Seeing out difficult end to contract

[new2waix]

I am coming to the end of a two year contract. It has been busy project however during the last two months it has completely slowed down. I have asked for additional work but nothing substantial is available. I am running out of ways to stay focused between the contracted hours. It feels like I am just warming a seat to keep management happy.

There have never been any complaints about my work or behaviour however during the past couple of weeks feels my assignment manager has taken offence to me being idle. Now I am being questioned over all my actions. It is becoming pretty unpleasant however wish to remain professional and see out the term of the contract (until I find the next role).

Does anyone have any advice on seeing it through?

Also I have concerns about the client withholding pay for whatever reason they can find - where do I stand contractually (eg can an approved timesheet be withdrawn and not paid)? Where the client has insufficient work, can they terminate the contract early without providing notice?

[malvolio]

I am coming to the end of a two year contract. It has been busy project however during the last two months it has completely slowed down. I have asked for additional work but nothing substantial is available. I am running out of ways to stay focused between the contracted hours. It feels like I am just warming a seat to keep management happy.

There have never been any complaints about my work or behaviour however during the past couple of weeks feels my assignment manager has taken offence to me being idle. Now I am being questioned over all my actions. It is becoming pretty unpleasant however wish to remain professional and see out the term of the contract (until I find the next role).

Does anyone have any advice on seeing it through?

Also I have concerns about the client withholding pay for whatever reason they can find - where do I stand contractually (eg can an approved timesheet be withdrawn and not paid)? Where the client has insufficient work, can they terminate the contract early without providing notice?

They can easily terminate you early by simply offering you no work to do and not paying you for not doing it, although it sounds like the local management are too dim to have worked that out.

If you have no work to do, why are you being paid? Never heard of MoO? Offer to leave early, or cut down your days to finish whatever needs finishing, and go look for your next gig.

You're a contractor. This job's done. Go get another one.

[jmo21]

There have never been any complaints about my work or behaviour however during the past couple of weeks feels my assignment manager has taken offence to me being idle. Now I am being questioned over all my actions.

You: Mr assignment manager, I have no work to do.
Mr AM: RARRRRRRRRRRRR I am offended
You: can you give me an assignment?
Mr AM: ?

Fill in the question mark. What does he say there. If you have nothing to do, ask them if you can finish early.

[northernladuk]

It is becoming pretty unpleasant however wish to remain professional and see out the term of the contract (until I find the next role).

Technically being a contractor and invoicing once the work in your schedule is complete isn't being professional but I guess some would argue that.

You're a contractor. This job's done. Go get another one.

+1 to this and everything else TF said. Asking for more work and sitting doing nothing is going to be a problem for IR35 and if you piss they client off they are not going to help defend you if the worst comes to it.

Go in, tell them the work is done, you would like to leave, call me when I you have more work in the future and leave on good terms. That is being professional. A good contact in the back pocket is much better than a one off gig you managed to get a month extra invoicing out of.

[NotAllThere]

If I have no work, I just let the client know I'll be off, and they can call me when they've something that they need me to do. That way I can get on with more interesting stuff, and they don't have to pay me for being idle.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Like the others have said - sticking it out until the end even though there is no work to do sounds like the exact opposite of professionalism. Sounds more like you're ripping them off.

[BlasterBates]

Don't just sit there being idle. Discuss it with the PM. It is your responsibility to tell the PM you're finished with your work.

It is not a good idea to sit there twiddling your thumbs because that is not what they expect. They're paying several hundred pounds a day.

There is usually something you can do, i.e. writing scripts to automatically generate something, make some proposal to refactor some code, or provide some documentation. At the very least you could at least discuss these ideas with the PM.

[Batcher]

I agree with most of the sentiments above but one previous contract I had was extended by two months after I had finished knowledge transfer to a permie (who worked at a different location).

They asked me to stay on and 'do nothing' purely so the permie could work away knowing that I was there as a safety net if he ran into problems. I spent most of my day on Jobserve and the client was happy knowing that I sorted out any problems before they became major incidents.

[kal]

Don't just sit there being idle. Discuss it with the PM. It is your responsibility to tell the PM you're finished with your work.

It is not a good idea to sit there twiddling your thumbs because that is not what they expect. They're paying several hundred pounds a day.

There is usually something you can do, i.e. writing scripts to automatically generate something, make some proposal to refactor some code, or provide some documentation. At the very least you could at least discuss these ideas with the PM.

+1, We have a tech debt backlog as well as a feature/bugs one. When not working on the latter (maybe due to waiting for requirements or for elaboration tasks to complete) the devs take a prioritised item off the 1st queue, spin up a branch in git and get improving . There is always stuff to do, you just need to be proactive is suggesting/sourcing it.

[SpontaneousOrder]

I agree with most of the sentiments above but one previous contract I had was extended by two months after I had finished knowledge transfer to a permie (who worked at a different location).

They asked me to stay on and 'do nothing' purely so the permie could work away knowing that I was there as a safety net if he ran into problems. I spent most of my day on Jobserve and the client was happy knowing that I sorted out any problems before they became major incidents.

That sounds great. 2 months to brush up before your next gig.