Contract -Ever Worked From Home?

[up4it]

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. :-)

[chef]

I've had 2 contracts working from home, the first was 99% working from home with a monthly meeting in London, at the time I lived in Manchester.

My current gig is 3 days in 10 on site (Sweden), the rest working from home (Germany).

I don't think skill set is so relevant, I would say it's more the trust of the onsite manager and the working ethos of the company. Current Client co. see it as a cost saving not having to pay my flights every week and saving on hotels for part of the week I am onsite. They have an internal msn style chat that the team use, VPN access to the systems along with webex and telco's for meetings so being onsite is not really required. My work is project based with various milestone checkpoints along the way and weekly update meetings but other than that it's get on with it yourself and shout if you need anything.

[Scoobos]

I usually wrangle working from home within the first month.

I'm a boring wintel infra guy - doing anything from the lowest level of support to the the very highest infrastructure deployment and troubleshooting tasks.

My last big contract where I worked from home 90% of the time , was for a US client but looking after all the EMEA sites and services.

Personally, I like a 50/50 split, if only for a change of surroundings, or to stop me just waking up - logging onto communicator and going back to sleep

Just kidding.... or am I?

[BigTime]

Living a long way from where the client is based helps your case. I make sure to include it in the interview / initial discussion with the agent. You just need skills they want and convince them you're setup to deliver remotely.

[psychocandy]

Current client dont really give a toss either way which is pretty good.

Permies seem to come and go as they please. Some of the contractors who live away seems to do it when it suits them also. Helped by the fact that there are no team managers in the office and team members are spread throughout the UK and Ireland.

I don't do it much because I live 20 mins away, but will do if its awkward for me to come into the office one odd day. They get extra hours out of me anyway and weekend working at short term, so I think its only fair they let me do the odd WFH sometimes.

[bobspud]

I don't think skill set is so relevant, I would say it's more the trust of the onsite manager and the working ethos of the company. Current Client co. see it as a cost saving not having to pay my flights every week and saving on hotels for part of the week I am onsite. They have an internal msn style chat that the team use, VPN access to the systems along with webex and telco's for meetings so being onsite is not really required. My work is project based with various milestone checkpoints along the way and weekly update meetings but other than that it's get on with it yourself and shout if you need anything.

WCS +1

[davetza]

I think it is more around the company culture and having a decent working from home technical solution that makes the difference not really the role as most IT based work can be done remotely. However I would never ask this question in an interview as it can be taken the wrong way. Some roles are very unlikely to have home working such as most SC cleared work and some financial institutions.

[d000hg]

Been 100% WFH since end of 2007 apart from a few months at a contract they needed on-site. Other than that one, I haven't even MET most of my clients in person and in some cases have never spoken to them except via email/IM.

[VectraMan]

I had one gig with a long commute, but when it came to discussing a renewal I mentioned working at home, not as a condition just causually, and they said "no problem at all". So I spent the next 12 months doing Tuesday and Thursdays at home, which was good. They even went out of their way to provide a company laptop.

As always, get your foot in the door, show that you're doing a good job, then that gives you a strong bargaining position. I wouldn't mention it at interview stage unless I wasn't bothered about not getting the gig. Obviously you can do most IT tasks remotely, but you have to overcome the culture of wanting to see your bum on a seat.

[northernladuk]

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

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.