Company phones, BYOD phone policies, etc

[WTFH]

Classic moving of the goalposts. My response was to the term 'Working hours', which points to employment.

Not at all. You picked up on the term "working hours", thinking you were being smart and talking about an employer's working hours. A contractor can also have working hours, such as deciding on a Friday to start at 7:30am, taking the dog for lunchtime walks, and rejecting meeting requests when they don't suit my working hours.

Just because a term means something to you doesn't mean it has the same meaning to everyone else, and remember, the person who originally used the term was talking about her choice of working hours, so your attempted gotcha kinda backfired in your face.

[ladymuck]

Classic moving of the goalposts. My response was to the term 'Working hours', which points to employment.

If someone came on here and said they switched off their phone at 5pm you and the other clowns on here who think they're some kind of authority would be shouting 'sockie' or some other nonsense term at them.

As WTFH says, working hours means the hours you choose to work. Freelancers will choose hours to suit both them and their clients and some employees work with enlightened companies who support flexi-hours and don't assume being present means being productive. It is logical that most of the time your working hours will align with traditional office hours. However, that is a not a complete given and to believe that having hours within which you typically work makes you a disguised employee is utter nonsense.

No-one here would say turning your phone off at 5pm was a bad thing. However, if you turn off your phone at 5pm but you've agreed with your client to be on call until 8pm then that would be a bad thing.

[northernladuk]

Not at all. You picked up on the term "working hours", thinking you were being smart and talking about an employer's working hours. A contractor can also have working hours, such as deciding on a Friday to start at 7:30am, taking the dog for lunchtime walks, and rejecting meeting requests when they don't suit my working hours.

Just because a term means something to you doesn't mean it has the same meaning to everyone else, and remember, the person who originally used the term was talking about her choice of working hours, so your attempted gotcha kinda backfired in your face.

And to add to that there is nothing wrong with the contractor working hours being aligned with the clients out of professional courtesy and need. No good a contractor dictating their own hours when they are a part of a team on shift or service desk hours.

[Lance]

And to add to that there is nothing wrong with the contractor working hours being aligned with the clients out of professional courtesy and need. No good a contractor dictating their own hours when they are a part of a team on shift or service desk hours.

90% of clients expect core working hours/availability of 1000 - 1600.
They also expect a 'professional working day' of effort for every day paid.

[SueEllen]

90% of clients expect core working hours/availability of 1000 - 1600.
They also expect a 'professional working day' of effort for every day paid.

90% of the clients you have had in your roles.

[ladymuck]

90% of the clients you have had in your roles.

Back when there used to be a 'Freelance Friday' meet up each month in Glasgow, I once met a couple who were Aussie freelance developers who were on a bit of a world tour. They could work anywhere, any time so were seeing various parts of the world and working at the same time. Their client at the time was in the US and really liked that the couple would do work, release it and the the company could test it etc and then leave feedback that would be magically dealt with when they got up the next day. The couple turned up in the US for a stint and their client really didn't like that they were working the same hours as them as it messed up their routine!

[d000hg]

90% of the clients you have had in your roles.

And 90% of everyone else.