Attitude towards working hours

[Greg Longshaft]

I agree with being flexible, I always view contracting similliar to a tradesman who would do the extra bit of work for free so that you would use them again in the future.

BUT, i would note expect a builder to work extra hours to build a wall for me in his own time and for free, he is in business for himself.

we are in business, we should view it this way, if contractors start behaving live employees then the company will expect all future contractors to behave in this manner.

My view is that an IT Contractor is a professional service and we should behave like a business and if we have to give a little extra for a particular contract then fair enough, but i dont think we should be working for free.

[swamp]

On one contract I had nothing to do for a year. I used to swan in around 10 and leave at 4:30, with a long lunch. Eventually my behaviour was commented on by the team lead. I tried to explain I had no actual work to do and there was only so much I could do to look busy, and despite them being fully aware of this, I was told I was setting a "bad example". Sometimes you just have to know when to shut up and that was one of those times, so I bit my lip and started reading the Internet until 5:30pm instead.

Another contractor on the project would turn up at 12:00 and leave at 6:30, or earlier (usually 10 minutes after the boss). The reason for turning up late was apparently related to childcare arrangements, though everyone knew this was nonsense. This particular contractor was never asked for a 'chat' about their timekeeping. It was all about perception...

As I see it the best tactic is stay late or be early. Being an early bird can be very cushy indeed as you can spend the first hour eating breakfast and drinking tea with the other early birders. It's like a club. You only get down to actual work just as the main morning rush starts, but come 4pm you're off.

[craig1]

Being an early bird can be very cushy indeed as you can spend the first hour eating breakfast and drinking tea with the other early birders. It's like a club. You only get down to actual work just as the main morning rush starts, but come 4pm you're off.

That early time is excellent. You give silent nods to the others who do the same, mellow out with a slow morning routine in a silent (perfect) office then time your morning tea being finished to just as the noisy but ineffective bunch turn up. I usually reserve my early mornings for stuff that really needs concentration, get that out the way then get on with the "working" day of disruptions.

It's a rare employer who realises that giving IT people offices rather than a mass open-plan floorspace gets far more productivity and that productivity more than compensates for the extra cost of the floor space.

[BolshieBastard]

I generally get in early because the distance I have to travel demands it. Otherwise I'd never get in on time due to the traffic.

I work on the principle that I manage my workload effectively. I dont need any permie or contract manager telling me how much I have to do, what I have to do and when it should be done by.

My current client who Im with for the 3rd time and having worked with them for 5 years on and off are what I call 'semi flexible.'

They let me work a 4 day week but wont let me work from home. They like you to work a rigid 35 hour week but are happy for you to work extra unpaid if needs be with TOIL when it amounts to an extra day.

I take all this 'I come in at 10 and leave at 3.30' with a pinch of salt. If it works for you fine, not ever place will let you get away with that.

One place I worked at complained the contract team wasnt still in the office at 6pm. We all said start at 8 (or earlier) and the work is done. We got told it was bums on seats that counted!

I dont have a problem doing extra hours. I do expect payment or time off in exchange though.

[VectraMan]

The irony of all this is that certainly for us developers, hours aren't proportional to progress anyway, although the majority of managers struggle to understand that concept. I've found I'm most productive if I work the morning, then go do something else all afternoon and come back and do another couple of hours in the evening. But you can only really do that if you work at home.

I'm back at a previous client for the next month, and they have strict hours because they're a proper engineering company with a proper factory, and insist all the office staff (including contractors) work the same 8-5 day and take an hour for lunch, all because they don't want the factory workers getting the idea they can be flexible with hours too. But they've told me to work at home whenever I want, because I think they know this policy is somewhat unreasonable, it's just that it would be politically difficult to change.

[NotAllThere]

I used to have a 1.5 hour commute each way around the M25. I began doing the early shift, as I work better in the morning - getting in at 7:30, leaving 4:00. But then there were negative comments about "leaving early". So I switched to getting in late - around 10:00, leaving at 6:00. Half an hour less... Then the comments were positive - "Oh NAT - always working, the last to leave" kind of thing. The thing is, no one noticed when I arrived - only when I left. And mostly, they all left before me anyway.

Now I work a lot from home and do whatever hours I feel like. The clients are happy, because all they care about is the work gets done on time and to quality.

[Sysman]

The irony of all this is that certainly for us developers, hours aren't proportional to progress anyway, although the majority of managers struggle to understand that concept. I've found I'm most productive if I work the morning, then go do something else all afternoon and come back and do another couple of hours in the evening. But you can only really do that if you work at home.

I found this in an early contract. One evening I was banging my head against a brick wall with some problem or other and decided to get a good nosh down me and an early night. The solution came to me about 2 minutes after I'd left the office, but I stuck to that plan. It really took all of five minutes the next morning to sort the problem out.

I'm back at a previous client for the next month, and they have strict hours because they're a proper engineering company with a proper factory, and insist all the office staff (including contractors) work the same 8-5 day and take an hour for lunch, all because they don't want the factory workers getting the idea they can be flexible with hours too. But they've told me to work at home whenever I want, because I think they know this policy is somewhat unreasonable, it's just that it would be politically difficult to change.

I've worked at places like that, and overtime wasn't in the budget, so I'd take time off in lieu instead. I noted my overtime hours in a spreadsheet and would typically wait until I had a full day or two's worth clocked up before claiming the time off. I sort this out at the interview stage because I know that in my speciality out of hours work is often necessary for system upgrades or repair work.

The killer is the development role where you are staying away from home and are only allowed to do 7.5 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Fortunately I have managed to avoid that for a good number of years.

[stacks]

Working time at my current place is a 7 hour day, arrive any time between 8 & 10 and go home between 4 & 6.

I'm in by 08:30 and I normally get the 17:30 train back so they get an extra hour from me each day. The permies all stick to 7 hour days so no pressure for me to keep up with them

I've always just done the hours I need to in all my contracts and never ever worked consistently about and beyond 7.5 hours a day. Yes there exceptions but it's never the norm.

[perplexed]

Whilst I can appreciate clients may want core hours abided by for one thing, wouldn't that count as control over *how* us contractors actually work?

If I'm on an hourly rate, I don't mind occasionally giving a little bit extra. Nothing major. If it becomes "expected" that I should work outside the number of contracted hours for a week, then there's a big problem.

Given most contracts I've had with a daily rate have specified a total number of billable hours for the week, then I try to abide by that. Again, if some latitude is required occasionally, fine. Regularly, no. After all, if an end client "expects" me to work outside the contract for their benefit, it makes me wonder precisely why arrangements for those additional hours either weren't budgeted for or specified within the contract.

[Greg Longshaft]

Whilst I can appreciate clients may want core hours abided by for one thing, wouldn't that count as control over *how* us contractors actually work?

If I'm on an hourly rate, I don't mind occasionally giving a little bit extra. Nothing major. If it becomes "expected" that I should work outside the number of contracted hours for a week, then there's a big problem.

Given most contracts I've had with a daily rate have specified a total number of billable hours for the week, then I try to abide by that. Again, if some latitude is required occasionally, fine. Regularly, no. After all, if an end client "expects" me to work outside the contract for their benefit, it makes me wonder precisely why arrangements for those additional hours either weren't budgeted for or specified within the contract.

"I think thats the point most people are missing, even though we do get controlled over hours in some respect, we should not be controlled as a LTD company, but in the real world there are some grey areas."