A Farewell to Sloth
If I were going to choose one piece of music to sum up my experiences since leaving my last contract at the end of February, it would most likely be Too Months Off by Underworld. Firstly because it’s a great slice of electro wonderfulness, and secondly because that’s precisely what I’ve had. It also has quite nice words.
Which brings me to the point of this post, because it’s almost time for me to say goodbye to all this free time I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy. I didn’t intend to be working at home for such a length of time, nor did I expect just how slow moving the market for IT contractors is at present. After completing the book publishing project I have been looking almost non stop for work, which has been quite an eye opener for me as the longest I have ever been without a contract is four days. Which was when I first started contracting. So my advice to anyone in IT with a job: stick with it! Unless you absolutely hate the job, the people and the place because your own mental health is more important than anything else.
Since signing my new contract I have finally gone from being constantly on edge to full-on holiday mode. I won’t be taking any holiday time for the next six months, and intend to go out in style. Or perhaps that should be sloth. For it is incredibly rare for me not to be up early and ready to go on any day of the week. But today (the day of the general election here in the UK) as Sally has been at work I have been glued to the Xbox 360 all morning, only finally extracting myself from my chair for trips to the Nespresso machine and finally the bathroom. There’s something oddly liberating about dossing around the house all morning before showering just before lunch. I’m sure many people do this every day, but breaking habits is hard for me. So I’m enjoying bad ones now before getting back into the “go someone for nine hours a day to earn money” habit. Bad habits are always so much more fun that good ones, although far less profitable in my experience.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a good three hours of Splinter Cell to play before Sally gets home 
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Funnily enough I’ve also had 2 months off from my last contract. Since losing my job at the end of 2008 I’ve been scratching a living as a poorly paid IT contractor. I’ve probably worked a total of 7-8 months in that time with losts of time spent on the “bench” (and my local DWP office!). At the moment I’ve been called back by a previous client to do “donkey work” which at least keeps my name around the departments as someone who can get the job done…
I didn’t go into contracting out of choice but more out of necessity and in my opinion it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Like you I’m constantly on the look out for any sign of work and believe me it’s a world of hurt out there.
I’ve even toyed with the idea of “going it alone” but still wonder how viable a possibility it is given the state of the market etc.
Big thanks for the comment Mike, I’ve responded with a rather lengthy e-mail.