Smile of the day - What is yours?

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by timwilky

The uncertainty of contracting has always put me off. .

Cheers Tim. It's an odd existence but it does have it's ups as well as the downs. The office politics are not your problem. No more HR performance reviews. You can (to an extent) pick your jobs and work at the level you want to. If you don't like a client/building/role then you're only there for a few months so suck it up or just leave, as a short term does not look odd on your CV like it does if you're perm. If you have an in-demand skill you can charge a fair bit as a day rate and only work for as many months of the year as you want to. On the minus side the lack of belonging sucks, no sick pay, holiday pay or heath insurance, and you never really see how well your designs/models/process improvements work in the long term as you set everything up and the client takes it from there. Planning holidays can be a pain too unless you get a long term gig and fit a week or two in the middle depending on the project schedule (you can hardly take two weeks off if you're only there for 3 months). And you really don't want to be doing business-as-usual work for more than 12 months or HMRC may decide you're an employee in disguise and clobber you with fines and badly assessed back-tax.

After five years of it I have achieved my wish of seeing a bit more of the world (not just the large US-based IT side that I was stuck in) and if the chance comes to go perm after I've tried out a client via a contract then I'll happily go back.

[Chris_SVS]

Became an uncle this morning to a lovely wee boy called Lawson Christopher

The name has literally hit me right in the feels, totally unexpected

[Sir Trev]

Named after Eddie I hope, and not Nigel... Congrats!

[Chris_SVS]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Named after Eddie I hope, and not Nigel... Congrats!

He is now

[Sir Trev]

Started my new contract today and it's back to the fun of a fairly large client. The IT team did not deliver my laptop as one of the internal process was not complete so my user ID has not been generated. Spent the day shadowing some of the existing team instead and looking through the contract for a huge new deal they've just won. Not the most productive of days but I still get paid so...

[Heorot]

Typical. In 15 years of contracting not once was everything (userid, etc.) in place on day one so I could start work straight away.

[admin]

Finally finished decorating the dining room. Just in time for my daughter's wedding this weekend. It's going to feature in the 'getting ready' photos so had to be done.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[maviczap]

After spending an age on hold and dealing with Admirals Indian customer service team, I got £44 refunded after disposing of one of my cars.

[Luckypants]

Got insurance for almost £200 cheaper than renewal quote. (See gripe of the day)

[Adam Ef]

Perfect weather today for riding back from Cornwall on another scenic route. South coast this time, over the Tamar bridge and across country via Sherborne up to Bristol. Amazing cake and coffee at an old haunt in Sherborne that we used to go to when my brother lived there. One of those places that has never changed over the years.