Reply to: first contract offer slightly concerned

[TykeMerc]

I am in a contract till the end of march with the NHS. Along with all the cuts that are obviously happening in the public sector there is also a freeze in place at many organisations on hiring permanent staff for the foreseeable future.

The people they're able to hire to fulfil their projects are contractors.

Any thoughts on this? Others experiencing/hearing about something like this?

I've seen the hiring contractors due to a head count freeze syndrome more times than I'd care to recall.

[theroyale]

I was talking about this with a friend tonight and he said that now is the time to avoid public sector organisations.

I am in a contract till the end of march with the NHS. Along with all the cuts that are obviously happening in the public sector there is also a freeze in place at many organisations on hiring permanent staff for the foreseeable future.

The people they're able to hire to fulfil their projects are contractors.

Any thoughts on this? Others experiencing/hearing about something like this?

[PropertyCrashUK]

I'm in exactly this situation in an NHS office just now.

Some guys in same team in another office wanted to be doing the project I am working on, thankfully I don't have to deal with them for anything, and due to location, see them every day.

The guys in this office all seem decent even though their jobs are all under threat.

I'm just keeping my head down, I got an extra 2 months from Xmas, which may turn into another 2 after that, and that time period stretches right across their review period.

Best of luck. Just watch your back in those situations. When people's jobs are threatened some people can end up doing all sorts of dodgy things to make others look bad - especially if they are a permie whose job is under threat and there are some contractors around.

I had a situation some years ago where I had to log website traffic at a big corporate event - second week I was at this blue chip. There was a permie guy in the department who hated me simply because he had wanted the role that I got the contract for.

I had set up the logging of the traffic on 2 servers and monitored it for a couple of days at which point this permie shows up on site to talk with his mates. Next thing I know all the logging reports had disappeared - empty folders.

Thankfully I was monitoring the traffic on a third server which I kept quiet to myself. A few days later when we had a meeting the permie guy was the first to speak at the meeting and the first thing he asked for was the web traffic reports - he had a big smirk on his face.

You should have seen his face change when I showed them to everyone. *****!

[jmo21]

I was talking about this with a friend tonight and he said that now is the time to avoid public sector organisations.

If jobs have gone in them or are under threat then the last thing the staff want is contractors coming in - so the staff will be looking for ways to make it hard for contractors or to get rid of them.

This might have been what you came up against. Then again the guy might have been a completely dysfunctional human being.

I'm in exactly this situation in an NHS office just now.

Some guys in same team in another office wanted to be doing the project I am working on, thankfully I don't have to deal with them for anything, and due to location, see them every day.

The guys in this office all seem decent even though their jobs are all under threat.

I'm just keeping my head down, I got an extra 2 months from Xmas, which may turn into another 2 after that, and that time period stretches right across their review period.

[gingerjedi]

I was talking about this with a friend tonight and he said that now is the time to avoid public sector organisations.

If jobs have gone in them or are under threat then the last thing the staff want is contractors coming in - so the staff will be looking for ways to make it hard for contractors or to get rid of them.

This might have been what you came up against. Then again the guy might have been a completely dysfunctional human being.

Bit of both, the boss is an IBM 'partner' (somerset cc has a joint operation with IBM) so up his own arse. The rest of the team were typical lifer civil service types, lots of coffee and meetings but very little action.

I've been offered a few months at Airbus now so better off out of there.

[Wanderer]

it's abroad and i'm waiting for my new passport to arrive (one week at the latest). The recruitment agency say that I have secured the role and the start date is flexible, depending on my passport situation, but htey want me asap.

Shall I keep looking for other roles anyway, until I have my passport, flight booked and hard copy of the contract?

Yep. But tell them the passport is in the post, will be here tomorrow so send the contract straight away. If they email you the contract then you can print/sign/scan|fax it back straight away and you're good to go. No written contract = no job.

Why is it taking so long to get a passport? I got one done in 45 minutes once while I sat in the pub across the road and read the paper. Tell them you need an urgent one and they will sort it for you, worst case they should be able to get one the next working day if you pay the fee.

[PropertyCrashUK]

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

I was talking about this with a friend tonight and he said that now is the time to avoid public sector organisations.

If jobs have gone in them or are under threat then the last thing the staff want is contractors coming in - so the staff will be looking for ways to make it hard for contractors or to get rid of them.

This might have been what you came up against. Then again the guy might have been a completely dysfunctional human being.

[PropertyCrashUK]

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

Sorry to hear that but at least you got paid.

Sounds a right tosser to work for so sounds like you are best out of it. Some people have personality disorders that make them best avoided but such people often rise up in organisations so you tend to come across them.

This is one of the pitfalls of contracting - especially if you work away from your home across the UK or in another country.

Always best to rent a B&B or a hotel room when you start a new contract as you could take a 12 month lease out on a flat, thinking you have a nice 12 month contract in your pocket, only to have the contract binned because of the numerous reasons we all know about.

The OP should keep looking as others have commented.

[gingerjedi]

I always assume nothing until I'm actually sat at my new desk on client co site.

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

[TOSH1]

i agree with everyone else. keep your cv posted and carry on looking

[wantacontract]

Totally echo what everyone is saying on this post, it seems in these uncertain times that more and more employers are binning work last minute....until you get paid, be wary!!

[jmo21]

I always assume nothing until I'm actually sat at my new desk on client co site.

As other threads on here recently have shown, client co's can be useless, agents can be useless/liars etc.

[northernladuk]

Ask yourself what you will do if this all goes tits up? Sit there with nothing in the pipeline lamenting the failure of this contract? We have had guys in the last 2 weeks who have turned up on site, contract signed and everything and still be turned away and binned before even starting. We also had a guy on awhile ago who took a contract abroad, booked his accomoation and all flights up front and got let down the week before as well. It happens regularly.

Keep applying for everything up to the day you sign and get in the office IMO.

[norrahe]

Northing is certain till you have a contract in your hand, many of us have been in the situation whereby there's a verbal offer, the agency is "sorting out contracts" with the client and then nothing comes of it.

Keep your options open until you have signed on the dotted line.

[stek]

Do nowt till you get the signed contract, I'm waiting on an offer for a 12 mnther in Germany, 99.999% sure, still nothing....