Working weekends on TOIL basis

[psychocandy]

Client has asked me if I'd be willing to do this to help catch up. To be fair to them, they said it was totally optional.

However, no money in budget for payment so it'd be TOIL. I'm assuming what they mean is I'd be able to take a day off in future but claim it as worked....

Seems OK as long as I dont build up too many days in credit, and there's no confusion when it comes to booking these days as worked. Might be difficult if the contract came to an end though and you were in credit.

Anyone ever done this? I'm guessing its a private relationship between client and contractor so no IR35 issues here?

Only one problem I can foresee is client is not being very forthcoming when I mention days off at the moment. Project is so tight that there seems very little slack anyway......

Dont want to get stuck with loads of days in credit and no chance to take them.

[northernladuk]

I guess your client hasn't bought you a coffee yet. If he had he would asked you if you wanted sugar or not at which point you would have posted the question on here.

[Sockpuppet]

What's the difference between working the weekends to catch up and getting paid and just not making up "worked days in the future". This is why I prefer my contracts to be a set number of days.

E.g. last contract was for 130 days. Now I can do either 3,4,5 or more days a week. The quicker I can burn through them and get the job done the quicker I can move onto something else. Might be something to consider.

[yasockie]

That's the thing I am doing here - we've been given x number of days and x/5 number of weeks to do it with. Thanks to the optional weekend work I was able to catch up and use all the days.
More days = more income in a given period of time = good business practice, but of course don't burn yourself out...

[psychocandy]

I guess your client hasn't bought you a coffee yet. If he had he would asked you if you wanted sugar or not at which point you would have posted the question on here.

I live in hope NLUK that one day, just one you're going to be nice....

[psychocandy]

What's the difference between working the weekends to catch up and getting paid and just not making up "worked days in the future". This is why I prefer my contracts to be a set number of days.

E.g. last contract was for 130 days. Now I can do either 3,4,5 or more days a week. The quicker I can burn through them and get the job done the quicker I can move onto something else. Might be something to consider.

Good point. Unless client is thinking the contractor is going to take the odd day away anyway, so why not replace these with a few saturdays.

[psychocandy]

I 'think' the way my contract works is that it runs to x date which equates to 3 months/65 days in the budget for them.

So, if I take a day or two out of this, then I could only be billing for 60 days. If I work 5 Saturdays they get the max days out of me.

Of course, somewhat falls down if I planned to work the 65 anyway (ignoring contract extensions).

In my case, I'm hoping to to take two weeks off soon. So suits me fine to work a few Saturdays before then, so my 10 days without income becomes less. For client too, they dont have the hit of losing 10 days of my time, because its mitigated by me working weekends.

[jmo21]

Is it not possible to log sat/sun as "worked" in their reporting solution?

then no need for TOIL.

[psychocandy]

Is it not possible to log sat/sun as "worked" in their reporting solution?

then no need for TOIL.

Unfortunately, not because I cant go over however many days (mon-fri) there are in a month. I.e. 22 normally.

[northernladuk]

I 'think' the way my contract works is that it runs to x date which equates to 3 months/65 days in the budget for them.

You 'think'?? Maybe a good to find out so you 'know'!

Well you can't intend to work every day for the period as we have a bank holiday coming up on the 29th so you have at least one day covered. Another two Saturdays after that and you will be more than 1/3 through your contact and should by then have an idea if there is going to be time for him to honour them without exposing yourself to too much risk.

Your time off is the best bet though but would ask does your client know you intend to take 2 weeks off yet?? If he is bothered you need to catch up and you haven't told him you could be in for a spot of bother!

And with my pedant hat on.. Drop the phrase TOIL. Again this is permie speak. You are not getting time off as you are still billing the day. You could phrase it as flexible working arrangements as your contract only states hours not Mon-Fri (I hope). There is an IR35 issue here if permies get TOIL and you are following their process and wording it the same, albeit a small one and easy to work around.