Flex working in a contract

[tim123]

Then after a couple of weeks, once the project is off the ground and people are happy with your work, say to your line manager "I'm going to work from home this friday".

I think you live in a completely different world to the one I lve in.

If I said that to one of my clients I would expect the response to be "don't bother coming back on Monday then".

The idea that a client might accept that I do a 'paid by the hour' job at home, after I have just two weeks knowledge of the job is frankly ridiculous.

Even if it's a job where you don't need: network access, special tools or be accesable to other people, no manager is going to trust a two-week-rookie to do 8 hours work in 8 hours at home

tim

[partimer]

working from home

I think you live in a completely different world to the one I lve in.

If I said that to one of my clients I would expect the response to be "don't bother coming back on Monday then".

The idea that a client might accept that I do a 'paid by the hour' job at home, after I have just two weeks knowledge of the job is frankly ridiculous.

Even if it's a job where you don't need: network access, special tools or be accesable to other people, no manager is going to trust a two-week-rookie to do 8 hours work in 8 hours at home

tim

Have to agree with Tim on this.
If you work in a place where nobody works from home then there's no way you're getting that privilege. If lots of people work from home then I suppose it isn't that much of a problem.

What could happen (and I've seen it) the permies start slowly complaining why the hell should a contractor start getting extra benefits (working from home). Like a slow poison, the manager eventually has a divded office and finally gets rid of the contractor.

Remember the people who hired you couldn't care less where you live. It's up to you how to get to/from work but you've got to turn up on time and do your contracted project.

[boredsenseless]

I've had both types of working practice but whenever I've been allowed to work at home its been after about 9 months of working on-site. Even then its not particularly liked if its too regular.

If you must do it don't try to set standard days such as every monday instead go for an arbitary day each week and make sure it isn't Mon or Friday.

Mondays and Fridays scream of a long weekend - hence no work done

Same day every week screams of other commitments - hence no work done

[handsfree]

I think you live in a completely different world to the one I lve in.

[...]

tim

I think you're right.

[Denny]

Have to agree with Tim on this.
If you work in a place where nobody works from home then there's no way you're getting that privilege. If lots of people work from home then I suppose it isn't that much of a problem.

What could happen (and I've seen it) the permies start slowly complaining why the hell should a contractor start getting extra benefits (working from home). Like a slow poison, the manager eventually has a divded office and finally gets rid of the contractor.

Remember the people who hired you couldn't care less where you live. It's up to you how to get to/from work but you've got to turn up on time and do your contracted project.

I've never had any problem working from home whenever I've got my feet under the table. All you need to do is point out the benefits to the client.

Why should working from home smack of a privilege anyway? You give your client your home number to reach you at any time, you have a certain amount of work to account for the following day and you can guarantee starting on time and finishing what is expected of you without the hassle of grappling with bad commuting problems. Always ensure that some of these days are spent doing more than what you'd ever achieve at the office, and bingo! You're in. Tell them your files you need to refer to are at home and it's impractical to take them into the office.

In my view, the only reason why contractors are scared to ask for home working is because they are too ill disciplined to be fully trusted and this is conveyed in the way the ask their managers and that's why they're not believed. Most managers worth their salt will also expect a certain return on the time allowed at home with full accountability the next day. They're not stupid.

[handsfree]

You're wasting your time Denny, Tim123 is clearly a bum-on-seat temp and very much at home (sic) in that role.

E.g.:

The idea that a client might accept that I do a 'paid by the hour' job at home, after I have just two weeks knowledge of the job is frankly ridiculous.

Even if it's a job where you don't need: network access, special tools or be accesable to other people, no manager is going to trust a two-week-rookie to do 8 hours work in 8 hours at home

This tells you precisely how much professional respect Tim expects to get (and therefore does get) from his bosses.

Milan

[ratewhore]

An alternative is to do what I do. At interview I make it plainly clear I don't want a working environment where I have to be at my desk 8 hours a day. I look for flexibility but it has to cut both ways. As long as you point out you are delivery based and you WILL deliver on time then the client (hopefully) should be happy with that. Mine have.

Doesn't work for everyone I'm sure...

[BoredBloke]

I worked for 1 client for almost 4 years. For the first 2 years I worked on site, getting in late on Monday and making up my hours so that I could go at 12 on the Friday. Getting hacked off with this and having a company laptop I enquired about home working for the odd day. i sold it to them on the grounds that it was beneficial to both parties.

For me it was reduced cost

better commute on Thursday night instead of Friday afternoon - London to Manchester

More time with the family (is that a benefit!)

For them they got the advatage of me being available on Friday afternoons whereas would normally be stuck on the M6

Towards the end (last 12 months) I did half of Mondays at home also so that I could drive down in non rush hour traffic. I used to then make a point of staying till 7.

Because of this I was able to sell them a one day per week deal while working for other clients as I had proved that I would and could work remotely.

The only pitflls are that it is easy to do nothing! It is a skivers paradise. Also, if you have kids, you have to drum it into them that when you are working you are not messing with the computer and that you have to concentrate.

Being called while Chritmas shopping when you are supposed to be working is hard to explain. But I got away with it.

[Not So Wise]

The only pitflls are that it is easy to do nothing!

After working from home for years cannot help but agree with this statement 101%.

It takes a serious and dedicated mindset, all the time, to actually get the same level of work done as you would in a normal office.

The amount of times i had to pull a few all nighters in a row at the end of a project to meet deadlines because i had skived off earlyer on are to many to count