Day Rate + Work hour expectations

[PurpleGorilla]

This is my experience more or less. Usually I aim to have some sort of a definition of "professional work day" like 8h or so and base my daily rate on that. If someone expects me to work 10h/day on a regular basis i have no problem with that as long as the daily rate is right, I'm not a charity after all.

This is why I prefer hourly rate.

[SarahL2012]

Current client has been the only one who has given me problems with number of hours worked. They dropped another contractor then told me I needed to work overtime to do the work because they were 'paying me enough'. We didn't manage the solve that one so are parting company shortly!!

[BigRed]

I think comments on here are often specific to a role so I'll state that I'm a production DBA.

I've worked in permanent roles where the culture was long hours and ignored it.
In my contracts I explain that I have a long enough day with the travelling and they should only expect 7-8hrs.

If there is something which I think is important I will promise to look at it in the evening after I get home. If it's a real crisis I will stay and work on it. When I work on it from home I will send an email summarizing the situation before I go to bed. I will normally turn in late the following day or tell them I'll work from home.

Note that missing some arbitrary deadline set by an arse of a PM that requires the whole team to work over the weekend to make him look good is not a good reason to put the hours in.

At the end of the day, if you do a good job and hit the deadlines YOU have committed to they accept you.

[fool]

So for all you folks doing extra hours when you have a bad day, do you go home early when you have a good day?

[WTFH]

So for all you folks doing extra hours when you have a bad day, do you go home early when you have a good day?

Sometimes (frequently) working extra hours is because it's a good day.

I'm a contractor, not a clock watcher.

[northernladuk]

I think comments on here are often specific to a role so I'll state that I'm a production DBA.

I've worked in permanent roles where the culture was long hours and ignored it.
In my contracts I explain that I have a long enough day with the travelling and they should only expect 7-8hrs.

If there is something which I think is important I will promise to look at it in the evening after I get home. If it's a real crisis I will stay and work on it. When I work on it from home I will send an email summarizing the situation before I go to bed. I will normally turn in late the following day or tell them I'll work from home.

Note that missing some arbitrary deadline set by an arse of a PM that requires the whole team to work over the weekend to make him look good is not a good reason to put the hours in.

At the end of the day, if you do a good job and hit the deadlines YOU have committed to they accept you.

+1 Nice post.

[oliverson]

I take the attitude of "I'm paid to deliver". Most of the time I can deliver based on an 8-9 hour day. Sometimes that goes over 10 hours at times of higher pressure. If it hits 12 hours then I'll make sure the client/agent is aware and we sort out a deal on it. If I'm staying in a hotel and have nothing better to do, then I don't mind as much.
Most clients are flexible on that one. e.g. "you worked 10 hour days Tues-Thurs, so go home at lunch on Friday and bill us for a full day."

Talking out of your backside. In almost 12 years of contracting and most of that in the London Investment Banking sector I've never met a single individual who's worked those kind of hours. Never. Not one. What are you? Some kind of junior doctor. lol.

Anybody who claims to work in excess of maybe 9 hours on a regular basis is either completely useless at their role, spineless at their inability to stand up to their clients demands, a permie in disguise or deluding themselves that anything they do after say 8 hours is in any way effective. We're human beings not machines.

[thelastrosbif]

PWD or until the required work is completed. I'm there to provide a service or product, and if there is no more work to be done regarding that then I don't really want to be around scratching my arse to make up the hours! Permies work shifts, contractors work only when necessary

[LucidDementia]

Anybody who claims to work in excess of maybe 9 hours on a regular basis is either completely useless at their role, spineless at their inability to stand up to their clients demands, a permie in disguise or deluding themselves that anything they do after say 8 hours is in any way effective.

Or they're businesspeople. Who know what that really means.

My last project I did 90 hours weeks for at least a month if not two. The project needed it, I was remunerated handsomely, that's business.

[monkeypaw]

I think comments on here are often specific to a role so I'll state that I'm a production DBA.

I've worked in permanent roles where the culture was long hours and ignored it.
In my contracts I explain that I have a long enough day with the travelling and they should only expect 7-8hrs.

If there is something which I think is important I will promise to look at it in the evening after I get home. If it's a real crisis I will stay and work on it. When I work on it from home I will send an email summarizing the situation before I go to bed. I will normally turn in late the following day or tell them I'll work from home.

Note that missing some arbitrary deadline set by an arse of a PM that requires the whole team to work over the weekend to make him look good is not a good reason to put the hours in.

At the end of the day, if you do a good job and hit the deadlines YOU have committed to they accept you.

I'm a software engineer so quite closely aligned with yourself, your post makes a lot of sense.

So for all you folks doing extra hours when you have a bad day, do you go home early when you have a good day?

I like the core theory of this argument, and it's one of the reasons I've made the transition. Permanent staff are often slavers that are rarely remunerated, hero syndrome inflicts it on colleagues too, as soon as someone starts being the hero working late etc it's only a race to the bottom for all involved. With contracting I'm hoping to establish much stronger boundaries, whilst of course delivering on the job.

Some great replies, thanks all!