Two contractors joined your team in the summer. One of them is excellent. The other keeps shipping changes without tests, ignores half the review comments and asks the same question in three different channels. Everyone has noticed. Nobody has said anything to him directly, and the contract renews at the end of the month.
What usually happens next is quiet and a little unkind. The team works around him. His reviews get stricter and shorter. Somebody mentions it to the manager, the manager mentions it to the agency, the contract is not renewed, and he leaves without ever hearing what went wrong. He takes the same habits to his next client, who will also say nothing.
Contractors get far less feedback than employees. No review cycle, no career conversation, often no one to one at all. The assumption is that they are professionals who should simply know, or that it is not your place, or that the agency handles it. Usually nobody handles it.
So say it early and directly, the way you would to a colleague. The same rules apply. Private, specific, with examples. The last three changes went in without tests, and two needed fixes the next day. On this team every change ships with tests. Is something making that hard?
Then check what he was actually told when he arrived. Contractors are often dropped into a team with access to the repository and nothing else. He may have no idea the team has standards beyond what compiles. A surprising amount of poor contractor work is a missing onboarding conversation.
Know where your part ends. If the contract itself is the problem, the hours, the scope, whether to renew, that belongs to whoever manages the agreement, so tell them as well. You can give feedback on the work without deciding anything about the contract.
And be fair to the excellent one too. Tell her what is working, specifically. Contractors rarely hear that either, and she is the one you want back.
People who are only with you for six months still deserve to know how they are doing. It may be the most useful thing anybody tells them all year.
– Asael Shinder
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