Nothing to do but client wants to keep me.

[MrMarkyMark]

I'm almost in a similar situation. With a consultancy at the end clients site. I've got some stuff to keep me ticking over, but even stretching this out and making tweaks and improvements over and above the required changes, I'm twiddling my thumbs.

There's a big piece of work coming that's not signed off yet though, so once that is, it should see me though to new year, then I'll probably look for something else.

Pretty much the same here as the forthcoming release is small.

However, there are some massive changes planned for the new year.

[FrontEnder]

If I were the OP, I'd be going first look for anything you can just do on your own initiative and report back to the client on how you've improved x,y, z. If you've already done all you can there, ask the client for a view of upcoming project work and get involved in that as much as possible.

if WFH is an option, then try to do that as much as possible.

If there's nothign there, just let them know you'll probably need more before too long. In the meantime, keep an eye out and start looking for new gigs.

A good tip for not making it obvious what you're doing is to turn off styles and/or images in the browser, so you just see the plain text. Not great to navigate round and some sites won't work at all (although they should), but you can resize the window and have something else full screen and most wouldn't be aware unless they looked closely. Even then they probably wouldn't see the detail unless they're standing over you.

[FrontEnder]

Pretty much the same here as the forthcoming release is small.

However, there are some massive changes planned for the new year.

There's work forecast here for most of next year. We've just done a bog release, so it's quite after that.

Problem for me at the moment is previously it was big, fixed price stuff so it was just a case of submitting doing the work and getting timesheets done. Now we're done with that and it'll be smaller pieces of work and change requests, which is being costed and charged to the end client.

So I have to pass on how long I've spent on each work so it will be billed to the client. It's the PMO I report it to, so they haven't a scooby doo how long a piece of work takes, but I'm weary of just saying I've spent e.g 3 days on something that's only been costed as 1 day.

[silverlight001]

I had a similar situation once and spent my time doing websites for new clients and suchlike - really boosted my earnings.

Fortunately my desk was tucked away a bit but on occasions would slope off to a meeting room with laptop and carry on there or even go to coffee shop / canteen.

Do some networking and build some contacts for other opportunities - remember as a contractor you are an entrepreneur and if you have the right mindset look upon this as an opportunity to branch out, do some self training, try some skills, earn some extra dosh or even become something like a wikipedia or DMOS editor / contributor

[LondonManc]

There's work forecast here for most of next year. We've just done a bog release, so it's quite after that.

Problem for me at the moment is previously it was big, fixed price stuff so it was just a case of submitting doing the work and getting timesheets done. Now we're done with that and it'll be smaller pieces of work and change requests, which is being costed and charged to the end client.

So I have to pass on how long I've spent on each work so it will be billed to the client. It's the PMO I report it to, so they haven't a scooby doo how long a piece of work takes, but I'm weary of just saying I've spent e.g 3 days on something that's only been costed as 1 day.

TMI?

[northernladuk]

Lots of nice stories but is anyone going to advise the OP on his questions and situation?

[MrMarkyMark]

Lots of nice stories but is anyone going to advise the OP on his questions and situation?

Well, you didn't even come up with a nice story, let alone anything else

[SueEllen]

Lots of nice stories but is anyone going to advise the OP on his questions and situation?

The advice was in the first post.

[northernladuk]

Well, you didn't even come up with a nice story, let alone anything else

I so did. Second line of my reply. A bit short and sweet compared to the others granted.

[MrMarkyMark]

I so did. Second line of my reply. A bit short and sweet compared to the others granted.

Sorry, my apologies, I missed that .

It even has the required happy ending