BarCap? Any info / feedback.

[eek]

LOL. But need to bear this in mind.

Hopefully, market is on the upturn!

Thats a bit off though if thats how they play it. i.e. wait for market downturn so theres less of an opportunity to leave and then kick the contractor. Sounds like someone at BC has thought of this as an ideal way to cut costs....

but you are in a fixed 9 month period with no upside and the potential of a downside. For me to take that risk, it needs to be something I'm really interested in (Barclay's can't offer that), a nice place to work (Barclay's can't offer that) or worth my while to take the risk....

Cost cutting tactics work short-term but may cause longer term long term issues.

[psychocandy]

but you are in a fixed 9 month period with no upside and the potential of a downside. For me to take that risk, it needs to be something I'm really interested in (Barclay's can't offer that), a nice place to work (Barclay's can't offer that) or worth my while to take the risk....

Cost cutting tactics work short-term but may cause longer term long term issues.

Yeh. Got to take that into consideration. It is VERY close to home and a VERY good rate though.

Never been subject to these rate cuts from a client fortunately. I take it when this is 'offered' in effect they are re-negotiating the contract and, as such, you can say no and leave?

To be honest, if they knocked 65% off it'd still be more than I'm on now (and I'm miles from home)

[eek]

Yeh. Got to take that into consideration. It is VERY close to home and a VERY good rate though.

Never been subject to these rate cuts from a client fortunately. I take it when this is 'offered' in effect they are re-negotiating the contract and, as such, you can say no and leave?

To be honest, if they knocked 65% off it'd still be more than I'm on now (and I'm miles from home)

It meets criteria 3 then

worth your while to take the risk

[jmo21]

Never been subject to these rate cuts from a client fortunately. I take it when this is 'offered' in effect they are re-negotiating the contract and, as such, you can say no and leave?

Well, more like they will cancel your contract. Don't just leave though, they might change their mind or come back with a different offer depending on a number of variables (how good you are, how critical your project is, how much influence your client co contact has etc)

[BoredBloke]

My previous 2 contracts were at Bar Cap. They have this whole Respect/integrity agenda thing going on but it certainly doesn't stretch to contractors. On my last contract I rented a flat due to the extensive commute and because the contract was a long on (12 months). Literally as soon as I'd signed it they announced a 10% rate cut. By then I was already commited to the lease. Fast forward to the end of October. I only had something like 5 weks to run. My boss said it was unlikely that they would extend the contract because there is 'a lot of stuff going on in the background' and that I should assume it probably won't get extended. Fair enough! A couple of days later I got a call from the agency bod to see her in an office. I assumed it was just confirmation that the contract was not being extended. What I got was terminated with immediate effect and escorted offsite. I had to sit in a seperate office while they collected my stuff from my desk and then to rception where I left with all my stuff in a box. They paid my notice of 2 weeks. The joke of it all was that by the time the notice had been paid I only had 3 weeks left on the contract anyway. As a contractor of 20 odd years I realise that priorities change and I have, rarely, been served notice in the past - its part and parcel of contracting. You get served notice, grumble and bitch about it, but see your contract out and act professionally. You close things down in a way that makes it easier for the next person to continue. Not at BarCap! I had a whole batch of work that was about to enter testing - all of it wasted.

I found that the people I worked with were generally fine. The people who deal with the contractors not so!!

They cut a load of contracts that day....not just me!!

[psychocandy]

So BB - you didnt do anything to warrant this? Just a cost cutting exercise?

Bit much doing the old out the door stuff in box thing when you'd been there for a while. I wouldnt be happy with this.

But they're not the only ones. Lots of clients like this it seems. I had one in the summer, they just shaved a week off the end to save a few quid. Pointless.

Imagine if I had a deliverable that ran into the last week and I'd said tough Im leaving one week early so cant do....

[BoredBloke]

So BB - you didnt do anything to warrant this? Just a cost cutting exercise?

Bit much doing the old out the door stuff in box thing when you'd been there for a while. I wouldnt be happy with this.

But they're not the only ones. Lots of clients like this it seems. I had one in the summer, they just shaved a week off the end to save a few quid. Pointless.

Imagine if I had a deliverable that ran into the last week and I'd said tough Im leaving one week early so cant do....

Nope I didn't do anything to warrant this (I'm not aggressive etc) and it wasn't just me - I was told after the event that 3% of their IT headcount was binned that day. It was all down to budgets - they were happy with me and the overall project manager and the guy responsible for me were both apologetic for the way it was done and happy to provide references etc.

To be honest it was the whole way thy cleared my desk and made me leave as they did that got my back up. I thought that kind of treatment was only given to those who have been terminated for doing something bad, where notice would not have been paid. I consider myself pretty professional. I would have done my notice in order to provide a handover. My role was to take existing systems and processes and automate them. The logic was that whatever I was doing was making an existing thing faster and safer, but as it is actually already being done then I could be cut. So I had been working with various people to deliver things and then just disappeared and in a number of cases right at the time when their promised thing was just about to go into testing. And as you say, just to save a few quid!