1 Month Notice Period - A problem going from Permanent to Contract

**eek** · 14 July 2011, 21:50

Originally posted by Weegee View Post

Hi

Ive been a permie for the past 5 years and then a contractor for the past 8 years before.

I want to go back into contracting but I have a notice period of 4 weeks which Ive got to stick
to.

Unfortunately given the nature of many contracts which need a start ASAP, im at a bit of a dead end!

Question is have you found clients out there who are willing to wait the 4 weeks for someone to start?

Also what would you do in my position, sit and wait for client that will wait...
or take the plunge hand your notice in and hope you find somethng quick!

Build up your holiday, time you escape for when it would be convenient to disappear and play hard ball once the contract is in your hand.

No one wants to watch you do nothing for 4 weeks while working out your notice so provided you don't leave them in the lurch you should be able to escape fairly quickly.

**Worzel** · 14 July 2011, 22:10

ASAP isn't always ASAP

Most contract ad's say "urgent" and "ASAP" but this isn't always the case. While it's true that the agents are always in a race against time to collect and submit CV's the client may be quite happy to wait for the right person. Places I've worked at in the past took 6 weeks or longer just to get budget approval for a contractor so a lot of the perceived rush is artificial.

From recent experience it also seems to me that the recruiting process has slowed down a lot and the days of "interview Friday, start Monday" are over.

Have you accrued any holiday that you could possibly use to reduce your notice period? I would certainly not just up and leave.

**Weegee** · 14 July 2011, 22:37

The thing is my company enforces the rule that you have
to work a 1 month notice period, so if you had 4 days holiday in that period...that would
be added on to the end of your originally intended finish date.

Also they wanted to change the notice period for our staff to 2 months!

Originally posted by Worzel View Post

Most contract ad's say "urgent" and "ASAP" but this isn't always the case. While it's true that the agents are always in a race against time to collect and submit CV's the client may be quite happy to wait for the right person. Places I've worked at in the past took 6 weeks or longer just to get budget approval for a contractor so a lot of the perceived rush is artificial.

From recent experience it also seems to me that the recruiting process has slowed down a lot and the days of "interview Friday, start Monday" are over.

Have you accrued any holiday that you could possibly use to reduce your notice period? I would certainly not just up and leave.

**fullyautomatix** · 14 July 2011, 23:03

Originally posted by Weegee View Post

The thing is my company enforces the rule that you have
to work a 1 month notice period, so if you had 4 days holiday in that period...that would
be added on to the end of your originally intended finish date.

Also they wanted to change the notice period for our staff to 2 months!

If you are confident of your ability and skills hand in the notice and try for a contract about 7-10 days before the last day. Many contracts do not wait for a month. Some do but you have to be lucky and there should be nobody around to bag that contract.

**Scrag Meister** · 15 July 2011, 06:52

Not a problem for any manager who realises that they have just interviewed a skilled person who would make an excellent addition to the team.

I'm sure there are some knobs out there though.

Not been a problem for me.

When I turned contractor I was on 3 months notice, so had no choice but to leave with nothing to go to. 1 month should be cool though.

**Moff** · 15 July 2011, 07:03

Agree the recruitment process has slowed !!!

**Fred Bloggs** · 15 July 2011, 08:47

It depends..... for my first contract the client co waited for me to work my 4 weeks notice. But they had been looking for the right person for ages anyway so an extra 4 weeks was small beer. I finish my current job today and start a new role in two weeks time after a 2 week holiday. The next job will have been waiting for me for over 6 weeks, but when they were recruiting they knew that the project was going to ramp up over August/September, so again, no problem to wait. The majority of my jobs have been where the client co has been screaming "it's urgent" and when I have got there I've typically waited anything between one and three weeks before really getting stuck into the work. I no longer take a lot of notice of the "it's urgent" stories.

**northernladuk** · 15 July 2011, 09:23

Building holiday probably won't work. Some permie contracts won't allow second jobs while still employed. Check your contract carefully.

You should know the score as ex-contractor so I think you know the answer. Brand new newbies would problably worry about this but you should know you are a risk coming from perm, exploer might up your package while waiting, better contract yadda yadda. You also shouldn't be afraid of the bench if you are an ex contractor either so just take a breath and jump in IMO.

Being a risk, actually securing a job against other experienced guys, looking for specific/rare roles and (in the clients eyes) not being a solid contractor I think you are narrowing your options down to nil if you try and dovetail it.

**Hex** · 15 July 2011, 09:53

I had a 3 month notice period before my first contract. Got offered a contract from a bank with the line "now how quickly can you get out of there". Managed to negotiate it down to 6 weeks and the bank waited for me, even though they'd have preferred me to start right away.

Then I had the typical bank thing after joining that they had no desk for me and no machine for quite a few weeks.

1 Month Notice Period - A problem going from Permanent to Contract