Someone should be managing them and telling them what is and is not OK to do. If it’s OK to do, the manager can explain why to the OP. If they’ve been told mu

Someone should be managing them and telling them what is and is not OK to do. If it’s OK to do, the manager can explain why to the OP. If they’ve been told multiple times not to do someyting and won’t listen, firing is in order. If they haven’t been told they need to be told. If what they’re doing is right (which may be subjective anyway or subject to conditions the contractors don’t know about), either the person managing them will or won’t agree. If they do agree, the manager can explain that to the OP. If they don’t agree, then the manager and OP are jointly wrong; but if the contractors continue to make changes when the manager asks them not to, that probably means they’re not a good fit and shouldn’t try to work together - that is, the contractor should be fired. A contractor or employee who does things repeatedly when you’ve explicitly told them not to (and ideally explained why not) is counterproductive and should not be kept around. What it comes down to is that someone is responsible for making the decision about whether what the contractors are doing is OK. That person needs to hear what the contractors are doing and why the OP thinks it’s not ok, so they can either make it clear to the contractors that and why it’s not ok or make it clear to the OP that and why it is ok. If the OP is the one managing the contractors, then they need to make it clear to the contractors that and why they don’t think this behavior is ok. If it continues nonetheless, they need to make a decision whether they’re willing to continue to work with someone who repeatedly ignores directions. Yes, the contractors are human beings and not robots. Taking initiative can be great; but also always risks that your initiative will run contrary to someone else’s idea of how something should be done. Nor is taking initiative synonymous with asking forgiveness instead of permission. Having aspirations and initiative doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to act contrary to your managers’ instructions in the workplace, or that you can expect to continue to be employed if you do so repeatedly.