Reply to: Quitting a contract - implications

[PerfectStorm]

I've only ever quit one contract in the past, because they advertised the role as looking for a Java engineer and I found myself spending 6 weeks trying to get a Ruby application compiling on an M1 mac. I handed in and served all of my notice and all was amicable.

Parallels?

[SunglassesRon]

I've only ever quit one contract in the past, because they advertised the role as looking for a Java engineer and I found myself spending 6 weeks trying to get a Ruby application compiling on an M1 mac. I handed in and served all of my notice and all was amicable.

[PerfectStorm]

I don't have F you money but I have a contract offering 90% of what I make on the table.

Tell them there's another one offering 100% of what you make and get them to better it

[TheDude]

TheDude, do you have F*** you money, enough to walk away? That's one of the best things about being a contractor.

Alternately, can you rank this contract against all the other contracts you've done? If it's not top 10, you can walk away/ jump to another contract without fear.

I don't have F you money but I have a contract offering 90% of what I make on the table.

[lecyclist]

TheDude, do you have F*** you money, enough to walk away? That's one of the best things about being a contractor.

Alternately, can you rank this contract against all the other contracts you've done? If it's not top 10, you can walk away/ jump to another contract without fear.

[TheDude]

We spend most (or a lot) of our lives thinking that companies we work for (or contract to) are the authority - that something bad will happen if we don't do what they want.

As you get more senior, the less this has any meaning.

They might say "you can't do that", there might be phone calls, you might get a strongly worded email or a letter.

But at the end of the day - it's all bark. All mouth, no trousers.

Remember that.

Sadly I am at an organization where many people are more interested in keeping their job than actually doing it.

My team lead is a tulip developer and consistently nitpick in code reviews just to make his voice heard.

My rate is great but I dread going into the office and I dread 2pm each day because that is when the US clock on and the bulltulip meetings start.

[PerfectStorm]

We spend most (or a lot) of our lives thinking that companies we work for (or contract to) are the authority - that something bad will happen if we don't do what they want.

As you get more senior, the less this has any meaning.

They might say "you can't do that", there might be phone calls, you might get a strongly worded email or a letter.

But at the end of the day - it's all bark. All mouth, no trousers.

Remember that.

[malvolio]

I'll be about £1000 a month net worse off but I will not have to deal with a micromanaging scrum master who cannot run a meeting without it going over time by 50%

That's the kind of running failure I saw all too often over my contracting life; can't run meetings, can't keep to the point, ignores overruns, and almost invariably doesn't have an objective for the meeting (OK, that's a fact of life with Scrum ceremonials, but they aren't real meetings anyway).

I once killed a meeting stone dead that was going nowhere with the i/s guys and the coders totally at odds over the required, highly business critical solution. Basically "OK, everyone shut up, I'll reconvene this meeting in 24 hours and you will present me with a workable solution to the question set". 24 and a half hours later that's what happened. Turns out the two opposing groups spent till 8 the previous evening working out how to do it.

Sometimes you have to be a bit brutal. But it doesn't work if you don't have the respect of your team.

[TheDude]

So I have another offer on the table at another bank and a guarantee that I will be 100% remote.

I don't want to take a rate cut but I know that every day I wake up in the summer and have to get on a train I will regret not being on my 50 min cross country bike ride to where I hot desk.

The rate offered is exactly what I am on now but inside IR35 rather than agency PAYE.

If I can get another £50 a day I will take the hit and move.

[TheDude]

So - less money AND you have to do extra hours of actual work in the afternoons?

What's not to like

I'll be about £1000 a month net worse off but I will not have to deal with a micromanaging scrum master who cannot run a meeting without it going over time by 50%

[Snooky]

I may be in this position soon.

I have an interview this Friday - £100 a day less than my current contract but 100% remote and afternoons not taken up with hours of agile ceremony meetings.

So - less money AND you have to do extra hours of actual work in the afternoons?

What's not to like

[TheDude]

I may be in this position soon.

I have an interview this Friday - £100 a day less than my current contract but 100% remote and afternoons not taken up with hours of agile ceremony meetings.

[hungry_hog]

I had an awful gig a few years back with one of the large UK banks. Psycho characters and awful project.

Got to a point where I had to go, asked for early leave date and they were ok with it

TBH I think they were glad to see me go and vice versa...ironically worked there before and it was great but the PM was a nutter who make Prince Jofrey look like Pope John Paul II

[northernladuk]

Notice periods are worthless. I handed my notice in once as didn't agree with their work practices. Planned on working out my 4 week notice. Had my contract terminated straight after. Will never ever give notice in future for that reason.

So you were a problem to the client and you are surprised they walked you on the spot? You are supplier to the client, you don't like what they do so not surprising they didn't want you. You are the problem here and because of that you are prepared to shaft every single client going forward? Knee jerk much?

If I hated a role and had another role to go to I would leave without notice. Otherwise I would just see the contract out.

And if we all did this there would be no notice periods ever, we'd get treated like dirt and the agents would be well versed in legal action to recoup costs. Just because one person can get away with it doesn't make it a good idea.

Paints quite a clear picture of what type of contractor you are in just two posts, but I know you won't agree.

[NotAllThere]

It matters if you are relying on the money you think you will earn during a notice period. The client is not obliged to offer work so there may not be any timesheets to submit/sign.

I'm specifically addressing the situation where the work was done, but the client refuses to sign the timesheet.