Whoa!

Sometime things happen so quickly.

Last week was the end of my contract, and I was asked to extend to the end of September.

Today I am told that due to some fundamental mismanagement the project has run out of money and can I please leave.

Or put another way:

Yesterday I was asked to start a job.

Today I was asked to leave a job.


Yeah, I got asked if I had 'capacity' to undertake some other work if it did not threaten the project that I was on. And now I find out that I won't be staying on that project, so I can focus just on the other one.

And now begins the game.

The contract comes to me, and I take it to the agency, not the other way around. So the agency is meant to only add a payroll handling fee on top, but of course they try to get as much gravy as they can.

So I start with the client, and I introduce them to the going rate for BAs (Business Analysts), currently in this town about $135 an hour. From that the BA will be getting about $80 an hour. The rest goes: as it is a government contract then the department of admin services takes a twenty or thirty percent cut depending on whether it is a financial or an IT contract, there is nine percent superannuation which in my opinion is dead money, there are work cover and payroll taxes, then there is the agency cut, and what is left over goes to the worker.

Of course, most contracts the employer goes to the agency who then goes to the contractor. In my case almost always the employer comes to me and I take the contract to the agency. This means that I get a better deal because the agency takes a much smaller cut, just a payroll handling fee in theory. Admin services still take their huge slice for doing nothing, but that is the Australian public sector for you.

Which means that I can give a little ground on that $135.
Conversely if I under value myself too much then other people just get paid more than me for not being any better. So I need to toughen up. After all, the reason contractors and consultants get paid a higher rate is because we don't get paid holidays, we don't get paid sick leave, we don't have secure jobs - I had spend most of this damned GFC living off my reserves! There was just no work around. And when I got some I had to take some hefty rate cuts to get anything to pay the rent.

Anyhow, the whole point to this was how quickly things can change on you.

One day being told that you have a job and being asked to extend it.
The next being told that you don't and being asked to leave.