Reply to: Not Able to Decide - Help Needed.

[nomadd]

Thank you all of you. My manager agreed for my leaving date and also i helped him to get a contractor as cover and now i have one week handover period .Wish me best of luck for my first contract. Thank you all again.

Well done. Glad to see it all worked out OK in the end.

Now the long, hard road of a contractor's life begins...

[Admin Master]

Thank you all of you. My manager agreed for my leaving date and also i helped him to get a contractor as cover and now i have one week handover period .Wish me best of luck for my first contract. Thank you all again.

[nomadd]

A year down the line, you apply for your next role, it's in Finance and you need a checkable history + perhaps reference, Hays (or whoever) contact your old client and the feedback is you did a runner and left them in the lurch. That is then fed to the hiring manager and you are black balled.

Not in my experience. Most reference checks seem to be performed long after you've actually started your contract, and any feedback other than "the guy burnt the building down when he left" is likely to be dismissed by the agency as they want you on the clients site earning money.

Also, most companies are terrified of giving any feedback beyond, "Yes, he/she worked here between the following dates", for fear of being sued. And you can always use someone else from the company you worked with, you don't have to give a manager. In fact, I've used the agency, not the client, on two of my last gigs as references as the managers were contractors and had long since left the said companies (EDIT: obviously this only works if you are already a contractor.)

[tarbera]

remember the long game

Hi All,
I am permanent employee at the moment for a company. As I have 4 weeks’ notice in my contract, I saved 2 weeks holiday to take in my notice period and my manager verbally knows that I am saving my holiday for notice itself. I have landed in contract position on Friday with wait of 2weeks. So, they agreed my 2 weeks start date which will be 17th October. I have informed same to manager saying that i will serve notice today and relieve me off on 14th oct . But things took turn away from me as my manager now saying that i need to be here for full notice period 1.e 4 weeks.
Reason for that - My colleague who is junior( who looks after my work when I am on holiday/off sick) to me is on sick leave at the moment due to cancer for next 3,4 weeks or months . So ,I am in catch 22 situation now , I was saving holiday for this reason .
1. What happens if I just walk away on 14th Friday and don’t turn up on 17th Monday ?
I have worked hard to get this contract as no one wants to wait for 2weeks to start a contract.
Pls help me get out of this situation.
Thanks in advance.

A year down the line, you apply for your next role, it's in Finance and you need a checkable history + perhaps reference, Hays (or whoever) contact your old client and the feedback is you did a runner and left them in the lurch. That is then fed to the hiring manager and you are black balled.

[lukemg]

They won't do anything and they will cope fine. That's the reality but don't expect any invites to return in the future.
If this was a plum job and I really wanted it, I would start off very reasonable but I would definitely walk if they played hard ball.
How will you feel if you stay, lose the contract and find yourself stuck there with that nobber boss for another year...

[nomadd]

They say bad backs are notorious and quite hard to diagnose.

Nah. For £50 my local GP could diagnose anything I could think of.

[Incognito]

Hi All,
I am permanent employee at the moment for a company. As I have 4 weeks’ notice in my contract, I saved 2 weeks holiday to take in my notice period and my manager verbally knows that I am saving my holiday for notice itself. I have landed in contract position on Friday with wait of 2weeks. So, they agreed my 2 weeks start date which will be 17th October. I have informed same to manager saying that i will serve notice today and relieve me off on 14th oct . But things took turn away from me as my manager now saying that i need to be here for full notice period 1.e 4 weeks.
Reason for that - My colleague who is junior( who looks after my work when I am on holiday/off sick) to me is on sick leave at the moment due to cancer for next 3,4 weeks or months . So ,I am in catch 22 situation now , I was saving holiday for this reason .
1. What happens if I just walk away on 14th Friday and don’t turn up on 17th Monday ?
I have worked hard to get this contract as no one wants to wait for 2weeks to start a contract.
Pls help me get out of this situation.
Thanks in advance.

You may be stuffed, I believe that you need to give notice of your intention to take a holiday and that it needs to be twice the period of your holiday, i.e. 2 weeks holiday requires 4 weeks notice of intention to take 2 weeks holiday.

An employer can refuse your request to take a holiday, but again there is a set timeline in which they can do it. From recollection it's the same period for the holiday requested, i.e. 2 weeks holiday requires 2 weeks notice of being refused.

If you have to start the contract and aren't bothered about pissing off existing client, then just go sick. They say bad backs are notorious and quite hard to diagnose.

[nomadd]

Well, if it were me, I'd reiterate (face to face) to the manager that you will be leaving on that date as already discussed and agreed, that you've made alternative arrangements for the 17th. If they'd rather you leave now, so be it, but that you'll be happy to help train any stand-in up to that point.

This^

As it's exactly what I had to do when my first contract came through. Client wasn't prepared to wait any longer than two weeks for me to start, and they made that perfectly clear in the interview. Back at my permie job, I made it clear I wouldn't be there after two weeks time. Did a decent handover for them, and even found them my replacement, so all-in-all it worked out OK for everybody.

[northernladuk]

sick leave at the moment due to cancer for next 3,4 weeks or months

I wouldn't be expecting him back at anytime in the near future so the client isn't going to have anyone when you leave whether it is in 2 weeks or 4. All he is doing is staving of the invetible for two more weeks which seems a bit pointless IMO.

[Troll]

Just ring in sick for the remaining two weeks while you start your first contract

HTH

(where should I send the invoice?)

[wobbegong]

Hi All,
I am permanent employee at the moment for a company. As I have 4 weeks’ notice in my contract, I saved 2 weeks holiday to take in my notice period and my manager verbally knows that I am saving my holiday for notice itself. I have landed in contract position on Friday with wait of 2weeks. So, they agreed my 2 weeks start date which will be 17th October. I have informed same to manager saying that i will serve notice today and relieve me off on 14th oct . But things took turn away from me as my manager now saying that i need to be here for full notice period 1.e 4 weeks.
Reason for that - My colleague who is junior( who looks after my work when I am on holiday/off sick) to me is on sick leave at the moment due to cancer for next 3,4 weeks or months . So ,I am in catch 22 situation now , I was saving holiday for this reason .
1. What happens if I just walk away on 14th Friday and don’t turn up on 17th Monday ?
I have worked hard to get this contract as no one wants to wait for 2weeks to start a contract.
Pls help me get out of this situation.
Thanks in advance.

Well, if it were me, I'd reiterate (face to face) to the manager that you will be leaving on that date as already discussed and agreed, that you've made alternative arrangements for the 17th. If they'd rather you leave now, so be it, but that you'll be happy to help train any stand-in up to that point.

No one is indespensible. They'll cope.

[Mich the Tester]

Hi All,
I am permanent employee at the moment for a company. As I have 4 weeks’ notice in my contract, I saved 2 weeks holiday to take in my notice period and my manager verbally knows that I am saving my holiday for notice itself. I have landed in contract position on Friday with wait of 2weeks. So, they agreed my 2 weeks start date which will be 17th October. I have informed same to manager saying that i will serve notice today and relieve me off on 14th oct . But things took turn away from me as my manager now saying that i need to be here for full notice period 1.e 4 weeks.
Reason for that - My colleague who is junior( who looks after my work when I am on holiday/off sick) to me is on sick leave at the moment due to cancer for next 3,4 weeks or months . So ,I am in catch 22 situation now , I was saving holiday for this reason .
1. What happens if I just walk away on 14th Friday and don’t turn up on 17th Monday ?I have worked hard to get this contract as no one wants to wait for 2weeks to start a contract.
Pls help me get out of this situation.
Thanks in advance.

Maybe they'll fire you.

[Admin Master]

Have you tried asking your new client if you can start two weeks later (unexpected illness of a team member)?
Have you suggested your perm employer could get a contractor in to cover while your colleague is off sick? They'll have to do without you when you leave at the end of the month anyway.

Thank you for ur pointers zippy , I was going to try this 2morrow . any more pointers?

[Churchill]

Oh come on Churchy, it's not as though you wouldn't enjoy it.

<Shush>I'm negotiating...

[wobbegong]

Oh come on Churchy, it's not as though you wouldn't enjoy it.