And this is why I reached out??
And you’re smart for doing so. Too many dudes jump into that world without doing their research
Yea dude “salary” is bullshit. The day rate, per diem (if applicable), rotation schedule, and country tax are the only three groups of numbers that matter on WPS.
You don’t get paid for the days you aren’t in country AND billable to the client. So travel days and in-processing/admin days aren’t billable so how can they say that you are a salaried employee? They might just be trying to push that nonsense to sell the position to you.
Typical WPS PSS/DDM rotations are 105/35, however you may get fucked your first rotation depending on where you fall into the roster. I’ve seen some come for two irthree weeks just to leave again for 35 days because that was the slot they fell into. Others, and this is common for medics and DDMs when working for companies that hire people who don’t know how to use excel, will arrive in country but not be given a rotation cycle as their billet is understaffed. So they keep you on ground with no rotation date and keep passing off your requests for vacation dates with “we are working on it and will let you know.” ...next thing you know you’ve done almost 180 days on ground and they finally give you a ticket home. #IveSeenIt #PoorLeadMedics #TrustNoTO
So out of that 105, you only work (and are billable) for 90 days, because WPS is now a 6 days on/1 day off schedule. SOW states that you can work up to 12hrs each day of the 6hr work week. Anything over that is overtime but ONLY billable if approved by DOS/the client. So the company can say you are scheduled for four 8hr shifts and two 12hr shifts a week (with one mandatory off day) but then get tasked with working six 12hr days without extra pay, because it’s part of the contract
Your rotations home (35 days, which include travel days so figure about 29-30 days home depending on flight plans) don’t count towards your time with the company, so if they ask you to do a year per commitment, then it’s billable days on ground and not calendar days.
Last rambling note: Apparently some companies hire support personnel that don’t know how to use MS Excel....because you have TOS where people leave teams pretty much every two weeks, which means multiple new people come to the team each month. This is a byproduct of shitty management and a huge red flag for prospective employees who want to be part of a professional team in a high threat environment. So your team cohesion is a concept that doesn’t exist and every two weeks or so you’re getting a new team member that you have to spin up on team SOPs and the AO. Then every month you get a new SL (either one coming off leave that was a SL on another teamor a new SL who was just bio approved and this will be his first “management” position). Talk about being efficient and effective at the team level lol. That includes you when you go home and come back...aka you don’t go back to your original team. However some quality companies hire competent staff/admin people that know how to spell their own names and actually use excel...which results in team cohesion, efficiency, and effectiveness, as you return to your team when you come back from leave.
??
?
(Addition: ever since I did the update on my phone, my posts have been riddled with spacing/errors. Ignore all that and gather what’s meant from context lol. My apologies for not going back and editing lol).
