Reply to: Christmas Working.

[tarbera]

Invite all the contractors into a 'chat session' and discuss possibilities

[northernladyuk]

Thanks all. Not a troll I promise - Grinch name was cos I feel like a grinch having to ask my team to work the whole of Christmas anyway. Now I have to deliver the message on standard day rate I feel even more like a killjoy.

It's a large IT change programme and Christmas is the only time we can fit in all the work needed.

Christmas Eve is a Sunday this year so I think it is reasonable to expect an uplift.

I have raised this with my agancy and asked them for advise - thanks for that suggestion. Unfortunately most of my team have different agencies but from a quick check - none of the contracts have any clauses around overtime/unsociable working.

Won't get caught out again. Will make sure any future contract has a clear statement on this.

It will all work out.

"PoohPooh to the Whos!" he was grinchishly humming.
"They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming!"
"They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do!"
"Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry BooHoo!"
"That's a noise," grinned the Grinch, "That I simply MUST hear!"
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!"
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
And what happened then? Well...in Whoville they say,
That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light,
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the roast beast!

[TheFaQQer]

Thanks all. Not a troll I promise - Grinch name was cos I feel like a grinch having to ask my team to work the whole of Christmas anyway. Now I have to deliver the message on standard day rate I feel even more like a killjoy.

Don't be so hard on yourself - the suggestion may have the opposite effect.

1) The contractors will have a mutual hate figure to group round and target any resentment towards, so that will help build team spirit.

2) The suggestion that they work weekends and Christmas time for nothing extra may yet elicit the biggest laughs your project has seen.

See - that glass isn't looking half empty any more, is it

[uk contractor]

IME this is very hit or miss. Some clients treat you well. One well known N American IB offered me x2 daily rate for bank holidays & weekends as well as free take away food & if you needed it a taxi home. Manager was unpleasant most of the time but at least humane about this aspect of the role. Contrast that with another IB offered no incentives whatsoever for out of hours & even expected you to only bill onsite time so if you were asked to cover a weekend or bank holiday you could only bill for hours onsite not the full daily rate (really who wants to give up the entire day yet only get paid for a few hours!). For that IB the manager (s) were IMO sub-human they did not care about contractor team members family commitments & threatened the sack to contractors who defied them as the perms all refused to do this out of hours requirement so they had to use contractors!

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY as a contract doesn't mean people are going to turn up to work unsocial hours. At best there will be a lot of food / alcohol poisoning on December 23rd..

Sorry, I meant they knew they could get away with offering SFA.

Obviously whether anyone agrees to it is another matter.

I had a similar situation myself once, not Christmas and Boxing day however, this was "just" weekends (nothing in the contract to cover).

I just said to the Client that none of the team will, or could possibly be expected to, turn in unless there was an incentive offered.

Obviously, this particular communication was invisible to the team, some of them would have undoubtedly done it for their standard day rate.
In fact some were impressed the client had actually "offered"

[eek]

Hence why ClientCo think they could get away with it

FTFY as a contract doesn't mean people are going to turn up to work unsocial hours. At best there will be a lot of food / alcohol poisoning on December 23rd..

[Grinch2017]

I'm surprised they didn't get nailed down what they were going to get paid when they signed up in that case, which is pretty daft of them.

Let us know what happens.

Agree. My contract is up for review in Oct so I always knew I had an opportunity to negotiate before I agree. Rest of team are all on contracts til after Christmas. But without a team - I can't deliver anyway!

Warning to us all I think. Make sure it's agreed up front.

[jmo21]

Should have also added that most of the team I recruited knew that the Programme needed Christmas working at the interview. Just a few like me who were recruited before the date was moved to Christmas week. The weekends are already in diaries but we have been waiting for the proposal on payment before we asked everyone to sign up.

I'm surprised they didn't get nailed down what they were going to get paid when they signed up in that case, which is pretty daft of them.

Let us know what happens.

[MrMarkyMark]

Thanks all. Not a troll I promise - Grinch name was cos I feel like a grinch having to ask my team to work the whole of Christmas anyway. Now I have to deliver the message on standard day rate I feel even more like a killjoy.

It's a large IT change programme and Christmas is the only time we can fit in all the work needed.

Christmas Eve is a Sunday this year so I think it is reasonable to expect an uplift.

I have raised this with my agancy and asked them for advise - thanks for that suggestion. Unfortunately most of my team have different agencies but from a quick check - none of the contracts have any clauses around overtime/unsociable working.

Won't get caught out again. Will make sure any future contract has a clear statement on this.

Hence why ClientCo knew they could get away with it

[Grinch2017]

Should have also added that most of the team I recruited knew that the Programme needed Christmas working at the interview. Just a few like me who were recruited before the date was moved to Christmas week. The weekends are already in diaries but we have been waiting for the proposal on payment before we asked everyone to sign up.

[Grinch2017]

Thanks all. Not a troll I promise - Grinch name was cos I feel like a grinch having to ask my team to work the whole of Christmas anyway. Now I have to deliver the message on standard day rate I feel even more like a killjoy.

It's a large IT change programme and Christmas is the only time we can fit in all the work needed.

Christmas Eve is a Sunday this year so I think it is reasonable to expect an uplift.

I have raised this with my agancy and asked them for advise - thanks for that suggestion. Unfortunately most of my team have different agencies but from a quick check - none of the contracts have any clauses around overtime/unsociable working.

Won't get caught out again. Will make sure any future contract has a clear statement on this.

[WTFH]

I've worked on Christmas Day before. I'd woken up early, fired up the computer did a couple of hours knowing that no one else at the ClientCo would be working or would bother me, they had gone live at the start of December and so they were still in hypercare. Got loads done, which meant I didn't have to do any checks on Boxing Day or 27th. The client were suitable billed and had no issue. I've also worked on 1st January a few times, again due to new systems and financial year end (for some companies)

[northernladuk]

Gave you Christmas off? D&C much?

[SueEllen]

Good luck with that.

I've never worked Christmas, or any time over that period, apart from working January 1st for millennium bug cover.

If you need your team in, you need to start buttering them up now - but it depends what flexibility you have in terms of what you can offer. You may not be able to pay them extra cash up front, but could you offer two days off in place of the day that they work when you need them? To be honest, the deal would have to be amazing for me to consider working over the Christmas period (or any time when I want to be on holiday / not working). The way I've priced weekend work before has been to consider what else I could be doing, and what the cost of replacing that time would be - if I'm working away and I'm needed on a weekend, that means that I don't see my family for two weeks. To make up for that, I need to spend a week away with them at some point, so I need to earn enough extra to pay for a large chunk of that.

When I have done weekend work before the client specifically gave me Christmas off.

In other words they worked out that Christmas is an important time for most people and that the project wouldn't really start before January so it was worth it to give as many people as possible time off around Christmas.

[MrMarkyMark]

Good luck with that.

I've never worked Christmas, or any time over that period, apart from working January 1st for millennium bug cover.

If you need your team in, you need to start buttering them up now - but it depends what flexibility you have in terms of what you can offer. You may not be able to pay them extra cash up front, but could you offer two days off in place of the day that they work when you need them? To be honest, the deal would have to be amazing for me to consider working over the Christmas period (or any time when I want to be on holiday / not working). The way I've priced weekend work before has been to consider what else I could be doing, and what the cost of replacing that time would be - if I'm working away and I'm needed on a weekend, that means that I don't see my family for two weeks. To make up for that, I need to spend a week away with them at some point, so I need to earn enough extra to pay for a large chunk of that.

Totally agree my free time carries an extra charge,

Usually for Saturday and Sunday its double rate.

Once I got paid this for sitting on a muted conference call for the day and offering just 2 vocal sentences of advice