..today I hope that's been that. I have just finished at natural contract end, my most recent assignment, and I have to say I have been left feeling relieved, but also hurt angry and stressed.
So looking to hear if this has ever happened to any of you guys, and for advice on whats happened, and ultimately, what I can do to prevent this position and sad state of affairs ever again.
I started a 3 month contract back in March with what I thought was a professional company, and for which I strongly felt had the potential to have extension. The company claimed they had lots of urgent work that required resource. I had 2 interviews before I took this, and both appealed to me, though I preferred the first one with another firm but I didn't land it. So I happily accepted a contract with company B. I was due to start first week of march, but the agency called to say there were internal issues getting things ready, would I be happy to start later that week? I said that was okay. In the meantime I was offered a short 2 day consultancy role that Wednesday but I turned it down. Of course then company B called on Wednesday to say issues still were there, could I start the following Monday? I said yes, though was annoyed I spurned a short term lucrative earner.
A few issues later, I eventually started the following Tuesday. I made sure my agency amended the contract to a finish date a week later.
The first 2 months were not bad after that, pretty busy on a very good project. That then came to an end. So I was assigned to 3 more contracts. These potentially could have taken me to next year for at least one, so was expecting an extension, though not taking anything for granted, I informed the new line manager that I would be available and happy to take this. This was accepted with "sure I'll feed that back"
In the last two weeks however, two projects were reassigned to permanent staff without any real reason. The pm's told me I couldnt book time to these and they were angry that I had been pulled as this caused them to adjust their schedules, etc, and due to having these consistency of resource issues constantly. This also meant my chances of extension were now slim, which I accepted.
I informed my line manager and also their senior line of this shortfall. I was told that work would be put my way so I was kept busy.
I kept feeding this back on an almost daily basis, but then the problems kicked in. My time was not approved, even though I felt what I was doing was within scope. The issue was i had no new code to book too so they said they would not pay me for unapproved work.
This week I had to spend time justifying my time and filling out detailed explanations of what I had been doing these last 9 days. This was accepted and told I would have it sorted out.
A few hours before I left, I was told that pm's had not approved and they could not justify paying me for the last few weeks. I told them this was nonsense, that I had turned up, told them of shortfall, made requests for me to be allocated work, and told that I had done no such thing.
Rather than get angry, I went back to my backed up emails, and resent those last emails proving their claims were nonsense. They had also said they had informed someone at my agency about this, and I told them I'd never heard of that person and why had they not told me? The whole thing stank.
I spent the next hour fuming, and called my agency who told me that person did not exist and they had not been informed. I also checked my contract details for any fine print in case of any clauses that said they could not pay me if no work was available even if through no fault of mine. I found nothing but I'm not a legal person.
Anyway, they suddenly changed their tune, and told me that all would be sorted out, and to submit time to other codes and they would sort it out with the pm's. This was said in front of witnesses. So I completed my day and left feeling totally shocked and feeling like I do now.
Upshot is I'm glad to be away from the shower. I start a new role next week.
But a few things....
1. I've contracted a longtime, have an accountant, do my returns, pay taxes, have my insurances, but don't really have a legal advisor or lawyer as such, how can I go aout getting one and any recommendations? I thought earlier, what if hadn't been resolved, who could I have turned to?
2. Has this ever happened to anyone before?
I enjoy contracting, it has been fantastic over the years, and although some clients are better than others, all have played fair and been professional. This I'm hoping has just been a bad experience.
Learned 3 things, never assume you'll get kept on, always keep them informed and keep emails, etc, and to seek for future roles, a suitable legal advisor to call upon, though as I say this has been the only time so far.
So looking to hear if this has ever happened to any of you guys, and for advice on whats happened, and ultimately, what I can do to prevent this position and sad state of affairs ever again.
I started a 3 month contract back in March with what I thought was a professional company, and for which I strongly felt had the potential to have extension. The company claimed they had lots of urgent work that required resource. I had 2 interviews before I took this, and both appealed to me, though I preferred the first one with another firm but I didn't land it. So I happily accepted a contract with company B. I was due to start first week of march, but the agency called to say there were internal issues getting things ready, would I be happy to start later that week? I said that was okay. In the meantime I was offered a short 2 day consultancy role that Wednesday but I turned it down. Of course then company B called on Wednesday to say issues still were there, could I start the following Monday? I said yes, though was annoyed I spurned a short term lucrative earner.
A few issues later, I eventually started the following Tuesday. I made sure my agency amended the contract to a finish date a week later.
The first 2 months were not bad after that, pretty busy on a very good project. That then came to an end. So I was assigned to 3 more contracts. These potentially could have taken me to next year for at least one, so was expecting an extension, though not taking anything for granted, I informed the new line manager that I would be available and happy to take this. This was accepted with "sure I'll feed that back"
In the last two weeks however, two projects were reassigned to permanent staff without any real reason. The pm's told me I couldnt book time to these and they were angry that I had been pulled as this caused them to adjust their schedules, etc, and due to having these consistency of resource issues constantly. This also meant my chances of extension were now slim, which I accepted.
I informed my line manager and also their senior line of this shortfall. I was told that work would be put my way so I was kept busy.
I kept feeding this back on an almost daily basis, but then the problems kicked in. My time was not approved, even though I felt what I was doing was within scope. The issue was i had no new code to book too so they said they would not pay me for unapproved work.
This week I had to spend time justifying my time and filling out detailed explanations of what I had been doing these last 9 days. This was accepted and told I would have it sorted out.
A few hours before I left, I was told that pm's had not approved and they could not justify paying me for the last few weeks. I told them this was nonsense, that I had turned up, told them of shortfall, made requests for me to be allocated work, and told that I had done no such thing.
Rather than get angry, I went back to my backed up emails, and resent those last emails proving their claims were nonsense. They had also said they had informed someone at my agency about this, and I told them I'd never heard of that person and why had they not told me? The whole thing stank.
I spent the next hour fuming, and called my agency who told me that person did not exist and they had not been informed. I also checked my contract details for any fine print in case of any clauses that said they could not pay me if no work was available even if through no fault of mine. I found nothing but I'm not a legal person.
Anyway, they suddenly changed their tune, and told me that all would be sorted out, and to submit time to other codes and they would sort it out with the pm's. This was said in front of witnesses. So I completed my day and left feeling totally shocked and feeling like I do now.
Upshot is I'm glad to be away from the shower. I start a new role next week.
But a few things....
1. I've contracted a longtime, have an accountant, do my returns, pay taxes, have my insurances, but don't really have a legal advisor or lawyer as such, how can I go aout getting one and any recommendations? I thought earlier, what if hadn't been resolved, who could I have turned to?
2. Has this ever happened to anyone before?
I enjoy contracting, it has been fantastic over the years, and although some clients are better than others, all have played fair and been professional. This I'm hoping has just been a bad experience.
Learned 3 things, never assume you'll get kept on, always keep them informed and keep emails, etc, and to seek for future roles, a suitable legal advisor to call upon, though as I say this has been the only time so far.
Welcome! Sounds like the next contract can only get better then! At least you survived that one.
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