State of the Market

[Grasser73]

For those considering permiedom how will you counter the concerns by the employer that you'll take flight once the market picks up? Also, have you done the math - being half way through a tax year (assuming you have been paying salary and dividends)?

Surely there won't be a significant market left to pick up so no longer a concern.

[ContractorHardman]

For those considering permiedom how will you counter the concerns by the employer that you'll take flight once the market picks up? Also, have you done the math - being half way through a tax year (assuming you have been paying salary and dividends)?

I considered this...

I say that I am looking towards a permie move as I want to be more settled in a role along with starting a family (I am in my early 30s so its a good excuse).

Tax, I spoke with at length to my accountant and he didn't see much problems with this as I was on PAYE as a permie. It would mean making sure I had enough for CT and VAT. In the end, I had a £1k deficit to make up which I could do easily.

In the end, after 4 offers from the same company trying to tempt me to permie work for them, I flatly turned them down and took a new contract with a 30% hair cut. I am taking a gamble and I know that. I think the market will pick up once we know the lay of the land with the EU. I also have faith that IR35 reforms might be postponed to concentrate on Brexit. Its all speculation!

[ContractorHardman]

There is something to be said for keeping your head down and carrying on, but at the same time you shouldn't put a job ahead of your happiness unless you absolutely have to.

I did this in March last year however it was a calculated risk when I knew jobs were there. I had a client who constantly shot me in the foot. She divided contractors from Permies. Essentially, Contractors done all the work and permies who had no clue what they were doing were given the credit for their appraisals. She made it look like she was developing her talent when she wasn't really.

A lot of the decisions she made, I would advise her against because it was rushing something that would systemically break. I cited that as a professional, I wouldn't be able to continue as I didn't think I was giving them the best of my ability (because my ability was being shot down). I agreed an exit plan and left 4 weeks later and 1 month earlier than planned.

On my last day, I got asked what my plans were, I said nothing, I am off to Miami in a few days so sit on the beach and plan from there. About a month or two later, I got told she was wanting me back however my colleagues told her it was too late, I had just signed a new contract for someone else.

I have never regretted leaving that role but there were times when I was on the bench thinking "have I made a mistake?"

As someone said on here "Bench time is character building time, it's when you find out what you're really made of"

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I had a manager

Eh?

[PCTNN]

There is something to be said for keeping your head down and carrying on, but at the same time you shouldn't put a job ahead of your happiness unless you absolutely have to.

I quit a place that was driving me up the wall and it's taken me 2 months of looking 5 days a week to get a new contract (including a few declines, and August where basically nothing happened).

I could have stayed, but then I'd be 2 more months into something that was making me miserable and I'd have had to contend with getting time off for interviews etc too.

It's like taking holiday - sometimes as a contractor the instinct is to not do the things that our way in life is all about - one of those is taking comfortable time off in exchange for some job insecurity. Take it!

Yes, if someone has a big enough warchest then by all means, leaving is an option worth thinking about.

On the other hand, seeing how tough the contract market has become in recent times, people might start thinking whether a warchest will ever be big enough.

I think I said it on another thread, it's just a "pick your poison" situation: unhappy in a role but warchest growing, or happy on the bench but worried about the depleting warchest

[Peoplesoft bloke]

For those considering permiedom how will you counter the concerns by the employer that you'll take flight once the market picks up? Also, have you done the math - being half way through a tax year (assuming you have been paying salary and dividends)?

Potential employer didn't ask me that - like anything, if the job's good enough there will be no reason to leave. I haven't "done the math" as I am not American.

[PerfectStorm]

Eh?

Regularly used terminology in contracting. Don't panic.

[northernladuk]

Regularly misused terminology in contracting by permatractors. Don't panic.

FTFY

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Regularly used terminology in contracting. Don't panic.

Not by me it isn't.

[PerfectStorm]

Contractors who aren't inflexibly obsessed with literal definitions and who don't obsess over contractor theory well understand the intent and context of the word :-)