Can anyone explain what “staff aug” is and how you’d know if you’re on a staff aug project? Essentially I want to know why it has such a negative connotation & how to avoid lmao

likefunny
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some “staff aug” isn’t traditional staff aug. traditional staff aug is like a backfill role - for example, an FTE quit and the client needs a consultant to come fill in until they hire someone else. this is the type of role people derisively refer to as “staff aug.” it can be boring and monotonous, with low expectations and little room for growth. but good hours. often projects are of longer duration than typical consulting work.

increasingly, backfill roles are being performed by “managed services,” which is basically like what i described above, but with less travel, and often the result of a client outsourcing an entire business line, or a piece of it, to the firm. leadership loves selling this work because the metrics are easily defined, the margins are high, and the cost is relatively low to the client. the work is one level above what you might expect from koko the gorilla.

another flavor of “staff aug” is that the client has a big project that they don’t have the staff to implement, so they hire additional resources to help. implementation is generally considered a step up from your typical backfill role, as you actually have real deadlines and expectations and stakeholders. but because it’s not particularly unique, it tends to be a lot of PMO work on the consulting side. which sounds cool, but you know your job wouldn’t exist if people could just talk to each other.

sometimes it’s possible to get lucky and get a staff aug role where you’re basically an expert on retainer. these jobs are pretty cushy but the clients that need them are often... in need. as you would expect, most really strong organizations don’t have a need for these roles.

sometimes a consultant or team of consultants is brought on to perform optimization or assessments. this is maybe the highest order of “staff aug,” as it most closely mirrors the most sanctimonious, if not the most saintly, type of consulting, STRATEGY consulting.

in STRATEGY consulting, the insecure client exec needs to convince people of a batshit idea he has, or is incapable of coming up with one himself, so he hires a consulting firm to do it for him, or to provide justification for his idea. ostensibly STRATEGY consulting is meant to help develop ideas and launch products in the best possible way. in reality it has turned into little more than a CYA measure for networked execs. the first and only rule of STRATEGY consulting is to never question the idea itself; rather, it’s important to blow as much smoke up people’s asses as humanly possible. this is how you end up with robust ideas like concentration camps in china, underfunded detention centers in the US, highly marketed addictive painkillers, etc.

staff aug for life bitches!

likefunnysmart

I love this response! I’m part of managed services, so that’s why I’m bored out of my mind on my current project. 😭

like

There’s official staff augmentation, where you are backfilling for a vacant client position to keep their business running as usual. But around here the context is more when a partner signs an SOW with no clear scope so you just get thrown all of the work your client drops on your desk - no real deliverables

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Sorry A1 😿 if you wanna talk, feel free to DM

Staff augmentation. When the client doesn't have enough employees to complete tasks, the company uses you as a hired hand to help do tasks that the client's employees should be doing.

likesmart

Ah!! That clears things up thank you

funny

Totally depends. Mine is hijacking and redoing a whole financial planning and analysis department. We are kind of staff Aug, but we are literally just implementing and designing whatever we want. It all depends on if they actually listen to you or you just do repetitive boring stuff.

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D2...why would you think what you’re doing is staff aug? That sounds like consulting to me

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It's long term and some of the work is repetitive, like doing the company's month and quarter end reports for reporting for the business line. So probably like 25% Aug stuff.

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Former Fed here: staff aug to me is people who work for a company but don’t really have physical or professional connections to it...their company issues a paycheck, but that’s it. Otherwise they’re 9-5 at their client everyday. And if the contract ends, they’re unemployed.

That’s the difference to me between contracting (staff aug) and consulting. Contractors seem to basically be let go when a contract ends, whereas consultants know they will be supporting various clients over time and that they weren’t just hired for a one-off gig.

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The weird thing is that us in ATCs at Accenture are typically staff aug and we’re on the bench instead of being unemployed.

Oh trust me, you’ll know

funny

Ah okay sounds like partial staff aug

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