Hurrah: PITO to disband?

[Rebecca Loos]

works for me!!

[WageSlave]

does any of that matter as long as they paid you a good rate, on time?

Of course it matters!

Firstly, it matters because it's public money; that's where our 40% goes. I don't know about you, but I like to think my taxes are being wisely spent on improving the country, not frittered away making partners of a consultancy considerably richer.

Secondly, it matters because I have a certain level of self respect, and my dignity is worth more than thirty pieces of silver.
Why don't you become a porn actress? It pays well and there's huge demand. I can see precious little difference between porn and your model of contracting; both involve being screwed for good money.

[Ardesco]

Well said that man

*Clap Clap*

[wendigo100]

Of course it matters!
etc

Beccs, I rest my case.

[Rebecca Loos]

both involve being screwed for good money.

Sorry I am not under the impression I am being screwed (quite the opposite if you must know). I do what I'm told and that's it. That's why they pay me well. The attractions of a contractor for a client are, apart from their technical excellence, that they won't refuse to perform tasks because "it's not in their career interest", they won't question PM's decisions, they won't be lazy, they will do their hours, and more if necessary (as long as it's paid), they won't whinge, they won't consider any task to be "below their skill level", etc etc. If you are a whingeing contractor that complains any time you are being asked to do something you don't like, you are actually giving us a bad name and my suggestion is that you go find yourself a permie job pronto. And let us get on with the work.

Thinking about it, this might explain why Antipodean contractors are quite popular! See above.

Rebecca in "am I in the wrong board or something?" mode

[hyperD]

I do what I'm told and that's it.

And that's exactly why your role is so easily exportable.

Had you additionally had said "I provide some consultation to the client" then that's something totally different.

[Rebecca Loos]

1. you don't know anything about my role and its exportability?

2. why would I say something so vague and meaningless as "I provide some consultation to the client"? Sorry I have no idea what you're on about here. The highest-earning contractors I know do not "provide consultation", they do tasks much more specific, challenging and interesting than that. Thankfully me too.

[hyperD]

1. you don't know anything about my role and its exportability?

2. why would I say something so vague and meaningless as "I provide some consultation to the client"? Sorry I have no idea what you're on about here. The highest-earning contractors I know do not "provide consultation", they do tasks much more specific, challenging and interesting than that. Thankfully me too.

Rebecca,

1. True. But roles that generally get contractors in to simply "do" rather than "engage and create" tend to have a greater propensity for bidding for the lowest hourly rate.

2. The highest paid contractors I know are consultants. I'm one of them. And I earn far more than I did as a well paid contractor.

I was, obviously rather unsucessfully, trying to draw the analogy that general contacting roles, such as straight forward coding, may not pay as high as roles that involve some sort of consultancy.

I apologise if I gave the impression I was demeaning your current role.

[Rebecca Loos]

No, Hyper, I didn't get that impression! If anything, I was demeaning my current role myself!

What I was trying to get at, is that most contracting roles, whether as a basic code monkey or high-level PM, through to top level technical lead or such, involve, one day or the other, the contractor to being asked to:

- do something noddy, like MF the other day "manually modify a report", or "can you just reorganize and clear those directories", or whatever.

- in the name of office and corporate politics, do something that is not the best way for the project to move forward

What I was saying is that, in those circumstances, I am happy to do whatever I am being asked (I draw the limit at the hand-job... only joking), even if I either think that it is way below my skill level (and therefore a silly way for the company to utilize my highly-paid time), or that it is not the best for the project. I will point out that I think it is not the best way to proceed, in my opinion, etc, but I would never refuse to do it, threaten to resign, play politics with the other side etc etc. No. I'll just do what my PM tells me to.
If a higher authority than my PM tells me to do something else, then I will follow their orders. I don't care. I am contracting because I do not want to get involved in any politicking whatsoever, and I want my employers to know that whatever they ask me to do, I will do it. Clean the floor? Yes. As long as you carry on paying me my £400 I'll clean the floor. No problem.

The highest paid contractor I know is a friend of mine who works at a well-known investment bank, where he is officially testing fixed-income trading products. He is on £720 a day. During the whol of May 2005, he was asked to manually reorganize data in Excel spreadsheets. No more no less. For £720 a day. Well he did it. He grumbled all day long to himself, he (quietly) swore and cursed his managers, the bank, the other teams etc. But he kept it to himself, thought of the money and got on with it. Now that's what I call a contractor!!!

[Ardesco]

Playing with Excel spreadsheets is part and parcel of being a tester dammit!!!!