Reply to: contract termination

[liveforever]

We'll, spoke to a lawyer over the phone and although he couldn't read my contract he suggested applying for a mutual termination and a reference up front, which states no admission of liability.

Having thought about it I've decided to take his advice, it looks better and as you say oraclesmith they’ll just come at me for some other angle.


Thanks for the input.

[AtW]

if there was a succession of 'going postal' incidents in the workplace then people would think twice about treating people like this...

They'd just poison their drink in the morning...

[Xenophon]

This is not the place to come for advice.

I don't know Harry. I thought CaribbeanPirate's advice was helpful. I think more people should lose the plot. Put it this way, if there was a succession of 'going postal' incidents in the workplace then people would think twice about treating people like this...

[oraclesmith]

It sounds like he's on-side and pretty vulnerable. This means he can be negotiated with. The downside is that it seems you've done the deal without consulting the experts ! The line is; you'll go quietly providing he provides a decent reference. It doesn't have to be glowing, just that you did a good job and the contract was terminated for economic reasons. If he refuses, don't go mad, agree to go anyway but make it crystal clear that you're not happy with the situation so you want reasons stated in writing - this hints at going for professional advice and they won't want to get embroiled in that. "Economic reasons" give you both a get-out-of-contract-free card, so it's well worth suggesting it.

Whatever happens, there is no chance of you staying because even if you win this time, they will find something else wrong with you, so take the money and get another contract. Depending on how long you've been there, this contract may make no difference to your ability to get the next one. You could always take up some ad-hoc direct work and get references from them instead. Obviously this is all just my humble opinion and the final decision is all yours. Good luck.

PS. As Harry mentioned, there is no guarantee of good advice from this board - and some is downright destructive ! Get yourself down to a good business lawyer.

[HarryPearce]

Get legal advice

This is not the place to come for advice. You need proper legal advice. Any decent solicitor will give you an hour free and that should suffice for him to read your contract and advise whether your client can terminate on sufficeint grounds. Otherwise your client is in breach of contract and you could sue for damages. That would be a very career limitting move for him.

But if you have new work to go to then accept his offer since all you could sue for is your loss which would be zero if you had work to go to immediately.

[Ardesco]

To be honest I don't really see what you can do if they are following the T & C on your contract and getting rid of you with 4 weeks notice. I would have a chat with the boss and get him to agree to giving you a splendid reference when you have gone. I guess it all depends what he is trying to put on you.

The other option is to threaten to sue him for libel and prove that you had nothing to do with the problems by pulling up your e-mail audit trail/whatever other documentation you need, etc

[Xenophon]

Go postal.

Go crazy baby!!

[AtW]

If you allow yourself to leave like this then you may screw up your future contracts, say what if they asked for reference from previous client? If I were I'd say this as firmly as possible:
a) the client is entitled to give notice, which they are planning to - so its fine
b) they will have to provide in writing assurance that the decision they made is in no way due to poor performance of you personally etc

This assumes of course it is not your fault. They clearly want to get rid of you, so the only thing you can do is ensure this situation won't prejudice your future work, 1 month payoff is a joke comparing to how much you can lose in a long run.

[el duder]

ft100

same thing happened to me, except he never gave me the option he decided to make an exception out of me by telling me i did a good job in person, then sacked me infront of the whole office.

still affects me to this day, never been treated so badly in all my life. after i left my gf and i were both harrassed/abused by the IT department staff who had managed to get hold of my email and mobile numbers from the intranet.

this went on for a month until it finally stopped.

since then my view of IT in general has been pretty poor to say the least.

[liveforever]

ft100

[ChimpMaster]

to sum it up

Manager’s head's on the chopping board so he thinks by getting rid of me it'll save his head. It's been suggested i leave so the blame can be directed at me, which I suppose is fair enough from his perspective but it wasn't anything to do with me. I've done the decent thing by saying ok.

So you'll probably never find work again in that sector. Well that's the way it works in the banks....

[el duder]

to sum it up

Manager’s head's on the chopping board so he thinks by getting rid of me it'll save his head. It's been suggested i leave so the blame can be directed at me, which I suppose is fair enough from his perspective but it wasn't anything to do with me. I've done the decent thing by saying ok.

your not working for the NHS are u?

[liveforever]

to sum it up

Manager’s head's on the chopping board so he thinks by getting rid of me it'll save his head. It's been suggested i leave so the blame can be directed at me, which I suppose is fair enough from his perspective but it wasn't anything to do with me. I've done the decent thing by saying ok.

[el duder]

Due to some issues at work it's been suggested that i hand in my notice. However i'm not allowed to give notice according to the contract so the client has agreed to give me notice and pay me off for one month; there are 3 months left on the contract (by the way notice hasn't been made official yet probably Monday)

Do i have any options?

what happened exactly?

[liveforever]

Couldn’t be further from the truth. I'll exploit every opportunity available to me; businessman.