The worst contractor you have ever worked with or heard about

[BrilloPad]

Reading a thread on this page its struck me that we haven't had a discussion about the worst contractor you've worked with over the years and why they were so bad..

SM says that everone at clientco is wrong - you are not the worst. But he is probably just loyal.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Me, obv.

Beyond that once worked near a guy who used to bash every single key on the keyboard as it he was trying to hammer it through to Australia. Merciful and questionable relief for the rest of us only came when his phone rang and he'd shout something like "yeah tell the twat I'm not doing it for less than 800 a day". This wasn't tactful as we shared the office with badly paid permies.

He didn't last long.

[psychocandy]

Nope read the title and think PC both as initials and as an acronym.

Eek in knowing how to skirt the creating an insult thread is a banning offence rule.

Ps hello psychocandy

Yeh yeh. As soon as I read the title I knew I'd be mentioned!

Just remember my activity on here in no way relates to my behaviour or work on client side... You'd all be surprised!

[quackhandle]

Have to say I've got on with most other contractors I've worked with, it's always the contractor-hating permies I've had umbrage with.

It's the brown nosers/crawlers I can't stand, I'd say I have lost one or two renewals in the past as it's something I don't do, or need to do.

I do recall one contractor trying to get a whole contractor migration team (based in North West) to move to London just so his commute would be easier.

His shrift was considerably shortened.

qh

[MarillionFan]

Did a contract in deepest Norfolk back in the late 90s. There was a SQL DBA there who thought he was gods gift & had been there for a few years. He was particularly arrogant and very unhelpful & I had no help from him. As I had developed a reporting database which had been adopted he had to pick it up when I left. As I attempted to handover as I left for a better gig he went into one big time, ranting, swearing about documentation and how he would have done it better. He'd also found I was on £45p/h to his £25.

During this argument he actually took a swing at me & a shoving match occurred. I was glad to see the back of him and the client.

Years later I was a hiring manager when his CV came across my desk for review. On there was my project which he had down as one of his best achievements. I had a chat with the internal recruiter and left some very tricky questions, but the final one was to call him out on his lie. I was told, that he interviewed incredibly arrogantly, but started to get very tetchy with the tricky questions and finally the recruiter pulled him on his lie. Completely flustered he slammed the phone down on the interview.

Karma is a bitch.

[stek]

Karma is a bitch.

You sure it's not a curry?

[NickFitz]

I know people who developed the equivalent to yahoo before yahoo appeared on the seen. Things either get traction or die so I did this before x doesn't mean much.

Given that Yahoo! started life as a human-edited directory of links organised by hierarchical categories, it would be fair to say there were an enormous number of sites that did "the equivalent" before it. Y!'s distinguishing feature in its early days was its breadth and depth, contrasting with the way most similar projects concentrated on specific areas (mainly particle physics and Star Trek in those days), along with the fact that David and Jerry realised it was possible to make a business out of doing something that other people were doing either as a hobby or merely as an adjunct to their real jobs (again, usually something to do with particle physics).

[MyUserName]

Nah.

I think you'll find that's Kermit.

Kermit is sure it's not a curry?

[eek]

Yeh yeh. As soon as I read the title I knew I'd be mentioned!

Just remember my activity on here in no way relates to my behaviour or work on client side... You'd all be surprised!

I'd personally not take the risk.

Currently we bin any CV if the person lives in Wales. Its better to be safe rather than sorry and as David Brent would say unlucky.....

[barrydidit]

This one guy I worked with was an utter twunt. Wasn't a contractor at the time though he is now. He was a test manager too co-incidentally. I smile to think about him though because he was a big fat mess and this was his downfall. We worked on the 7th floor and the canteen was in the basement. One day he arrived and announced he was going to cash in his shares, but was off for a bacon sarnie first because the share scheme girls were useless and he'd be hanging on the phone for ages. About 40 minutes later he returns with a face like beetroot after having to walk back cos the lifts had broken. When he gets through he finds the share price has plummeted in the first hour of trading (this was bank shares in 2007) and he's now left with the coldest and most expensive bacon buttie in history.