Day Rates Down

[SandyD]

In my area reg/risk, day rate improved in the past few years, however, with the inflation and all the extra taxes imposed, I feel am definitely financially not better off. However, the most concerning phenomena am seeing is the alarming increase in work load per contractor, in the past for each project you'd see a lot more contractors each dealing with a specific area in the program, now am seeing a lot of clients advertising for what they cal; 'hybrid' role where one contractor is expected to perform the tasks expected of 3 or 4 employees... my recent role which I just finished expected me to do everything, and am not talking about a small company who couldn't contract a extra staff, its a very big very rich bank boasting to have the highest number of billionaires as their clients, the amount of work expected of one contractor is diabolical everyone was working so much extra ... alas I told them I can not renew my contract, I am burnt out.
I accepted a role at a lower rate, on the hope it would be a reasonable amount of work, if it turned out to be as bad as my previous one, I promised myself to walk out.... Hybrid role: Slave role !!

[ladymuck]

In my area reg/risk, day rate improved in the past few years, however, with the inflation and all the extra taxes imposed, I feel am definitely financially not better off. However, the most concerning phenomena am seeing is the alarming increase in work load per contractor, in the past for each project you'd see a lot more contractors each dealing with a specific area in the program, now am seeing a lot of clients advertising for what they cal; 'hybrid' role where one contractor is expected to perform the tasks expected of 3 or 4 employees... my recent role which I just finished expected me to do everything, and am not talking about a small company who couldn't contract a extra staff, its a very big very rich bank boasting to have the highest number of billionaires as their clients, the amount of work expected of one contractor is diabolical everyone was working so much extra ... alas I told them I can not renew my contract, I am burnt out.
I accepted a role at a lower rate, on the hope it would be a reasonable amount of work, if it turned out to be as bad as my previous one, I promised myself to walk out.... Hybrid role: Slave role !!

I'm seeing that too - current gig has seen the client cut the team I'm in by half and double the number of projects we're to deliver. Then we get the news that two roles are being merged into one and being offshored. That means I also have to find the time to document everything about my work because the new hires need to pick up by Christmas what I've spent 18 months working on.

I took a rate cut for longevity of gig but the changes in the role mean that it's just not worth it anymore.

[contractorinatractor]

Can't say I agree, looking in 2009-2010 rates went down to 200-250ish, often less, saw stuff advertised at 180. It slowly climbed a couple of years later, and has increased steadily until it hit average is 350 with 400 being high for software dev work, more if you're a specialist or going direct, but have never seen a role 450+ that wasn't an agency scam to harvest CVs. Outside of London of course.

YMMV but rates don't seem to have changed in the past 2-3 years.

I would say that isn't a great rate. You need to diversify your skillset and try new things. Find the best rates for technologies in software within your area and learn those. I've did this to raise the rate ceiling, but there is absolutely a ceiling and it seems it's lowering with inflation as the years pass by.

[cojak]

I'm seeing that too - current gig has seen the client cut the team I'm in by half and double the number of projects we're to deliver. Then we get the news that two roles are being merged into one and being offshored. That means I also have to find the time to document everything about my work because the new hires need to pick up by Christmas what I've spent 18 months working on.

I took a rate cut for longevity of gig but the changes in the role mean that it's just not worth it anymore.

+1 as well.

Everyone I work with is now expected to be working on 2, 3 or more projects at once, and you just can’t get an architect to oversee the big picture, which means that everything is designed in silos and rammed together during deployment.

It’s all rather chaotic, and not in a good way.

[simes]

Although I hope it doesn't happen, one might need another dotcom surge of craziness to really encourage higher rates, albeit only for a limited time until the inevitable happens.

Market forces will otherwise not really up the rates meaningfully, I believe.

[ladymuck]

+1 as well.

Everyone I work with is now expected to be working on 2, 3 or more projects at once, and you just can’t get an architect to oversee the big picture, which means that everything is designed in silos and rammed together during deployment.

It’s all rather chaotic, and not in a good way.

Sounds like we're at the same client

[countryboy]

As Scotland based BA for the last eight years in financial services, my rate has gone from 185 as a newbie to 375 for the last four years with a brief spike to 450. Ive worked recently for a small consultancy who are essentially now a body shop. They have been willing to pay me above the advertised rate and generally get placed without interview so Ive have gotten a bit complacent about marketing myself.

I'm not a superstar but have noticed a large number of contract bodies coming into projects who can't hack it. So find myself providing lots of support to my teammates. Stress levels are through the roof. The projects are definitely running with lower numbers, not sure if that's just bad planning.

As a side note, with only a couple of exceptions the PM resources have been toxic individuals who have contributed to crazy levels of churn. Maybe that's just my bad luck but I've noticed a marked increase in unprofessional behaviour that borders on bullying. I know for sure permanent wouldn't tolerate some of the behaviours which is directed at my contractor colleagues. On the other hand you could argue that they get results...

The killer for me is that team spirit is a thing of the past. Seems like everyone is in survival mode. The fun has gone out of it but could be that's just something that happens once you get established as a contractor.

[Contractor101101]

Cloud Engineer and DevOps rates are rising though.

This has been my experience as well.

[Contractor101101]

As a side note, with only a couple of exceptions the PM resources have been toxic individuals who have contributed to crazy levels of churn. Maybe that's just my bad luck but I've noticed a marked increase in unprofessional behaviour that borders on bullying. I know for sure permanent wouldn't tolerate some of the behaviours which is directed at my contractor colleagues. On the other hand you could argue that they get results...

The killer for me is that team spirit is a thing of the past. Seems like everyone is in survival mode. The fun has gone out of it but could be that's just something that happens once you get established as a contractor.

As a contractor, what annoys me about other contractors is that they keep their head down to keep their contract at any cost. Sometimes to the detriment of delivery or how we are all treated.

In my last project (AWS Migration), there was a permie senior manager who was an absolute bully. There were no results though because he was also a moron (the two often go hand in hand). He ruined the project, good people left and contractors in senior positions just watched the whole thing, enabling it, lest they rocked the boat.

[BigDataPro]

... but I've noticed a marked increase in unprofessional behaviour that borders on bullying. I know for sure permanent wouldn't tolerate some of the behaviours which is directed at my contractor colleagues ...

As a contractor, I don't even tolerate bitchy resting faces, let alone bullying (with words and actions). I warn them and let them know that I am prepared to walk out instantly. That's our strength as a contractor in addition to our ability to find another role in no time (assuming we are on top of our skillset)