Reply to: What do you miss most...

[Zippy]

I miss Sue from accounts.

[mudskipper]

... being jealous of what the contractors earned.

[DimPrawn]

I miss Sue from accounts.

[Platypus]

Playing Doom on the corporate network at lunchtimes.

Colleagues nearby, in a different dept, just didn't get it.

Oh I forgot about Doom at lunchtimes. Yes, that was fun too

[Scrag Meister]

Having holidays and *ahem* sick days without giving a stuff and still getting paid

But even non-*ahem* sick days , i.e. real sick days, are worse now cos you have to be 10 times worse than when you were a perm AND you are losing £x00.

Lunchtime Doom and Quake was always good back in the day, running some dire 386 with no dedicated GPU (cos they barely existed then) with a window about an 8th of the screen in the middle to handle the graphics.

Fully expensed Christmas parties til 6a.m.

Developer conferences in Vegas followed by 2 weeks personal holiday at a mate's in NY, all flights at least business class, and paid for.

[Alf W]

...from your permie days?

Having hair, being able to run and being free to chase women.

[doodab]

I only ever had one permie job.

I miss the roast pork baguettes, and the huge variety of underutilised computers coupled with a job that was basically "sit around until something happens" leaving one plenty of time to tinker.

[Moscow Mule]

£50 perdiems. In Budapest, back when it was hard work spending £50 a day in Budapest.

[thunderlizard]

16 months gigging until mortgage paid off.

Don't tempt fate.

[al_cam]

The 11 minute commute.

The easy life. Contracting is harder work. After a while in a permie job, you know everything and everyone there and it becomes routine and easy.

Compressed hours - can't beat finishing on a Thursday.

I'll never go back to permie life though...

[thunderlizard]

The closest I ever got to perm was a week's work experience during school. I miss sorting the post. And enjoying a nice can of diet coke every lunchtime from the communal supply in the fridge, then finding out on the last day that it wasn't a communal supply, & someone was wondering where all their diet cokes had gone.

[Clippy]

Playing Doom on the corporate network at lunchtimes.

Colleagues nearby, in a different dept, just didn't get it.

[BoredBloke]

Never been a permie

[Sysman]

The expense account I had when we had a stockbroker as a customer.

In a job before that the banter and an excellent pie and sandwich shop nearby. That place was run like a family firm. Only one person left in three years and that was to have a baby. Needless to say they destroyed that atmosphere by relocating.

[gingerjedi]

Cyprus was nice before they let in charter flights.

There's still plenty of small places, just stay out of the big package resorts.

One of my favourite holiday experiences is hiring a 4x4 to drive up the Troodos mountains to the ski centre and ambling back down through the forest tracks. Done it a few times now.

You can do a similar drive on the tracks up around the Akamas Peninsula, you get some funny looks from the rabbit hunters as not many people venture that far into the wilderness.