Working Hours

[eek]

where i work they conveniently missed out the working hours in the interview. I don't think you will find worse working hours anywhere:

9-6 with 30 mins lunch break. Overtime unpaid and they treat their perm staff like sh*t. I have not seen or heard of a place with a worse staff turn around.

I just paid to get my CV done professionally and am going to try my best to switch to somewhere with reasonable working hours.

How is Caudwell or whatever they are called nowadays. By the way I survived for 21 months (although the daily rate made it very worthwhile).

[TheFaQQer]

How would others handle it?

Stick to your guns.

I work the hours that I need to - at interview, I explain when I will get there on Monday and when I will leave on Friday, because I'm usually travelling to get there. This contract is no different - I get in about 10ish on Monday, so work late, and then work late in the week so I can leave at Friday lunchtime.

Management have now decreed that everyone MUST be there before 9.30 every day and not leave before 4.30 every day. I've tried explaining that it's not a case of not wanting to do it, but I CAN'T GET THERE AT THAT TIME ON A MONDAY. Fell on deaf ears, so in the end, I offered to cut back to a three day week to meet the deadline.

Stick to your guns - work reasonably, do what you need to do, but don't flog yourself too much over their management problems.

[meridian]

... I don't think you will find worse working hours anywhere:

9-6 with 30 mins lunch break.

Assuming you mean the Western world and not a Bangladeshi sweatshop, that's only 42.5 hours a week? That's standard in Switzerland.

[the_rangdo]

My current gig is pretty lenient IMO.

Only 7 hour days expected, I get in at 7:20-ish (avoiding the M62 main rush) and leave anywhere between 3:30 and 4 (usually 3:45)

That still leaves me scope to accumulate if I need a bit earlier, e.g. my daughters' sports day this afternoon.

I was fairly upfront in what I planned to do, but not blunt. Just told them these are my planned hours, let me know if this causes a problem. No problems raised

[SueEllen]

Assuming you mean the Western world and not a Bangladeshi sweatshop, that's only 42.5 hours a week? That's standard in Switzerland.

But we aren't in Switzerland we are in the UK.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Assuming you mean the Western world and not a Bangladeshi sweatshop, that's only 42.5 hours a week? That's standard in Switzerland.

You conveniently left out the rest of my post: unpaid overtime. You could easily work 50-55 hours in a week and still be getting paid what most contracts get for 37.5 because the daily rate for 9-6 is the same as what others get for 9.5.

[Scrag Meister]

When I first started at my current contract I was told by the "ladder climbing" permie who was doing the handover that if I started at 8a.m. that expectation would be finish around 6p.m.

Don't think so! Kept my head down for a couple of weeks, proved that all was fine and then started adjusting.

Currently doing 7:45a.m. til 5:15p.m. with an hour lunch. Also started taking the tube rather than bus and that saved me half an hour commute per day, now down to 45 mins. 10 hours a month!

Don't mind the occasional extra hour or 2 or even stupido hours rarely.

A 36 hours shift that is just plain under resourced.

[bobspud]

Currently on a project where my contract states 37.5hrs a week.
I usually do slightly more - but that's my business and what I choose to do.
Due to incompetence (not mine or anyone in my team) and appalling proj management, we have some very tight deadlines coming up and have basically been asked (but not in writing) to work longer hours.
I spoke to my agency who said fine, just get it it agreed with permie PM.
I emailed Permie PM to get in writing what he was going to do about the extra hours - would he pay me the extra or paid 'time off'.

I got some waffle of a reply about working 'professional days' and expecting a certain amount of goodwill and team spirit.

This has pissed me off. I have worked 48hrs this week to get stuff done to meet an unrealistic deadline. And I expect more of this to come.

How would others handle it?

Hi,
as a TDA I regularly get the professional day BS. The discusson goes somthing like. Yes a professional day is 7.5 I book in blocks of them. You get 7.5 hours for a day and as many days in the week as you can reasonably fit but either way if you can see my face you sure as hell are getting billed for the pleasure... Now sign the overtime agreement or your gant chart will be further to the right than Norman Tebbit!

Good luck

[eek]

I'm really not sure why he is complaining. The terms and working conditions of the company he is at are well known although not easy to get around.

What he needs is to get someone to ring him at weekends. I managed to bill 3 months at 7 days a week due to tech support panicking and ringing me anytime something went wrong. As my contract only mentioned a day rate every phone call resulted in me billing for a full day.

[The Agents View]

Flaming contractors don't know how good you have it!

I work 55 hours a week as standard. I take calls at home as well. I take a lame basic salary, and whilst the commission scheme makes life easier, I do it because it's what I need to do to get on in the world.

A professional working day, is a 24 hour period, where you work as much as you need to in order to get the job done!