I fancy taking the summer off

[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...

[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!)

[d000hg]

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

[Old Hack]

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

[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.

[d000hg]

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

[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?