Life as a contractor
Generally, as a contractor, your work life is kept separate from the permanent employees that you work with. You know that you are only there for a short time to get some work done. Then you leave and most of the time you may never interact with them again.
I am somewhat use to going into a company, doing a job and then leaving. I do usually make friends with the people I work with. I join them for company events when I can. We get together after work. Find things in common that we enjoy outside the office. But generally that lasts for about as long as my contract, maybe a little longer. It is rare that I have made long time friends from the people at companies where I have worked on contract.
The long contract
What happens when your contract keeps getting extended and turns into multiple years? Suddenly you find yourself in a different place within the company. Some people that you are working with start to forget that you are on contract. People in other departments might not even realize that you are not a full-time employee. You start to find yourself at social gatherings that are generally reserved for “Friends”.
There comes a time when people start to believe that you will never leave. You might even start to feel like the contract will go on indefinitely. You might stop communicating with all those people, the headhunters, that are constantly calling to check on your status. The ones that are just waiting for you to become available so they can present you to their next client. You start simply saying that you are busy and you forget to say “Call me in 2 months”. But deep down in your heart, you know that at any time you will hear that you are not going to be renewed anymore.
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You may become complacent
It is a dangerous situation to put yourself in when you are a contractor. As a contractor you are always supposed to achieve more than the full time employees around you. You cannot let your quality of work slide. If there is ever a time when management feels that they have people that can do what you do, then there is no reason to keep you around. You should always be the one that people come to for advice or when they are stuck on a problem. The other employees should see you a valuable resource and will advocate to keep you around. If you just become one of them, then you better be prepared to take a full time job (if they offer) or get ready to move on.
No more budget
No matter how valuable you are to a company, at some point they are going to decide that they are paying you too much to keep you around. Even though you may add great value, the truth is you were brought on as a temporary resource and you cannot be kept forever. That time might be months or years, but it will eventually come. It might be at the end of a successful project or it might be at the end of the fiscal year when they have not allocated any more money for contractors the following year. As a contractor, you must always be prepared for this day. You must make sure to put aside enough funds to keep you going until you find your next contract. You have to be ready to get back in touch with all those agencies that have placed you or have tried to place you in the past. Hopefully you will have plenty of notice. But you should be aware of what is going on and don’t let it be a surprise if the week before your contract ends, you find that there is no money for an extension.
Keeping the contacts
It is these long contracts that may have made you some more meaningful friendships. You may have become really close to the people you worked with. You probably did a lot of things outside of work. These are the people that you have to continue to call your friends. You have spent a large chunk of your life working with these people and some you probably worked with closer than others. Don’t allow yourself to simply move on and forget about them. Life is not all about work, work does not make a person whole. The people around you makes you whole. The people who you became friends with also consider you their friend and probably consider you part of their life. As a contractor, you generally had to travel to your work. The people who are full time permanent employees probably live close to work so they don’t have to commute so far. It will likely be you that will have to make your way to their gatherings, closer to their work, if you want to maintain contact. This may take a little more effort on your part. But I think it is worth it in the end!
Moving on…
When it’s time to move on. Never forget your long contracts. Never forget the friends you made. Even if you end up just seeing their updates on Facebook, keep in touch. But maybe that’s just me. I know that I want to keep a connection with all the people I worked with at my last contract, for over 2 years!