics. But from the outside, I get the impression that people think the company is a bit sketchy. Once again I can testify to this myself. Prior to joining the company, I had thought the company used underhanded methods to win government contracts. Perhaps this was just because I did not know the facts. Or maybe the people involved with obtaining this specific contract were corrupt. I do not know. I don’t have hard evidence It is just that some circumstances seemed very suspicious in one of their wins.
In the end I joined the company. I figured that if you could not beat the competition, you should join them. As you have read I was pleasantly surprised. The company should do some more PR work to get the word out that we operate in this way.
