What would you do? (Contractor or Employee Status)

[Sen's Revenge]

Hey folks!

Someone I know whose name rhymes with Djinn's Avenge is facing this situation and would appreciate your feedback.

Djinn has a job at a start-up org which is heavily reliant of public funding. The org hired a certain number of salaried employees, based on the number of clients the org was projected to have.

The org fell short of that goal and is now facing the economic repercussions.

Djinn and his coworkers were told last week that in order to avoid layoffs, a certain number of salaried employees (four) would have to take contract status and relinquish their benefits. They would also work 30 hours a week instead of 40.

When Djinn was sent the math, if he went contract, his take-home pay would only decrease by $25 or so per pay period, but of course he would have to put money to the side to pay taxes. He'd also lose his health insurance (currently fully funded by the org) and would have to pay out of pocket for that, or risk not having any.

His circle is aware that he is looking to move on to another, more stable position. He has about six or seven applications in elsewhere and has a phone interview tomorrow.

Djinn has no children or pets and no spouse. He gets a bad cold at least once a year and was earlier this year out for about a month with an acute respiratory illness.

If you were Djinn, would you opt to go contract or would you remain an employee and hope that four other people went contract?