Short term gig within long term gig....

[b0redom]

Hi all,
It looks like I may be offered a short term consulting gig, 2-5 days depending on how much I want to/can stretch it out. My problem is that I'm already engaged in a long term gig.

I've made it clear to the pimp that it'll have to be at a higher rate as it's further away, and will mean taking time out of my existing contract and he's OK with that so....

Have any of you guys done this?
Do you bother telling your longer term client, or just tell them that you're unavailable?
What sort of rate would you charge? 1.5x daily rate? 2x daily rate?

I'm hoping that this'll be good for IR35 purposes, and also might develop into a longer term ad-hoc type gig.

[CUERVALE]

In my last two long term contracts I've ran shorter ones concurrently. The first shorter one was for 20 days stretched over a 2/3 month period. I didn't tell the longer term client, there shouldn't be anything in your original contract stopping you from doing this (very bad for IR35 if there). I burnt the midnight oil with this one, did it all in the evenings then visited customer site on a weekend to make the work live. For the second one, I told the client and it ended up being a weeks work. Second client was fine, I think giving them a bit of advance warning is key.
As for rate, get what you can, for mine I didn't get anything like 1.5 or 2 x, but in both cases they were existing clients who I regularly get work off.
Doing this should look better from an IR35 viewpoint, but it won't be the telling factor, MOO/Working Arrangements/Substitutio/Existing Contract etc will be.
Hope all that helps.

[Dr Evil]

What about doing this same sort of thing whilst a permie? Have been contacted by an old employer to ask me to come back to do a small piece of work for a week or so. (Think it's due to a combination of lack of available resources due to holidays, lack of experience within that particular industry, and from my perspective - lack of security where I am currently working).

What's the legal standpoint here? Can I do this (obviously no info \ secrets etc) to be revealed from either client\employer).

Is this allowed?

[NotAllThere]

When I was a permie I did some freelance work. I had to get it cleared by HR and my manager (contractually, they have the right of veto), but they decided there was no conflict of interest.

[b0redom]

What about doing this same sort of thing whilst a permie? Have been contacted by an old employer to ask me to come back to do a small piece of work for a week or so. (Think it's due to a combination of lack of available resources due to holidays, lack of experience within that particular industry, and from my perspective - lack of security where I am currently working).

What's the legal standpoint here? Can I do this (obviously no info \ secrets etc) to be revealed from either client\employer).

Is this allowed?

Be very careful. You probably have a clause in your contract that says you can't do similar work/work for a competitor. I'd check with your manager that it's OK 1st.

Good thread hijack BTW.

[Dr Evil]

Be very careful. You probably have a clause in your contract that says you can't do similar work/work for a competitor. I'd check with your manager that it's OK 1st.

Good thread hijack BTW.

Sorry mate - thought I'd throw mine in the mix as it's very similar and prob not worth a separate thread!!

Thought it would be something like that chaps - vaguely recall a line in there about that. Probably knock it on the head due to the current employment climate here (and everywhere else) at the moment.