Never have I ever....

[fiisch]

... Delivered a parting shot at the company when a contract has been terminated.

Been in a contract for 9 months on a great rate and an exciting project, but in the last couple of weeks it's gone to absolute tulip. We were practically locked in a room while the Project Manager was escorted from the building last week, and there's been a change in project team personnel and dynamic, and I feel like I've had my wings clipped by a grumpy permie - constant niggles, overtalking me in meetings, endless one-upmanship etc. Bit bizarre as on the face of it project is going well, all green statuses etc., but there seems to be a perverse interest in self-sabotage.

Taking the day to update my CV should the axe fall.

Obviously as contractors we always stay professional, premature termination comes with the territory etc., but this is the first time I've ever had cause to seriously doubt senior leadership and feel a sense of loyalty to a few people who have been exited who I got on well with.

Have you ever fired any parting shots at a client when a contract ended in unhappy circumstances?!

[sadkingbilly]

left a postit with 'so long, and thanks for all the fish' on a line manager's terminal once.
(he was the only one in that office who didn't get it)
left a bottle of 'arrogant frog' wine on a french manager's desk, but i doubt whether he got the point, since that's exactly what he was/probably still is.
nothing serious though, - just a chuckle.

*contracts ended normally though. line managers are just an annoyance, since they seldom understand the engineering.

[northernladuk]

Nope never. Whatever you feel will be gone in less than a week after you leave and you'll have a good story to tell for years. Worth leaving with your head held high just to tell the tale. Nothing worse than chatting to other contractors that tell a tale of stiffing the client or doing something stupid when they left.

Parting shots mean nothing to anyone except maybe your ego for a very short time. It's also a small world. Won't be long before you bump in to someone that's heard the flip side of your shot making you look like a twunt.

Just no need, ever.

[sadkingbilly]

Nope never. Whatever you feel will be gone in less than a week after you leave and you'll have a good story to tell for years. Worth leaving with your head held high just to tell the tale. Nothing worse than chatting to other contractors that tell a tale of stiffing the client or doing something stupid when they left.

Parting shots mean nothing to anyone except maybe your ego for a very short time. It's also a small world. Won't be long before you bump in to someone that's heard the flip side of your shot making you look like a twunt.

Just no need, ever.

no story = a good story?? eh??
the engineers left had a good laugh for months after my stuff.
maybe it's a 'Manager' thang.

[quackhandle]

Sometimes it has been very tempting to leave with a parting shot however more often than not I have required that person(s) to sign off last timesheet/invoice, etc and getting paid always trumps being petty or vindictive.

Any crap contracts I have been of the ilk: "I am leaving - I no longer have to work with them, just move on."

qh

[Gibbon]

Nope never. Whatever you feel will be gone in less than a week after you leave and you'll have a good story to tell for years. Worth leaving with your head held high just to tell the tale. Nothing worse than chatting to other contractors that tell a tale of stiffing the client or doing something stupid when they left.

Parting shots mean nothing to anyone except maybe your ego for a very short time. It's also a small world. Won't be long before you bump in to someone that's heard the flip side of your shot making you look like a twunt.

Just no need, ever.

Yep,

In the paraphrased words of All Saints* Never ever have I ever felt so sad, that I ever ever wanted to do that bad!

Never burn bridges, I've been back to toxic places in times of need.

*But I've wanted to do them so bad!

[DoctorStrangelove]

IIRC almost everywhere I've ever worked is shut.

This may or may not be some sort of coincidence. .

[courtg9000]

Slightly different but I did take great pleasure once in telling a former line manager exactly just why I would not consider him for a role I was hiring and interviewing for.
This was about 3 years after we had worked together previously. It turns out he hadn't worked since being kicked off site on that project.

On another occasion I was asked by a fellow contractor to put in a good word with my boss of the time for a role that was being hired for. I could not in all good conscience do that. He got his wife to phone me up begging me to do it. Again had not worked in some time.

[Zigenare]

One particular contract there was a member of the management team who we nicknamed "The Honey Badger" - As a leaving present I left her a mug with a picture of a Honey Badger on it.

One of the best managers I've worked with.

[cojak]

I only resigned early from one contract. It was particularly awful, from the agent of the “consultancy” who sold me a pup over the phone, to the consultancy itself who were using a bespoke contract that that they hadn’t paid for (oh how Kate Cotterell and I laughed over that one), to the permies in the client who were fuming that they had to bring in contractors at all, and made absolutely sure we all knew it.

I didn’t need a parting shot as my joy at leaving over the last week did it all for me. Skipping around the place and whistling over the photocopier didn’t make me friends.

And they went bust later, so I also had the last laugh.