Turned up for first day, then had to leave

[northernladuk]

Would have been better if they'd paid for the days sat not earning in the hotel :-)

I think I would have stayed one night then moaned on CUK and gone down the dole office.

FTFY

[d000hg]

You bill for the work you do (or turn up to site for at least). You turned up on Monday so time and effort was spent therefore billable. I would assume they do billing in half days so it would be half a day not the full one. The client has no work for you the next two days so not billable. Your contract is one of T&M and if you've spent neither there is no billing.

If you've travelled to temporary accommodation and the client is aware of this it would at the very least be terribly bad manners not to pay you at the very least your expenses. Legally perhaps not but I'm not certain - picture the situation you book flights and hotel for a contract then turn up and they say "sorry, we messed up. Bye" - it seems likely you would seek remuneration.

[northernladuk]

If you've travelled to temporary accommodation and the client is aware of this it would at the very least be terribly bad manners not to pay you at the very least your expenses. Legally perhaps not but I'm not certain - picture the situation you book flights and hotel for a contract then turn up and they say "sorry, we messed up. Bye" - it seems likely you would seek remuneration.

Yep I can understand that and this one is a little grey due to working from home arrangement but it's a fine line bringing your commuting expenses to a client. I've been at a local client that wouldn't take long distance contractors on as they've had their fair share of troubles and I've been turned down for interview by a client becasue it was a remote gig and they were worried I'd have troubles with the commute.

As you say you can always request it and see what happens and it appears in this case the client was very fair.

[psychocandy]

Yep I can understand that and this one is a little grey due to working from home arrangement but it's a fine line bringing your commuting expenses to a client. I've been at a local client that wouldn't take long distance contractors on as they've had their fair share of troubles and I've been turned down for interview by a client becasue it was a remote gig and they were worried I'd have troubles with the commute.

As you say you can always request it and see what happens and it appears in this case the client was very fair.

Yeh I've had that too. Lucky for me I only do local gigs anyway. :-)

You can see a clients point of view to be honest. Get someone in for three months doing the mon-fri thing - they get offered a gig close to home - its going to tempt a lot of people.

You mention expenses. One client I worked at had a huge project with a go live date so basically packed in the contractors. It went better than expected, so, of course, the days after although they planned to have loads of people in, they decided they could could cut back.

I knew of one guy who stayed on in a hotel for two nights more because they'd originally asked him to come in the saturday after. Of course, it went well so they didnt need him - so they asked the security guard to tell him when he came in at 6am saturday morning to go home.

Thought that was a bit tight. Personally, I'd have said, look you asked me to work, I made arrangements, I turned up as requested, so you're paying me. Not sure if he ever chased it.

[northernladuk]

Thanks for all that. Really useful