Reply to: When contract jobs go bad..........

[norrahe]

I have had only one contract so far where I actually enjoyed the work and didn't have to put up with political BS or idiots.

[Fred Bloggs]

Worked a gig in Coventry where I turned up the first morning and it was totally obvious from the lead blokes body language and attitude that I was "just a scumbag contractor". I sat back to back with this numpty and he used to email me rather than turn round and tell/ask me stuff. I lasted six weeks, the time it took for me to get another job and that included a two week holiday that they luckily had known about before they took me on.

[Bagpuss]

I make a point of giving off the impression that I do not give a toss and make it known that if I was to be let go today I would be more than happy. I offset that by making sure the job is always done and to a decent standard.

The worst thing that can happen to someone trying to get at you is to make sure you cannot be got at. It pisses them off no end.

I thought the arrogance and just an act for this board. But this sounds like borderline personality disorder. Have you ever thought it could be you rather than 'them'?

[Sysman]

health remains in tact and your invoice get paid

l

intact

You've just reminded me of one where the aircon was incredibly bad and I had a permanent head cold. Next stop a place with opening windows and not a single sniffle the whole year round.

[RichardCranium]

No contract is bad if your invoices get paid.

You've not yet had a proper bad contract.

Be glad.

[crazyfrog]

my last but one contract working for a london publishing company was a whole bag of fun.

We HAD to start (me and another contractor) a week before Xmas, to be completed in a week as the Indian middlemen needed our work to test over the holidays. We both worked our A*** off to get it done, ( i got home 3am Xmas morning). It was eventually tested end of Feb. tulipe (actually no )project management. They had Deloitte in to PM the PM's and then another firm to monitor them. The Indian Team managed Jack tulip, blamed everyone else for their failings, and, unfortunately, the IT director was an ex accountant who knew nothing about everything. Project delayed, over budget massively and contractors got the blame. If the contractors had been given the task of getting the job done in the first place, it would have been done on time and in budget (some very top blokes were doing the top work, but came up against intransient dullards). The last month I was there I probably did 2hrs work (lots of walks up through Camden). I've not been in this job long enough to know when to quit, but this contract taught me a lot ie. Basically, how not to manage a project.
Plus the agency I did it through went bust owing me.
Still...the eye candy was tip top!

[suityou01]

No contract is bad if your invoices get paid.

health remains in tact and your invoice get paid

[NickFitz]

Secure site - no phone, no MP3 player, no laptop until cleared (and even then, no internet that you could log into, in case anyone tracked your IP address)...

Ah, so it was you all along

[badger7579]

Worked for BT...... It was Shyte..... Nuff said..

[NotAllThere]

I was working a German Investment Bank ...
So... No point applying for jobs with this IB, the HR department at DB ....

Did you mean to name it?

[Sysman]

well, it's for your benefit that most of the great books of the world are freely available in .txt format, ideally suited to reading in an IDE code window.

I have on occasion done some serious data manipulation to do exactly the same.

Assigning a function key to bring another window to the front is a good idea

[conned tractor]

Was the rate really bad, a proper new chair from Tesco etc. must be around £50 ?

Again, didn't want to make a fuss, just get on with the job. The rate wasn't terrible for my area but not anything like the banking rates quoted on here.

[Lumiere]

It would take a matter of half an hour or so to numb your bum, and this would be followed by the cheek shuffle, 10 minutes a side and change for most of the day trying to escape the pain, quite literally. Then the attendance of trap 2, not in the normal skiving way, but in the attempt to relieve my aching arse for 10 minutes. I ended up with piles on my piles. But in true contractor fashion I stuck it out and saw the job finished.

Was the rate really bad, a proper new chair from Tesco etc. must be around £50 ?

[conned tractor]

Why didn't you take a cushion?

Didn't want to make a fuss or look at bit daft being the only one carrying a cushion into work.

[DiscoStu]

Last contract, vehicle monitoring system, small company in the midlands. The people were great, the work was great, but had to sit at the board room table for lack of desks, which itself was squeezed into a spare office.

Not an elaborate board table, just a very basic but large table to hold important meetings. This also was no so much a problem, but it was the chairs. These chairs used to numb your backside in minutes and being an important part the team, i.e. one of three people designing the whole system, was pretty much in the spotlight and glued to my unbearable chair for most of the day. I don't know why they had bought these chairs, maybe to numb their customers at meetings, but they were awful.

It would take a matter of half an hour or so to numb your bum, and this would be followed by the cheek shuffle, 10 minutes a side and change for most of the day trying to escape the pain, quite literally. Then the attendance of trap 2, not in the normal skiving way, but in the attempt to relieve my aching arse for 10 minutes. I ended up with piles on my piles. But in true contractor fashion I stuck it out and saw the job finished.

Why didn't you take a cushion?