Re: staying in contracting from now on.
Yes that's probably the biggest unmentioned benefit of not being an employee. When you see management leading a company down the drain, you don't have to care. If they ask my opinion about something I think is a terrible idea I will give it, but I won't volunteer if it is something outside my contract.
I saw multiple disasters in the making at an internet email provider I consulted with in 2003, and watched it implode a few years later right on schedule. I consulted at a Kleiner-Perkins funded startup with a promising idea that destroyed everything by constantly expanding the vision to compete with pretty much everyone instead of keeping a narrow focus on something that was actually achievable. That was also the only time I had negotiated stock options as part of my pay, so I took a small hit there, but there were other benefits that made it worth it - plus I'd always regretted not taking a shot with a startup back in the 90s when I was young, so I figured why not take the ride in a less risky way.
If you're an employee seeing dumbass decisions, reading headlines about your company that you know will be a big problem (imagine being a Facebook Meta employee over the last few years) or whatever that might have you pondering whether you should polish the resume, or whether the stock price will stay high long enough for you to cash in the options that were the only reason you've stuck it out this long is stress I just don't need.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
