Reply to: Ad Hoc contract and client expectations.....

[Lance]

£400 for being on call for a month - sod that!

I thought my current client was bad. Offered 1/2 day TOIL per week on call - sod that. Probably works out same as permies get but I pointed out that permies wouldnt do for 1/2 they're daily pay.

£400 would buy you a lesson.

[psychocandy]

Had a terrible financial services client few years ago. They only paid £400 a month extra & for that service wanted you on standby 24/7 for an entire week! If you refused they cancelled your contract & got some other mug who did not refuse & was desperate. I refused so walked before being asked to walk. The hiring manager is a very unpleasant tool as well he expected you to be on 24/7 call for this £400 a month extra even if you were asleep in the middle of the night & on early shift next day he still expected everything as well as 2 min response to any out of hours support ticket to say it was being dealt with by the call out person. It worked out around £24 extra per day to give the client all your spare time they are just unrealistic & should have paid the big bucks for a follow the sun out of hours support model (which would have cost them x 10 more). Found out much later the ulterior motive as the massive savings on proper follow the sun support went into the line managers bonus pool!

£400 for being on call for a month - sod that!

I thought my current client was bad. Offered 1/2 day TOIL per week on call - sod that. Probably works out same as permies get but I pointed out that permies wouldnt do for 1/2 they're daily pay.

[psychocandy]

Trouble is you don't know what the agency/end client has told the customer. Sounds like they think you're a full time employee sitting there waiting to fix things.

[uk contractor]

Had a terrible financial services client few years ago. They only paid £400 a month extra & for that service wanted you on standby 24/7 for an entire week! If you refused they cancelled your contract & got some other mug who did not refuse & was desperate. I refused so walked before being asked to walk. The hiring manager is a very unpleasant tool as well he expected you to be on 24/7 call for this £400 a month extra even if you were asleep in the middle of the night & on early shift next day he still expected everything as well as 2 min response to any out of hours support ticket to say it was being dealt with by the call out person. It worked out around £24 extra per day to give the client all your spare time they are just unrealistic & should have paid the big bucks for a follow the sun out of hours support model (which would have cost them x 10 more). Found out much later the ulterior motive as the massive savings on proper follow the sun support went into the line managers bonus pool!

[WTFH]

Which is almost the point I was making. You can’t rely on part time ad hoc resource to be at the keyboard for a P1

But they see you as an ad-hoc resource, not a part time one. You are the individual who is putting words like "part time" into it, not them.

All support is "ad-hoc", support only supports what needs supporting. You need to manage the client's expectations, and that includes things like telling them that you won't be available for 3 hours to respond to emails cause you're driving.

[mookiemoo]

Which is almost the point I was making. You can’t rely on part time ad hoc resource to be at the keyboard for a P1

[oilboil]

I'd argue that you should rely on ad hoc resource for P1's if they need looking at within 120 minutes with no prior warning they are coming through.

I'd be very happy to work in your world - one were a P1 incident can have prior warning - sounds like a walk in the park

By definition a P1 is a major unexpected issue - if it was expected then it should have been raised much earlier as P2 or P3

[WTFH]

Except it wasn't logged as a P1 but as an urgent P2.

Correct, my maths was off when I said I was within the window but this wasn't a P1.

I don't want to get bogged down in the specifics of this incident but more what people would normally expect for ad hoc resource that is no in 8 hours a day stand by.

But if you're wanting to talk to the client about what the contract is for, then you need to make sure that they and you know what is the SLA, and who defines when something is a P3, P2, or P1, and what is meant by "Urgent P2"

We don't know what your SLA states or how you've agreed the call levels, that's why it's hard for us to tell you what the correct thing is to do.

[mookiemoo]

Ticket comes in at 15:10
You respond at 17:50
You're 40 mins outside the 2 hour window for an urgent ticket.

Except it wasn't logged as a P1 but as an urgent P2.

Correct, my maths was off when I said I was within the window but this wasn't a P1.

I don't want to get bogged down in the specifics of this incident but more what people would normally expect for ad hoc resource that is no in 8 hours a day stand by.

[WTFH]

Yes, but even that is 2 hours which I was technically within anyway

Ticket comes in at 15:10
You respond at 17:50
You're 40 mins outside the 2 hour window for an urgent ticket.

[BlasterBates]

The customer made a mistake by defining it P2 instead of P1, their mistake. Point that out, no further action required

[mookiemoo]

Is there a separate SLA for P1 work (not that this applies in the situation you describe)?

Yes, but even that is 2 hours which I was technically within anyway

[TheFaQQer]

Ticket came through as normal P2 with only the description at Urgent - hence I didn't see it. I see the JIRA title and P rating without going into the ticket itself to read the details.

I'd argue that you should rely on ad hoc resource for P1's if they need looking at within 120 minutes with no prior warning they are coming through.

Is there a separate SLA for P1 work (not that this applies in the situation you describe)?

[mookiemoo]

You mention P2/P3 issues, what about P1 and who decides what is a P1 etc? Maybe client was looking for an urgent response to a P1?

Ticket came through as normal P2 with only the description at Urgent - hence I didn't see it. I see the JIRA title and P rating without going into the ticket itself to read the details.

I'd argue that you should rely on ad hoc resource for P1's if they need looking at within 120 minutes with no prior warning they are coming through.

[stek]

You mention P2/P3 issues, what about P1 and who decides what is a P1 etc? Maybe client was looking for an urgent response to a P1?