I did a 7 year stint as a contractor in which I worked at 7 different places, plus multiple smaller ad-hoc projects. Most contracts started with 1-3 month engagements. Most were also extended multiple times. But I never made any assumptions about extensions.

Knowing that I was only ever going to be somewhere short term made it a while lot easier to be be fully honest with people, instead of just telling them what I thought they wanted to hear. I found it put me in a great position to point out problems or give advice and recommendations for improvements based on my experience without any worries about upsetting anyone who was personally invested in the existing status quo. Because the consequences of the personal relationships weren't so critical, I would be leaving anyway

Knowing I was only there temporarily also made me much more conscious of writing up or handing over knowledge of the things I worked on. I always tried to make sure I was building up the client to succeed after I left.

I always wanted to do a great job, so doing something poorly because I didn't have any long term consequences was never really a factor. Many clients reached out and offered repeat business too, so the lack of long term consequences isn't really true anyway. If you do a good job, it adds to your future revenue stream.

I try to carry this mentality forward now I've returned to more conventional employment. Being honest about improvements needed, and working to help the team succeed in the long term.

ha, love to see this so pragmatically written