What would you do?

[SimonMac]

Get plumber in to fit my new bath which he does. Right at the end, I ask him to fit a new washer on one of the taps next week - 1 hours work. He says sorry I've got a big job lined up for weeks after. I'll try and fit you in if I can but not sure.

Never in a million years is he gonna say tell you what I'll can that new job just to finish off that tap of yours.

A better analogy is work is running behind on agreed job (for what ever reason, might not be the plumbers fault, might be the chippy or sparky etc), plumber buggers off onto another job without finishing the original job he was hired to do because a bigger job is lined up

[billybiro]

Pissing clients off and ruining future potential work is a bit short sighted if you are trying to look after number 1 in the long term isn't it? That's not being a professional, it's being a mercenary and I don't see anywhere where being a mercenary works in the long term.

If you were any good at what you did negotiating a week delay with the new client to do most of the work for your old client isn't exactly hard.

Put the shoe on the other foot.

Imagine the contract is at an end and the project is completed. You've secured a new gig, but it doesn't start for 2 weeks. You go to your existing client on your last day and ask for a 2 week "extension" to your current gig to tie you over between gigs, even though the project is complete and there's really no further work to be done?

Does the client consent to that?

[billybiro]

Take the work but tell them you will start to look for a new longer contract based on the current contract end-date, so if they keep extending week by week you cannot guarantee availability. But if they'd like to extend for a month, obviously you are committed to that.

Raising your rate isn't reasonable unless they want you to do some sort of ad-hoc support after the main contract work is done.

Realistically, this is the best response suggested. You're prepared to help out the client to finish the project (with 1 week rolling extensions) whilst continuing to seek other contracts, but at the same time you're looking after No.1 by indicating that, when one of your short extensions finishes, you're prepared to leave if a better offer is on the table.

[jmo21]

Put the shoe on the other foot.

Imagine the contract is at an end and the project is completed. You've secured a new gig, but it doesn't start for 2 weeks. You go to your existing client on your last day and ask for a 2 week "extension" to your current gig to tie you over between gigs, even though the project is complete and there's really no further work to be done?

Does the client consent to that?

Rubbish. They are the clients. Not giving out free money.

[jmo21]

A better analogy is work is running behind on agreed job (for what ever reason, might not be the plumbers fault, might be the chippy or sparky etc), plumber buggers off onto another job without finishing the original job he was hired to do because a bigger job is lined up

If it's not the plumbers fault, don't expect it to be done when you'd like it to be done, especially if they have a bigger job lined up the following week. They should come back to do it of course.

[psychocandy]

A better analogy is work is running behind on agreed job (for what ever reason, might not be the plumbers fault, might be the chippy or sparky etc), plumber buggers off onto another job without finishing the original job he was hired to do because a bigger job is lined up

Maybe but depends whos fault the delay is. Still think a plumber would say, look I'll do what I can to help finish off etc but ultimately I aint knocking this big job back because things have run over through no fault of mine.

[BlasterBates]

In my view if you have a long term project and that means you can't renew then it's not going to mean "bad blood", but you need to let the PM know in advance. Though I can't see how adding two weeks on to your contract is going to make any difference to whether you land a new contract. So why not just agree, and leave with a warm fuzzy feeling. You just look for a contract two weeks later than you intended.

[psychocandy]

Put the shoe on the other foot.

Imagine the contract is at an end and the project is completed. You've secured a new gig, but it doesn't start for 2 weeks. You go to your existing client on your last day and ask for a 2 week "extension" to your current gig to tie you over between gigs, even though the project is complete and there's really no further work to be done?

Does the client consent to that?

Dunno if you're agreeing with me here or not but do they ****....

Similarly, project ends early - two weeks before end of contract. 99/100 client will think - hmm save a few quid - bye contractor.

[northernladuk]

Put the shoe on the other foot.

Imagine the contract is at an end and the project is completed. You've secured a new gig, but it doesn't start for 2 weeks. You go to your existing client on your last day and ask for a 2 week "extension" to your current gig to tie you over between gigs, even though the project is complete and there's really no further work to be done?

Does the client consent to that?

It's a client supplier relationship. It's not equal and many things that work one way will not work the other as it might in an equal one. You just can't apply this thinking.

[northernladuk]

Dunno if you're agreeing with me here or not but do they ****....

Similarly, project ends early - two weeks before end of contract. 99/100 client will think - hmm save a few quid - bye contractor.

A) 99/100 is utter crap. You've just made that up and...
B) that is exactly why they use contractors and we should know that and..
C) If the project has finished you should be leaving of your own accord. What else are you going to do? Let the client direct you to do more work?