State of the Market

[WTFH]

Just been approached about an 18 month contract at a reasonable rate. I know the agent, so I know it's not a market trawl. No issue with IR35.
Client is in Germany and contract would be via Switzerland.

I've told them I'm not interested, the main reasons being:
1. I know the client and I know why they will only use contractors for this piece who are based outside German/EU regulations
2. Most of the resourcing has been driven purely by price, not ability
3. My current client is going to keep me busy.

The other guys who could do it will probably be messaging me later today for a catch up/laugh about it, given how we will all be approached about it on the same day.

In case you're thinking I should offer the role to anyone on here, the thing is it requires...

... a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career.

[eek]

Just been approached about an 18 month contract at a reasonable rate. I know the agent, so I know it's not a market trawl. No issue with IR35.
Client is in Germany and contract would be via Switzerland.

I've told them I'm not interested, the main reasons being:
1. I know the client and I know why they will only use contractors for this piece who are based outside German/EU regulations
2. Most of the resourcing has been driven purely by price, not ability
3. My current client is going to keep me busy.

The other guys who could do it will probably be messaging me later today for a catch up/laugh about it, given how we will all be approached about it on the same day.

In case you're thinking I should offer the role to anyone on here, the thing is it requires...

The resourcing based on price is the problem with most projects.

Going to have the same issue with the bit of work I'm interviewing for in the next 10 minutes - and if there was anything else in the market at the moment I wouldn't be looking at this piece of work because the client has already shown they are idiots.

[quackhandle]

Now hang on a minute, copyright issue here...

qh - will look for you and find you...

[dsc]

[...]
1. I know the client and I know why they will only use contractors for this piece who are based outside German/EU regulations
[...]

Why? genuinely curious to hear the reasons.

[eek]

Why? genuinely curious to hear the reasons.

No German union issues....

[dsc]

No German union issues....

Ah yes, the place I'm at now is doing a re-org and those unions were a proper pain in the ass...or someone simply forgot they also have to deal with them in the process.

Are contractors also part of unions? or is it the unions being against using contractors?

[WTFH]

Why? genuinely curious to hear the reasons.

As eek said, it's due to the Betriebsrat (Works Council). I was involved in a project in Munich where the IT department shut down at lunchtime on Fridays and most of them got an extra 2 weeks holiday a year to make up for them doing more than 37.5hr per week.

Absolutely fine if you're doing permie/day to day roles. Terrible if you're trying to deliver a project to a deadline.

[WTFH]

Are contractors also part of unions? or is it the unions being against using contractors?

Contractors can request to be covered under the works council, but don't expect to be kept on long.

As for how well the works council gets on with contractors, it depends on how good you are at working with rather than against people, and whether the direct result of you being there is that people will be made redundant. It can play to your advantage greatly. if you can get the leaders on board, you'll be able to get buy in from the staff very quickly, or if you need/want to make big changes to the plan these guys will get the company to agree to it.

[willendure]

Been running a little experiment on Jobserve. I have 2 searches for any contract positions in IT, one for inside roles, one for outside. I get these through my RSS reader. Since I last reset the mark as read status about 3 weeks ago, I have had 528 outside, and 105 inside. The classification is not perfect as there are sometimes things in the wrong category, or that appear in both, but it is still mostly accurate.

Whilst things are down at the moment, it does look to me like outside contracting is still alive.

[SussexSeagull]

Won't go into specific details out of respect to the agent and end client (who I am sure made the best decision for them as the saw it) but I had an interview with a company in another part of the country for a hybrid role yesterday. There were apparently four people being interviewed with me being the only one to have used their system before (it is fairly niche). You can never tell but I think the interview went well.

It was designated as Inside IR35 so I would have been unable to claim expenses travelling up there where previously I have ever spent the working week away near the customer site or gone up on the day/stayed over night where necessary.

Sounds like they went for a more local option who has never used their system before but can presumably get to the office quicker. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they will pick it up but in a two month contract to get something over the line that will take up time. The company has ended up with (on paper at least) a lesser qualified candidate due to the restricted mobility of contractors caused by inside IR35 designations become common place.