Has anyone pin pointed why the contract has gone tits up - been a while

[Manic]

I joined one of the Big4 a little over a year ago. It is true that engagements are thin on the ground. I'd have been benched the whole time but have moved internally into productive work. Payrises and bonuses have been reduced and 24 doesn't look good either. More to come I think.

For me, the earlier we can get a General Election the better. A change of govt is likely to inject some positivity and I expect that (assuming they win) Labour will be looking at a radical investment programme.

History - I left contracting in early 20 and went permie as IR35 was beginning to become reality.

[wettowel]

What does "tulip" mean?

[eek]

What does "tulip" mean?

Some words are banned in the software - tulip is used here as a replacement for excrement

[avonleigh]

What does "tulip" mean?

A nice way of saying that S word that rhymes with spit.

[northernladuk]

What does "tulip" mean?

You can say crap, poo, excrement but you can't say tulip... see what I mean?

You'll know you spend too much time on the forums when you giggle when passing the Tulip Hotel or the song comes on about tip toeing through the tulips.

Reading articles like this replacing tulip with the banned word is also rather amusing.
https://www.1800flowers.com/blog/flo...s/tulip-facts/

[Dactylion]

What does "tulip" mean?

Don't, whatever you do, ask about daffodil!!

[vwdan]

Oof, depressing thread. To be honest, I thought it was primarily just my niche in dire straits and I've been working to up/reskill out of it. I've been quite fortunate since the end of COVID, but COVID itself definitely took a toll - cost me a LOT of money as I was benched for most of it, and post IR35 means I'm taking home far less and have struggled to rebuild any semblance of what my warchest was.

In some respects, it's reassuring to see the old timers talk about the much older times. I started contracting in 2013 and had an amazing time between then and COVID, so hopefully good times will appear again

[Wobblyheed]

Right - I'm rather ticked about this. Wobblyheed has made an incredibly serious thread and it's been polluted by stupid and off-topic posts.

I am now going to clean it up and if I see ANY posts taking it off-topic I will be banning those who try it - I haven't yet decided for how long but it's going to smart.

I'm sorry about this Wobblyheed

This isn't General - Do better people.

Thanks Cojak...as an update I managed to secure a new role (inside IR35 ffs) just before Christmas. The nice umbrella company are paying me a month in arrears because" that's when they receive the money from the client" Payday is now at the end of February 2024 (for 3 weeks worked in December) So I'm borrowing from friends now - family have practically disowned me as some sort of scrounger. Managed to get a "mortgage holiday" for one month. Company will now have to go into dormancy. Some light at end of tunnel but it's still a very dark one. Now I need to do my self assessment

[ladymuck]

Thanks Cojak...as an update I managed to secure a new role (inside IR35 ffs) just before Christmas. The nice umbrella company are paying me a month in arrears because" that's when they receive the money from the client" Payday is now at the end of February 2024 (for 3 weeks worked in December) So I'm borrowing from friends now - family have practically disowned me as some sort of scrounger. Managed to get a "mortgage holiday" for one month. Company will now have to go into dormancy. Some light at end of tunnel but it's still a very dark one. Now I need to do my self assessment

Glad you found something at least. Hopefully things will improve for you this year.

[sreed]

Thanks Cojak...as an update I managed to secure a new role (inside IR35 ffs) just before Christmas. The nice umbrella company are paying me a month in arrears because" that's when they receive the money from the client" Payday is now at the end of February 2024 (for 3 weeks worked in December) So I'm borrowing from friends now - family have practically disowned me as some sort of scrounger. Managed to get a "mortgage holiday" for one month. Company will now have to go into dormancy. Some light at end of tunnel but it's still a very dark one. Now I need to do my self assessment

Glad to hear that you got a gig OP!

In broad terms, imho the main issues that have caused the tech job market (overall, there’ll still be pockets that are doing well) to get so skewed in favour of the client/employer in the past few years is a combination of the following - ease of offshoring desk-based jobs (accelerated by working practices during the pandemic) and unmanaged mass immigration from non-EU countries with 5-20x our population (I don’t blame the people coming over, but I do blame the government for making it so easy).

The market could perhaps have adjusted to the offshoring over time but along with mass immigration, it’s too much to absorb in too short a time period.

With the government now permitting non-EU citizens on tourist visas to ‘remote-work’ while in the UK, which will no doubt be exploited mercilessly, I don’t see any major scope for improvement in the near to medium term. It’ll probably get worse in the coming years as the hundreds of thousands of non-EU immigrants of the past few years get UK experience, ILR and start moving up the ladder.
https://www.livemint.com/news/trends...092016199.html