Bad Contract Experience - Any Advice?

[TimberWolf]

I'd sneak off to the gym or pool for an hour if I had to do 14 hour stretches. I've done 12 hour days in the past for short periods, and that was okay as it was billed at an overtime rate.

[Mich the Tester]

I had a PM say that to me once. I replied "no I don't, I'm on 5 days notice" and promptly gave it. Short periods of pressure are one thing, and of course we all need the money at the moment, but it's really not worth risking your health. You'll lose a lot more work if you have a stress induced nervous breakdown than you will because you give notice on a contract. I've done both, and there is only one I'm ever going to do again.

[shaunbhoy]

As usual, looking through the "Who's Online" pages reveals that the vast majority of "Guest" users are looking at threads in the Professional forum.

Possibly due in part to the fact that with IE6, the initial view of the forum pretty well hides the Social area.

It seems that the high and mighty of General are being trounced by gricerboy when it comes to posting threads that are of interest to people other than themselves

You really do feel left out of things, don't you Nick?
Pretty severe insecurity complex shining through.

[lukemg]

Don't walk, get another job first. I would immediately introduce an outside work commitment that meant you had to leave between 5 and 6 every day. Kids are great for this - e.g. after school club hours/holiday cover but you can easily use elderly relatives who need caring for - real or imagined.
Take the PM to one side and explain the dependency, so sorry etc, say you are looking for other arrangements but need to cover this at the moment but you will make sure you do a full day (8 hours)
If they want to bin you they can, if not - you have a cast iron leaving time.
Also - stop taking it all so seriously/personally, the actual impact of anything you ever do EVER is so miniscule in the great scheme of things that it is pointless to even think about alternatively - who is going to care in 5 years time ?