Recruiters try asking laid-off technical workers to return to the same companies as contractors

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The Seattle Times reports: After losing their jobs at one of Seattle’s largest tech companies, some workers are faced with an unexpected question: Do you want to go back to the company that just let you go?

There is a problem. Those offers, from third-party recruiters eager to place workers at companies they’ve just left, are for contract positions rather than staffing positions. They would come with an expiration date, a lower salary, no benefits and no stock options.

For workers, the messages range from insensitive to insulting. “We just got the shock of our lives. The last thing I need is for you to keep asking me to go to a company letting me go,” said a former Microsoft worker who was laid off in March and has asked to remain anonymous during the job hunt. Another worker who was fired from Amazon in January and who also asked not to be named out of concern for future job prospects said he had heard of several recruiters specifically looking for people with experience at Amazon. In a response, the former Amazon passed this message to the recruiter: “Tell Amazon if they want an engineer, they can’t fire me at the end of this month…”

Because companies and recruiters cast such a wide net, workers who have recently been cut are still caught in the pool of potential candidates whether they want to or not… [T]All companies often ask recruiters to find workers who have worked at their company before, particularly when hiring for a contract position that would require a worker to catch up quickly, said Nabeel Chowdhury, senior vice president at recruiting firm 24 Seven Talent. That’s what happened with the former Amazon employee. A recruiter sent a message that began, “Please contact to see if you might be willing to return to Amazon in a contract position?” A former Microsoft worker told the Seattle Times, “I’m proud. There’s no way I’m going back… earning half.”

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