Forced holiday over Xmas

[sal]

Got to laugh my mammary glands off at contractors who get indignant at being made to take 2 weeks off at Christmas (seriously, who wants to work at Christmas unless its to be paid for doing nowt?) but then get all arsey when client say no to leave at important points in a project.

Myself, I always took time off from around 19 \ 20 December to 5 \ 6 January but then again, I never took time off during contracts.

+1

If you can't survive 2 weeks without pay, while enjoying x-mas you need to either up your rate or cut your expenses.

[TheFaQQer]

I disagree. I think it's a helpful pointer in terms of MOO. It shows that the client aren't obliged to provide work and can tell you not to work if they don't need you.

A very strong pointer to not being a disguised employee IMO.

Surely taking extended time off around Christmas is one of the perks of running your own business? I'm taking December off.

Can it be an IR35 pointer if they treat all non-essential staff the same?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Can it be an IR35 pointer if they treat all non-essential staff the same?

I guess it depends on the status of those staff. They may well tell certain employees not to work but they would presumably still have to pay them their usual salary, which isn't the same as telling a contractor not to work and them not getting paid, obviously.

[JRCT]

+1

If you can't survive 2 weeks without pay, while enjoying x-mas you need to either up your rate or cut your expenses.

In all fairness, I can sympathise with the OP a little bit on this.

I think when you first start contracting and your rate is substantially more than your previous permie salary (which was the case for me, certainly), then your brain automatically calculates how much you 'won't be earning' for those two weeks.

After a few years of doing this, I appreciate more that I've earned this much for the other 40+ weeks of the year to allow me to have this time off and enjoy it as you suggest.

[kevpuk]

Sure OP could get a JSA claim in.....available for work, but none forthcoming?

[northernladuk]

I disagree. I think it's a helpful pointer in terms of MOO. It shows that the client aren't obliged to provide work and can tell you not to work if they don't need you.

A very strong pointer to not being a disguised employee IMO.

Surely taking extended time off around Christmas is one of the perks of running your own business? I'm taking December off.

Sorry I disagree. He says non essential staff which includes Permies so isn't really a differentiator or MOO. its a common thing that happens at virtually all Permies and contractors so such a minor point it's not worth considering.

We could also get in to the argument that MOO is about next work after the contract and not within it.

[SteelyDan]

Whilst contracting, one client said, please take two weeks off. I did try to say I was busy because of Project xyz but they said no please take two weeks off to save costs etc. Fair enough then up to you, so I went and signed on that afternoon

FTFY

[turbowoowoo]

Worked for Thomson Reuters who had the contractor furlough and this was ONLY for contractors.

Therefore it does help with IR35 status sometimes.

If you are on a critical project which requires an exemption then you can and probably will be forced to work that period, but as people have said already, its a great perk of being a flexible supplier.

[BlasterBates]

I hear on the grapevine RBS will be forcing ALL contractors to take from the 12th December till the 5th Jan this year

!!!!

Sounds like a gr8 reason to work for them....

[Batcher]

I know they say non-essential staff but I don't know of any permies who are forced to take the two weeks off. I'm not sure it would be allowed to force permies to take two weeks of their holiday entitlement at that time of year.