
Ask HN: Primary contractor wants me to stay on a contract I cannot complete - throwawayQZX10
Hi guys, I&#x27;m a subcontractor for a very large company (let&#x27;s call them a client), via a primary contractor which is basically an IT staffing agency (in the Midwest). I worked with the client for over  2 years, however, due to budget cuts, I was assigned to a completely different project. The project seemed like an &quot;ok&quot; fit based on my resume. however, I have since realized I&#x27;m way out of my depth and will fail to provide the best service I can provide. The product we&#x27;re working on has a release date in May, which means deadlines are super tight, and losing a team member will result in a bit of a chaos. The primary contractor told me to stick it out. How do I proceed, I&#x27;d rather leave on my own terms than being let go because of my subpar performance, but there is the pressure that I stay since it&#x27;ll make the primary contractor look bad if I leave. Any advice, what to do?
======
joezydeco
_"...but there is the pressure that I stay since it'll make the primary
contractor look bad if I leave"_

You need to ask yourself: _why is that my problem_?

Do you want to work with this large company again? Do you want to work with
the staffing agency again? If the answer to both of these is either "no", or
"not really", or anything less than 100% "yes", then you have permission from
this random hackernews to burn the bridges and just _quit_. (If you do want to
stay, stop reading here).

Your question doesn't mention any kind of employment contract and you are in
the midwest which is pretty much full of at-will states, so...you can quit.
You don't even need to give two weeks' notice if you expect the reaction to be
hostile. Offer it as a professional courtesy but if they get nasty, pack your
stuff and walk out the door.

Don't say anything to anyone in either company, but start brushing up your
resume and get out on the street and start looking. You know deep down that
the May deadline will go screaming by like an F-16 on fire, so ignore that.
Make a goal to get out of the job as soon as possible.

Maybe look at it from a slightly different angle: after the project is done,
will they ask you to stick around? You might be on the street anyway.

Use the time while you are employed to find the next job. That's always the
best position to be in.

------
FearNotDaniel
I'll let you into a secret: _a lot of us are out of our depth at least some of
the time_. In many cases, that's how we learn and grow our skills. In other
cases, that's how we get burnt out and/or really mess up by pretending we know
what we're doing until we fail anyway.

Do you really want to provide the best service you can provide? Then stick
around, admit your limitations, tell the team you're struggling but ask them
what you _can_ do to help the team get closer to its goal. Maybe there's some
small part of the technical challenge that you can get your head around in
isolation and still make a contribution. Maybe you need to be the guy who
helps out with QA, keeps the bug tracker in a prioritized order, sorts out
deployment issues, reformats the documents for the higher-ups, or just brings
pizza and caffeine to the others at appropriate moments. But if "losing a team
member will result in a bit of chaos" then walking out on them isn't going to
be providing the best service you can provide.

I've managed teams where someone is in a similar situation, and they can react
one of three ways:

1\. Pretend everything's okay, and churn out shitty code that just about hangs
together but causes serious problems now or later;

2\. Throw in the towel and leave the team;

3\. Be honest about where they are struggling, ask for help getting up to
speed and/or ask where they can be of most help with the skills they _do_
have.

I would prefer the third option a thousand times over the other two. Assuming
your resume is honest about your skills and experience, only the first option
would have you marked down for "subpar performance". No good manager would
expect everyone to be a rockstar ninja know-all genius at all times. If they
do, then yeah, that would be the time to give the appropriate notice period
and _still do your honest best_ while you're waiting to leave.

------
AnimalMuppet
Some thoughts:

The project is in trouble with you or without you. One question is, is the
project in _more_ trouble with you, or without you? The contractor _could_
want you there because, even though it's not a good fit, it's still better
than nothing, and they need all the resources they can put on it. That happens
sometimes in this business - you get thrown into the fire, not because you're
great at fighting that kind of fire, but because it's "all hands on deck".

If you're miserable, well, it's just until May... unless the project runs past
the deadline. If this turns into a running-two-years-past-deadline-with-
everybody-under-pressure-forever nightmare, you probably want out unless the
money's good and the environment doesn't get to you. When it starts to get to
you, it's time to go.

elmerfud mentioned you getting blamed for the project failing. Is that a
realistic possibility? If so, you need to protect yourself. But if you leave
now, they'll blame you leaving for them missing their deadline, so it may not
be possible to win on the blame front.

You mentioned being let go due to subpar performance. Are you seriously
worried about that? If so, you need to have a serious talk with the primary
contractor. If they say "Look, we know you're in over your head in this area.
But we've got to do the project with the team we have, not with the team we
wish we had, and we're hoping you can contribute enough to help", then you're
probably OK (unless they're lying backstabbers). If they say "Oh, any trained
monkey can do this, a good programmer can program anything", you need to think
about protecting yourself.

I realize that I've given "things to think about" rather than actual advice.
But I'm not sure what to say as far as concrete advice...

------
icedchai
He just needs a warm body to bill out so he can take his cut. Ask for more
money and eat into those margins. In the mean time, look for something else.

------
sharemywin
1\. make sure you've voiced your concerns about the project in writing(email)

2\. make a copy.

3\. you need to make sure your concerns are raised to the PM at the company
via the primary contractor. Project risks can be only be mitigated, absorbed
etc if they are raised.

------
throwawayQZX10
Thank you for all the answers guys. I decided to look for something else
(different contract), already reached out to my network. I'll talk to the
scrum master first since he'll be affected most immediately, then I'll talk to
the primary contractor--I've been meaning to break this relationship for a
while, may as well just do it now.

Again, thank you all for the time you spent answering my question.

------
elmerfud
Evaluate the whole situation and do what's best for you.

You already know that the primary contractor wants you to stay because that's
best for themselves, so they are not an unbiased opinion. If you've conveyed
to them that the likelihood of meeting the deadlines is small, keeping you
around gives them someone to shift the blame to when it's missed.

If you've raised your concerns about the work, and they can't bring in
additional help to meet the deadline or are unwilling to adjust the deadline,
then there's no more for you to do. Chaos from you leaving, budget cuts, or
just poor project management are not your concern.

