Whats your longest period on bench?

[bluedrop]

Dear all,
I am approaching 'bench' in less than 10 days. Possibility of finding work in the meanwhile is seeming very low. The market is SOOOO dry at the moment! THis is my first bench time. For this year, I've billed for a little over 10 months.

There are may new contractors like me here, there are many seasoned contractors too. Can I please ask each of you to share your experiences while on bench?

1. What was your longest period on bench?
2. WHat did you do on bench?
3. How did you keep your spirits up?
4. How did you land on bench? Contract terminated/ end of contract/ last minute ditch or anything else?

The idea behind starting this thread is to give newbie contractors like me a feel of how contractors manage work, bench etc...it is to give hope, encouragement and motivation to keep trying !

Thanks,
Bluedrop

[Sockpuppet]

1. What was your longest period on bench?
2. WHat did you do on bench?
3. How did you keep your spirits up?
4. How did you land on bench? Contract terminated/ end of contract/ last minute ditch or anything else?

1. Two months though technically none (see below).
2. Drove a lorry for ASDA.
3. See above. It was paying the bills and protecting the war chest.
4. End of contract - company making redundancies so all contractors left to expire.

[ddaft]

1. 8 weeks
2. Short holiday followed by skills brush up and then hit the job boards/agencies
3. Spent some quality time with family
4. Rate rise/going perm standoff with client at end of contract

[SneakySimon]

Bench

1. 3 months
2. Pancked!! - first year of contracting and in Jan / Feb / Mar, being on the bench is a lonley place!
3. Playstation!! Great support from wife - financially and metally
4. End of contract - was promised a transistion into permie at end of December but then at the start of the month, bank announced a freeze on headcount and a cut of 25% headcount - off I toddled!!

I panicked a bit (warchest was low!) and not being experienced, a queit jobserve was very depressing. I reached out to some other contractors took advice, updated CV's and tried to schmooze some agents. In mid-March, got a new contract and in 4.5 years since, I have not been benched once.

[northernladuk]

1. Couple of 1 - 2 monthers
2. Relaxed, looked for new jobs, little jobs around the house and everything SWMBO told me to.
3. Spirits were never down. We are contractors. If you can't keep your spirits up you go back permie. This is how we work. Warchest was fine so not a problem at all.
4. Contract ends, once finished 6 weeks early, rest planned.

Benchtime is where the wheat is sorted from the chaff. Bit scarey first time but it is part and parcel for the role. If you planned for it (which you should) then it is not a problem.

10 months billing should be good for 2 or 3 months on the bench no?

[JoJoGabor]

1. 3 weeks
2. Surfed Jobserve everyday all day - in hindsight should have enjoyed time off and surfed jobserver twice a day only
3. I didn't - I paniced
4. Contract fell through

[Spacecadet]

1. What was your longest period on bench?
2. WHat did you do on bench?
3. How did you keep your spirits up?
4. How did you land on bench? Contract terminated/ end of contract/ last minute ditch or anything else?

1. 1 month
2. Bit of job hunting, lots of PS3 and a few jobs round the house
3. I find it's more about motivation than spirits - personally I hate not being at work and the other stuff I need to do gets done even less when I've been benched
4. Generally just contracts finishing and nothing else being lined up in time.

[chef]

1. 9 months
2. Learnt German, got accounting side of company bang up to date, took a holiday, looked at job market incase any tasty short term well paid work came up, did DIY around house, built a new pc, spent time with gf chef
3. see 2. plus gf chef has a stable job that we both know can pay the bills if required
4. self imposed bench time, I was offered an extension but after 2 years working away was starting to grind especially on personal relationships so I rejected it and signed up with a german course.

[manclarky]

1. What was your longest period on bench?
2. WHat did you do on bench?
3. How did you keep your spirits up?
4. How did you land on bench? Contract terminated/ end of contract/ last minute ditch or anything else?

1. 23 weeks
2. Loads of DIY, turned a bathroom into a bedroom, went on a plastering course, plastered the room, turned some empty space into a bathroom, plumbed and tiled it - thus our 2 bed terrace became a 3-bed terrace and we sold for approx £15k more.
3. Too busy to get down, but I don't get down anyway - eternal optimist.
4. ClientCo decided they couldn't carry on with expensive contract - their share price now less than 1/10 of what it was then

[MrRobin]

6 weeks
Played games, watched films, jobserve twice a day (morning and evening), saw mates
Had a decent warchest to not be bothered much about it
Contract terminated (cost cutting at prev. client)