How do you handle disgruntled permanent staff and management

[wantacontract]

dude this is what you need to do:

1. Start applying for jobs.
2. Carry on billing and stick it out for as long as you can.
3. When you find new job. Leave.....

Also, you are now a contractor, have two cars...

Jealous permie is very common....I drive a normal cheap car to work, another chap brought in a brand new porsche and straight away the permies just hate him.....

Try and get some perspective, in 6 months time it'll be but a memory, and in 18 months time a distant memory.....

you'll be somewhere else, coining it still and that jumped up permie will still be earning pennies....toiling his time and his life away

Feel better??

[wantacontract]

just read some more....

Dude, just walk if you don't need the money and can't be dealing with the stress...

or

hand some stress back to them, be aggressive, interrupt often and respond with silence when questioned, when they're about to speak, answer quickly and sharply....sounds like they're being complete tools and get your own back will make you feel better before you leave.

Not very professional but it worked when I was in a awful hostile environment one time....

I also give you permission to go to your local gig and stuff the other one....don't feel bad about it.....put it this way, are you ever going to want to go back there....

[rocktronAMP]

Hi there

I'm just looking to get some advice/feedback about a situation I find myself in at my current contract. I'm about to start my third week as a developer and last week things in the office took a turn for the worst.

Essentially one my permanent colleagues has been getting a little jealous since he saw my car one afternoon when I went out to get lunch. It started off with a few what I thought, at the time, were throw away jokes/comments about being paid too much but his general attitude towards me has been in the toilet since then. He takes issue with every bit of code I ask for review, with some fairly ludicrous suggestions that offer little to no improvements over what I've provided. He's essentially flexing his muscle and, what's more, trying to make me look like a tool in front of my manager.

On Friday I asked for a code review at 2pm to be told he was busy. I started some other tasks to fill in the time but really needed to get this work checked in because we were at the end of the current Sprint and at the team meeting the manager made a point of telling me that this stuff all had to be in. Anyway after asking all afternoon he finally decided to come over at 5, (he knows I finish 5.30 and live 3 hours from site), and proceeds to demolish what I've put together. He tries to dress it all up as advice but worse still he sits at my desk, deletes nearly everything I've done to put in his preferred solution. Only he then breaks all of my tests and essentially nothing can be checked in for the end of Sprint. My manager then asks why I'm shelving work and I point out that my tests are no longer valid and, as per his rules, no check-ins can happen without approval or accompanying tests.

The manager went mental and I mean absolutely spare but, despite being told that a perfectly acceptable solution was in place and his senior dev had destroyed the work, he tells me that they're "paying me a lot of f###ing money", more than he's on in fact and that I should have delivered it. No consideration of the intervention of someone else who I feel is clearly trying to undermine me.

Basically it's making me feel sick. I don't know how I can operate in an environment where the senior developer is going out of his way to undermine my work and make me look like an idiot. It wouldn't be so bad if I had other developers to go to for check-in or if I had autonomy but he's the only developer in the office I can ask for review.

I understand the practices of code review, I've done many myself, but I've never done what the senior dev did on Friday. Especially at end of Sprint. Also I have no issue with swearing in the office but I take issue with being sworn at. I conduct myself professionally at all times and I expect the same courtesy to be shown to me. Furthermore, I don't expect my pay to be brought up in front of the other developers, it's never ever been thrown at me before and you'd never say the same thing to a permanent staff member.

It came to light last week that their previous contractor left the week before I arrived and he didn't last a fortnight. Something isn't right in there. But I'm torn on what to do. I'm concerned this is going to spiral into full blown harassment/bullying and there'll be false accusations thrown around that I'm inept or incapable of performing my job. I've never been in this situation before.

Do I..

• Say, say nothing, keep invoicing and wait for the inevitable termination
  
• Address the issue with the manager, even though the senior dev is his best bud and try to explain the situation even though I'm also uncomfortable with the manager after his unwarranted outburst on Friday.
  
• Walk away with my dignity and tell them I'm not happy taking s##t

Has anyone else been in a similar situation with colleagues undermining their position? How did you handle it?

Dear Illustrious
[*] play smart: (1) start looking for another contract gig simultaneously. (2) Suck it up, focus on the project Agile tasks, execute and deliver. Getting thing done.

It sounds like you are in a Trainwreck project. Where it not so serious or so genuine, I would have called what I have just read a scene from David Brent-land. You are in train wreck , sadly, with a very poor culture in the company division / department.

You call it Agile but their process is agile by bullying and falls foul of the original manifesto "individuals and interactions over processes and tools"
You talk about sprints so I assume SCRUM (or rather SCRUM-FALL (with WATERFALL methodology) or even worse SCRUM-BUT (we throw away the practice definitions. "We have daily sit-downs", "we don't bother with that nonsense of planning or user story" and "we can never find a stakeholder worth listening to so we don't bother with feedback from consumers/customers"
Does the team have retrospectives? So you don't have the chance to feedback.
It reads like you management and developer engineering team is politically flaws and I would expect plenty of "passive aggressive" to hang around if you decide to stick around. You are treated like a second-class citizen. I bet your client lauds the benefit of them being a meritocracy.
If you lower yourself to swearing back to then you look like idiot to. So fair does resisting the urge to swear back and keep your style professional.

Worryingly for you, you chose to write this on a Saturday, when others are spending valuable time with family. You say that you feeling nauseated, this is a early sign of poor health, which long term could lead to a heart attack, stress and mental illness.

Life is to short, yo. Just like Peter Parker listen to your spider senses, get the *tulip* out ASAP.

BTW: Some questions about how you got offer a contract job for this division

How many stages did it take?
Did you actually meet the manager in a face-to-face?
Is hour hiring manager and current manager the same person?
If you walk around the company offices and environment, how come you did not pick up on the sad faces or poor culture?
If you did see the environment before your job offer, why did the HR hide the problematic culture?
How come you missed this animosity during the interview process?

*Tulip* man!

[Willapp]

If you have a good relationship with the agent as you've suggested, I would speak to them first and let them know of your intentions. They might be happy to have the conversation with client on your behalf in which case you don't necessarily need to speak to them first at all (remember you work for the agent not the client).

If it's really as bad as you suggest then I would be prepared to lose some money over it - I can't see them being happy to sign off on outstanding timesheets etc if you aren't going to honour your notice period. Regardless of how you think they feel about you, they'll still view you terminating your contract as a bad thing and make a fuss about it. Absolute best case scenario you say to them look it's clearly not working, I'll stay til the end of the week and that's it and see what their response is.

[northernladuk]

Whats to stop you telling them you're unavailable due to illness? .

Why do you think this will work? They aren't going to believe it for a minute and you are lying. Why not just be honest with them instead?

[MrMarkyMark]

Why do you think this will work? They aren't going to believe it for a minute and you are lying. Why not just be honest with them instead?

+1 for the honesty part.

Sometimes its best just to hit these things head on, similar things happen to everyone.

I wanted to pack a gig in after a week once, without going into detail, the guys were ex TCS, the system set up less than sub optimum and the workload was very high.
They persuaded me to stay and things got better, they then got a fellow Indian in and tried to make his life absolute hell, instead.
The strangest part of it all was they were mortified I didn't accept the offered extension after 3 months .

[LondonManc]

Why do you think this will work? They aren't going to believe it for a minute and you are lying. Why not just be honest with them instead?

Correct. Walking and telling them why to their faces may be the slap in the arrogant chops that they need.

[missinggreenfields]

Been offered the local gig! They want me to start a week on Monday. I'm going to stick my notice in but it's 28 days. What is the repercussion if I don't work my notice period?

Don't work your notice period.

Give them the 28 days notice now, and then offer a substitute for the time that you can't personally deliver services to the client. If they accept, then get someone to do that last couple of weeks. If they reject, they are in breach of contract and you should leave.

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

Don't work your notice period.

Give them the 28 days notice now, and then offer a substitute for the time that you can't personally deliver services to the client. If they accept, then get someone you really hate in to do that last couple of weeks. If they reject, they are in breach of contract and you should leave.

Good advice, providing his sub clause is strong.

[Lance]

Don't work your notice period.

Give them the 28 days notice now, and then offer a substitute for the time that you can't personally deliver services to the client. If they accept, then get someone to do that last couple of weeks. If they reject, they are in breach of contract and you should leave.

Just hope they reject the sub otherwise you've got a whole heap of complication
-insurance
-PAYE
-workers rights
-finding someone who's not so incompetent they breach the contract and you have to take a hit on PI
-finding someone anyway

Far better off giving notice and then simply being 'unavailable'