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Today I completed a 6 month contract. 3 weeks or so ago I was offered
another 3 month term - which was accepted. Today I was notified that
the option to terminate me with 1 month's notice would be taken.

Under the circumstances I find it hard to believe that at the time I
was offered a 3 month renewal that the employer had any intention of
ever offering 3 months work.

I was under the impression that employers rarely exercised early
contract termination - restricting them to misconduct or similar
circumstances - because otherwise they become less attractive to new
contract staff (would you take a contract with an employer with a
track record of early termination?). Given these circumstances I
believe that I should have been offered rolling one month extensions.
I would not have been that happy but at least I would never have
counted on a 3-month extension as I have with long-term travel
commitments that are non-refundable (I live in Wellington and work in
Auckland).

So - how common is this type of behaviour?

Crash.
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Crash wrote:
> Today I completed a 6 month contract. 3 weeks or so ago I was offered
> another 3 month term - which was accepted. Today I was notified that
> the option to terminate me with 1 month's notice would be taken.
>
> Under the circumstances I find it hard to believe that at the time I
> was offered a 3 month renewal that the employer had any intention of
> ever offering 3 months work.
>
> I was under the impression that employers rarely exercised early
> contract termination - restricting them to misconduct or similar
> circumstances - because otherwise they become less attractive to new
> contract staff (would you take a contract with an employer with a
> track record of early termination?). Given these circumstances I
> believe that I should have been offered rolling one month extensions.
> I would not have been that happy but at least I would never have
> counted on a 3-month extension as I have with long-term travel
> commitments that are non-refundable (I live in Wellington and work in
> Auckland).
>
> So - how common is this type of behaviour?
>
> Crash.
> -----------------
> www.Newsgroup-Binaries.com - *Completion*Retention*Speed*
> Access your favorite newsgroups from home or on the road
> -----------------


Welcome to the real world. It happens, commercial considerations are
normally the quoted consideration. Been there done that, but as a small
aside, full time can be as bad as they vary your situations and rights
to suit the so called commercial situation.

The pity actually is as you said who would take another contract with
them (I have contracted) but we (the contractor) only have peer word of
mouth to pass these reputations to us.

Crash wrote:
> Today I completed a 6 month contract. 3 weeks or so ago I was offered
> another 3 month term - which was accepted. Today I was notified that
> the option to terminate me with 1 month's notice would be taken.
>
> Under the circumstances I find it hard to believe that at the time I
> was offered a 3 month renewal that the employer had any intention of
> ever offering 3 months work.
>
> I was under the impression that employers rarely exercised early
> contract termination - restricting them to misconduct or similar
> circumstances - because otherwise they become less attractive to new
> contract staff (would you take a contract with an employer with a
> track record of early termination?). Given these circumstances I
> believe that I should have been offered rolling one month extensions.
> I would not have been that happy but at least I would never have
> counted on a 3-month extension as I have with long-term travel
> commitments that are non-refundable (I live in Wellington and work in
> Auckland).
>
> So - how common is this type of behaviour?
>
> Crash.
> -----------------
> www.Newsgroup-Binaries.com - *Completion*Retention*Speed*
> Access your favorite newsgroups from home or on the road
> -----------------

What's the problem? They gave you one months notice. Seems fair enough
to me. Contractors don't have the same protection as full time
workers...but then again, they get paid more.

Why do you live in Wellington and work in Auckland anyway? Weird.

On Feb 12, 6:25*am, Crash <nog...@dontbother.invalid> wrote:
> Today I completed a 6 month contract. *3 weeks or so ago I was offered
> another 3 month term - which was accepted. *Today I was notified that
> the option to terminate me with 1 month's notice would be taken.
>
> Under the circumstances I find it hard to believe that at the time I
> was offered a 3 month renewal that the employer had any intention of
> ever offering 3 months work.
>
> I was under the impression that employers rarely exercised early
> contract termination - restricting them to misconduct or similar
> circumstances - because otherwise they become less attractive to new
> contract staff (would you take a contract with an employer with a
> track record of early termination?). *Given these circumstances I
> believe that I should have been offered rolling one month extensions.
> I would not have been that happy but at least I would never have
> counted on a 3-month extension as I have with long-term travel
> commitments that are non-refundable (I live in Wellington and work in
> Auckland).
>
> So - how common is this type of behaviour?
>
> Crash.
> -----------------www.Newsgroup-Binaries.com- *Completion*Retention*Speed*
> Access your favorite newsgroups from home or on the road
> -----------------

Very uncommon (never) in my experience, but I can see it could happen.
Maybe the project got canned?

Not much you can do really. One of the reasons IT contractors get paid
more is thay have to face the prospect of being the first against the
wall when projects dry up.

In article <47b151bd$>, Collector€NZ did write:

> The pity actually is as you said who would take another contract with
> them (I have contracted) but we (the contractor) only have peer word of
> mouth to pass these reputations to us.

Sounds like a job for a contractor-oriented social-networking website...

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:35:38 +1300, Bobs
<> wrote:

[snip]
>What's the problem? They gave you one months notice. Seems fair enough
>to me. Contractors don't have the same protection as full time
>workers...but then again, they get paid more

So its OK to offer a renewal 3 weeks out from contract end, me to
accept in good faith, then they give me a months notice 1 day before
the renewal takes affect? I would consider this dodgy ethics to say
the least and I wondered how common this might be
>
>Why do you live in Wellington and work in Auckland anyway? Weird.

Fair comment. I have 22+ years experience in a development
environment that was in the past a mainframe-only product that now has
a Windows-based option. The customer base in NZ is limited and I
choose to stick with whatever opportunities present themselves.

I am Auckland born-and-bred but left in 1984. Apart from a brief
spell of a year I have not lived in Auckland since - but have plied my
trade in Oz, the USA and the UK then returned to Welly. Who, in their
right mind, would come back to Auckland when affordable housing is
south of Papakura, east of Howick, north of Albany and West of
god-knows-where? Then there are the hordes of
Asian-speaking-and-living Asians in the CBD. Thanks but Welly is far
better and even has widespread rail-based public transport

Crash.
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On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:37:04 -0800 (PST), JohnO <>
wrote:

[snip]
>Very uncommon (never) in my experience, but I can see it could happen.
>Maybe the project got canned?
>
No. Foreseeable drop in workload preceded renewal offer

>Not much you can do really. One of the reasons IT contractors get paid
>more is thay have to face the prospect of being the first against the
>wall when projects dry up.

Yeah. But to invoke termination on the last day of a contract after
an offered renewal of 3 months was accepted a few weeks earlier?
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Crash wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:35:38 +1300, Bobs
> <> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>> What's the problem? They gave you one months notice. Seems fair enough
>> to me. Contractors don't have the same protection as full time
>> workers...but then again, they get paid more
>
> So its OK to offer a renewal 3 weeks out from contract end, me to
> accept in good faith, then they give me a months notice 1 day before
> the renewal takes affect?

I must have missed that part in your original comments...that is pretty
poor. Was it the same person?

>I would consider this dodgy ethics to say
> the least and I wondered how common this might be
>> Why do you live in Wellington and work in Auckland anyway? Weird.
>
> Fair comment. I have 22+ years experience in a development
> environment that was in the past a mainframe-only product that now has
> a Windows-based option. The customer base in NZ is limited and I
> choose to stick with whatever opportunities present themselves.
>
> I am Auckland born-and-bred but left in 1984. Apart from a brief
> spell of a year I have not lived in Auckland since - but have plied my
> trade in Oz, the USA and the UK then returned to Welly. Who, in their
> right mind, would come back to Auckland when affordable housing is
> south of Papakura, east of Howick, north of Albany and West of
> god-knows-where? Then there are the hordes of
> Asian-speaking-and-living Asians in the CBD. Thanks but Welly is far
> better and even has widespread rail-based public transport

I'm more interested in the travel - do you rent up here?

>
> Crash.
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> Access your favorite newsgroups from home or on the road
> -----------------

On Feb 12, 10:18*pm, Crash <nog...@dontbother.invalid> wrote:
> Yeah. *But to invoke termination on the last day of a contract after
> an offered renewal of 3 months was accepted a few weeks earlier?

Does sound unusual, but unless they have done this sort of thing
before then not really dodgy. Why do you think they did it in this
instance - did they give a reason? Maybe it was just poor planning on
their part - some middle manager wanted you and got overruled higher
up? As long as you don't think they did it just to **** you around
then I don't think you should have any gripes.

In article <>, Crash did write:

> So its OK to offer a renewal 3 weeks out from contract end, me to
> accept in good faith, then they give me a months notice 1 day before
> the renewal takes affect?

So you still a month's extension, less one day, don't you?