How do you deal with "it's a remote contact but... we expect everyone in the office"

[Relaxed]

Rather have it at interview than a month in to the gig TBH.

Well... if clients play that games, contractors can play too. If you reveal you are adamant to work remotely during an interview, they will swiftly switch to another candidate. But a month later they will either see you working remotely as they promised or start the whole hiring process again, loosing several weeks of time and who knows how much money. Just do not stop looking for other opportunities during your first month.

[northernladuk]

I suspect many firms to be not quite so adamant about hybrid working shortly, as big companies face gigantic energy bills soon, expect lots of large office blocks to be up for rent very soon. Though conversely I did read on LinkedIn about people wanting to get back to the office to avoid large bills at home! I took that with a pinch of salt to be fair as energy bills = commute costs (also rising). I know which one most will prefer to spend money on.

Possibly. I don't really agree as clients will already have office space on the agenda with the new ways of working and I don't think a spike in heating bills is really enough to start closing offices. We are a different breed on here and most seem to want 100% WFH but the reality is many people actually want to go back to the office. Forget heating and bills for the moment. It's what a good number of people want and employers want it as well so it's going to happen in some form. I believe it will become a highly flexible hybrid model with choice over when and where you work but some days in the office. To me that's a win win. If you've gotten complacent over lockdown and expect to be 100% for no good reason then it's your own fault if the reality check is a disappointment. There are going to be cost saving measures but I don't think there will be another seismic shift in ways of working because of office heating.

Well... if clients play that games, contractors can play too. If you reveal you are adamant to work remotely during an interview, they will swiftly switch to another candidate. But a month later they will either see you working remotely as they promised or start the whole hiring process again, loosing several weeks of time and who knows how much money. Just do not stop looking for other opportunities during your first month.

Again, your perception seems off to me. It's not a game. There are many reasons why it says remote on the advert. Many times it's the agent not the client. I mean, an agent lying to get their commission, whodathunk that. Secondly the client maybe happy for the first gig but has plans for return to office later so extensions may require a change in working practice. Could also be HR says remote but individual client says no. Who cares? If you go in fully aware of what is happening in the world around you, an opinion on what could happen in the future and not blinded by how we've worked in a global pandemic then there should be no need for 'games' or silly excuses. Just do business, lay it on the table and negotiate. You and PCTNN are talking like you've wasted 10's of K of money. It's a CV and a Teams interview. So what if it's not quite what you expected. You put your big boy pants on and deal with it like a professional. If it's not for you you move on.

I also think you are treating the interview like a perm. It's a time for you to grill the client and negotiate what you want as well. It's not a nodding dog exercise like a permie.

[courtg9000]

"Its remote but we expect you in the office"
Is Jacob Rees Mogg involved somewhere along the line??
My rate for government work at the end of my proper IT contracting time used to be standard*1.5 because of the crap involved.

[gixxer2021]

I’m always up front from the start that I only work remotely (100%), and only apply for contracts that suit this. If a client were to come out with something like this I’d wait till they offered, then negotiate. My contracts are always negotiated to be clearly 100% remote, but if a particular client manager tries to get me in an office at a later stage then I’ll happily quote my contract terms and decline.

[hugebrain]

I’ve had the opposite problem. Got a two days in the office each week contract. Six months in and they haven’t even given me a security pass.

Quietly going crazy working from home.

[CheeseSlice]

Jeez what else are they hiding?

Oh you know we said this role was outside, well….

[SussexSeagull]

Either it is based in the office all the time, fully remote or somewhere between the two. Regardless they should state what they want so you can decide a rate to make it worth doing as travelling (and possibly accommodation) expenses become a factor.

More broadly I have had times in contracts I needed to be in the office all the time, times I could work from home for weeks with no impact on the project but most commonly somewhere between the two. I have been in an office for two days since the first lockdown and frankly could do with getting out and having some personal interactions again.

[ComplianceLady]

Possibly. I don't really agree as clients will already have office space on the agenda with the new ways of working and I don't think a spike in heating bills is really enough to start closing offices. We are a different breed on here and most seem to want 100% WFH but the reality is many people actually want to go back to the office. Forget heating and bills for the moment. It's what a good number of people want and employers want it as well so it's going to happen in some form. I believe it will become a highly flexible hybrid model with choice over when and where you work but some days in the office. To me that's a win win. If you've gotten complacent over lockdown and expect to be 100% for no good reason then it's your own fault if the reality check is a disappointment. There are going to be cost saving measures but I don't think there will be another seismic shift in ways of working because of office heating.



Again, your perception seems off to me. It's not a game. There are many reasons why it says remote on the advert. Many times it's the agent not the client. I mean, an agent lying to get their commission, whodathunk that. Secondly the client maybe happy for the first gig but has plans for return to office later so extensions may require a change in working practice. Could also be HR says remote but individual client says no. Who cares? If you go in fully aware of what is happening in the world around you, an opinion on what could happen in the future and not blinded by how we've worked in a global pandemic then there should be no need for 'games' or silly excuses. Just do business, lay it on the table and negotiate. You and PCTNN are talking like you've wasted 10's of K of money. It's a CV and a Teams interview. So what if it's not quite what you expected. You put your big boy pants on and deal with it like a professional. If it's not for you you move on.

I also think you are treating the interview like a perm. It's a time for you to grill the client and negotiate what you want as well. It's not a nodding dog exercise like a permie.

Just some context on why it may state remote - from an agent's perspective the client may have said 'we'll consider it for a stand out candidate who is cheap' or similar, or it might be that the boards it's posted on have rubbish geographic search options so putting the location always misses candidates. Ultimately agents want to cast a net as far as possible and similar to contractors - if they have a great candidate they'd rather negotiate with the client at that stage than limit their candidate pool....

[northernladuk]

Just some context on why it may state remote - from an agent's perspective the client may have said 'we'll consider it for a stand out candidate who is cheap' or similar, or it might be that the boards it's posted on have rubbish geographic search options so putting the location always misses candidates. Ultimately agents want to cast a net as far as possible and similar to contractors - if they have a great candidate they'd rather negotiate with the client at that stage than limit their candidate pool....

Good point. So more reasons why the client/agent aren't playing silly games so no need for the contractor to do the same as well as Relaxed suggested.

[Lance]

More and more contracts are advertised by agents as remote but during an interview state clients keep mumbling "yeah, it's a remote contact but generally we expect everyone in the office". Did anyone try to say "ok, here is my rate for remote days and here is my rate for on site days". Did that work?
Also, what is everyone's perception, will the number of truly remote opportunities remain the same in the post-covid times or will control freaks eventually push everyone back to offices?

when the client asks for me in the office I simply say "No chance I'm based 200 miles away. Unless you pay my travel and accommodation expenses I'm not coming into your office." and be prepared to be binned (que sera sera)