Forced holiday

[Theonenonly]

What do you all do when you are forced to take holiday (in my case the factory I am currently contracing in closes for a xmas 2 weeks)

I cant afford the holiday lol but of course I have no choice but to take it.

I have entertained the idea of looking for a 1/2 week short contract on the side just so I dont fall short but i think the tax man would rape me anyway. So it may not even be worth it.

I currently work through an umbrella.

What do you think?

Cheers

[pmeswani]

What do you all do when you are forced to take holiday (in my case the factory I am currently contracing in closes for a xmas 2 weeks)

I cant afford the holiday lol but of course I have no choice but to take it.

I have entertained the idea of looking for a 1/2 week short contract on the side just so I dont fall short but i think the tax man would rape me anyway. So it may not even be worth it.

I currently work through an umbrella.

What do you think?

Cheers

What does your contract say?

If the clients factory is closed for 2 weeks, there isn't much you can do. There may be a clause in your contract that states that the client does not have to offer you any work. If you are not happy with the circumstances with your client, either terminate your contract or live with it.

If you are able to get a short contract, my advice is to put it through your Umbrella.

[thunderlizard]

Same as any business does when client A doesn't want to buy from it - try and sell to client B, or C, or D instead. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't.

[Sausage Surprise]

BT used to can contractors for most of December (unless you were working in a "critical" area"). Don't know if they still do.

[northernladuk]

Holidays are for permies. You are a business. If the client is unavailble for work you cannot deliver anything so don't get paid. There is a difference, succinct maybe but there is.

Depending on what you do you might be able to work with the client to continue to deliver during the shutdown period. If you are working on code, website or something you could agree to still get paid as you work on it, if you are a manager of people then this is less likely.

And why would the tax man rape you if you take the role for the two weeks? Surely your income would be the same if you did manage to work with your client over the xmas period?
Surely you also knew about this shutdown so should have saved to see it through rather than not afford it?

[NotAllThere]

...
I have entertained the idea of looking for a 1/2 week short contract on the side just so I dont fall short but i think the tax man would rape me anyway. So it may not even be worth it.
...

Why would you think the tax man would rape you if you took on an additional contract?

[MarillionFan]

Get another contract.

[Theonenonly]

Why would you think the tax man would rape you if you took on an additional contract?

I thought it would be classed as a "second job" but since I will be out of work for those 2 weeks I guess thats not the case?

I didnt know about the factory shutdown (First job in manufacturing and first contract really) Just found out about it today.

My contract states I will provide services of "upto" 39 hours per week. I will first ask if they have any work during this time (I am essentially classed as support services) the most technical thing I do is SQL DB queries and changes for the car production line and then general odd hardware stuff a trained helper monkey could do They got me in for cover and a new desktop roll out.

I wasnt complaining about the forced 2 week holiday by the way I was only asking advice on what the rest of you do in this situation since I am still very new to all this, and ofc if I fail to find a short term contract advice on what to do for those 2 weeks x_X

A mate said I could claim job seekers (but that sounds wrong to me) lol

Think I will speak to my agencey to keep their eyes open for around that time.

Thanks for your help

[Theonenonly]

Also forgot to mention the contract will only last another 4 weeks or so after the shutdown so it might even be worth looking for another 3/6 month contract to start when the shutdown starts.

Only problem with that is I dont want to dissapoint my current client or get a rep for bailing early.

[northernladuk]

I thought it would be classed as a "second job" but since I will be out of work for those 2 weeks I guess thats not the case?

You really need to start thinking like a business. If you do this type of stuff would become a whole lot clearer to you, as would your options when the client shuts down etc. It isn't a 'second job'. That is for permies. It is another contract that is completely different.