Contractors in the workplace

[TOSH1]

Hi

I have been contracting for almost 4 years now and know that contractors are not the most popular people in the work place.

In my current contract, I must be the most hated person on the team. It's like I am not even a member of the team. Has anybody experienced this and how is the best way to handle it?

Thank you for any responses.

TOSH1

[GazCol]

Hi

I have been contracting for almost 4 years now and know that contractors are not the most popular people in the work place.

In my current contract, I must be the most hated person on the team. It's like I am not even a member of the team. Has anybody experienced this and how is the best way to handle it?

Thank you for any responses.

TOSH1

Continue to smile, leave earlier than the employees and keep invoicing.

That's pretty much all there is to it.

[NotAllThere]

Always buy the first round at the pub.

However, there is always the possibility that the reason they hate you might not be because you're a contractor.

[rurffy]

Hi

I have been contracting for almost 4 years now and know that contractors are not the most popular people in the work place.

In my current contract, I must be the most hated person on the team. It's like I am not even a member of the team. Has anybody experienced this and how is the best way to handle it?

Thank you for any responses.

TOSH1

is contracting a fashion parade? Mate!, sit back relax and keep invoicing...
They hate you but your account is smiling

(However, i also think they dont hate you because you are a contractor , mayb you are just annoying or lazy - )

[bobspud]

It really depends on what you do for a living.

I tend to do a few things while at a place I like.

First one is buy beer and regularly as NAT has already pointed out.

Second I try and help the main haters out in their own careers. Keep this on the QT give them some insight on stuff they clearly don't get, and let them look good in meetings. But keep that feed coming and always hold the next great idea just out of their reach. This prevents them from running to Boss and shouting I'm so good now why do you need him/her...

Mostly try not to be so bloody obvious about your wealth differences...

[sirja]

I've mainly contracted in Europe over the last few years and this kind of thing has never been an issue. When I did UK a gig a few years ago, I was shocked to see how petty and small minded the perm staff were. A real shame really.

[leapFrog]

Hi
Has anybody experienced this?

No, never in thirty years.

[northernladuk]

Hi

I have been contracting for almost 4 years now and know that contractors are not the most popular people in the work place.

In my current contract, I must be the most hated person on the team. It's like I am not even a member of the team. Has anybody experienced this and how is the best way to handle it?

Thank you for any responses.

TOSH1

Unfortunately I have had this. I took a gig with a large bank to manage the deployment of a load of servers many years back. The team was a very close knit group of permies and their one experience of a contractor went very badly. For some reason the previous contractor gave some feedback about one of the younger lads that went in to his yearly review and he lost out on either a bonus or a wage rise because of it. Granted the guy was pretty difficult to work with but it isn't for a contractor to give feedback to appraisals. After that he was impossible for me to work with and the rest of the team ganged up on me. I ended up packing the damn servers in to boxes to be despatched as they wouldn't do it. They kept directing visitors to site to my desk so I had no where to sit, working together to pin any blame on me even down to the servers not being ready and boxed for pick up etc. Very very tough 5 months. I had two choices, quit or grin and bear it. I stuck it through. No other choice. Senior PM wouldn't touch me during the gig but apologised profusely when I was leaving though. Said he wouldn't have done what I did. He rang me out of the blue for another gig a year later for another bank so something good came of it.

Suck it up or leave are your only options. It isn't for you to feedback or try and shaft the guys with their managers or HR IMO. They know the permies are the problem but it is easier to make the contractor the scapegoat than deal with the permies.

One question though.. Why do they hate you? I took the difficult lad to one side one evening and asked him straight why he had a problem with me and he gave me the history so was understandable. Told him I wasn't like that and just wanted to do the best I could and make this project work. He accepted that but admitted he couldn't get over how he felt. Fair does.

Is it a personal thing or a blank response just to the fact you are a contractor?

[Project Monkey]

[QUOTE=northernladuk;1796919]Unfortunately I have had this. QUOTE]

Not surprising if you behave the same way with clients as you do on here.

[northernladuk]

Not surprising if you behave the same way with clients as you do on here.

You really think I deal with clients in the same way as an anonymous internet forum?