Professional day - How many hours?

[psychocandy]

You've got awfully defensive recently. I was just making conversation.

Do you want to see my todger then?

[northernladuk]

I was quoting what some of you lot say. I do some BAU work and aware that it might be an IR35.

My point is that some of you seem to look down on those of us who do BAU...

I don't think that is the case at all. There is you the person which is one issue. The other is the general BAU aspect. The former is a problem yes but the latter no. The only issue I can see people have had a go at is the fact BAU should really be caught by IR35 and is more a temping role than contracting i.e. bringing in a specialist for a short term piece of work to provide skills a company doesn't have.

I don't see that anyone is looking down on BAU roles. We can have a jolly good argument about it being inside or outside IR35 and if it's proper contracting though.

[vwdan]

Completely agree. There's zero chance I'd do a 19 hour stint for the price of a PWD. Given that with some of my clients I can bill for a full day having done 5 hours, I'd look at that as nearly three days lost billing. I give a lot away for free to my clients, but no chance would I do that. Not even as a one-off.

This actually happened to me - was a last minute favour for a consultancy client I was working with. The request from their customer was just that they needed [XYZ Skills] over a bank holiday weekend (Nyom nyom big rates), so I turn up and waltz into the middle of a massive cluster****. Then, mid afternoon they invite me into a "planning meeting" where they tell me I'm on the 7pm - 7am shift the next day. I kindly inform them that me working nights just isn't happening, but if they can approve a pro-rata hourly rate then I don't mind working long days.

Anyway, the long and short is that I handed in an invoice with a day rate that I doubt I'll ever beat To be honest, I half expected not to be paid for that one.

The best bit is that due to their piss poor "throw resource at it" planning I spent the VAST majority of the time sitting around and drinking coffee. The hours still nearly killed me, though.

[oliverson]

I currently average about 10 hours a day.

Did a week of 12+ hours days a month or so ago. I don't see this as "unpaid overtime". I quoted a rate to do the work and that's what I am doing.

I don't feel the need to work the hours becuase I have to - I do it becuase I want to (actually enjoy this gig). Then again I'm left to get on with it and report back once or twice a week.

No offence but you're an idiot working those hours on a day rate, even if you like the work. Talk about diluting your day rate. The place I'm at is a 09:30 to 17:30 philosophy. Seriously, nobody turns up until 09:30 and that's in London finance. What that means, given I take an hour for lunch, is that my equivalent hourly rate is probably in excess of what most IB roles are paying.

Funny how day rate vs hourly rate changes your mindset. On an hourly rate they have to get security to throw you out (just one more hour) but on a day rate, the same guy has to try keeping you in!

[psychocandy]

No offence but you're an idiot working those hours on a day rate, even if you like the work. Talk about diluting your day rate. The place I'm at is a 09:30 to 17:30 philosophy. Seriously, nobody turns up until 09:30 and that's in London finance. What that means, given I take an hour for lunch, is that my equivalent hourly rate is probably in excess of what most IB roles are paying.

Funny how day rate vs hourly rate changes your mindset. On an hourly rate they have to get security to throw you out (just one more hour) but on a day rate, the same guy has to try keeping you in!

Average of 10 hours - never going to happen with me. A week of 12 hours for free. No way.

Do it because he likes it? There's liking what you do and then there's having no life. :-(

[LondonManc]

Average of 10 hours - never going to happen with me. A week of 12 hours for free. No way.

Do it because he likes it? There's liking what you do and then there's having no life. :-(

If you like your job, you'll never work another day for the rest of your life

[northernladuk]

Average of 10 hours - never going to happen with me. A week of 12 hours for free. No way.

Do it because he likes it? There's liking what you do and then there's having no life. :-(

But we are contractors. We do short term gigs. Some are longer hours, some aren't. It's part of what we do and it's not having no life, it's about a little bit if hard graft for a short period while earning a hell of a lot of money before you move on to the next gig.

[LondonManc]

But we are contractors. We do short term gigs. Some are longer hours, some aren't. It's part of what we do and it's not having no life, it's about a little bit if hard graft for a short period while earning a hell of a lot of money before you move on to the next gig.

I see extra hours as part of my marketing spend - if a couple of 60-hour weeks at implementation time secure me another six months, then it's time well spent. It's worked well so far.

[northernladuk]

I see extra hours as part of my marketing spend - if a couple of 60-hour weeks at implementation time secure me another six months, then it's time well spent. It's worked well so far.

Absolutely. I've outlasted other contractors in the same team twice now so a bit of extra effort here and there has quite literally paid dividends.

Each case is different though and I agree in some cases doing too many hours helps no one.

[psychocandy]

I see extra hours as part of my marketing spend - if a couple of 60-hour weeks at implementation time secure me another six months, then it's time well spent. It's worked well so far.

If only it were that simple.....

If there were a direct correlation then fair enough but often there is not. Yes its a balance of course but you've got to draw the line somewhere.....

Personally, if I did a few 60 hour weeks then I would probably expect a few TOIL days off the client for this.

Another extension on offer as payment? At some point, surely you'd be thinking hang on do I really want to be doing this 60 hour a week thing for free too often?

There are certainly some clients out there IMHO that will hold on to the contractors who they can screw the most out of for free. Depends if you want/your personal situation allows.

Personally, and I know others are the same for various reasons, its impossible for me to throw in tons of extra hours for free all the time. Others may not have a problem - I'll let them do these sort of gigs.