Contract -Ever Worked From Home?

[NotAllThere]

I worked from home today. My usual commute to the office is 20 mins each way.

My permie colleagues often do the same when they need to look after the kids or whatever. So as NLUK pointed out - it's not an IR35 pointer.

[TheFaQQer]

Current contract has been 100% WFH for the past 16 months - have never met anyone from the client yet.

Some clients I've had are happy for a one day at home, some a few more (winter 2010 I had a couple of weeks at home while snowed in). I've done quite a bit of work with central government, though, where there is no chance of it happening.

[Platypus]

I'm very fortunate, I've been WFH now for 10 years.

As others have mentioned, it's not about skillset, it's about trust.

Some organisations are encouraging, even forcing, staff to WFH, which enables them to save lots of money on office space and facilities. e.g. IBM

[TheFaQQer]

I am not so sure about this though nowadays. As you can see from the posters permies seem to have as much freedom as the contractors so doesn't really help differentiate. If you had more access to WFH than a permie and can demonstrate it then I would agree. If you work the same WFH rules as a permie I would doubt it. In that case you being banned from WFH would be different.

If you are working from home using your own equipment, rather than using client equipment, then that would help.

I think that you would also have a stronger argument that there is no D&C if the client leaves you to your own devices.

[hyperD]

I've been WFH office for the last 9 years with multiple clients all fixed price. It has its plus points as well as its minuses.

The good thing is that you can arrange your more mundane aspects of life, such as shopping and appointments in a more controlled and pleasurable way, avoiding rush-hour and saving on the commute costs, as well as indulging in the more intangible benefits, such as taking an afternoon off in a sunny day cycling or a spontaneous day out, while continuing work later on in the evening. And for those that have them, managing kids and schooling. Also if you are fixed price, IR35 goes bye bye. Often, if you work smart, your effective remuneration may be higher than a rate via an agency. You can also attribute a larger amount of your household costs to running the business.

However, there are some drawbacks. If you have multiple clients with multiple deadlines, you can very easily become a slave to your work whereby weekdays blur into weekends, you miss the social camaraderie of the office, the loneliness can make your conversations with clients turn into a desperate need for banter and a substitute for companionship, your friends are all busy 9-5'ers, that holiday you planned has been stymied because you have impeding simultaneous deadlines, and in some cases, you can be so involved that your marriage may suffer, as in my case. You can also become very sedentary and not venture out much from your office.

Although I admit, some of this is due to fixed price/multiple clients, the isolation of WFH, although the nirvana of most contractors, must be taken with a degree of caution and control.

Ironically, due to a major client having a budget freeze I've had to go through an agency for some temporary contract work in order to keep the cash coming in. They have a culture where everyone must be on site to work, and any request to work from home (they have VPN) has more often been refused as they have stated that this is a permie privilege.

To the point of absurdity, in one case where I explained to the PM that in order to get the project delivered by his deadline I could maximise my work output from my office, with the required tools, he stated that under no circumstances could a contractor work from home.

He failed his objectives.

In an industry that is so perfect to maximise efficiency from their assets working from home, and I recently had a contract with a USA company that had no office and an international agile team, it will be one of the last to embrace this wholly, until the culture and trust of middle management changes.

[northernladuk]

Christ hyperD. Last thing I read that length had a front and back cover and cost 6.99 from Waterstones

[hyperD]

Christ hyperD. Last thing I read that length had a front and back cover and cost 6.99 from Waterstones

Most kind, sir!

[dynamicsaxcontractor]

I can't say I have been fortunate enough to have been able to work from home when on a contract myself. But, has anyone ever had a contract where they were allowed to work from home?

If so, what sort of work and skill-set were required for the role?

Also, how far from the client site were you? Or, maybe even abroad?

Surely, this would also be a good pointer to being outside of IR35. :-)

I normally do about 50% working from home, current contract Monday to Thursday one week in the client office and then the following week from home. Last contract was 100% from home. Its about convincing the client that you get more work done if you can get out of bed and start working immidiatey rather than spending time travelling to work. Personally I rather work 10 hours in a day than 8 + 2 hours commute....

[Sands of Time]

Sometimes WFH - although, I enjoy the office banter too much to do more than 50/50.



Tone

[Scrag Meister]

Have the flexibility and mechanism for working from home, and do so one or two days a month.

Depending on transport situation during the Olympics I suspect it will be a few more days over that period.

I prefer and work better in the office, too hard to motivate myself when I can have a movie running on the other monitor.