New to contracting - Whats a reasonable number of contracted hours?

[mrtuk]

Hi,

About to embark on my first contract after many years as a perm. The role is in IT at a bank, but after getting through the interviews and agreeing the day rate, I have been put in touch with one of the banks PSL consultancies for onboarding. The initial contract they have supplied references an 'estimated 50 hours per week' and '10 hour professional day'. Wondering if this is common - was expecting it to be 8 hour professional day (i.e. generally 8 hours, but sometimes longer days as required), so not sure what to do?

I will ask them to update to say 40/week (8/day), but not sure where to go if they then push back??

Thoughts?

[malvolio]

Hi,

About to embark on my first contract after many years as a perm. The role is in IT at a bank, but after getting through the interviews and agreeing the day rate, I have been put in touch with one of the banks PSL consultancies for onboarding. The initial contract they have supplied references an 'estimated 50 hours per week' and '10 hour professional day'. Wondering if this is common - was expecting it to be 8 hour professional day (i.e. generally 8 hours, but sometimes longer days as required), so not sure what to do?

I will ask them to update to say 40/week (8/day), but not sure where to go if they then push back??

Thoughts?

If you're genuinely on a professional working day the number of hours doesn't matter. If you expect to work to a clock, or get paid for any over your "standard" then it might. How you go forward rather depends on understanding the difference between the two and agreeing which applies. Also, one key point of being a contractor is that you are there to deliver things, not work a number of hours.

But, to be fair, 10 hour days in finance aren't all that uncommon.

[MrMarkyMark]

If you're genuinely on a professional working day the number of hours doesn't matter. If you expect to work to a clock, or get paid for any over your "standard" then it might. How you go forward rather depends on understanding the difference between the two and agreeing which applies. Also, one key point of being a contractor is that you are there to deliver things, not work a number of hours.

But, to be fair, 10 hour days in finance aren't all that uncommon.

Written into the contract, they are not.

I have worked in IB for 7 years and I have never had a contract that stipulates 10 hour days.

Of course when the situation has arisen, only on a couple of projects I might add, I have done above 10 hours on a few occasions. Obviously, there was a bit of flexibility later, from the client, with getting some of the time back.

[LondonManc]

I've worked in FS for many years; typically 40-45 hour weeks, with 4 or 5 silly weeks in every 18 months. I consider that as my marketing budget

[malvolio]

Written into the contract, they are not.

I have worked in IB for 7 years and I have never had a contract that stipulates 10 hour days.

Of course when the situation has arisen, only on a couple of projects I might add, I have done above 10 hours on a few occasions. Obviously, there was a bit of flexibility later, from the client, with getting some of the time back.

Depends on how you look at it. My last three City-based gigs worked out at 13 hours a day every day, if you include there and back as part of the day which, given I' do some work on the train, is not unreasonable.

However the OP needs to read his contract properly (o get someone qualified to read it for him). What I think they are saying is that his PWD is 10 hours, not that his mandatory working day is 10 hours, so anything less than that gets the day rate. Anything over that either isn't paid or is covered somewhere else.

But all said and done, we are there to meet the client's needs, and that includes how much effort we put in to deliver the objective. As I said, how many hours - 4 or 14 - is not actually relevant.

[Lance]

Hi,

About to embark on my first contract after many years as a perm. The role is in IT at a bank, but after getting through the interviews and agreeing the day rate, I have been put in touch with one of the banks PSL consultancies for onboarding. The initial contract they have supplied references an 'estimated 50 hours per week' and '10 hour professional day'. Wondering if this is common - was expecting it to be 8 hour professional day (i.e. generally 8 hours, but sometimes longer days as required), so not sure what to do?

I will ask them to update to say 40/week (8/day), but not sure where to go if they then push back??

As I work in IT I work when the work is required to be done. If that's a 50hr week then so be it.
But I've never had a contract that had me down for more than 40hrs.

If I was expected, by contract, to do 50 hours I'd want to be on an hourly rate rather than a day rate.
If however it's just a professional working day I'd get the agent to remove the hours from the contract.

I regularly work more than that, and regularly work less than that. So it works out for me but I don't have to follow a contracted number as high as that.

[MrMarkyMark]

Depends on how you look at it. My last three City-based gigs worked out at 13 hours a day every day, if you include there and back as part of the day which, given I' do some work on the train, is not unreasonable.

However the OP needs to read his contract properly (o get someone qualified to read it for him). What I think they are saying is that his PWD is 10 hours, not that his mandatory working day is 10 hours, so anything less than that gets the day rate. Anything over that either isn't paid or is covered somewhere else.

But all said and done, we are there to meet the client's needs, and that includes how much effort we put in to deliver the objective. As I said, how many hours - 4 or 14 - is not actually relevant.

We were specifically talking about what is written into the contract though.

Agree totally with your 2nd point, however.
As stated I usually do a PWD of around 8 hours, although if I do 5 I still get paid a full day.
Obviously, extra will be done if urgently required, although this isn't often.

[malvolio]

As I work in IT I work when the work is required to be done. If that's a 50hr week then so be it.
But I've never had a contract that had me down for more than 40hrs.

If I was expected, by contract, to do 50 hours I'd want to be on an hourly rate rather than a day rate.
If however it's just a professional working day I'd get the agent to remove the hours from the contract.

I regularly work more than that, and regularly work less than that. So it works out for me but I don't have to follow a contracted number as high as that.

But it doesn't say (or appears not to say) that you are required to work a 50 hour week/10 hour day, only that 10 hours is the upper boundary of your working day at a professional day rate. In other words, any time worked between 0 and 10 hours will attract the same payment. Over 10 hours and something else will apply, although you haven't seen (or been told) what that might be.

As I said, get someone who is an expert on such things to read it. What else haven't you fully understood?

[mrtuk]

I've worked in FS for many years; typically 40-45 hour weeks, with 4 or 5 silly weeks in every 18 months. I consider that as my marketing budget

Yep - I have worked in an IB as a perm for many years, and typically do this also. I am absolutely OK with doing longer days when required, but just not keen on the contract stating it's a 50 hour week ... that's 25% more than I was expecting when I negotiated the rate.

[malvolio]

Yep - I have worked in an IB as a perm for many years, and typically do this also. I am absolutely OK with doing longer days when required, but just not keen on the contract stating it's a 50 hour week ... that's 25% more than I was expecting when I negotiated the rate.

But that's not what it says. Read my earlier post.