What's the worst gig you ever had?

[suityou01]

Had the same situation as Fred, team of contractors, permie boss who would come in the office (open plan) brown-nose the next 2 in line, then leave at a night without even bothering to say bye to us (the team she was responsible for).

I could tell there was something up by the fact we were branded 'scummy contractors' and told on a regular basis "stick in hard, and there could be a perm job for you".. was always tempted to reply with "Why, so I can take a +50% drop in wages and have you as my boss?.." managed to bite my tongue though.

Over a period of time she did become quite acquainted with one of the contractors in our team.. one day when the sh*t hit the fan I discovered through another team member this person had been bad mouthing me to her, and soon enough I got an email questioning my conduct and commitment to the team.. almost sounding like I should be on my way purely from what she's heard. I called her up direct and after putting my case across I called her bluff and offered to hand my notice in there and then, if that's what she wanted. Result was a big U-turn, followed by 'even if she wanted me out she wasn't in a position of authority' blah blah.. she tried the old 'stick in/perm job' crap, to which I did politely tell her I was happy being a contractor for tax purposes.

A week later she was replaced by a someone else for reasons unknown and it was all happy ever after.

Good story. Been in similar positions. The thing is now, because of the economic climate offices will be posionous. You could be covering for a bit while they recruit for permys since they redunded people last year.

I think the contracting God owes me big for my next role, so I am anticipating good things. When I interviewed the feedback from the pimp was that the manager at ClientCo said I was "a nice decent down to earth bloke, and he was looking forward to working with me".

I start monday, and will look forward rather than back.

The hardest thing for me is when you are working on a project and there is a permy who is maybe the technical lead and is not up to much. Sometimes its hardest to keep it buttoned and just deliver what is asked even when you know it could be so much better.

[chris79]

The hardest thing for me is when you are working on a project and there is a permy who is maybe the technical lead and is not up to much. Sometimes its hardest to keep it buttoned and just deliver what is asked even when you know it could be so much better.

yeah exactly, there was smacks of that too in my situation on that gig. Sometimes you have to put your professional contractor hat on and not get too involved in how good/sh*t the processes/systems are @ client.co ... when I was new to contracting 3yrs ago I walked into a gig and straight away thought "christ, this is poor.. lets change this, lets change that".. it wasn't long before I realised that doing so can actually be counter productive and cause problems for your own contract. Took me a short time to realise this and changed my methods to be 'deliver whats asked, don't try and run their business'.

[BrilloPad]

Both my gigs at Barclays Capital (well first was BZW) were poor : but not unbearable.

No-one is rude to me often though : which is a pity as I love publicly humiliating with "witty" put downs. My favourite being to call them thrush as they are an irritating c**t.

[threaded]

yeah exactly, there was smacks of that too in my situation on that gig. Sometimes you have to put your professional contractor hat on and not get too involved in how good/sh*t the processes/systems are @ client.co ... when I was new to contracting 3yrs ago I walked into a gig and straight away thought "christ, this is poor.. lets change this, lets change that".. it wasn't long before I realised that doing so can actually be counter productive and cause problems for your own contract. Took me a short time to realise this and changed my methods to be 'deliver whats asked, don't try and run their business'.

Sounds like many of my gigs. I try and tell them three times if they're about to fsck up, then keep quiet.

[BrowneIssue]

I think the contracting God owes me big for my next role

There's a contracting god?

That explains a lot.

[eliquant]

Way back in the stoneage when I was a proper contractor; I always found that the quality / price(!) of the coffee and the state of the toilets were a very good sign of if there was going to be any problems at the gig. Any doubts with either of them and you'll find all sorts of trouble is on the way.

[BolshieBastard]

A home office job on CRB. The PM was a first time contractor with a short temper and no idea how to PM. She expected us to not answer any of the clients questions even where the details had been signed off.

She had a rant at me in the office with other people around. I just told her I wasnt having any of that and walked off site. Caused a huge row and eventually she was replaced. Hahahaha the bitch.

Another one with a utilities company. Test Manager had no idea whatsoever. Didnt bother renewing after 13 weeks. Still got no idea have you nina carroll?

[scooterscot]

yeah exactly, there was smacks of that too in my situation on that gig. Sometimes you have to put your professional contractor hat on and not get too involved in how good/sh*t the processes/systems are @ client.co ... when I was new to contracting 3yrs ago I walked into a gig and straight away thought "christ, this is poor.. lets change this, lets change that".. it wasn't long before I realised that doing so can actually be counter productive and cause problems for your own contract. Took me a short time to realise this and changed my methods to be 'deliver whats asked, don't try and run their business'.

I walk into this situation all the time in most gigs. However I always seem to get involved for one very simple reason: To deliver good results means that problems should not occur after I've left, otherwise your name just gets bad mouthed. Sometimes you get aches and pains along the way but in the long run I get good feedback... Being a contractor means taking risks I've certainly taken many more than I would have done as a permie; and at the back of your mind you know the gig has a limited time.

[Durbs]

My worst was where i turned up day 1 and when we broke for a brew mid morning i nipped out back for a quick smoke.

Upon returning, i was 'summoned' to the managers office and told "I have just seen you smoking a cigarette, you are free to smoke on your lunch break but you do NOT smoke on our time". He then explained to me how much he detested smoking and said repeatedly that they were not paying me to smoke. Of course, being a smoker that wasn't do-able so i just carried on with a brewtime fag as i always do but just not outside his window.

Asking other guys on the team, turns out this guy was a bigwig in the army and still seemed to think he was running his 'unit'.

Few weeks later - this guy used to be stood at the door every day at 9 when everyone arrived, hands clasped behind his back like a doorman watching everyone. This is unbelievable - i hadnt had a shave that morning and was told to "go home and come back when you are clean shaven". That ended that gig!

When i told the guy i was leaving, he went absolutely ballistic, nutso with me and we had a few heated words. Would have loved to have lamped the guy but he was a big fecker!

Luckily never anything like that since but this dude was just unbelievable

[Durbs]

Just remembered, that was also the same gig where we were warned by army man that were were likely going to be imminently attacked by a Mr SoAndSo and his boys that the company were having problems with. Told us to lock the doors if we saw anyone matching his description and call him and the police. We were like, great, thanks.

Its also the only time i've seen a contractor brought to tears. I was called in to help out one of our guys who was having problems on a clients site only to find the poor lad sat in the server room, head in hands, blubbing. Seems he was out of his depth and had just cracked, just kept saying "i cant do it, i cant do it". He was a decent lad too and the feckers finished him after that.