Should I be anxious about client recruiting a second, similar contractor?

[password]

Hello,

I am in a contract that has been extended and due to expire again in a month or so.

My client are in the process of recruiting another contractor and seeking the same skill set as me. While it is obvious there is a lot of work on etc - more than I can handle, it has gotten me thinking.

Has anybody experienced this kind of thing before? Should I be anyway concerned and are there any kind of tell tales that I can look out for to see if they are unhappy with me and potentially looking at terminating me when they onboard the new contractor.

I'm not terribly worried, just wondering if this is a thing?!

I think over the next week, I will have a good chat with my manager and turn the conversation into a kind of appraisal and ask if she is happy with my performance?

Cheers guys

[northernladuk]

Take you tin foil hat off and just keep delivering. You've already said there is more work than you can do. What do you expect them to do?

Stop bedwetting and keep delivering. Just make sure you do it better than the new guy does.

Forget asking for an appraisal. They fact you are still there is all you need to know. It's unlikely you'll get an honest one and as long as you are meeting their expectations there is nothing more you can do anyway.
Starting acting up and you'll make yourself a target even if you aren't now.

[password]

Take you tin foil hat off and just keep delivering. You've already said there is more work than you can do. What do you expect them to do?

Stop bedwetting and keep delivering. Just make sure you do it better than the new guy does.

Forget asking for an appraisal. They fact you are still there is all you need to know. It's unlikely you'll get an honest one and as long as you are meeting their expectations there is nothing more you can do anyway.
Starting acting up and you'll make yourself a target even if you aren't now.

Fair enough... I guess the main think is keep delivering until I am canned.

Thanks

[NotAllThere]

Fair enough... I guess the main think is keep delivering until I am canned.

Thanks

That, and billing.

[rogerthedodger]

Everything is probably OK, but I have heard of instances where a client is not entirely happy, but doesn't communicate the concern to the contractor (ok not entirely logical, but not uncommon apparently).

In any event, bearing in mind you're a supplier not an employee, it's always good business practice to meet regularly with your main contact in the client company / org, even if it's only 15 minutes once a month, just to discuss progress and give the client the opportunity to give feedback as appropriate and confirm that they're happy. Every source of advice I've ever seen recommends this.

[password]

Everything is probably OK, but I have heard of instances where a client is not entirely happy, but doesn't communicate the concern to the contractor (ok not entirely logical, but not uncommon apparently).

In any event, bearing in mind you're a supplier not an employee, it's always good business practice to meet regularly with your main contact in the client company / org, even if it's only 15 minutes once a month, just to discuss progress and give the client the opportunity to give feedback as appropriate and confirm that they're happy. Every source of advice I've ever seen recommends this.

Good advice. Nothing wrong with an informal chat about progress etc and like you say give them an opportunity to provide feedback in order to gauge sentiment?

[northernladuk]

Good advice. Nothing wrong with an informal chat about progress etc and like you say give them an opportunity to provide feedback in order to gauge sentiment?

But becareful it doesn't look like you are wetting yourself becasue a new guy is coming in. That's not gonna make you look good to the client.

[rogerthedodger]

But becareful it doesn't look like you are wetting yourself becasue a new guy is coming in. That's not gonna make you look good to the client.

That's a good point and yeah it's probably a bit late now to start doing what I suggested, but it would be a good thing to do in future assignments, right from the start (but what I suggested is a B2B supplier/client meeting and not to be confused with 'appraisal' meetings which you don't want and which would look like SDC!).

[vwdan]

It depends - are they hiring me? I've gone in twice to "help", and the other people wound up not getting renewed

But, seriously, I've also done a bunch of projects with multiple similar-skillset contractors with no drama.

[uk contractor]

If you are confident that you are doing a professional job & not ruffling any feathers then you have nothing to worry about. If however, you have doubts about your own performance then quite likely the end client also has doubts. Another factor is rates if the newcomer is much cheaper & does a similar role you should start looking around as loyalty means little to many end clients if they can get someone cheaper & or pay less agency margin they will usually go down that route all other factors being equal.