I AM DONE.

[oliverson]

As the final few days of my contract approach, I reflect on my age (late 50's), my working life and my future.

I've worked since leaving school at 15 with a few spells on the bench (dotcom crash, financial crisis, covid) and a 4 year sandwich course at Uni.

I've been a contractor since February 2004, a developer. Now as I approach my 60s, I look at the state of the market, the state of the country, and frankly, the state of me, and I conclude that I AM DONE.

I don't have it in my to go again, in a market as bad as this, and I don't have the desire to code for other companies anymore. I have had enough.

So, I'm going to focus on coding for me. Many ideas always on the back burner whilst I deliver code for others. Some, maybe most, of those ideas may amount to nothing, but at least they'll be MY nothing, or maybe they won't, who's to say?

This decision isn't without consequences. I'll have to sell or rent one property out and live in the other one. The flash cars will have to go, and there'll be some friction when closing my business, I would imagine, but at the end of the day when you're done, you're done. When you've nothing left in the tank, you've nothing. Many other professionals encounter this situation in life, sports people for example, and they encounter it half my age. I've had a very good run.

I'll keep monitoring this site as I have throughout most of my contracting career.

Good luck everybody and I truly hope the market improves for you all.

[sadkingbilly]

oh, - not General.
too bad.

[pjt]

As the final few days of my contract approach, I reflect on my age (late 50's), my working life and my future.

I've worked since leaving school at 15 with a few spells on the bench (dotcom crash, financial crisis, covid) and a 4 year sandwich course at Uni.

I've been a contractor since February 2004, a developer. Now as I approach my 60s, I look at the state of the market, the state of the country, and frankly, the state of me, and I conclude that I AM DONE.

I don't have it in my to go again, in a market as bad as this, and I don't have the desire to code for other companies anymore. I have had enough.

So, I'm going to focus on coding for me. Many ideas always on the back burner whilst I deliver code for others. Some, maybe most, of those ideas may amount to nothing, but at least they'll be MY nothing, or maybe they won't, who's to say?

This decision isn't without consequences. I'll have to sell or rent one property out and live in the other one. The flash cars will have to go, and there'll be some friction when closing my business, I would imagine, but at the end of the day when you're done, you're done. When you've nothing left in the tank, you've nothing. Many other professionals encounter this situation in life, sports people for example, and they encounter it half my age. I've had a very good run.

I'll keep monitoring this site as I have throughout most of my contracting career.

Good luck everybody and I truly hope the market improves for you all.

Good luck. I think your not the only one feeling like this at the moment. With the constant government attacks and a tough market it does get hard to stay motivated at times.

[oliverson]

Good luck. I think your not the only one feeling like this at the moment. With the constant government attacks and a tough market it does get hard to stay motivated at times.

Funny you should mention that, I literally just got off the phone to HMRC regarding some tax issues and after 30 mins I got to speak to the most arrogant, unhelpful tosser who ended up putting the phone down on me. WTF?!?! Over my 20 years contracting it's been pretty much the same. Zero interest in helping. **** 'em.

[jamesbrown]

Good luck, it's a good time to reconsider if you can afford to.

[pjt]

Funny you should mention that, I literally just got off the phone to HMRC regarding some tax issues and after 30 mins I got to speak to the most arrogant, unhelpful tosser who ended up putting the phone down on me. WTF?!?! Over my 20 years contracting it's been pretty much the same. Zero interest in helping. **** 'em.

Would you expect anything less

[SussexSeagull]

To paraphrase Michael Caine, I am not retiring from the IT Industry, the IT Industry is retiring me.

[uk contractor]

Good luck pal.

I am also done. Spent almost last 4 years at a very well know IB went perm they told me I had to so I did...that caused them to screw me out of a few grand alone due to notice timings.......

Then last 2 years we all knew the end was looming as they handed a well known consultancy who specialise in illegal onshoring activity but are super cheap to engage with a lengthy contract to supply the IB with IT staff....that was only ever going to end one way.

So they made most of us redundant by forcing us all out effectively if you wanted to go or not they did not want us at all the oldest most experienced team members were all thrown away like a used condom! I only use that analogy as we were treated with that level of respect............!

Sure we all get super hefty £££ payouts & paid leave for months as per their legal obligation (I hope they survive long enough to send all the outstanding contractual £££).

Could have gone on a few more years was not meant to be...the manner in which it was done was borderline illegal & criminal but as everyone is getting a decent payout I doubt anyone will mount a legal challenge as by sheer coincidence it will take just over 3 months to get all your contractually owed £££.....their internal guidelines state you must challenge WITHIN 3 months LOL

UK Government do not support UK workers at all this sort of thing will continue to happen again & again its highly illegal but very time consuming & expensive to prove otherwise.

[uk contractor]

Have you considered shorting the shares in that company?

LOL absolutely not would not waste a penny on them or the IB both will not last & see the end of this decade as the way they are run is a race to the bottom....... its just not sustainable they already lost a load of money dumping all the most experienced IT staff its just not going to save them any money at all its going to do the exact opposite & already has

Hope they last long enough to give me all of my mega redundancy package

[fatJock]

Early 50s here and although I had planned to work until 60 or so I'm increasingly getting disillusioned (and I'm in a contract ) - basically firing as much as I can into a pension and investigating downsizing earlier than was my original plan.