Clients demanding permie working hours

[NickNick]

The standard day when I was at BT was 7h 24m.

[tino]

My sentiments exactly - but the pimp wanted to have his cake and eat it. I offered a higher rate with fixed permie hours, or a lower rate with flexible hours.

He wasn't prepared to accept either.

If you can afford to write it off then fair play, I know what I'd be doing though

[chicane]

If you can afford to write it off then fair play, I know what I'd be doing though

The joys of a fat warchest

Unfortunately my experiences playing hardball with pimps haven't exactly proven fruitful so far... presumably they always find some poor mug to take the crap rate and crap terms on offer.

[tino]

The joys of a fat warchest

Unfortunately my experiences playing hardball with pimps haven't exactly proven fruitful so far... presumably they always find some poor mug to take the crap rate and crap terms on offer.

I've been there mate, however seeing the warchest dwindle made me nervous so I jumped in with both feet again. Just be careful as you don't know how long it's going to be like this for

[VectraMan]

A lot of old school engineering companies have fixed working practices left over from the union days and would need you to work the same hours in order to be available when the permies were.

My previous (and now current for 2 weeks) engineering client told me on the first day that I had to take an hour for lunch, as they didn't want the factory workers thinking they could work lunchtimes and go home early like the contractors.

So that's a bit of a PITA as there isn't much to do round here for an hour. As for the working day, they do 8-5 and half day on Friday, which they didn't say I had to observe but actually it suits me fine.

[JoJoGabor]

It depends on your role. If you need to work with other people/teams then yes, you will need to work the same hours. i have had to work at ClientCo's where people work flexitime and it is a nightmare when you need something from say the networks team to be setup only to find the key person diesnt work Fridays, so you have to wait until Monday. It really isnt that unreasonable

[Turion]

When you mentioned permie hours, I thought of loads of late working and unpaid overtime. You're lucky they just want normal hours. You're gonna miss those free pizzas at midnight though

[jmo21]

When you mentioned permie hours, I thought of loads of late working and unpaid overtime. You're lucky they just want normal hours. You're gonna miss those free pizzas at midnight though

that's exactly what I thought when I saw the thread title!

While he is correct that it shouldn't matter what hours he works so long as the job gets done, it really is down to the client.

In this climate, it's hard to have any sympathy for this "problem" when so many are on the bench.

As it happens, my current dev lead said to me the other day he couldn't give a toss what hours we do so long as deadline's are being hit and the work is up to scratch.

The plumber analogy doesn't work in this case either

[swamp]

You could be working for a bank, 8 until 8.

[BrowneIssue]

The standard day when I was at BT was 7h 24m.

When I was contracting there circa 1996, for the permies it was 9:45 to 16:00 Mon to Thu and 10:00 to 11:50 on Friday.