Looking back on things, friend of mine got offered VERY QUICKLY on a fairy-tale job that looks like it was made from parsing their resume. From Job Description to interview to HIRED was a week or less. the Prime contractor supposedly had the funding (this was at the beginning of Q4 for the US government). the sub-prime agent kept my friend on the hook for over a year. Kept stringing him along, and assuming the Prime showed this ‘employee’ on the bench just to try to win a contract. My friend lost his job around Thanksgiving that year, but the sub-prime recruiter kept calling, texting, that he HAD the job. But the agreement said my friend COULD NOT work a competitive job (cleared) for a year. Basically they were starving him, he made this known. January the following year, the state said ‘he made too much on unemployment’ for SNAP, heating bills help, medicaid, etc so he nearly lost everything (house, car, health). He eventually got a non-cleared rescue job, of which that first check arrived July 3, 2025 into the new year and just a couple of days outside the original offer that he signed.
seems like the subprime was getting paid for having him on the ‘roster’ but benched; never paid the hiree. and the Prime was using this Full Time Equivalent person to use as a trading card, but never actually PAID. Does my friend have any recourse?
You’re saying they kept him on the bench for a year with an “active” clearance but no actual job and no pay and forced him to not look for other work in the meantime? Do I have that correct?
That would not happen. No company is dumb enough to put themselves under that kind of liability or risk their accreditation like that. Sounds like we’re not hearing the whole story…
Many contract companies will “Recruit” folks and have them sign offers, etc and use that to bid on contracts. You really have to be mindful of those job postings that state “Contingent upon contract award”, because that’s exactly what that is. A lot of times companies like to use this method to prove they have the ppl to handle the workloads they’re trying to win on the bid. They have to show that they have enough ppl and interest to win the contracts and sometimes that can take months. &if they don’t get the contract, then you’ve lost out on time to find something else. Even if postings don’t stay “contingent”, that is one of the questions I ALWAYS ask in interviews as a contractor. I need to know if the contract has already been awarded or contingent. That allows you to make decisions that are best for you.
that’s pretty much what happened, active clearance, all of it. the stipulation about other work; not sure if it was can’t work other CLEARED jobs or just other work. but it was right after the 2024 election he was let go. so from July 2024 to nov 2024 they never started him. then laid off, like he told the recruiter that it was coming. took him 7+ months to find work because nobody was hiring; took a job at 2/3rd of the pay he was making. yet kept stringing him along the whole time through around Aug 2025. they still call him to this day (other recruiters). Made him do the CUI and other security ppwk to keep up to date, invites to Christmas party, memos about ‘time sheets’ and IT outages. the worst part it seems was telling him the Prime was funded when it really wasn’t. then months and months of phone calls telling him ‘the job is still yours’ while the dude was struggling to pay bills, eat, etc. Treated him like an employee on paper, while never actually giving a start date. Original recruiter told him he had ‘moved on’ in Dec 2025 (18 months later) and admitted he left the sub-prime in Aug 2025.
Ok that makes more sense. As FieldGoat said, you have to be careful of any contingent or not currently funded contracts. It’s ok to commit, but just keep working other jobs while you wait (don’t let this company trick you or bully you into not working other jobs while you wait). Preferably with a customer that allows reciprocity and quick clearance transfer. Was your friend a fed that is switching to contract? That can actually take a long time due to federal regs. But if you’re an experienced cleared contractor and involuntarily out of work for more than a year, that means you probably need to work on your skillset.
Does your friend have any actual evidence that the company was billing the customer for having him “on the bench” so to speak? That would be a gross violation of contracting rules.
I’ve always wondered how these arrangements can be enforced. I worked for a place where the prime could not recruit subs, but as long as the contract is in place then there may be some recourse. But otherwise how are these “non-compete” clauses enforceable?