Contracts Not Being Renewed At Bae

[symo]

As a salary staff member I could never see the appeal of being a contractor and suffering the whims of the market. Howeve some of my friends have been working at BAE in the NW for over 6 years and made a fortune.

Now everyone has been told that their contracts are not being renewed. This makes a massive whole in the spending of the area, as other than footballers and their wifes these guys have been pulling in hundreds of thousands.

More green shoots i guess

[Mrs Imp]

I can't remember which forum it was on, but there was someone going on about how a friend of theirs had to move back to their parents because they suffered a massive drop in income. Much sympathy was expressed by the poster.

Turns out the friend was a contractor pulling in loads of money and assuming it was his permanent wage. Then it was a shock when his contract wasn't renewed and he ended up getting a 'normal wage' job, which no-longer covered the mortgage.

That brings up 2 big questions:

1) Why wasn't he treating it as a contracting job and putting away a big portion of his wages for holidays, sickness and possible redundancies

2) Did the bank give him a mortage on the basis of his contracting wage, and if so, why? It's not a salary, and should not be subject to the normal multiples.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

I can't remember which forum it was on, but there was someone going on about how a friend of theirs had to move back to their parents because they suffered a massive drop in income. Much sympathy was expressed by the poster.

Turns out the friend was a contractor pulling in loads of money and assuming it was his permanent wage. Then it was a shock when his contract wasn't renewed and he ended up getting a 'normal wage' job, which no-longer covered the mortgage.

That brings up 2 big questions:

1) Why wasn't he treating it as a contracting job and putting away a big portion of his wages for holidays, sickness and possible redundancies

2) Did the bank give him a mortage on the basis of his contracting wage, and if so, why? It's not a salary, and should not be subject to the normal multiples.

I've heard a similar story about an Oracle DBA in London - job stopped, £1m house, mortgaged up to the eyeballs. Can't get a "decent" wage now...

[The Masked Tulip]

This is a common story with IT contractors - they think the money is permanent and it is not. I was a contractor, got sick and thank God that I had the common sense to put money aside for a rainy day. If not, I would be on the streets by now.

I am hearing loads of stories of contractors - IT, Engineering, Oil workers - whose contracts have not been renewed after years of renewals and now they do not have two pennies to rub together. A lot of them are losing their 'loving' wives as a result.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

This is a common story with IT contractors - they think the money is permanent and it is not. I was a contractor, got sick and thank God that I had the common sense to put money aside for a rainy day. If not, I would be on the streets by now.

I am hearing loads of stories of contractors - IT, Engineering, Oil workers - whose contracts have not been renewed after years of renewals and now they do not have two pennies to rub together. A lot of them are losing their 'loving' wives as a result.

I sit next to one of them at work!!!!

House is up for sale, was for a year, wifie ran off, house has now "sold" for a ridicuous price in this mental spring bounce/bear trap but exchange has been delayed two weeks in a row now. They have massive debts but if the sale goes through they come out of it all breaking even!!!

Company have said, no more renewals, so he could be out of work in 6 weeks, so if it doesnt go through he is f**ked.

[quine]

This is a common story with IT contractors - they think the money is permanent and it is not. I was a contractor, got sick and thank God that I had the common sense to put money aside for a rainy day. If not, I would be on the streets by now.

I am hearing loads of stories of contractors - IT, Engineering, Oil workers - whose contracts have not been renewed after years of renewals and now they do not have two pennies to rub together. A lot of them are losing their 'loving' wives as a result.

These anecdotes aren't reserved for contractors! Staff people (with "safe" jobs) (ha ha) behave the same way.

[Stop The Ride]

I'm a contractor and am astonished by some contractors around me: Audis, ridiculous holidays, extensions, mortgages etc. I've simply saved every penny that I've earned above my old salary (over two years), so I have a safety net.

To answer the mortgage question: February, I got a mortgage offer for 3.5 times my Ltd Co.'s gross income and wife's salary combined (mainstream mortgage - Woolwich offset). I laughed at them as we only wanted to borrow half of that. Fortunately we woke up and STR (not that we made much on the old house). We'll sit it out and hope I stay in work, but if not, we won't be out on the street.

[The Masked Tulip]

These anecdotes aren't reserved for contractors! Staff people (with "safe" jobs) (ha ha) behave the same way.

Yes, plenty of people are brainwashed into believing that they have a permie job but the truth is that when an organisation no longer wants you, for any of a variety of reasons, then you are out the door.

You could work for a good boss for years and then he or she is replaced by a nasty piece of work and your job can be gone in a moment.

The only permies who seem to have no worries are public sector workers and, of late, I have begun to wonder if I made a mistake 20 years ago in not trying to get a job in the public sector in Wales... as basically no one gets fired ever....

[quine]

Yes, plenty of people are brainwashed into believing that they have a permie job but the truth is that when an organisation no longer wants you, for any of a variety of reasons, then you are out the door.

You could work for a good boss for years and then he or she is replaced by a nasty piece of work and your job can be gone in a moment.

The only permies who seem to have no worries are public sector workers and, of late, I have begun to wonder if I made a mistake 20 years ago in not trying to get a job in the public sector in Wales... as basically no one gets fired ever....

At the same time there are a lot of people in jobs that shouldn't be there so it is a good time to clean out the dead wood. A lot of "promoted cleaners" who hopefully will be cleared out so that people who can and will do a job properly will be given a chance.

[heather5]

Public Sector is not a panacea for jobs - restructuring is permanently going on - and has been for the last 5 years - each year the govt have given the public sector less and less in some areas - it's not totally true they've been investing for years - some areas maybe - others definitely no - and in the last 6 months I had 5 people I knew years ago losing their jobs (mostly finance) - and others who got transferred side-ways and downwards in terms of salary.

4 I know who only two weeks ago got transferred from a range 4 to a range 1 - but took it because they are over 50 - and hanging on.

So that's 9 people personally know to me in a wealthy council area who've lost their jobs - and I know of whole departments now being restructured under some other govt transformation scheme.

No matter what - you will have been better in the private sector that is unless you are a "climber" in management within the govt sector - and have no set skill - in which case over the last 10 years you'll have done well - particularly if you're in the top management sectors in each Directorate - those salaries have gone up obscenely - even when the rest of the wage for have been getting 1-2.5% per annum - some of them have been receiving 22% and more.