Ever since joining up on here and becoming a contractor myself, I've been hearing stories about how clients (esp. big ones) have a tendency to treat their consultants/contractors like permanent staff (by that I mean rules such as holidays, breaks, start/finish times, training, meetings, expectation of line management, etc).
I've come to the conclusion that whilst in our own minds we are setup as a limited company and operate as a completely separate business, the client very often overlooks this, or fails to see it altogether (from my own experience too). I've tried to position myself in my head as being 'the client' and come up with the theory that the reason behind this is because we are recruited as a resource quite often from an 'agency'. This kind of implies that we have been supplied or are working under the agency as staff, rather than being supplied as a 3rd party? From the clients perspective this in a way feels to them like they are buying in the resource to be used like temporary staff, and as such the expectation is that you are filling a slot/position within the company and are somehow bound under terms dictated by THEM (the client).
From my own experience I don't even think the perm staff/managers who I work with realise (or care) that I'm a limited company and supplying my services to them, it's very much a 'fit in or bye bye' attitude. This is very frustrating for IR35 as it makes it impossible to act as a company in fear of pissing the client off and losing your extension (unless of course you are gods gift and 1 of a kind and you dictate your terms to them), but quite often big companies I find are more than happy to just see you out the door knowing the next resource will be supplied minutes later bankrolled off the back of multi-million pound turnovers.
I don't think there is an easy way to address this other than either accept it, or walk, but walking is only disadvantaging yourself really.
I've come to the conclusion that whilst in our own minds we are setup as a limited company and operate as a completely separate business, the client very often overlooks this, or fails to see it altogether (from my own experience too). I've tried to position myself in my head as being 'the client' and come up with the theory that the reason behind this is because we are recruited as a resource quite often from an 'agency'. This kind of implies that we have been supplied or are working under the agency as staff, rather than being supplied as a 3rd party? From the clients perspective this in a way feels to them like they are buying in the resource to be used like temporary staff, and as such the expectation is that you are filling a slot/position within the company and are somehow bound under terms dictated by THEM (the client).
From my own experience I don't even think the perm staff/managers who I work with realise (or care) that I'm a limited company and supplying my services to them, it's very much a 'fit in or bye bye' attitude. This is very frustrating for IR35 as it makes it impossible to act as a company in fear of pissing the client off and losing your extension (unless of course you are gods gift and 1 of a kind and you dictate your terms to them), but quite often big companies I find are more than happy to just see you out the door knowing the next resource will be supplied minutes later bankrolled off the back of multi-million pound turnovers.
I don't think there is an easy way to address this other than either accept it, or walk, but walking is only disadvantaging yourself really.
hey girl.. how are ya??
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