Can you poach yourself to 1099 status?

On one of the sub-contracts my company is on, I learned an interesting detail about how the prime handles candidate submissions from companies that are teammates on the same contract.

Say my company, Custom Analysis, is on the contract and Raytheon is on the contract. We are both subs to Booz Allen (these are all hypothetical).

I find a great person for the position who is a current Raytheon employee and submit him for an open position.

In my particular scenario, the prime, Booz, has said in this scenario, they would only accept the employee from Custom Analysis IF he is not already on this particular contract.

Basically, if he is currently working for Raytheon on the same contract, they want to prevent poaching amongst the sub-contractors.

However, if the Raytheon employee is on an entirely different contract, they will accept him.

This seems like a good policy to maintain harmony on the team.

Now, how does this apply to a 1099 scenario?

Well, in the example above, it's a little bit ambiguous because you're not being poached per se by a teammate, but rather, you are trying to become a new teammate to the prime and poaching yourself. The letter of the law may favor you.

However, there is the spirit of the law that the prime program manager might want to observe, particularly if they have a good relationship with your company.

These are the types of dynamics you may need to get a feel for, particularly if you're trying to flip your current job into a 1099 role and you are working for a sub-contractor. This is why in my book I recommend having a conversation with the prime PM (if you are workin for the sub) to get a sense for if they'd be willing to go through with it.

It's not quite a Game of Thrones level alliance dynamic issues, but it's something to be mindful about.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.