Is this something to be worried?

[SueEllen]

The general practice is that when HR receives a verification request from a background screening company, she would inform the manager of the person being verified.

So my manager would know my intention anyway, but he would not be impressed to know it in this way.

As a result, I had to hand in my notice before HR informed him. Am I missing anything here?

I have not withdrawn the notice, as it won't look good if this opportunity goes through (finger crossed) and then hand in another notice..

One of the things you need to learn with contracting is how to talk to and get on with people at different levels.

The fact that you didn't tell your line manager on the quiet that you are seeking another job because you didn't feel you were being stretched, you are fed up with the commute, office location or whatever means you have made a stupid mistake.

In many of my contracts a permie has told their line manager they are unhappy for a number of reasons and are seeking another role. The line manager then kept their mouth shut until the person handed in their notice.

[LondonManc]

The problem for you at your perm job is now that they'll be expecting you to resign at some point in the future.

The fact that they've shelled out (allegedly) on a DBS check is good - commercial (i.e. non-volunteer) ones cost money. That said, mine got paid out of my first invoice cheeky feckers.

Inside IR35 isn't an issue so long as it will never be an issue; by that, I mean that if you're in London, it's less likely to be a longer term issue than if your first contract is local and you're somewhere like Somerset with not much nearby and lots of travel and accommodation expenses.

I've had situations where you think the contract isn't going to happen and it's been stuck somewhere because they emailed a person rather than a team and that person was on leave for a week. The contract eventually came through at the eleventh hour. Completely the opposite of that, I turned down one contract in accepting another one. The one I opted for never got the last 1% over the line but never officially got pulled. Still waiting for it 8 years later.

I've been permie now for nearly three years after about ten years of contracting. I bailed out because of the uncertainty around Brexit, the IR35 changes and living away too much. Even if the last one isn't a factor, throw in Covid uncertainty and that's an even bigger risk. Did you take the decision to go contracting by yourself?

[helger]

Are you saying that the 3rd party screen company said you had to resign your position before they would screen you? Or did the agent?

No, the agent or the 3rd party screening company did not tell me that.

But my notice period is 2 months, and I have to allow those 2 months to work out the notice period before the proposed start date of the contract role.

Otherwise there would be an overlap of the 2 jobs if the contract role goes through as planned.

[helger]

One of the things you need to learn with contracting is how to talk to and get on with people at different levels.

The fact that you didn't tell your line manager on the quiet that you are seeking another job because you didn't feel you were being stretched, you are fed up with the commute, office location or whatever means you have made a stupid mistake.

In many of my contracts a permie has told their line manager they are unhappy for a number of reasons and are seeking another role. The line manager then kept their mouth shut until the person handed in their notice.

Thanks for this insight. I never thought I should tell my line manager at the stage of looking. I feel my life at the company would be more difficult if I let the manager know such early. But it is interesting to know how others handle this kind of situation.

[helger]

The problem for you at your perm job is now that they'll be expecting you to resign at some point in the future.

The fact that they've shelled out (allegedly) on a DBS check is good - commercial (i.e. non-volunteer) ones cost money. That said, mine got paid out of my first invoice cheeky feckers.

Inside IR35 isn't an issue so long as it will never be an issue; by that, I mean that if you're in London, it's less likely to be a longer term issue than if your first contract is local and you're somewhere like Somerset with not much nearby and lots of travel and accommodation expenses.

I've had situations where you think the contract isn't going to happen and it's been stuck somewhere because they emailed a person rather than a team and that person was on leave for a week. The contract eventually came through at the eleventh hour. Completely the opposite of that, I turned down one contract in accepting another one. The one I opted for never got the last 1% over the line but never officially got pulled. Still waiting for it 8 years later.

I've been permie now for nearly three years after about ten years of contracting. I bailed out because of the uncertainty around Brexit, the IR35 changes and living away too much. Even if the last one isn't a factor, throw in Covid uncertainty and that's an even bigger risk. Did you take the decision to go contracting by yourself?

Many thanks for sharing your experience, which is helpful.

Re your last question, yes, I took the decision to go contracting by myself, mainly tempted by the contract rate vs my current salary.

There were other issues of the permanent job, for example, my senior co-worker left the firm 1.5 years ago, but they never get a new guy in, so effectively I am doing twice the work. Even irony is that I got less total compensation this year due to a reduction of bonus (not covid related reduction but office politics I believe).

As soon I handed in my notice, they quickly started the recruiting process of 2 vacancies, and they are actively interviewing people at the moment.

[LondonManc]

Many thanks for sharing your experience, which is helpful.

Re your last question, yes, I took the decision to go contracting by myself, mainly tempted by the contract rate vs my current salary. There were other issues of the permanent job, for example, my senior co-worker left the firm 1.5 years ago, but they never get a new guy in, so effectively I am doing twice the work. As soon I handed in my notice, they quickly started the recruiting process and is currently actively interviewing people..

Don't worry about hindsight management, they're great in here at telling you what you should have done without offering actual help.

Obviously you should have aired your concerns about double the workload for no reward/training. Quitting without warning isn't great.

But, as someone else has said, you've now got three options:

1/ Discuss your resignation, say you've had a chat with a friend and they recommend that you talk to your boss about not resigning but saying what would help you to stay. Add a bit of BS about never really wanting to leave but you didn't feel that you could approach them easily enough about the situation.
2/ Suck it up and look for a new permie job. They're out there every much as contracts are.
3/ Accept that IR35 contracts are okay for you and see if either this one comes to something or another one does.

One thing's for sure; you'll need to be cleverer with agents than you've been with your current job. Don't fall for the two references crap, don't tell them about other things on the go beyond "I've applied for a couple but waiting to hear" and don't ever offer where you've gone in for or there will be three more cvs following yours over there.

[helger]

Obviously you should have aired your concerns about double the workload for no reward/training. Quitting without warning isn't great.

I did voice my concerns. Unfortunately the consequence was that I got a much less cash bonus. Instead they gave some RSU that would be vested in 5 years!

Thanks for your other advices, which are very helpful.

[SueEllen]

Many thanks for sharing your experience, which is helpful.

Re your last question, yes, I took the decision to go contracting by myself, mainly tempted by the contract rate vs my current salary.

There were other issues of the permanent job, for example, my senior co-worker left the firm 1.5 years ago, but they never get a new guy in, so effectively I am doing twice the work. Even irony is that I got less total compensation this year due to a reduction of bonus (not covid related reduction but office politics I believe).

Did you look for a higher-paying permanent role once you had the experience of doing his work as well? If you can do two workloads then you can handle it.

[GhostofTarbera]

What markup is your agent on?

My very 1st contact 24 years ago was £300 a day, agent was getting £600, classic newbie error


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[Antman]

Not odd in my experience. Had an agency do the checks for both banking and water. Water is even stricter than banking, where they want urine tests.


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Can't believe no one picked up some pun for the urine tests for water, this place is going downhill!