Reply to: I fancy taking the summer off

[billybiro]

It's not the customer's job to be professional, it's the supplier's.

So if you were a painter and I contracted you to paint my house "green" (but refused to elucidate further) then when you'd completed that task I refused to pay you on account of it not being the correct "shade" of green that would be your fault, would it?

[d000hg]

Do elucidate, what is the professional way to eat a curry?

[Old Greg]

It's not the customer's job to be professional, it's the supplier's.

The gentlemen who staff the curry mile restaurants in Manchester would disagree, and so would their baseball bats.

[Old Hack]

Of course there is a duty on the customer to also be professional - It's a relationship.

[d000hg]

It's not the customer's job to be professional, it's the supplier's.

[billybiro]

It is not good to hear contractors moaning about hard or crap contracts. it gives us bad reputations. We are paid more and have tax breaks on our side. The one thing that we should be able to achieve is finishing the job professionally. If you had a builder or lawyer and he didn't want to finish the work or complained about how crap the work was, he would get canned pretty fast. So why do we think its ok for us to do it?

My current client keeps making the assumption that contractors bugger off when it gets hard and you can see there is some animosity when they say it. For my part I can say I finish the jobs I start and I don't care how hard it is or how long it takes.

In my view if customers were not horrible to a certain extent and could hang on to their own staff or incapable of planning properly I would be out of a job.

Hmmm. Not really sure what point you're trying to make here....

[As contractors what] we should be able to achieve is finishing the job professionally.

Yes, but the reason many contractors either don't or can't is because....

if customers were not horrible... incapable of planning properly

Think you've answered your own supposition there! (i.e. It would be nice if some clients could show the same level of professionalism that they demand from their contractors!)

[Old Hack]

Well, after thinking about it, I have decided to hit some middle ground. I let the PMO know that I was intending to leave mid July, and that I’d assist in finding a replacement. Said I wanted to take the summer off to be with the kids. I was asked if I would come back in September, to which I replied non....

Now the trick is not to be demob happy for the last 6 weeks and do nothing...

[KentPhilip]

If you had a builder or lawyer and he didn't want to finish the work or complained about how crap the work was, he would get canned pretty fast. So why do we think its ok for us to do it?

I think you'll find that builders and lawyers frequently whinge about their clients and their work - just not in front of their clients.

[bobspud]

It is not good to hear contractors moaning about hard or crap contracts. it gives us bad reputations. We are paid more and have tax breaks on our side. The one thing that we should be able to achieve is finishing the job professionally. If you had a builder or lawyer and he didn't want to finish the work or complained about how crap the work was, he would get canned pretty fast. So why do we think its ok for us to do it?

My current client keeps making the assumption that contractors bugger off when it gets hard and you can see there is some animosity when they say it. For my part I can say I finish the jobs I start and I don't care how hard it is or how long it takes.

In my view if customers were not horrible to a certain extent and could hang on to their own staff or incapable of planning properly I would be out of a job.

[DimPrawn]

Surely the answer here is to have the best of both worlds by invoking your right of substitution?

You put an "underling" in to do the dirty work for you, getting to keep some of that "magic" rate that you're getting, whilst also sitting on your backside enjoying the fantastic British Summer!

Worst that can happen is the client doesn't agree to your replacement, but if you're thinking of jacking it all in anyway, I don't see that there's anything to lose!

Zend in za zooty!

[billybiro]

This is the way I am leaning...

Surely the answer here is to have the best of both worlds by invoking your right of substitution?

You put an "underling" in to do the dirty work for you, getting to keep some of that "magic" rate that you're getting, whilst also sitting on your backside enjoying the fantastic British Summer!

Worst that can happen is the client doesn't agree to your replacement, but if you're thinking of jacking it all in anyway, I don't see that there's anything to lose!

[OwlHoot]

I don't know what it is, but that's a good start.

I'll not be a fermier, as such, for a good few years, as the idea is to be mortgage free, with a small income from a couple or three flats. We're going to be mortgage free come September, but still need the income to buy a few flats, so that's going to take a little while. Until then, we'll be smallholders, selling to local restaurants and people I think, mainly ducks, but Turkeys in season (very, very, very easy money are the turkey...).

You could try cheering yourself up by singing as you wander round the office thinking of that farm you plan buying.

FARMER'S BOY

The sun had set beyond yon hill, across yon dreary moor
When weary and lame, a boy there came, up to the farmer's door

Can you tell me if any there be who will give me employ

To plough and sow, to reap and mow and be a farmer's boy,
And be a farmer's boy

My father's dead, my mother's left with her five children small
And what is worse for my mother still, I'm the eldest of them all

Though little I be, I fear no work, if you'll give me employ

To plough and sow, to reap and mow and be a farmer's boy
And be a farmer's boy

And if you will not me employ, one favour I've to ask
Pray shelter me till break of day from this cold winter's blast

At break of day, I'll trudge away elsewhere to seek employ

To plough and sow, to reap and mow and be a farmer's boy
And be a farmer's boy

The farmer said, 'I'll try the lad, no further let him seek'
'Oh, yes, dear father,' the daughter cried, as the tears ran down her cheek

For them that'll work, it's hard to want and wander for employ

To plough and sow, to reap and mow and be a farmer's boy
And be a farmer's boy

At length the boy became a man, the good old farmer died
He left the lad the farm he had, and the daughter for his bride

And now the boy a farmer is and he smiles and thinks with joy

On the lucky day, he came that way to be a farmer's boy
To be a farmer's boy

To plough and sow, to reap and mow and be a farmer's boy
And be a farmer's boy

[b0redom]

Am in the same position TBH. This is the 1st time I've ever seriously considered leaving a contract.
Got 8 weeks left on the current extension and I'm STILL considering leaving early.

[Bacchus]

I've really been struggling to be motivated at the role I started earlier this year. One of the BA's is a tit, the project is not really being run that well, and it will get canned; I just don't really want to be there to be honest.

But the rate is magic, they've said, regardless, I will be there until September at least and I am allowed to work from home 2/3 days a week.

But I can't shift the abject laziness I get when in work, it's as though I am willing them to let me go. I have never, ever had this before, and am wondering should I simply quit and avoid being let go (never happened to me before), spend the summer on the bench, or milk it until they do let me go, for I can't believe my performance will not have been noted, or rather the lack of it.

I've started drinking too, which can't be a good sign.

Anyone else had this in a role? I feel depressed there...

There is absolutely no point in being a contractor if you stay somewhere that makes you feel that way. That is definitely for those of the permie mind set

Mind you I might be biased because I have just negotiated an extension from September with a six week gap from the middle of July - still under contract, no projects starting, big "moo" tick and work lined up in a nice warm office when it starts getting (even) colder again ... this is what being a contractor is about for me - whoop whoop!

[EternalOptimist]

The whole summer ? the whole entire summer?
dont blink.

god forsaken hell-hole of a so-called country.