Contractor Carnage at B@rcl@ys Retail

[Thejacka1]

Big Clear Out this week at Radbroke Hall. Majority of contractors have been canned on December 31st with 2 weeks notice. IBM's contract with Barclays expires on 26th Feb next year. Longest serving contractors have been extended but only for 3 months. Looks like they are going for Bobs in a big way.

I've been here 9 months and I have to say that Barclays are the most hardline bank I've ever worked for, 6 colleagues walked off-site either because their face didnt fit or because they had made changes outside the Change Window. They don't take prisoners or give verbal warnings!

Job market seems quite lively though especially in Middleware. I had a contract and a perm offer in London, decided to go to the Perm route as it was a good basic compared to my daily rate. Contracting seems too much of a rollercoaster now with short term roles taking you all over the place. I am 51 as well so only a few years away from retiring, I just need a regular salary to see me through.

6 weeks until I start my new job as well, off to Australia after Xmas for a hard-earned break!

[northernladuk]

And history repeats itself.. They have been doing this for years. I got a rate cut and they announced walk out of 600+ contractors 2 months later a couple of years ago. Was a bit earlier than this to be fair but it was going to happen.

Look on the bright side. NWP2C might actually see a contract through to the end.. albeit a little premature.

[BA to the Stars]

Get ready for a mass recruitment drive at Radbroke around March then if past events are anything to go by.

[quackhandle]

26th Feb? Odd that since there's a big migration project with IBM/Barclays going on until Oct 2013 and possibly longer.

qh

[mos]

Get ready for a mass recruitment drive at Radbroke around March then if past events are anything to go by.

[portseven]

dodged that bullet then, had 2 offfers on the table, this one and a barclays one...

[northernladuk]

Get ready for a mass recruitment drive at Radbroke around March then if past events are anything to go by.

The rates they were offering when the doors opened again when this happened to me were just ridiculous. Way below the rate I was on even after the 10%. They didn't have no notice clauses in those days though people were just using it as a stop gap and then just leaving when they got a better offer.

[Thejacka1]

26th Feb? Odd that since there's a big migration project with IBM/Barclays going on until Oct 2013 and possibly longer.

qh

IBM have a contract to source UK-based MSP's to various different departments. I havent heard of any of these being extended and there are a couple who have contracts up until the end of Feb, which jhave been honoured.

There are new IBM/Accenture contractors but they are all being sourced out of India.

There is a huge DataCentre Migration project with IBM that runs up until the end of next year (I've been working on it) but that's not the contract I was talking about.

[bless 'em all]

There are new IBM/Accenture contractors but they are all being sourced out of India.

This should prove interesting later next year.

[nomadd]

Get ready for a mass recruitment drive at Radbroke around March then if past events are anything to go by.

And if my experience from their last clear out was anything to go by, expect the new rate to have dropped 50% from your old rate (i.e. "we pay Bob rates now.") Then just keep turning them down for 6 months as you watch the offered rates creep slowly back up to decent levels as they can't find anyone...