Rejecting a contract

[Ivor Bigun]

............So what are my options?
............Total earnings = 1212 - 500 = 712 a week.
............That does not compensate for living away, the tulip places I have stayed in, the hassle and the food I have had to endure.

1st rule - Always make sure you keep your contract unless you really have something else. If you start playing up, eventually you're toast and you WILL be replaced by the agent.

Also, The problem of "lack of money" is elsewhere - it is NOT in this contract.
However, all things considered, its the third one thats important.

Here's another option, you should lower your outgoings and consider a permie role near home. If you have a large mortgage, then downscale your house, rent or whatever.

IMO, the real option that you're trying not to aknowledge, is the one you really should be facing ...

"Do I continue to pedal hard just to stand still?"

Just my 2p. Good luck and be tahnkful for what you've got

[Fred Bloggs]

Sounds like hang on for a couple of weeks then tell the agent to do one - you're in a much stronger bargaining position then.

+1

[NotAllThere]

If the contract is in Geneva, and the agent is Swiss, and the client, presumably, is Swiss, why are you getting paid in roubles... I mean, pounds?

[expat]

...
Here's another option, you should lower your outgoings and consider a permie role near home. If you have a large mortgage, then downscale your house, rent or whatever.

IMO, the real option that you're trying not to aknowledge, is the one you really should be facing ...

"Do I continue to pedal hard just to stand still?"
...

Downscale your house? Just like that?

I'm looking at this too, but it's not an easy choice (I know you're not saying it is): if you sell your house, you face locking in what might be the bottom of the market (i.e. you have leveraged your life savings into the toilet). OK, that is theoretically where you are already whether you like it or not, but if you hang on to your house then you will still own it later when values may have risen; if you sell it now you will never be in a position to catch the market going back up (if it ever does).

Then you have fees for the sale, fees for buying or renting to replace it, costs of moving, and an upset to family life that may or may not be worse than the effort of riding out the situation.

If it's a long-term choice, it might be right; as a reaction to a situation lasting months or even a year or two, it may cause more trouble than it solves.

[Ivor Bigun]

Downscale your house? Just like that?

I'm looking at this too, but it's not an easy choice (I know you're not saying it is):

......If it's a long-term choice, it might be right; as a reaction to a situation lasting months or even a year or two, it may cause more trouble than it solves.

Our futures are determined by rolls of the dice. However there are patterns which I believe we can utilise to our benefit and they also blind us to mistaken hope.

Between 1996 and 2006, there was a contracting and housing boom. If you had a house or you did contracting, you couldn't miss!
If you did both then what a life!
IMO, what we have now is the exact opposite and it will last at least a decade.
If you're struggling to keep your head above water now, I say do whatever is neccessary now - don't wait to be forced.

[expat]

Our futures are determined by rolls of the dice. However there are patterns which I believe we can utilise to our benefit and they also blind us to mistaken hope.

Between 1996 and 2006, there was a contracting and housing boom. If you had a house or you did contracting, you couldn't miss!
If you did both then what a life!
IMO, what we have now is the exact opposite and it will last at least a decade.
If you're struggling to keep your head above water now, I say do whatever is neccessary now - don't wait to be forced.

I do agree, it will last, your decisions should be long-term, and it is better not to be forced (though the difference between jumping and being pushed is mainly when you splat).

"At least a decade" is most of the rest of my active life. I'd like to make one or two good choices about it......

[Zippy]

I hope it works out for you Tony. I'd just tell the client that you couldn't agree terms with the agent, grit your teeth and say it's been a pleasure etc etc

[tino]

I hope it works out for you Tony. I'd just tell the client that you couldn't agree terms with the agent, grit your teeth and say it's been a pleasure etc etc

Good Advice Zippy!

[BoredBloke]

1st rule - Always make sure you keep your contract unless you really have something else. If you start playing up, eventually you're toast and you WILL be replaced by the agent.

Also, The problem of "lack of money" is elsewhere - it is NOT in this contract.
However, all things considered, its the third one thats important.

Here's another option, you should lower your outgoings and consider a permie role near home. If you have a large mortgage, then downscale your house, rent or whatever.

IMO, the real option that you're trying not to aknowledge, is the one you really should be facing ...

"Do I continue to pedal hard just to stand still?"

Just my 2p. Good luck and be tahnkful for what you've got

I don't think my current costs at home are excessive. What I'm saying is the amount left over does not cut it. Geneva is a stupidly expensive place and I'm probably underestimating my costs out here. What I'm saying is I'm finding it hard to justify being out here. We recently had a guy leave doing the same role as me and one of his reasons was the rate and how it didn't really compansate for the tulipholes you live in, the travel and the extended periods away from home and he was on 20% more than me.

[expat]

I don't think my current costs at home are excessive. What I'm saying is the amount left over does not cut it. Geneva is a stupidly expensive place and I'm probably underestimating my costs out here. What I'm saying is I'm finding it hard to justify being out here. We recently had a guy leave doing the same role as me and one of his reasons was the rate and how it didn't really compansate for the tulipholes you live in, the travel and the extended periods away from home and he was on 20% more than me.

I'm not trying to get on your case Tony, but ISTM that your costs are not excessive. That's what it costs to work away. Geneva can be ludicrous but one can get round it: and you already have, you're doing well. It would cost you the same in Frankfurt or Amsterdam.

OK you don't like going to France, and you don't like the travel and the time away: I sympathise but that's what it's like. You call your hotel a tuliphole, but I'm afraid that I don't sympathise there. It's just a dorm, staying in a "good" hotel, or even a standard business hotel, is a luxury and I don't pay for that in my work phase. Is it more or less clean? It is cheap? That's about it for me, when I'm away at work. That's not my life, it's where I work for my life.

Your rate is not good for working away, it's a survival rate. It's not Geneva that is your problem, nor your home life.

If you only took it for survival (and I would right now - what's the job spec? ) then have courage and stick it out. OTOH if you thought it was a decent rate based on info received, and it turns out that it isn't: do you have an exit plan?