• Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
  • Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!

What are some of the Worst Contracts You've Had and How Long Did you Stick it Out?

Collapse
X
  •  
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    What are some of the Worst Contracts You've Had and How Long Did you Stick it Out?

    Posting this out of curiosity and always interesting to gage how reliable/determined/committed/professional/crazy/desperate us contractors can be. So what's the worst contract or what have been the worst contracts you've ever had, why , and how long did you stick it out for?

    Did it make you 'grow' as a person, cynical, reflective, scream slightly inside or just plain cheesed off?
    Last edited by Willy Win; 27 November 2016, 16:46.

    #2
    For a full expression of people's experience I think this is best suited to General.
    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Willy Win View Post
      Posting this out of curiosity and always interesting to gage how reliable/determined/committed/professional/crazy/desperate us contractors can be. So what's the worst contract or what have been the worst contracts you've ever had, why , and how long did you stick it out for?

      Did it make you 'grow' as a person, cynical, reflective, scream slightly inside or just plain cheesed off?
      Dunno

      Comment


        #4
        What do you define as bad?
        "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

        Comment


          #5
          I shot the wrong bloke... sorry... I misread that as ' What are some of the Worst Contract Kills You've Had' HTHBIDI

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Willy Win View Post
            So what's the worst contract or what have been the worst contracts you've ever had, why , and how long did you stick it out for?

            Comment


              #7
              Worked for Siemens in 2000/2001 as a Systems Engineer on a GSM Project for their Railways. Based in the Hague and living in Scheveningen (which in December/January was bloody freezing!!).
              Spent the first month waiting for them to translate all the requirements into English from Dutch then finally binned it after about 6 weeks of boredom to take a better contract back in Blighty.
              “The period of the disintegration of the European Union has begun. And the first vessel to have departed is Britain”

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Willy Win View Post
                Posting this out of curiosity and always interesting to gage how reliable/determined/committed/professional/crazy/desperate us contractors can be. So what's the worst contract or what have been the worst contracts you've ever had, why , and how long did you stick it out for?

                Did it make you 'grow' as a person, cynical, reflective, scream slightly inside or just plain cheesed off?
                I'd take a terrible contract over a bad permie job every time.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Does comically bad count?

                  One Programme Manager was terrible. Truly shocking. I was in meetings where the rest of the team would steal glances at each other, to check that we were not going mad and that the guy was truly talking nonsense. One day he congratulated me on a piece of work, telling me it was the best he had ever seen. This planted a seed of insecurity in me that it took a while to shake.

                  Another (I've mentioned this before) tried his hardest to get rid of me because he wasn't involved in my selection process and I think he had his eye on the role for someone else. Thus, a process of undermining, outright rudeness and intimidation. They sacked him. For something else, but it still made me laugh.

                  At one quasi public sector gig, the Director sacked everyone on the programme and said the changes could be done by the in house team because he found out the Programme Manager was getting paid more than him. A new team was of course reinstated later.

                  Current gig: like a mass murder scene. Nearly half the team have been replaced in the 13 months since I started.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Worst job I ever had was retrieving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's arsehole.

                    (C) Derek & Clive.
                    When freedom comes along, don't PISH in the water supply.....

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X