All articles tagged with #contractors
The Department of Defense spent about $3.6 billion in Maine on defense contractors during the 2024 budget year, highlighted by major players like Bath Iron Works (General Dynamics) and Pratt & Whitney and a range of smaller firms that collectively power the state’s defense-focused manufacturing sector.
David Schutzenhofer, the Bedminster golf club’s general manager, offered guidance on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool repairs and helped recruit a contractor, while remaining a private citizen. The Interior Department said his involvement did not make him a government employee, though taking a post would have required ethics training and conflict-of-interest pledges.
NASA Watch reports concerns at Kennedy Space Center about converting longtime contractors to civil-service roles, including waiving education requirements to retain expertise, which has led to layoffs of older engineers and promotion of degree-holders; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman tweeted that the education rule is dated and capable contractors should become civil servants, though the post notes NASA PAO did not comment and that the full picture remains unclear.
ustwo Games will base growth on a core team with expanded contractor work and co-development to slash development budgets as it pivots to a PC-first strategy, after previously spending £7–£10 million per project with longer production cycles; the studio also contemplates higher launch prices with later discounts to support sustainability.
Ustwo Games will push Monument Valley 3 onto Steam and rely on contractors for future growth, saying long-term employee job security was overly romantic and that outsourcing is the more sustainable path for the studio.
UsTwo Games CEO Maria Sayans says the industry has romanticized long-term job security and that future growth will come from contractors rather than permanent staff, citing London costs and pensions, signaling a shift away from stable employment in the game-making sector.
Gunzilla CEO Vlad Korolev posted a lengthy Twitter thread disputing reports that the studio hadn’t paid workers, arguing some payments are scheduled to fit company cash flow and that full-time salaries have never been delayed by more than a week. He touts a paid live dashboard to verify metrics and defends ongoing Web3 elements as the game Off The Grid expands to PlayStation and Xbox, while noting contractor payments have occurred and the company continues shipping updates. The post comes amid scrutiny of payroll handling in the studio and its Web3 strategy.
OPM Director Scott Kupor told lawmakers he would be “perfectly happy” to hire more federal employees if agencies cut the use of contractors, arguing the current contractor workforce acts as a costly “shadow” and that shifting dollars to federal headcount could save taxpayers and improve services. Agencies are being asked to publish annual staffing plans balancing contractor and federal staff needs, while continuing to fill key talent gaps and expand early-career recruitment via initiatives like Tech Force; Kupor also signaled support for a stronger performance-management system to speed up removals of underperformers.
Keith Cowing analyzes Jared Isaacman’s directive to restore NASA’s core competencies by shifting critical work from contractors back to civil service, tightening procurement, and building in-house expertise, with rapid actions like workforce assessments, transition plans, onboarding, and the creation of center makerspaces; he cautions that 2025’s staff losses, a fragile strategic plan, and budget pressures complicate the effort, but emphasizes the need for broader audience engagement and internal culture changes to realize Artemis-era ambitions.
NASA plans a shift to bring core engineering and operations in-house after losing about 20% of civil servants, with roughly 75% of its workforce currently contractors; a new directive orders a 30-day assessment to identify roles to convert to civil service and 60-day rapid onboarding, while expanding the Tech Force program, training, and internships, and requiring future contracts to include right-to-repair provisions and makerspaces—aiming to reduce contractor reliance and potentially save about $1.4 billion annually, according to Isaacman (though he did not detail the calculation).
NASA unveils a workforce directive to restore internal engineering, operations, and scientific capabilities by auditing which work should be brought back in-house, converting critical roles to civil service, speeding onboarding, strengthening the talent pipeline (including OPM TechForce and internships), and enabling rapid prototyping with makerspaces, while adding right‑to‑repair provisions and removing restrictive clauses to reduce external dependencies—aimed at saving up to $1B annually and advancing the President’s space policy.
OpenAI is requesting contractors to upload real and fabricated work examples from their jobs to evaluate AI performance against human tasks, raising concerns about data privacy and trade secret risks.
During a government shutdown, federal employees are legally entitled to back pay once funding resumes, but contractors and private sector workers supporting the government are not guaranteed payment, which can cause financial hardship and ripple effects on local businesses.
During a US government shutdown, members of Congress continue to receive their salaries due to constitutional and legal provisions, while most federal contractors, including janitors, often do not get paid unless their employers choose to do so, as federal law does not guarantee back pay for contractors.
Over 200 contractors working on Google's AI products, including Gemini, were laid off unexpectedly amid ongoing disputes over pay and working conditions, highlighting tensions within the company's AI development team.