Is this a record?
At work today they had one of there "cut costs, clear out the contractors" days. At about 15.00 this afternoon I was told not to bother coming in next week and they would pay my notice period off. At 17.05 the same person who laid me off phoned me up and asked if I would like to come back and work for them starting on Monday on a rolling contract.
So I was actually unemployed for 35 minutes between leaving work and being taken on again. I've had plenty of leave on Friday, start on Monday situations but only when I have had something lined up beforehand. I was planning on having a weeks fishing and doing the Garden before I got something but best laid plans and all that....
So I was actually unemployed for 35 minutes between leaving work and being taken on again. I've had plenty of leave on Friday, start on Monday situations but only when I have had something lined up beforehand. I was planning on having a weeks fishing and doing the Garden before I got something but best laid plans and all that....
Post edited by ADJB on
Comments
Commiserations at your firing, and congratulations on your hiring ! At least in the future you can say " the last time I was unemployed, I had found another job in 30 mins " can't be bad !
You are incorrect. I still have the same t & c's as before which includes a 40 hour a week minimum.
Contractors don't get redundancy pay so no loss there. To the best of my knowledge that's a staff perk the same as holidays which I also don't get.
One of the perks of self employment :p
And why, as a contractor, should I care in slightest about the treatment of anybody else?. From that point of view all I care about is the treatment of me.
As it happens they were all treated perfectly well.
10 minutes beats me.
Because its morally right to and also how they treat your colleagues whether you have the same employer or not, is a good indication of how they will treat you. "From that point of view" is thoroughly noted and implies you certainly care about other issues, e.g. health and safety etc so why not extend it to their jobs and pay?
You have very different viewpoints about the workplace and work colleagues than somebody who works in staff jobs. The one certain thing I know when I take a job is that I am going to be sacked at some point, hopefully at the end of the project I am being employed for, and as such it's very rare that you form any type of long term friendship with those who you work with. I have a separate phone which is for anything work connected so I keep my personal life separate from my work life*. You are loyal to the company you work for as long as you work there and, excepting trade secrets and that sort of thing, no longer. I owe them nothing and they owe me nothing. As a contractor the equation is very simple - they give me money and I give them the skills they need for as long as they give me money. It's very mercenary and not many people can hack it for the long term but after 30 years of working this way I doubt if I could do a staff job for any length of time.
It is worth noting there are two types of contractor, the low paid (minimum wage-ish), frequently zero hours contracts, low skilled sort of jobs and the sort of thing I do which is much higher paid, higher skilled and, most importantly for this discussion, individually negotiated contracts. I can appreciate your comments from the viewpoint of the former who can't really do anything about it but at my end of the contracting scale you look after yourself.
* just looked at my personal phonebook and I have 3 numbers of people I have worked with, 2 are personal friends who I knew prior to working at the same company and the other is an ex boss of mine who I share some personal interests with and have kept in touch with for many years.