Transitioning to Contracting

[marcellarhughes]

Transitioning to Contracting

Is the company losing the contract actually allowed to prevent new contractors from contacting current employees? It's not like the contract is moving elsewhere or they have other contracts and they'd be losing employees, it's completely terminated. All of the employees are going to be out of jobs if they can't join the new company, not to mention it would be a waste of time and money to hire a completely new staff to do the jobs they already know how to do. It seems like that has to be illegal or shady that they are doing this because they are all qualified and it seems completely wrong that they would be denied to apply for a new job because their soon to be former employers won't let them be contacted...

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[Pogle]

Is the company losing the contract actually allowed to prevent new contractors from contacting current employees? It's not like the contract is moving elsewhere or they have other contracts and they'd be losing employees, it's completely terminated. All of the employees are going to be out of jobs if they can't join the new company, not to mention it would be a waste of time and money to hire a completely new staff to do the jobs they already know how to do. It seems like that has to be illegal or shady that they are doing this because they are all qualified and it seems completely wrong that they would be denied to apply for a new job because their soon to be former employers won't let them be contacted...

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[Wanderer]

Is the company losing the contract actually allowed to prevent new contractors from contacting current employees?

If an employer is paying me money and they say I can't do something then there is the threat that if I breach my contract with them, they will not pay me.

To get around this, the company will normally pay people a "gardening leave" payment for a few months whereby you don't do any work for them but you still get paid. This is a way to enforce the restriction on you moving directly to a competitor - if you did then you you will lose your gardening pay.

But as soon as you stop working for an employer and they stop paying you money, they also stop telling you what to do.

[xS9]

I went down the road of just handing in my notice and hoping..

Worked out quite well, but I made sure my CV was up to standard and asked contacts about potential contracts first. Ideally you could do with getting your first contract from a previous colleague.