Overemployment / working two FT contracts at the same time?

[jamesbrown]

The assertion is that Jonny Big Balls is such a terrifically skilled chap he can do his entire professional working day's work in the morning then another in the afternoon.
Now there are doubtless contracts where you can get away with that if you're good and they don't have particularly high expectations or pay much attention but the point is you are paid for your professional working day i.e. what you can do in a day. If that's twice what someone else can do, that's why you're a great person to hire.
If I hire a painter who is expensive but very good and fast, I don't expect them to bill me for a day and only do 3 hours "because I'm twice as fast" that's priced in to their rate.

Exactly. For T&M contracts on a daily rate, which seems like a majority of IT contracts at least, that is what they are paying for. Of course, if you want to be transparent about it and tell them (you should do) and they remain happy, then it's all good. For FFP contracts, it's a completely different story and it's easy to do those in any combination you want, which is one reason I prefer them, but you need to be half-decent at estimating.

[d000hg]

I have effectively done 2 near FT contracts before but that was a case of knackering myself in a "make hay while the sun shines" situation, and when 2 part-time (hourly rate freelance) roles basically expanded to full-time and I didn't want to drop one!
It wasn't great but lots of people work 80 hours a week and few of them get paid double for it so one shouldn't complain.

[TheGreenBastard]

But even if I was, it's pretty obvious a client pays a reasonable amount for an expected output. You can build in some efficiency being really good yes but if the client is getting a certain output for half what they think they are paying then there is a problem. If any supplier comes on and has over quoted by 100% they'd be out the door in a shot. I am sure there is scope to spend 10, 20 or even 30% less when delivering an outcome but that can only be realised in a fixed price piece of work. If a client is paying a day rate they expect a day regardless of delivering an outcome. They will be expecting you to deliver that outcome quicker if you are that good, not half the work.

Weird how people claim to operate as true outside IR35 contractors and have opinions like this.

A true business would arbitrage their efficiency with deliverables - to me it's synonymous with negotiating fixed price work, if you're a good negotiator and manage to bag a 60K quote for 20K's worth of work, all the power to you, nothing "immoral" about it.

80% of the time, I've got 2+ gigs (billing 10 days per week). I deliver, I get renewed, and I'm Joe Average, I really struggle to understand how people struggle to get the work done within a normal working day, and I've worked in some God awful startup environments.

[ladymuck]

Weird how people claim to operate as true outside IR35 contractors and have opinions like this.

A true business would arbitrage their efficiency with deliverables - to me it's synonymous with negotiating fixed price work, if you're a good negotiator and manage to bag a 60K quote for 20K's worth of work, all the power to you, nothing "immoral" about it.

80% of the time, I've got 2+ gigs (billing 10 days per week). I deliver, I get renewed, and I'm Joe Average, I really struggle to understand how people struggle to get the work done within a normal working day, and I've worked in some God awful startup environments.

Do you tell your clients you have multiple gigs running concurrently?

The sentiment you express is sensible for fixed price work. However it doesn't really work for a T&M contract. The expectation from the clients is that you work a full day for a full day's pay and that's the intent of the contract.

[TheGreenBastard]

Do you tell your clients you have multiple gigs running concurrently?

The sentiment you express is sensible for fixed price work. However it doesn't really work for a T&M contract. The expectation from the clients is that you work a full day for a full day's pay and that's the intent of the contract.

Why would I tell them how my business operates? Do you think that is a "gotcha"? It's just permietractor sentiment.

If we did a Venn diagram intersecting everyone's posting activities on the forum against their mythical 8 hours a day client expectation, what would we see, do you tell them you're posting here? Ironic the more outspoken anti-multigigging folk also have the highest post counts, that energy might be best served running a business and doubling your revenues.

[jamesbrown]

Do you think that is a "gotcha"? It's just permietractor sentiment.

You're only saying that because you're "scared" or, rather, certain about how your clients would react. Hiding information from clients is not how proper businesses operate, it's how chancers operate and says nothing either way about being "in-business" or "not a permietractor", only that you are crap at business. I am totally transparent with my T&M clients that I am doing parallel work, if it comes up - since I charge by the hour for T&M work, the only scenario in which it comes up is non-availability for meetings. You cannot seriously do T&M work for multiple clients if you charge for a professional day - that is for unserious people. It's obviously a non-issue with FFP work.

[TheGreenBastard]

You're only saying that because you're "scared" or, rather, certain about how your clients would react. Hiding information from clients is not how proper businesses operate, it's how chancers operate and says nothing either way about being "in-business" or "not a permietractor", only that you are crap at business. I am totally transparent with my T&M clients that I am doing parallel work, if it comes up - since I charge by the hour for T&M work, the only scenario in which it comes up is non-availability for meetings. You cannot seriously do T&M work for multiple clients if you charge for a professional day - that is for unserious people. It's obviously a non-issue with FFP work.

Scared yes I don't want to upset my slave owner. The rest of this post is basically exposing how happy you are with the power balance, i.e. having none, enjoying being incapacitated to make real business decisions, and scoffing at folk that do by calling them "chancers" or that they're "scared". Iced off with a no true Scotsman fallacy.

[jamesbrown]

Scared yes I don't want to upset my slave owner. The rest of this post is basically exposing how happy you are with the power balance, i.e. having none, enjoying being incapacitated to make real business decisions, and scoffing at folk that do by calling them "chancers" or that they're "scared". Iced off with a no true Scotsman fallacy.

Like I said, you're unserious, a joke outfit, no different than a dodgy builder . I bet you've never actually done any B2B work in your life - you're a classic BoS permietractor with eyes bigger than your stomach.

[TheGreenBastard]

Like I said, you're unserious, a joke outfit, no different than a dodgy builder . I bet you've never actually done any B2B work in your life - you're a classic BoS permietractor with eyes bigger than your stomach.

I multi-gig (including FAANG) and run a profitable SaaS, multi-gigging also accelerated my BTL, call me anything you like, those facts are immutable.

The income from 7 years multi-gigging is no joke, anyone reading this who isn't a subservient SIMP, give it a try, it might just change your life.

[jamesbrown]

a subservient SIMP

But that's exactly what you are, otherwise you'd have no problem with your pseudo-employers knowing.