Reply to: Want to leave current contract

[MrMarkyMark]

I guess this client could be HSBC, the big tower in Canary Wharf. When I was there years ago, full time employees worked regularly at weekends and were even proud of it. (How sad?)

I often wonder why the upper echelon's of management rush everything, crush every staff member and demoralise the lower-level workers? The deadline from the top were artificial and made up. They were never going to be fast and lean business with that legacy infrastructure and hundreds of application. There were some small pockets of teams doing "hot development" with Scala, Clojure or F# whatever it was at the time. Unfortunately, they were like tiny guerrilla army squads lost in a corporate jungle of waterful SDLC / main frames / XML / SOAP and bad propriety web applications. Agile it was not. Black shoes and formal dress. Sigh.

There is a lot of hype around agile transformation / digital transformation / infrastructure transformation. I have yet to see a big corporate business really do it properly. You should be really glad that you are leaving and gaining your health back. At the same time, I feel sorry for the sucker that inevitably will replace you and also thinks that they can change the organisation: they won't. Sad, but true.

Could be pretty much any bank in the city TBF

[rocktronAMP]

My contract is actually only an 8 hour day, and yes in theory I could just do the hours and shake it off. It's hard though....i'm not genrally the kind of person who can do that (I really wish I was and need to take steps to get better at that).

A lot of the problem is how I'm handling it and I'm caving into the demands rather than pushing back. This is what everyone on the programme is doing though, it's like a whirlwind where nobody is managing upwards, managing client expectations etc. (It's a huge, juggernaut of a programme in investment banking and I work for an external consultancy/ supplier). It's put me off working supplier side a little, although I do have a consultancy background.

I'm used to doing generally fairly long hours demanding deadlines, fast paced etc, and tried to do all I can to meet the demands, but i think with this one being so extreme, i've just ....erm... lost the plot a bit

Having read these responses, I feel in better shape to take my next steps. I doubt i will see out my contract, I will do a thorough handover document, but not going to kill my self over the next couple of weeks by taking the stress.

I guess this client could be HSBC, the big tower in Canary Wharf. When I was there years ago, full time employees worked regularly at weekends and were even proud of it. (How sad?)

I often wonder why the upper echelon's of management rush everything, crush every staff member and demoralise the lower-level workers? The deadlines from the top were artificial, incomprehensible and made-up. They were never going to be fast and lean business with that legacy infrastructure and hundreds of misaligned misintegrated applications. There were some small pockets of teams doing "hot development Skunk-works" with Scala, Clojure or F# whatever it was potentially ground-breaking at the time. Unfortunately, those "hit" teams operated like tiny guerrilla army squads lost in a corporate jungle of waterful SDLC / main frames / XML / SOAP and bad propriety web applications. Agile it was not. Black shoes and formal dress. Sigh.

There is a lot of hype around agile transformation / digital transformation / infrastructure transformation. I have yet to see a big corporate business really do it properly. You should be really glad that you are leaving and gaining your health back. At the same time, I feel sorry for the sucker that inevitably will replace you and also thinks that they can change the organisation: they won't. Sad, but true.

[tarbera]

Want to leave current contract

Go in, surf the web and invoice

[perplexed]

Just seen this. Advise them you are taking one week's holiday next week.

I'd put up with the extra week purely for the money

Just advise them that you're spending the week preparing material for a full and detailed handover...

[gables]

Your brain senses danger and releases a whole boat load of chemicals, adrenaline etc. It's an unpleasant feeling (sweaty hands, rapid heart beat) but that's all. It's normal.

CBT helps you manage these feelings by challenging your thoughts and therefore your responses.

I have links to some good resources that I find useful. PM me if you're interested.

Love those chemicals 🙂 though I usually chase them on my mountain bike not in the office

[TheFaQQer]

I kind of agree with that - however, in fairness, this is an abnormally stressful environment by most people's standard. the extremity of the situation is impacting on my ability to react appropriately

With eight days to go, you need to accept that there's not much that's going to change or improve. There's only so much work that you can do in that time, so make a reasonable estimate of what you can do in normal hours in five days - no more than that. That's all you have to get through. Deliberately work it out for five days so that you can take some of the pace off it, and allow for things that will inevitably crop up during handover.

Generally, I find the best response to stress is to not give a f***. That might be down to the level of blood pressure tablets I'm on, but it's more to do with being seriously ill some years back and realising that life is too short to worry about someone else's problems.

So start thinking about that break coming up, and sort the list out of what can be achieved. Don't try to achieve more than that, or you'll be stressed out again, set yourself a slower, more realistic pace and deliver what that entails.

Good luck - not long to go

[northernladyuk]

2 weeks (including this one) - I know I'm nearly there...*sobs*

Just seen this. Advise them you are taking one week's holiday next week.

[northernladyuk]

HI All, my first post

I started a new contract a couple of months ago and it's hell on earth. Extremely long hours, very stressful, awful politics and a huge blame culture - everyone doing teh crazy hours, not just me. Simply put, i need to leave fast. I have't slept properly for about a month and feel completely overwhelmed and stressed and sometimes i look back on my day and know i handled things terribly but im pretty stressed at the moemnt and its making me ill.

My development lead (who reports into me) has just quit, citing stress and saying he wants to leave immediately. I need to say that this is nothing to do with me, we get on very well and i've really tried to provide support for him but met serious resistance form above in getting him what he needs.

I handed in my notice and im in the middle of my notice now, and i feel like i cant go on. I have far too much to do in a very short space of time and i just cant do it

Can I just walk out citing stress? pretty sure a doctor would sign me off in the condition i'm in at the moment anyway.

I've totally bitten off more than i can chew here - not so much with the role, i have all the experience needed ten times over to manage the piece of work, so its not a technical thing, but its the politics, ridiculous expectations and underhandedness. im beginning to feel completley paranoid with every email taht i cant answer the phone to anyone. i feel like i don't belong there at all and don't trust a single person. frankly its awful.

for the record, I have a solid background, have been contracting for 15 years and have great network and refernces, so deep down i know it isn't me, but its destroying my confidence.

Any advice?

Thanks

Advise them that during your notice period, your professional working day will consist of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a one hour lunch break from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Make the offer that you are happy to terminate the contract immediately if they prefer.

[radish2008]

Your brain senses danger and releases a whole boat load of chemicals, adrenaline etc. It's an unpleasant feeling (sweaty hands, rapid heart beat) but that's all. It's normal.

CBT helps you manage these feelings by challenging your thoughts and therefore your responses.

I have links to some good resources that I find useful. PM me if you're interested.

This can become a normal response. I had it in one contract that was extremely stressful and I should have walked but didn't. With a years cash in the bank I think I would now.

[blossom]

Your brain senses danger and releases a whole boat load of chemicals, adrenaline etc. It's an unpleasant feeling (sweaty hands, rapid heart beat) but that's all. It's normal.

CBT helps you manage these feelings by challenging your thoughts and therefore your responses.

I have links to some good resources that I find useful. PM me if you're interested.

Thanks, I will - I might have a bit of time on my hands in the next couple of weeks and I really don;t want to find myself in this situation again.

It just feels like raging anger at the moment, lol!! 'The next person who gives me any tulip at work is getting it' sort of thing

[pauldee]

CBT helps you manage these feelings by challenging your thoughts and therefore your responses.

I honestly don't see how riding a motorbike will help with this.

[l35kee]

The 'situation' isn't causing the stress. Your reaction to the 'situation' is causing the stress...

I've been getting more interested in Stoicism recently too

[oscarose]

I kind of agree with that - however, in fairness, this is an abnormally stressful environment by most people's standard. the extremity of the situation is impacting on my ability to react appropriately


It's all relative of course, I know I'm not dying in a warzone, but it doesn't feel any easier.

I think I'm in the process of learning my personal limits.

Your brain senses danger and releases a whole boat load of chemicals, adrenaline etc. It's an unpleasant feeling (sweaty hands, rapid heart beat) but that's all. It's normal.

CBT helps you manage these feelings by challenging your thoughts and therefore your responses.

I have links to some good resources that I find useful. PM me if you're interested.

[blossom]

The 'situation' isn't causing the stress. Your reaction to the 'situation' is causing the stress...

I kind of agree with that - however, in fairness, this is an abnormally stressful environment by most people's standard. the extremity of the situation is impacting on my ability to react appropriately


It's all relative of course, I know I'm not dying in a warzone, but it doesn't feel any easier.

I think I'm in the process of learning my personal limits.

[oscarose]

The 'situation' isn't causing the stress. Your reaction to the 'situation' is causing the stress...