My boss is a b&llsh!tter extrordinaire and the client I work on appears to have finally seen through him and has stopped giving us work. Apparently this is no accident. I've already asked to be able to work on other clients so I can get away from this guy but frankly we're not that busy at the moment and I'm not sure there's enough work to justify keeping me. It looks unlikely we'll get much more work from this client.

When we found this out yesterday I remarked that our jobs were clearly at threat, mine particularly because I was brought in solely to work with this client, but received no reassurance whatsoever that I shouldn't worry about this.

So I was going to speak to the Head of Department to find out what opportunities could be available to me if this client leaves us but not sure how to go about it. Obviously I doubt he'd want to make me any promises, it would be unfair to expect him to when we're suffering as much as we are from the downturn. Basically I'm thinking of going freelance again which I've done before but don't want to leave if a) I can get another role here or b) may get a redundancy cheque. Although I've only been here a year so this won't even buy me a new bike frame!

Any thoughts, particularly on how to approach our Head Of Dept?

Ta

If your client is happy with your work and is just hacked off with your boss he may be interested in giving you some work on a freelance basis or even taking you on to the staff.
Would your clinet be worth approaching for any opportunities there?

as wombat says, Id certainly be investigating that angle myself, especially as you have the confidence and experience of having been freelance in the past.

They're on my mental list of people to look to for work. They've been very happy with the work I've done directly with them. I'm not sure where I stand with regards to the non-compete clause in my contract if I've been made redundant tho

I'm not sure those non-compete clauses are actually that legal to be honest and if they do make you redundant I'm not sure there are many tribunals out there that would find for the employer.

Agree with Stumpyjohn, as I see it if you've been made redundant then you can go work where you like, especially as the whole premice of redundancy is that there isn't the work there for you at that organisation.

non-compete would be unenforceable if you were made redundant.

You might have to be a little more cicumspect if you were to actively seeking to work for a client at least until the client disinstructed your employer first.

Make sure that if you do end working for the client on a freelance basis that you keep formal records of dates fo meetings/discussions etc. to show that you approached them after they stopped placing work with your employer. With regards to non-compete I would say it's not worth anything if you are made redundant.