Taking time out from contract

[cityben]

Hi All

Looking for a bit of advice for a relatively new contractor.

I'm currently in 3rd month of 12 month contract. As is my right, I've also been working on a few projects with other clients in my spare time. However, there could be a situation whereby a bigger project lands and it'll need more time than evenings and weekends.

So, this would mean I need to take time out from my contract. Holiday if you will, although I appreciate holidays are for perms etc (before I get pounced on!). I anticipate it being around 2, maybe 3 weeks and it'd be pretty soon, so I wouldn't be giving a lot of notice.

I'm also talking to another client where I might need to go into there office once or twice a fortnight which would mean further time away.

The contract where I am at isn't crazy busy, quite slower to what I'm used to so personally, I don't think me being away would be a major impact.

My contract stays 7.5 hrs per day, 37.5 hrs per week (contract has been reviewed by the way).

What would you guys do? I'm interested to understand what would be classed as bad form as I want to keep a good reputation with both the client and agency.

Thanks

[northernladuk]

Your client has engaged you full time for a long period but now you are looking to juggle your time between potentially three gigs without consent from your current client? You are asking if this is bad form? I'd walk you the minute I find out.

You signed a full time contract to deliver something specific and it's now your obligation to deliver it. All this extra clients thing should have been cleared first. Switch it the other way around. How much would a contractor bitch if the client started pissing him about with odd weeks off here and there with no notice.

IMO you have two choices. Obviously sit down with the client and explain the situation and see if you can work something out. Make sure you clear your desk before you go in though. There is a very very slight chance this might work for your client if the work has dried up for a period. You are on site and you should be able to judge this by now. You forget to comment on your work load at your current client by the way which is key.
The other is to give notice on the contract, offer him another one on a consultancy basis inline with your other clients and see if he accepts or not.

Don't get me wrong, I think you are doing the right thing building a base of clients that you can do call off work like this. Keep this up you could require a second body and start an actual consultancy. Something 99% of would like to do and cant. I think in this case you have potentially screwed your client over and may have to just swallow the consequences. In the long run might not be too much of a hiccup.

Oh.. you could also train a subbie up in your own time and offer this to the client in your periods of absence but good luck with that.

[cityben]

Thanks for the advice. I do see your points.

The thing is, I didn't know I would get this much extra work when I started contract.

The projects that I'm working on are a few rather than just one and as I said it's quite slow. I often find myself trying to keep myself busy which is why I said it may not be a problem.

I'm not arguing, just asking but how does this differ from taking a holiday? Is it just the notice?

Nothing has been done yet. Just considering my options.

Would you recommend talking to agency or end client? Obviously the contract is with the agency.

[Antman]

Your client has engaged you full time for a long period but now you are looking to juggle your time between potentially three gigs without consent from your current client? You are asking if this is bad form? I'd walk you the minute I find out.

You signed a full time contract to deliver something specific and it's now your obligation to deliver it. All this extra clients thing should have been cleared first. Switch it the other way around. How much would a contractor bitch if the client started pissing him about with odd weeks off here and there with no notice.

IMO you have two choices. Obviously sit down with the client and explain the situation and see if you can work something out. Make sure you clear your desk before you go in though. There is a very very slight chance this might work for your client if the work has dried up for a period. You are on site and you should be able to judge this by now. You forget to comment on your work load at your current client by the way which is key.
The other is to give notice on the contract, offer him another one on a consultancy basis inline with your other clients and see if he accepts or not.

Don't get me wrong, I think you are doing the right thing building a base of clients that you can do call off work like this. Keep this up you could require a second body and start an actual consultancy. Something 99% of would like to do and cant. I think in this case you have potentially screwed your client over and may have to just swallow the consequences. In the long run might not be too much of a hiccup.

Oh.. you could also train a subbie up in your own time and offer this to the client in your periods of absence but good luck with that.

Disagree. References to 'full-time' 12 month contract would apply to permies not businesses brought in to produce deliverables. If you have the bandwidth to do additional work without it impacting what you deliver then the client shouldn't care. OP said that he is managing current workload fine.

However that might change as OP said that they are not overly busy at the mo. I think that you need to understand how much you are going to be needed over the coming months and taking it from there.

But walking you off the site because you have another client? LOL, you'll be telling us that you've walked people off for less.

[Danglekt]

I've done it - but it was a few days, not three weeks.

[tvr450]

I have done it, I had a major programme to write for client number two. I did it in evenings / weekends, but in the end called in sick to client number one for three days to get the work completed.

[northernladuk]

Thanks for the advice. I do see your points.

The thing is, I didn't know I would get this much extra work when I started contract.

The projects that I'm working on are a few rather than just one and as I said it's quite slow. I often find myself trying to keep myself busy which is why I said it may not be a problem.

I'm not arguing, just asking but how does this differ from taking a holiday? Is it just the notice?

Nothing has been done yet. Just considering my options.

Would you recommend talking to agency or end client? Obviously the contract is with the agency.

It is but the work delivered and possibly impacted is the clients. Leave the agency out of this for now IMO. Forget the term holiday, that's a permie term. You are unavailable. The reasons don't matter. All that matters is you are unavailable to work for the client for x period.

[northernladuk]

Disagree. References to 'full-time' 12 month contract would apply to permies not businesses brought in to produce deliverables.

That distinction is for HMRC to decide your tax situation so irrelevant in this situation. I see what you mean by deliverables but you could argue if it's stated 5 days per week for a year in your contract that is part of the deliverables. There is also that fact that this is a lovely concept but in 99% of cases the client doesn't understand this.

If you have the bandwidth to do additional work without it impacting what you deliver then the client shouldn't care. OP said that he is managing current workload fine.

He is managing it fine while he is there as the client requires. If he can take three weeks off and not impact the client I think the client has planned it very badly. It's one thing having a bit of a slack time but it's another getting a client to plan their work around your extra work activities, particularly if they are going to be ad hoc and at short notice. This is not what as agree in the contract and is highly likely not what the client was expecting. What if it turns out to be more than three weeks, what happens if it's going to be another two weeks shortly after yadda yadda.

However that might change as OP said that they are not overly busy at the mo. I think that you need to understand how much you are going to be needed over the coming months and taking it from there.

But walking you off the site because you have another client? LOL, you'll be telling us that you've walked people off for less.

I engaged a supplier because of a demand I had and we agreed common terms. If my supplier suddenly rocks up and advises he has other work commitments that will pop up whenever at short notice then he becomes unreliable and huge risk to my project. What if I swallow this and then the other work ramps up? I'm going to be 6 months plus in to a gig that could become critical with a supplier that just buggers off when he feels like it. 2 months is short enough to mitigate the risk by removing that supplier and getting one in that will honour his commitment. I'm not about to start managing him on a day to day basis because of commitments that weren't made clear at the beginning. Pretty clear cut to me.

BTW I've seen contractors binned because the rocked up and slapped holiday requirements on the clients desk in the first week that clash with key dates in the project and he's been walked/chose to walk that day. Is that less? I'd say it's pretty key.

Maybe I'm being a bit tougher than most on this one, there maybe some wiggle room and negotiation but it's most certainly not a given, particularly on the terms the OP is talking about.

[Antman]

That distinction is for HMRC to decide your tax situation so irrelevant in this situation. I see what you mean by deliverables but you could argue if it's stated 5 days per week for a year in your contract that is part of the deliverables. There is also that fact that this is a lovely concept but in 99% of cases the client doesn't understand this.



He is managing it fine while he is there as the client requires. If he can take three weeks off and not impact the client I think the client has planned it very badly. It's one thing having a bit of a slack time but it's another getting a client to plan their work around your extra work activities, particularly if they are going to be ad hoc and at short notice. This is not what as agree in the contract and is highly likely not what the client was expecting. What if it turns out to be more than three weeks, what happens if it's going to be another two weeks shortly after yadda yadda.



I engaged a supplier because of a demand I had and we agreed common terms. If my supplier suddenly rocks up and advises he has other work commitments that will pop up whenever at short notice then he becomes unreliable and huge risk to my project. What if I swallow this and then the other work ramps up? I'm going to be 6 months plus in to a gig that could become critical with a supplier that just buggers off when he feels like it. 2 months is short enough to mitigate the risk by removing that supplier and getting one in that will honour his commitment. I'm not about to start managing him on a day to day basis because of commitments that weren't made clear at the beginning. Pretty clear cut to me.

BTW I've seen contractors binned because the rocked up and slapped holiday requirements on the clients desk in the first week that clash with key dates in the project and he's been walked/chose to walk that day. Is that less? I'd say it's pretty key.

Maybe I'm being a bit tougher than most on this one, there maybe some wiggle room and negotiation but it's most certainly not a given, particularly on the terms the OP is talking about.

That's a great deliverable, sitting in a seat for 12 months. "The client is not obliged to supply a seat to be warmed nor is the supplier obliged to warm the seat if it is offered".
No one's talking about leaving people in the lurch or expecting to have their workload with additional clients accomodated, it's finding out what the lay of the land is, at some clients it's an easy ride and as long as you deliver you've got additional time in a day. Other places it's a no-no.

Myself, I'm jealous of the opportunity as I'd love to get out of the seat-warming model, so I may be overly optimistic I'll admit, but to the OP good luck, he who dares Rodders, he who dares.

[northernladuk]

That's a great deliverable, sitting in a seat for 12 months. "The client is not obliged to supply a seat to be warmed nor is the supplier obliged to warm the seat if it is offered".

Part of the deliverable are the timescales surely?

No one's talking about leaving people in the lurch or expecting to have their workload with additional clients accomodated, it's finding out what the lay of the land is, at some clients it's an easy ride and as long as you deliver you've got additional time in a day. Other places it's a no-no.

Myself, I'm jealous of the opportunity as I'd love to get out of the seat-warming model, so I may be overly optimistic I'll admit, but to the OP good luck, he who dares Rodders, he who dares.

I don't deny that. It would be good and certainly get HMRC off your back to boot. I'm playing devils advocate from the clients perspective and it's all about detail, much of which is missing. Not many of them would share this multi client vision we desire.