Flexible working

[Wils]

Would like to know what people's experience (particularly devs) of flexible working while contracting. Contractor on my team works from home frequently. I have kids would like to think I could have some form of flexibility like that to help with childcare arrangements.

How common is it to get contracts with some form of flexible working hours (working from home/late starts etc)?

[kaiser78]

Would like to know what people's experience (particularly devs) of flexible working while contracting. Contractor on my team works from home frequently. I have kids would like to think I could have some form of flexibility like that to help with childcare arrangements.

How common is it to get contracts with some form of flexible working hours (working from home/late starts etc)?

I work from home at least 2 days a week sometimes 3 if I don't need to be in the office. Negotiated this as part of agreeing to take on the role as have young kiddies. Has obvious benefits but also very easy to stretch the day out, so need to ber disciplined with start and finish times to get the most out of it.

Wfh on a regular basis is pretty rare from what you read on here so if you are able to count yourself very lucky. For me = stay where I am as long as possible and make the most of the school run

[BolshieBastard]

A lot depends on the client. Virtually every client I've worked with have let me leave early on a friday. Sometimes from lunch onwards sometimes from 3.30 only. One client let me work my hours in 4 days and seeing as this was a 35 hour week, it was a piece of piss. Nice long weekends.

I've asked a couple of clients about working from home. Financial clients arent always keen especially at one place a contractor took the piss and balls it up for everyone (didnt you Mike!?).

If someone is already WFH at a client, then normally I'd be surprised if they said no to the OP. Course it would help if he explained the reasons why he'd like to wft instead of just saying 'well he is so can I?' (note, Im not saying this OP is saying that!)

[SteelyDan]

Depends on the client's attitude, as BB has said.
Some are Ok with it, while some (dinosaurs) take a dim view of wfh.
Key thing is not to take the pi55, and ensure you have some output evidence/record available for what you did whilst wfh.

[Signo_cypher]

Work from home

In my experience big corporate companies are all geared up for home working while smaller companies are still a bit backward. I have worked at places where flexible working is part of the culture and in many ways expected as the offices are all hot desks and not enough are available if everybody did turn up.

Current client co has a no working at home policy and expects all 200 contractors on site everyday unless you request to wfh a week in advance with good reason and submit a plan of what you will work on that day.

[kingcook]

Current client stated during interview stage that it wasn't possible to WFH, due to there being no VPN!

I have just recently found out that they are "testing" VPN, and that it is being used, but they won't give me access I have a big commute as well (so big that i have to stay local Monday to Friday).

Contract ends within a matter of weeks and i'm all booked up in a B&B, so just gonna ride it out for now.

I'm going to have a chat at [probably] renewal time, and see about working 1 or 2 days from home.

[bobspud]

Depends. I am finding that many clients have strong WFH cultures within them now anyway. So I am working on 3 projects on my current customer and have just added a second client to the list. I tend to work 10 hours a day. so I easily get to keep all of them happy.

If customers have needs around me using their desk space I make sure they understand how much more it will cost them. I did one big migration in London last year and it cost the customer 850 per day + the travel costs to see my ugly face. If they had let me work at home as was the agreement. they would have got away with maybe £350 of that because I would have better used my time on other clients.

My rules of being at home are I always get emails answered promptly I write docs at night (normally between 9 and 12) and do no more than two conference calls a day.

If anyone gets the hump about it, I point out that I need time to actually produce stuff. Most of my clients fall into line and are very happy.

[chef]

I'm currently working for a well known flat pack company in Sweden. My standard 2 weekly schedule is:

WFH Monday
Catch the 5pm flight Monday evening
On client site Tues to Thurs mid afternoon
fly home Thurs evening
WFH Friday

the following week is WFH Mon - Fri

I like this schedule.

[bobspud]

I'm currently working for a well known flat pack company in Sweden. My standard 2 weekly schedule is:

WFH Monday
Catch the 5pm flight Monday evening
On client site Tues to Thurs mid afternoon
fly home Thurs evening
WFH Friday

the following week is WFH Mon - Fri

I like this schedule.

Very reasonable.

[russell]

My current place has what I like to call a discriminatory WFH policy. One contractor is 100% working from home, another does 1 day a week, whereas I have been refused. Will be my main reason for rejecting any extension.