Should you do long hours just because the company's employees do long hours?

[PerfectStorm]

No. I find refusing to do this from the off, and cheerily explaining why, nips it in the bud (all the way up to renewal, or not!)

Lives are made miserable by over-dedication to work. We do have lives as well.

You'll note that if the client makes you fill in timesheets (blah blah permies blah IR35) then they'll often tell you its an 8 hour day on there. Well, what's good for the timesheet goose...

[BolshieBastard]

Funny old world, contracting. When I worked away from home, I never had any issues regarding time and hours. Some of it was pre IR35 so there was never this nonesense anyway.

I only ever managed to bag one contract close to home which was in fact only an 8 mile journey. The 2 Project Managers I worked with were great, one a contractor, one a permie but had been a contractor.

But, the senior PM who was a permie, his first word's on meeting me were 'Oh good, a local contractor who can work long hours!' I just smiled and said I always work professionally.

I never did work 'long' hours and they extended me twice to project delivery.

[Surrey Contractor]

I worked on one contract pretty much doing from 7am to 10pm(Covered APAC/EMEA and the company was based in the US) and weekends on a massive program of work and delivered and then got screwed over because of politics and didn't get the hours back for weekends because I was committed to delivering the project. And I feel like a fool for doing it.
Never again.

[Old Greg]

No. I find refusing to do this from the off, and cheerily explaining why, nips it in the bud (all the way up to renewal, or not!)

Lives are made miserable by over-dedication to work. We do have lives as well.

You'll note that if the client makes you fill in timesheets (blah blah permies blah IR35) then they'll often tell you its an 8 hour day on there. Well, what's good for the timesheet goose...

8 hours? Screw that - 8 is an exception when things are super busy.

[GhostofTarbera]

8 hours? Screw that - 8 is an exception when things are super busy.

I can do 8 if 3 of them are in the pub talking about work


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[WTFH]

I can do 8 if 3 of them are in the pub talking about work

Are the other 5 in the pub NOT talking about work?

[edison]

I worked on one contract pretty much doing from 7am to 10pm(Covered APAC/EMEA and the company was based in the US) and weekends on a massive program of work and delivered and then got screwed over because of politics and didn't get the hours back for weekends because I was committed to delivering the project. And I feel like a fool for doing it.
Never again.

Why did you assume you would be getting any hours 'back'? What was written in your contract in terms of working hours? Did it say that weekends would also be billable? It's usually a bland statement about 'a professional working day'...

It's surely one of the first things you would check in a contract - what work/time is billable to the client?

if you didn't then I think you were being rather naive.

[PerfectStorm]

Made a right impression by my last hiring manager - in an office full of presentees, I'd leave at 4:40PM every day to get the 5PM train.

I was coming in at 8:30 so I said I wasn't leaving early, if anything it was 10 minutes additional work I was giving them every day!

He was flabbergasted.