Contract with no termination right on my side - is this 'normal' (or maybe 'common')?

[northernladuk]

So am I the only one who would prefer an actual termination clause than being forced to behave in a way that makes them terminate me?!

Not really. If I needed to leave I would negotiate an exit from the client. They don't want people around who don't want to be there and as long as you give them enough notice to get someone in (or even offer a sub) they shouldn't be too unhappy. Even with notice periods there are a lot of contractors that bail early as it doesn't suit their needs and there are also a lot of clients that are just as unhappy with a contractor giving notice as he is due. Having a notice period doesn't mean the client will like it.

Negotiation is your friend in no-notice contracts. Saying that if you constantly give notice or go in to a contract expecting to give notice just because it suits you eventually you will get what is rightly coming to you.......

[Glencky]

Negotiation is your friend in no-notice contracts. Saying that if you constantly give notice or go in to a contract expecting to give notice just because it suits you eventually you will get what is rightly coming to you.......

Yeah, quite right. Especially since this is my first 'regular' contract, I will be aiming to stay till the bitter end even if it's terrible (and I really don't expect this to happen). So the question was partly prompted by general paranoia and risk mitigation and partly for the intellectual exercise really. And yes, obviously the best way out in the absence of contractual rights is going to be to negotiate with the person/ people who are actually most affected - your contacts ('manager') in the end client. So that's the approach I'd take. I'd just prefer it to be backed up with a contractual right in the background!

Ah well, had confirmation pre'employment'screening is complete so at least something's progressing...

[Cenobite]

I had a contract before which did not allow for me to initiate termination. This didn't bother me at the time and I thought nothing of it but ended up being the worst place I'd ever worked. Eventually I just had to ask the client to terminate me.

[curtis]

Personally for me if I signed up for a 6 month contact I would want a notice period in on my side. I do not care about their side as they can get rid asap anyhow regardless as we know.

I know you can talk to the client try and negotiate to leave, punch the boss etc etc but its can be eaiser said than done when you in a situation you just want out of. Also I have found in the few contracts I have wanted out of asap the managers have been the most unhelpful, unapproachable as you can get and would probably enjoy saying no to your request to leave.

A notice period for me saves all that hassle and means if I have to I can give it and go.

[TheFaQQer]

So am I the only one who would prefer an actual termination clause than being forced to behave in a way that makes them terminate me?!

No - if I can get one, I'd take one. But some clients (possibly many clients these days) just will not budge on that. It's nice to be able to have the freedom to make the decision to leave, but sometimes you have to fall back on negotiation and sometimes you have to fall back on sucking it up and staying.

I've only ever given notice on one contract - they were offering one month extensions, so I negotiated the notice period from 28 days down to a week and a week later gave notice because I had a three month role (turned into 16 months) working from home.

I've had contracts where I didn't want to be there, and in the worst case, I turned down an extension to leave. I possibly could have negotiated an earlier exit, but I decided to stick out the contract and then leave at the end rather than try to get out early.

I don't like leaving early, so it has to be pretty dire to do it. But it's always nice to have the option.

[Glencky]

Interesting further replies which pretty much echo why I'm concerned about not having the option but also my own view. In general this would always concern me but since this is my first 'regular' contract I am more concerned about rocking the boat than I would otherwise be. I also want to stick it out so I've got it on my CV - my first gigs don't look as good as this one does. Indeed really what I want is that it works out well enough that I end up doing at least one extension - when I was recruiting contractors in this slice of the market all I was ever interested in was a) what projects they'd done and b) did they get extended. Anyone can have the odd short gig and it means nothing but clearly a lot of short-term or non-extended gigs either indicates they're a nightmare (!) or they are particularly flighty, neither of which you want. So given I don't want my CV to look like that, I am really motivated to stick out this 6 months. I was disappointed they didn't offer me 3 initially as more chance of an extension over a shorter period of time!

I would never choose to break any commitment so I'd always want to just stick it out and this time I've got even more reasons than usual to do that. I shall be sucking it up on this score and we'll see what happens. Hopefully I won't have to use any of the helpful and not-so-helpful suggestions offered!