Contract rates not obeying inflation

[rocktronAMP]

The Outside contract I've secured went from 6 months when I was offered it, to 4 months during onboarding and now 2.5 months when I got the contract through

Ha! So is that how they are finding the extra money then? Clearly not true, because it reads as a fixed materials and time budget for a piece of work. The real SOW is between the agency and client, which you as the contractor don't see necessarily. But who instigated this? Is it the recruitment agent? Or the client then?

[ensignia]

Ha! So is that how they are finding the extra money then? Clearly not true, because it reads as a fixed materials and time budget for a piece of work. The real SOW is between the agency and client, which you as the contractor don't see necessarily. But who instigated this? Is it the recruitment agent? Or the client then?

I've worked with them before and they reached out saying they had a huge backlog of work which needed to be cleared and they had 6 months worth of work lined up.

I duly agreed to help, but then they tried the old bait-and-switch Inside approach saying it was easier (even though last time was Outside). I obviously said no.

They then scurried off and did their thing and came back with, Ok we can do Outside but we've only managed to do one SOW so now the contract is 2.5 months, but we'll endeavour to sort the other bits out in the coming months.

[rocktronAMP]

I've worked with them before and they reached out saying they had a huge backlog of work which needed to be cleared and they had 6 months worth of work lined up.

I duly agreed to help, but then they tried the old bait-and-switch Inside approach saying it was easier (even though last time was Outside). I obviously said no.

They then scurried off and did their thing and came back with, Ok we can do Outside but we've only managed to do one SOW so now the contract is 2.5 months, but we'll endeavour to sort the other bits out in the coming months.

Ah ok. I hadn't occurred to me that you had a direct relationship with the client through previous engagements. This make sense now. Thanks. Yeah snap it up.

[CheeseSlice]

I'm not so sure inflation will die down so quickly as I doubt the Russia issue will get resolved so quickly (supply issues also don't look like they are fixing themselves fast enough). Unless of course the west decides enough is enough and they will simply abandon Ukraine on the promise that Russia doesn't go any further and everyone goes back to using russian gas. I do agree however that we have to "absorb" inflation, there's no easy way out which is not really something a lot of people want to listen to.

That is the big question - what is the exit strategy?
it seems like both sides west and east have put their chips down and are all in, committed.
This is a geopolitical game of chicken, who blinks first. Putin is such a madman, why are we playing it against him?

[philgo]

Seems that hardly any clients are matching inflation with the rate, rent is going up, food is going up, bills are going up, contract rates the same last seven years

It depends of your experience, expertise, domain, demand, client and finally the way you sell yourself to a client.
In my field, I have seen inside IR35 day rates going up a lot this year versus last year where I took a big hit from going outside to inside.

Then broadly speaking and looking in the past, it seems that rates used to be 1k and above during the golden age. All the previous generation contractors that I worked with (I am millennial) told me that rates were crazy high...

[dsc]

That is the big question - what is the exit strategy?
it seems like both sides west and east have put their chips down and are all in, committed.
This is a geopolitical game of chicken, who blinks first. Putin is such a madman, why are we playing it against him?

There is none as far as I'm aware and this is why I'm not so sure things will stabilise.

Putin will not back down on Ukraine, he might pause things, stall, regroup etc. but he will eventually want to take over the entire country or at least large chunks of it (this is what RU did in the past). On the other hand if RU is crushed by sanctions, they might get more desperate and go absolutely bananas, I mean if they have nothing to loose anyway, why not just try something a bit more drastic? This is why this war was such bad news from the very start, unless Ukraine surrenders their territory, there will be no end to this (well the West might decide they have no extra cash / ammo / weapons to give to Ukraine and simply abandon them as well, but for now I think they are just content with the idea of Ukrainian blood being spilled rather than western soldiers / civilians).

[KentDogWalker]

There is none as far as I'm aware and this is why I'm not so sure things will stabilise.

Putin will not back down on Ukraine, he might pause things, stall, regroup etc. but he will eventually want to take over the entire country or at least large chunks of it (this is what RU did in the past). On the other hand if RU is crushed by sanctions, they might get more desperate and go absolutely bananas, I mean if they have nothing to loose anyway, why not just try something a bit more drastic? This is why this war was such bad news from the very start, unless Ukraine surrenders their territory, there will be no end to this (well the West might decide they have no extra cash / ammo / weapons to give to Ukraine and simply abandon them as well, but for now I think they are just content with the idea of Ukrainian blood being spilled rather than western soldiers / civilians).

you don't surrender land to genocidal manics