Longest Time in Contract With No Work

[Phoenix]

5 weeks now and still reading manuals....... I initially put it down to the Christmas period but..... after reading all this.... guess not, should start a book of whom can have the longest dos period... although I do fear I'm getting brain-fog due to the lack of mental activity..... May have to learn a few additional skills myself.......

Hmmm! Mental or phys ical

[Bumner]

Don't think I could get away with practising practical / physical new 'skills' (and I use that term loosely) in the office.......

[BoredBloke]

I spent six months in my last contract where I spent all day waiting for 3pm. Totally sole destroying, especially as I had to drive 200+ miles on a Monday to get there. Then at 3 I would push a button and 10 minutes later everything would be complete for another day.

[sasguru]

I spent six months in my last contract where I spent all day waiting for 3pm. Totally sole destroying, especially as I had to drive 200+ miles on a Monday to get there. Then at 3 I would push a button and 10 minutes later everything would be complete for another day.

Hope your feet are better now ....

[Phoenix]

Don't think I could get away with practising practical / physical new 'skills' (and I use that term loosely) in the office.......

Last one to the Stationary cupboard is muppet!

[tim123]

I spent three months on a contract, where on a day to day basis I was given virtually nothing to do. Each week I would ask for some work and I was told that next week some would come, but apart from a couple of minor bug fixes, it never did. I was just supposed to read manuals and learn about their current code each day.

This was long before 'internet' and even before email.

Dispite not actually giving me anything to do, the boss actually complained one week about me spending time on my 'homer'.

The weirdest thing was that during my time there, another couple of cons started and were put to work immediately on new features.

Come renewal time (not that I really wanted one) the client told the agency that I wasn't up to the job and wouldn't be re-newed. I never did find out what job it was, that I wasn't up to.

tim

[BoredBloke]

That reminds me of another role I had when I was just starting out. I was supposed to be setting up a companies helpdesk and part of this role was to evaluate the HD software by meeting with the respective suppliers and getting a demo of the sw in action. This would be in addition to being the helpdesk. In the interview I was told to expect about 30 calls per day - hence the free time to get on with the other role. However a couple of weeks after I started they annonced that the company was moving the location of thier IT dept and so my helpdesk thing would have to be put on hold. It was then that I realised that the 30 calls was in fact 8 per day, most of which I couldn't deal with and would have to be passed to a support person.

So for the next 5 months I had to sit there for my 1 call per hour. This was in pre internet days and was even told off for reading a news paper in core working hours.

I did become quite good at alt tab and played dune for the bulk of that contract.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I spent three months on a contract, where on a day to day basis I was given virtually nothing to do. Each week I would ask for some work and I was told that next week some would come, but apart from a couple of minor bug fixes, it never did. I was just supposed to read manuals and learn about their current code each day.

This was long before 'internet' and even before email.

Dispite not actually giving me anything to do, the boss actually complained one week about me spending time on my 'homer'.

The weirdest thing was that during my time there, another couple of cons started and were put to work immediately on new features.

Come renewal time (not that I really wanted one) the client told the agency that I wasn't up to the job and wouldn't be re-newed. I never did find out what job it was, that I wasn't up to.

tim

Tim

It appears that you were hired to do nothing, but perhaps you either tried to look busy or you were engaged in some kind of activity,so obviously you were not up to the job insofar as the job was doing nothing whatsoever.

I would certainly have gained the coveted extension for this role, as I have perfected the art of sitting enigmatically in corporate cubicles doing nothing whatsoever.

Of course not any fool can do nothing whatsoever ,therefore with the extension would come a lucrative rate increase mainly at the clients expense.

[el duder]

see ya

if you go to the boss and tell him you have nothing to do, its like cutting your own head off.

say goodbye to your contract.

your a contractor, they are prolly expecting you to use some initiative and GET YOUR OWN WORK!

noone has given me tulip on my contract, i have had to build relationships and create my own work to push the project forward.

good luck

[AlfredJPruffock]

your a contractor, they are prolly expecting you to use some initiative and GET YOUR OWN WORK!

That would seem a reasonable point of view, however the harsh reality is that no IT manager worth his salt will ever diminish his budget.

Therefore it does happen that pseduo jobs are created where there is simply nothing whatsoever to do,purley in order to preserve budget allocations, good news for the contractor and the agent.

Of course there is where the seasoned contractor who knows the score steps in.

The last thing the IT manager whom simply wished to preserve his budget needs is somebody who is going to embarrass and even upset the poor manager by demanding non existant work.

More likely this form of misguided enthusiasm will lead to an early contract termination.

Hope that helps.