Festive Finish: Ending Contracts at Christmas

Posted on September 2016 By Matthew Leak
Festive Finish Ending Contracts At Christmas 2

​We hear conflicting comments from candidates regarding their thought processes around contracts finishing in the Christmas period. Some say that they are actually glad for the break and to have no pressure or stress for SAP upgrades and implementations and the like and be able to focus on eating prawns on the barbie. Other candidates start to worry about where the next contract is coming from, as people worry about the so called quietness in January and February.

Whilst there is no right or wrong answer to this question, it is certainly worth thinking about when entering the last few months of the year; and we feel that there are a number of advantages to finishing up in December.

Here are a just a few:

  • If you are available towards the end of the year, you are a rare commodity as there is often opportunity to secure a temporary role or short term contract over the Christmas and New Year period. This works well for people who are after something to keep them going until a more permanent opportunity comes up in the New Year. It is also an opportunity to fill those Christmas hampers with a good Christmas contract day rate.

  • As you are no doubt entrenched in the SAP market as a contractor, and our work here at Speller is solely focussed on SAP, we are across the many projects that are happening and the landscape of opportunities. If your contract finishes at one place at Christmas, there is a very good chance another client will want to lock in candidates for new projects to start in January.

  • It often becomes second nature as a contractor to have a new role lined up after your current role is set to finish. If during the Christmas festivities that you find that people are interviewing in the new year and a project is not locked in, guess what? It is family time! You can take some time out and spend it with your loved ones, recharge the batteries, have a good shop around the markets for Christmas presents and then get back in the market in January.

So these are our thoughts on finishing your contract at Christmas; it is everyone’s own personal viewpoint, but hopefully a few of these points will give you food for thought over the summer period!