Reply to: Why you started Contracting!

[Diver]

Merry Christmas everyone

[Sockpuppet]

What about polish etc drivers, ain't they not affecting the market rates?

No because they are tulip (ok, some are ok). They don't know the roads where stuff is (i.e. I wouldn't know my way around Poland). The majority don't speak English and they all seem to have got the licence off the back of a cereal box.

I had to do a delivery to Coleshill the other day where i had to reverse round a blind corner into on coming traffic (was on a retail park), to get out of the delivery bay.

Excellent command of the English language and mastery of 4 letter words was required to tell all the car drivers to "get the **** out of the way or the lorry will push you out of the way" as they all sat there like rabbits in headlights watching the trailer getting closer to the front of their car.

Not sure someone speaking like Latka Gravas would have been able to pull that off.

[BrilloPad]

No the problems were already there in all the carp companies, because as a permanent member of staff I never wanted to rise in the organizations I never licked ar*se and I avoided socialising with other staff .. that made me isolated and easy prey for management .. or so they thought until I allowed them to push it over the edge then I unleashed hell !

There is a quote from film Gladiator it basically refers to me :

"There is a fish that lies at the bottom of the sea and even though it is a predator it allows smaller fish to approach it and take small bites out of it and yet it lies still"

Sometimes it is better to do nothing aggressive and not retaliate and allow your enemies to show their true colours as it places them into a false sense of comfort when it comes to getting abusive towards you... then when the final straw comes .. HIT BACK ! and watch them not able to cope with the situation and laugh.

good point - I have seen this done a few times. People happy to look stupid. However most have been men - I have only seen 1 woman do this.

I guess most women don't need to?

[eliquant]

Jeez are you sure you aren't the problem?! I mean it does seem to follow you around eh?

No the problems were already there in all the crap companies, because as a permanent member of staff I never wanted to rise in the organizations I never licked ar*se and I avoided socialising with other staff .. that made me isolated and easy prey for management .. or so they thought until I allowed them to push it over the edge then I unleashed hell !

There is a quote from film Gladiator it basically refers to me :

"There is a fish that lies at the bottom of the sea and even though it is a predator it allows smaller fish to approach it and take small bites out of it and yet it lies still"

Sometimes it is better to do nothing aggressive and not retaliate and allow your enemies to show their true colours as it places them into a false sense of comfort when it comes to getting abusive towards you... then when the final straw comes .. HIT BACK ! and watch them not able to cope with the situation and laugh.

[AtW]

Telling you. Lorry Driving for the plan B win. £15 an hour for sitting on your arse. Plus its almost guaranteed work.

What about polish etc drivers, ain't they not affecting the market rates?

[Sockpuppet]

Why?
because no one would give me a permanent job! I took the first offer that came along..which was a contract. haven't looked back. I'm now a freelancer, and just surviving right now. I can't take commuting, so will just have to stick it out.
I may stack shelves at ASDA between gigs to put food on the table.

Telling you. Lorry Driving for the plan B win. £15 an hour for sitting on your arse. Plus its almost guaranteed work.

Not as good as what I get contracting but would pay the mortgage if I had one and was in a tight spot.

[lilelvis2000]

Why?
because no one would give me a permanent job! I took the first offer that came along..which was a contract. haven't looked back. I'm now a freelancer, and just surviving right now. I can't take commuting, so will just have to stick it out.
I may stack shelves at ASDA between gigs to put food on the table.

[VectraMan]

does anyone else think it's weird to get paid for not working (permie paid leave...)?

I agree. I like the fact nobody owes me a living and I can get paid for what I contribute. Permiedom is a refuge for the lazy and incompetent.

I actually took a break from my permie job (I had little to do and the company was struggling to pay me), and did a 3 month contract with every intention of going back. But nothing had improved after 3 months, so I carried on. I certainly never had the terrible time of permiedom that most of you seemed to have, probably because I worked for small companies.

There are benefits, but I guess it's mostly money. I feel like I'm paying catch up: getting back to where I should be financially at this stage of my life (which is why I've worked 51 weeks this year). I do sometimes wonder if I'd be happier being part of something rather than as an outsider, but the money helps me get over it. And I'd never be happy being just an employee even if it was some fantastic role; I'd want to be a director, or shareholder at least.

[NickFitz]

All in all nothing but stella reviews since becoming a contractor.

Review of Sockpuppet

1. He drinks a lot of Stella.

[NotAllThere]

I first went contracting because the company for which I was working had delusions of inadequacy. I had one manager berate me for leaving work at 5:30, when all my colleagues stayed at least to 6:00pm - apparently I was letting the team down, (despite the fact that my call resolution was around double of their combined total, and I took the difficult ones) and I should remember who pays my mortgage.

So, I resigned without a contact to go to. Three weeks of no work, and then a very good contract.

Years later, I left contracting to take up a management position. I went contracting again, after an attempt to stitch me up by my manager and his boss - dumb and dumber. I gave them plenty of rope to hang themselves with, and then brought HR into our little disagreement. HR went "oh smeg", and offered me a not inconsiderable sum to go away. As a bonus, dumber found out, one week before I officially no longer was an employee, that he wasn't either.

I've now got loadsa contacts in the industry, plenty of work, and I actually enjoy what I do, with no stress, and plenty of time off. I like my lifestyle - just got back from a days skiing, enjoying a beer, and looking forward to some excellent nosh tonight.

[Sockpuppet]

I went contracting because I kept getting fired from permit jobs.

Got fired twice in 3 months. We had fundamental disagreements about how much I should get paid. I also did an average of 20 hours a week unpaid overtime then realised that it wasn't being appreciated when my performance appraisal read "no committed to the company". I then went into a kind of self destructive period for a few months. Ok, so technically I wasn't fired from the first one. I got a compramise agreement and a few grand thrown my way in order to not turn up to work again. Sweet.

Went contracting and due to the lax background checks no-one was any the wiser.

I even got an interview at first place that fired me from their grad scheme working with the same guys. My daily rate would have been over what my weekly rate was when I was a permit but couldn't be arsed with the hassle of the management that was bound to come around.

Since contracting had 3 contracts two of them (first and current one) were with same co in the same team. Current just got extended by 3 months and the middle one was with a co that picked me up because I did work for them on the first contract. All in all nothing but stella reviews since becoming a contractor.

Personally I think that highlights the issue with permie managers. Not working any differently to how I was just as a contractor I am actually getting some challenging work rather than the tulip stuff that permies get.

[BrilloPad]

does anyone else think it's weird to get paid for not working (permie paid leave...)? that, really simply, is why i became a contractor. pay me for the job i do (and well, thx!) and i'll take care of the rest. not going to let someone in HR try and figure out/b_ll_x up my tax/allowances all for being paid not to work? didn't sound right so became a contractor. (may well be the dumbest reason, but still)

Thats why they want people as permies - control. And why I am a contractor.

[sli_gryn]

does anyone else think it's weird to get paid for not working (permie paid leave...)? that, really simply, is why i became a contractor. pay me for the job i do (and well, thx!) and i'll take care of the rest. not going to let someone in HR try and figure out/b_ll_x up my tax/allowances all for being paid not to work? didn't sound right so became a contractor. (may well be the dumbest reason, but still)

[Bumfluff]

I went into contracting as I could never last more than 2 years as a permy at any place so decided to go contracting. Been contracting for 4 years in April, sadly though Im starting to feel I need to go back to permy, dont want to be a code monkey all my life and just not getting project or management experience as a contractor. Plus in my sector permy salaries arent that far of contractor money.

[shoes]

having done an MBA in his spare time, and has subsequently risen almost to the top of the parent companys parent, a FTSE100 multinational. (When the top job became vacant recently, he and other internal applicants lost out to an outsider.)

It sounds like he is in a good position. But obviously cases like these are very much the exception - how many 'top jobs' in an organisation can there be? And I wonder if it has been worth it? That kind of rise up the greasy pole requires a lot of dedication, late nights, weekends, sucking up to the right people. And even now how does his take home compare to a contractor on a reasonable rate? Can he take months off at a time if the mood takes him?

And this is the best case scenario for a permie. Still not worth it in my opinion.