Shortest contract?

[amcdonald]

I got £500 for driving down the M25 and changing someones config file on there CMS, just a bitch they wouldn't let me do it remotely

[minestrone]

7 weeks, probably equal to suity's longest gig

[SupremeSpod]

7 weeks, probably equal to suity's longest gig

Steady, he's already off to wet his bed.

[nomadd]

4 hours is my shortest.

Run out of toilet paper?

[Old Greg]

Run out of toilet paper?

Stolen it all. No reason to hang around.

[TheDude]

I started at a public sector client last week and was immediately informed that the service provider would be replaced with a large French provider with a a 'crap' reputation in the industry and it would be up to them who (if any) they retained.

I currently don't really know the tech or the business so any handover would be futile but I have been offered the opportunity to handover for another six weeks.

I would rather take some time off so am considering walking today. I feel the original firm were very underhand offering a contract with this risk on the horizon. It has cost me the time and money to set up a new Ltd company plus I will have to repay the business disposal asset relief from shutting my previous firm down last year when it looked like I would never work outside again.

I realise that (at least) 7 days billable time is a lifetime compared to some of the stories here. Has anyone got any other horror stories about short tenure?

[unixman]

Back in 2013 I had a one day contract. Objective: break into a machine for which the password had been lost. I accomplished this feat inside an hour, and gave them the good news. But they kept me around for the whole day anyway, writing reports. No problem I guess, they paid for 8 hours...

[willendure]

When I was still in my 20s - 1/2 a day. Arrived onsite as the new Java developer. Management realized the application was in C# and they had hired the wrong guy. Was told to go away, but paid for the whole week. Went home and took my girlfriend out.

[WTFH]

I once had a gig (actually it was back about the time of this thread) which lasted 3 months, but was probably about 1 week of work. Much of the time was spent flying to the US for meetings, or preparing for things that never happened. Gig was canned after about 3 weeks, but they didn’t want to lose face, so kept 8 contractors on and we sat in meeting rooms playing games.

Most expensive meeting - client paid £18,000 for me to attend a 45 minute chat that could have been done over zoom.

[Ketto]

Had a gig where i was expected to do about two days work dragged out over 6 months. Started three weeks after my first child was born so was very handy at the time.