We need to pressure clients more for remote working

[northernladuk]

I turned down a £850/day role today because the client wanted two days every other week in Leeds.

If we want remote work, it's important to stay strong. We can send a message into the market as long as you don't reward their tulip working practices with your labour.

I've just picked up a gig that needs me in Leeds and I saw that as a benefit. Proper enjoying being back in my homeland and meeting/working with people.

Gotta say, moaning about having to spend two days out of ten on site for 850 quid makes you look like a bit of a twunt to me. But quite happy for you to keep turning them down so them that really don't mind doing that can earn some brass.

I think you are proper daft to be turning that down but it could have been with my client and you have to sit with me so you might have dodged a massive bullet

[northernladuk]

""This is a Hybrid role (3 days per week in the office) and can be based at any of our four UK locations - Bath, Manchester, Wolverhampton, or Leeds. ""

Virgin Media are looking for people at the moment and they've a similar policy. Can't remember the hubs but Manc and Leeds were definitely two of them.

[ladymuck]

not sure I see remote working as restricting commercial offering

if "life" limits your onsite availability to with 1 hour of your home, then that is a restriction

as a remote worker, the world is my oyster, I can work for any company and geography is irrelevant

Milan.

If you state that yourCo won't attend client sites then that's restricting your commercial offering if the client is looking to have its suppliers on site occasionally. They may well select the supplier which is willing to turn up for a couple of days every two weeks instead of you.

Personal preferences are bound to drive some of your commercial decision making but don't go dressing up the need to WFH as commercial when it's not.

[SueEllen]

I started doing hybrid long before Covid and I prefer it.

However dictating I spend X days in the office if most of the rest of the people I have to collaborate with aren't there is something I refuse to do.

[courtg9000]

This is a moot argument and I have to say quite twuntish.

Your client has other suppliers available and based on some of your previous witterings they have better CV's too!

It seems like revenue stream rejection is a particular forte of yours.

@northenladuk I think it is you that has dodged the massive bullet!

[brightondeveloper]

[...] The client will have a commercial decision to require none/some/all remote working. [...]

Nah - most of the time it's some middle manager with BDE laying down the law - nothing to do with commercial or strategic anything.

[Zigenare]

More remote working or less inside IR35 roles.

[DrewG]

I've just picked up a gig that needs me in Leeds and I saw that as a benefit. Proper enjoying being back in my homeland and meeting/working with people.

Gotta say, moaning about having to spend two days out of ten on site for 850 quid makes you look like a bit of a twunt to me. But quite happy for you to keep turning them down so them that really don't mind doing that can earn some brass.

I think you are proper daft to be turning that down but it could have been with my client and you have to sit with me so you might have dodged a massive bullet

That's a bit offensive.

I take my kids to school every morning and pick them up from after-school club most evenings. If I'm away for several days every other week, my heavily pregnant wife now has to do that which is no easy task for her.

Remote work enables diversity and inclusion.

[DrewG]

This is a moot argument and I have to say quite twuntish.

Your client has other suppliers available and based on some of your previous witterings they have better CV's too!

It seems like revenue stream rejection is a particular forte of yours.

@northenladuk I think it is you that has dodged the massive bullet!

I didn't even send a CV for this role. I sent a one-pager on how I think they should migrate their existing ERP to S/4HANA and what the common issues are on that migration path within their industry. There was a link to my linkedin profile at the bottom of the page, maybe that counts as a CV?

There's a reason I won the role above everyone else that applied and part of that was me not sending a tulipty permie looking CV (probably what yours looks like).

In a bear market, I can't believe you're advocating for NOT learning how to sell. You're supposed to be a vendor, act like one.

[SueEllen]

That's a bit offensive.

I take my kids to school every morning and pick them up from after-school club most evenings. If I'm away for several days every other week, my heavily pregnant wife now has to do that which is no easy task for her.

Remote work enables diversity and inclusion.

Despite the above, I'm still going to resist roles that want me onsite.

Being pregnant isn't a permanent state.

So there is no reason before she was 6 months pregnant and about 3 months afterwards why you can't go into an office a few times a month. Also I have friends and a neighbour who had pelvic girdle pain who still managed to drop off/pick up their other kids. Their partners/spouse's couldn't just stop working on-site.

The bigger issues include, which one of my siblings and their spouse had plus a couple of friends, was a child with a long term disability with frequent hospitalisations. There at least one having a flexible employer helped a lot.