One of the things that is probably hardest to deal with being a consultant is navigating the minefields related to getting staffed from project to project. You will spend some time just sitting on the bench/beach with no assignment emailing everyone and getting no good leads for roles then you will be rolling off a project and get several calls for you be somewhere new the day after you leave where you are at. What makes it even harder and more arduous is the fact that normally your current project will not give you hard roll on/off dates. So you may think Friday is your last day on a project for 10 weeks in a row. Or you may think you will be around on a project for 3 more weeks to be cut loose this Friday. There is never any certainty. So when I went to Russia in September I had a roll off date that was in the middle of my vacation. I was a little apprehensive about this date actually coming true though.
Sure enough a few days before my vacation was over I was asked to return to the project when I got back (via emails… I know I shouldn’t check email on vacation… but). So I got set up my travel plans via the internet and was ready to go. Unfortunately I had made plans to help recruit the Tuesday of the week of my return. So I let my PM know I would have to have that day off. Also I was unable to update my scheduled availability because the utility didn’t work well from Russia. So I got home at 3:35 on Sunday. Took the train and a taxi home, did my laundry, repacked, went to bed, and was on a flight to the client Monday morning at 7:00am. Tuesday morning I drove the rental car back home. Again I didn’t update my staffing. But it was mostly because I had to run around so much.
Well sure enough my staffing manager thought I was on the bench/beach, and even though I hadn’t been able to line up a new project prior to my planned roll off date she had a hot item for me. So hot in fact the client wanted me there the day before. Of course my staffing manager got pissed because I hadn’t answered my desk phone. Now just an FYI this woman works from home and never uses her desk phone, but she gets really upset when we don’t answer ours when she expects that we are unassigned. God forbid you actually use my cell phone like I have written on my profile. Not only that I thought she was going to have an aneurism when I told her I would be at my project for at least another week. It turns out she had already presented me and the client had accepted me so the partners wanted me. Well sorry - she could have tried my cell.
So then she got all worked up about everything. I didn’t have the recruiting event on my schedule, I didn’t answer my desk phone, and I didn’t update my project availability. Sorry I only got back from Russia, flew to the client site, put out a dozen project fires, and driven back home for a one day event in the 48 hours. No biggie. I should have been able to update all the staffing paperwork too. That way when she decided not to follow the process and let me know I was being proposed on a project, she would have had more up-to-date information to ignore. Well over the next two days a couple of partners fought over where I would go and I ended up staying at the original client for an additional 3 weeks. But now I have a pissed off staffing manager. Though in the last couple of weeks I think I have begun to smooth things over by providing her with way more information than she needs. LOL
Interestingly enough, this last weekend, I had a similar problem to the one above. I had been staffed Thursday morning when I was flying out that night to go to Moscow. I booked my travel got all the paper work in order then headed off to the airport. Sure enough on the train to the airport I got a call. Tuesday afternoon was not soon enough for me to be on site. I needed to be there Tuesday morning; even if this meant flying right after I got home from Russia. Sure enough when I got to the airport and could get onto the internet my flight from Russia got in at 3:35 and the latest flight to NY was 6:59. Great. I didn’t have work clothes for the next week so I would have to land in Minneapolis, get my bags, clear customs, take a taxi home, repack, take a taxi back to the airport, clear security again, and get to my gate - all in less than 3.5 hours. Amazingly enough … I made it. I didn’t get to the hotel until 12:30 or to bed till almost 2:00a so I was worthless the next day, but I did make it.
I hope this doesn’t become a habit that when I travel internationally I need to make crazy travel arrangements the second I get home.
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