How many contracts have you done where...

[Mich the Tester]

I wish I could do that, I take it very personally, the project's mine not theirs - it's my reputation that I see as being at stake - not the PM's.

Yep, that's how I feel, but sometimes I think I need to become more cynical.

[Spacecadet]

I don't lose my cool contracting but I am quite happy to slag off people, processes, technology etc fairly openly, it's good fun.

WHS

It has more impact if you can tell them their processes are tulip and everything is going to fail without going red in the face and losing your cool.

It helps the PM realise that you know its their problem and not yours

[Robinho]

I wish I could do that, I take it very personally, the project's mine not theirs - it's my reputation that I see as being at stake - not the PM's.

I used to think like that. Now i just make sure i'm happy with my performance. If the PM messes around or whatever, then that's their problem. Currently my PM is pretty good though.

[alluvial]

You missed off micromanagement and people interferring and telling you how to do your job. That winds me up no end and is what causes me to have my arguements.

In general, I can cope with all of your points and I just grit my teeth and carry on, but when they try to tell me how to organise my day, who to talk to and want a blow by blow account of my entire day, then I usually end up losing it eventually. The worst I had was a silly tart who had been parachuted in to PM the project I was working on and replace the existing guy. Her only prior experience was as an office manager managing customer service people and she didn't have a clue and her style was nano, not micro-management. Insisted on being the only sign off for requirements documents (okay, that's on her head and I had the paper trail to cover my ass) but when she changed sections of the requirements (for the worse) without telling me or discussing, then this was one thing too many and the inevitable happened and I blew up. She ended up in tears and we parted company soon after that.

The trouble is that I don't think that major confrontation ever leaves you in a good light if you are the instigator. All that is seen is you having a go, nobody sees the many small things that add to the festering wounded ego that causes you to eventually lose it and you usually come off the worst.

In hindsight, I should have addressed the issues personally and individually with this particular PM at the start although in this case, I doubt if she would have listened anyway. Worked out for the best anyway, I walked out of there into another contract within commuting distance so happier all round.

[psychocandy]

Yep, that's how I feel, but sometimes I think I need to become more cynical.

Yes, but remember you're just a small cog. Ultimately, you're a resource brought in by the client to do a job - why should you stress if the client manages to cock things up himself - none of your business.

Fair enough - the client is paying for your opinion. Give them a professional opinion. But if client chooses to ignore then crack on, I'll do my best even though I know its going to fail. Why should I stress about if they arent going to listen anyway?

You can lead a horse to water but cant make it drink and all that.... Got more things to stress about than client stupidity.

[Scoobos]

I think some of these responses need qualifying by how many years you've been in the game and how many clients.

I think as both numbers increase, so does the rage guage.

Once you've seen disasters, or things work really well, your tolerance of crap falls.

[slogger]

not once in 20 years

I would if I believed it did any good - however you lose credibility when you lose your rag - need to put arguments/disagreements in a positive well thought out manner - if clientco/pm still doesnt listen then thats there problem - if all people where brilliant then they wouldnt need the contractors in the first place :-)

[Scrag Meister]

...the contract duration has been at least 6 months and you haven't argued with anyone.

I've been contract 23.5 years, and I don't think I've ever (actually, I know I've never) completed a contract where I haven't gone "ape" with at least one person. Now, it's been very, very rare that that person has been a fellow contractor, although I will admit it has happened once or twice.

Each time I start a new role I say to myself, "Nomadd, calm down. It's just a few weeks, it'll soon be over. Don't argue with anyone." And then the next thing I know is I'm in a fooking great argument with someone. List of reasons are:

1. Rude, pushy and arrogant Project Managers (I will simply not put up with this.)
2. Noisy twats in the office disturbing my ability to work (usually a person who doesn't work on my project, but likes to stand behind my chair shouting about his.)
3. Scope creep. And more scope creep. Especially after you'd warned them about scope creep several meetings back.
4. Foreign people who can't understand English - usually situated at the end of a very poor quality phone line.
5. Offshore support staff who can't follow simple cut-n-paste instructions - even after several attempts.
6. Offshore teams who clearly know what they are doing more than you do - even when you fixed their code for the hundredth time, and you've been doing the job 25 years or more compared to their 2 years.
7. Shirty PMs who refuse to sign timesheets until you've mentioned it too them ten times - and begun threatening.
8. Technology arguments with permies who are completely out of their depth, regarding stuff you've been doing for years (and they'd actually employed you for in the first place.)
9. Permies who simply hate contractors, and are vocal about it.
10. Hours keeping complaints - even when you are covering your contracted hours (i.e. they moan because you won't do continued unpaid additional work.)

And so on, and so on - please feel free to add any I've missed.

So, hands-on-hearts, what percentage of reasonable duration contracts have you done over the years where you've never had to take anyone to task? Ps. If you are a wuss who just sits there talking s-h-i-t from anyone, then please feel free to skip this thread; I'm only interested in responses from seasoned pros who are prepared to stick up for themselves and their project to make sure it's done right.

So, are you always sweetness and light, or does that dissipate after the first few days? Answers on a postcard.

You forgot to mention the extra scope-creep after the stage 1 and 2 scope-creep.

[Mich the Tester]

I think some of these responses need qualifying by how many years you've been in the game and how many clients.

I think as both numbers increase, so does the rage guage.

Once you've seen disasters, or things work really well, your tolerance of crap falls.

Yep. One client recently wanted me to reassure nearly 80 different test managers who worked for the stakeholders in their project that the testing approach was excellent and there was no need for 'negative testing' (which I don't believe exists) or stress testing. Seeing as I had played no part in writing the test plans and was not allowed to make any improvements to them, and they weere not acceptable to me, I wasn't prepared to defend their test plans so in the end I walked. Of those 80 or so test managers, about 40 know me, and there were about 10 that I myself had trained; my reputation among testers in NL ( a small world) was on the line, and if clientco were not prepared to make the changes I required, then I had to take my reputation off the line.

[nomadd]

All of my banking hirers have been overjoyed with me and wanted me to take on Full Time roles with them; so I think it's appreciated. I've even had feedback saying the projects / infrastructure moves would have been disasterous without my input.

Very good point. Hadn't even thought of that.

For all my excessive ranting, literally every client I've ever worked for has begged me to stay and go permie with them. I don't know, maybe they just like the 'theater' of it all.