Banking contract - 7 days per week billing ok?

[Scrag Meister]

You prob need to check the contract thoroughly and also speak to your sponsor at ClientCo.

My contract states no overtime, but if I get approval for necessary weekend work I can get it signed and paid for.

If you work all these weekends are you expecting to end the project earlier than the contract stipulates?

[psychocandy]

10-12 hour days 7 days a week - and he wants to do that !!!!!!

Is it me or is there something not right about this attitude? Dont get me wrong if the work is there and needs to be done so be it but wanting to do it because you can...

Surely you dont need the money that badly? You wont have time to spend it anyway.

(Also, see scragmeisters sig above - spot on!)

[northernladuk]

10-12 hour days 7 days a week - and he wants to do that !!!!!!

Is it me or is there something not right about this attitude? Dont get me wrong if the work is there and needs to be done so be it but wanting to do it because you can...

Surely you dont need the money that badly? You wont have time to spend it anyway.

(Also, see scragmeisters sig above - spot on!)

Nothing wrong with this attitude if needs must. I did 7 days a week at every opportunity when I moved to Manchester and renting. Didn't know many people so not much of a social life and wanted to get deposit up to buy a house asap rather than rent. Opportunity came up so did it for 6 months and made most of the deposit required. Got me on the housing ladder through a bit of hard work.

I would agree if this is the OP's general outlook however. My stint was bloody hard on me and the lack of social life and would not do it again unless no other choice but glad I did it.

I just think OP is new to contracting, has dollar signs spinning in his eyes and is being greedy IMO. Reality would be a different thing.

[BlasterBates]

Yea, I was thinking along the same lines. There is something to be done in 4 man days. I'll do it on Thu-Fri-Sat-Sun. And bill 4 days.

Or maybe I manage to finish it on Thu-Fri. I still bill 4 days.

Is the typical contractor work in banks - say Citi, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Goldman, UBS etc very "do this much work in these many man days" oriented?

Or is it that the team is generally working towards getting to a goal 5 months down the line and there is not too much break down in terms of tasks which are a week or so in size?

Yes there will be an estimate in man days, but they will be planning you to deliver something in several months, and they have a budget, if you work 7 days a week, you will use the budget up too quickly and you won´t be around to support delivery. That´s why you would need approval from the PM. Unless you´re close to delivery I doubt they´d agree to it. At the bank I work in, they never ask me to come in at the weekend, that´s what permies do.

I would just ride with the tide and offer to work weekends once you´re useful, because at the beginning you´ll just be an expensive burden. Of course you will have something to do on day one but your productivity will be a tenth of the experienced guys in the project.

[Optimus Prime]

If you work all these weekends are you expecting to end the project earlier than the contract stipulates?

My contract is an year long. So the end is a while away. But well, what software project ends before time? There always seems to be something left to do.

10-12 hour days 7 days a week - and he wants to do that !!!!!!

Is it me or is there something not right about this attitude? Dont get me wrong if the work is there and needs to be done so be it but wanting to do it because you can...

Surely you dont need the money that badly? You wont have time to spend it anyway.

(Also, see scragmeisters sig above - spot on!)

Nothing wrong with this attitude if needs must. I did 7 days a week at every opportunity when I moved to Manchester and renting. Didn't know many people so not much of a social life and wanted to get deposit up to buy a house asap rather than rent. Opportunity came up so did it for 6 months and made most of the deposit required. Got me on the housing ladder through a bit of hard work.

I would agree if this is the OP's general outlook however. My stint was bloody hard on me and the lack of social life and would not do it again unless no other choice but glad I did it.

I just think OP is new to contracting, has dollar signs spinning in his eyes and is being greedy IMO. Reality would be a different thing.

Call it greed or whatever. What I do not intend to do is rip off the client. Being here for a while, making good contacts and learning a lot is important to me. While at it, I'd want to offer to work all the time that can be billed when there is work available to be done. Just because I am happy to do the extra time and others who have their family, social life and old age issues (ok, kidding on that) to consider doesn't make me greedy. I'm guessing most of you did it back in the day when you were putting together money for the home, warchest, car, wife, kids. Once you have that sorted out, you take it a bit easy. Me being a bachelor and in mid twenties, I have time that I'd like to best utilize for profit.

Yes there will be an estimate in man days, but they will be planning you to deliver something in several months, and they have a budget, if you work 7 days a week, you will use the budget up too quickly and you won´t be around to support delivery. That´s why you would need approval from the PM. Unless you´re close to delivery I doubt they´d agree to it. At the bank I work in, they never ask me to come in at the weekend, that´s what permies do.

I would just ride with the tide and offer to work weekends once you´re useful, because at the beginning you´ll just be an expensive burden. Of course you will have something to do on day one but your productivity will be a tenth of the experienced guys in the project.

Ah. The point about the fixed budget makes sense. Offering to work on weekends when there is clarity on work to be done is indeed what I intend to do.

[BlasterBates]

Ah. The point about the fixed budget makes sense. Offering to work on weekends when there is clarity on work to be done is indeed what I intend to do.

If you are new to the project, no there won´t be much clarity, though there is a well defined business objective, plus there is a timeline which you can´t shorten, testing will not be driven by you. Therefore your idea you´ll do a deliverable independently is probably not workable. They´ll usually prefer you to stick to a 5 day week, rather than spend lots of time at the beginning delivering something that then has to be reworked, because the requirements have changed.

No harm in asking though.

[d000hg]

I think what OP is offering is much more suited to a freelancing type model where you work offsite to your own schedule - i.e. you actually do all the things you try to be able to do for IR35. As a freelancer you might work 7pm-3am and work 7 days a week, all that matters is you deliver - you might provide a log of the number of hours worked but not a timesheet in the same way.