Reply to: Back to permieland - 1 month in

[ChimpMaster]

I'm pretty much counting down to 2 years too. Just another 6 months or so before I can get back to contracting (hopefully). The old Ltd still hasn't been dissolved, having been stuck "in liquidation" for over a year now.

Permiedom has been OK, getting paid a reasonable salary to tick me over while I did minimal work and managed to spend a lot of time on my other interests.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Looks like my 2 and a bit years in permieland is ending.

I had to go against everything I believe in (as usual) and take an inside gig but it's a start. 99% remote too.

[KentDogWalker]

No, East European.

Are you employed by one of the National Agencies per chance to tow the party line on public forums?

Social contract in this country is broken. Permanent employment is a lie and most of the people can only afford what they do by getting over the head in debt.
You have zero protection from being fired and no rights at all. If you get fired after 2 years they might throw at you a severance package which... considering how costly life is won't last you more than 2 years.

Believe in pensions? With the amount of money they are printing now you'd be lucky to afford to pay rent out of it when you retire.
Younger people and poor people are screwed, none will afford to buy a house in South unless they inherit.

By the time you retire they'll probably be paid health insurance here as well so when you take your uber to go to the hospital in an emergency better jump out of it so your kids could have a chance to keep the roof over their head.



People have to be honest with themselves and talk the truth otherwise the ruling class will push even further the equilibrium and **** the rest of the classes even more.

Fight for better contracts, ignore calls. ignore dinky start-up companies that will burn you out in 6m and fire you with a random reason pulled out of a bag. Fight for better pay (that is lower now probably than 15y ago in absolute figure, not taken into account even inflation... which is eye watering now. But nobody talks about it and the gov fudges the stats every time taking things out of the bag and putting irrelevant ones in.

legend

[PCTNN]

yeah I know, I was just messing with them. I really just wanted to test their so-called "flexibility". And the answer was: not that flexible

[d000hg]

Well it's told you something - it's too complex for them and there are other candidates who are easier to deal with.

Yeah why would they bother unless they really want that specific person. Just quote a rate that averages out to what you want.

[eek]

When I got job specs stating that client is flexible but it will be hybrid working, a few of times I've tried the approach of quoting different rates, like £X for days I'm working from home and £1.5*X for when I'm required to be in the office just to see what they said but it never got me anywhere

Well it's told you something - it's too complex for them and there are other candidates who are easier to deal with.

[PCTNN]

I just interviewed for a well known company, who state it's a minimum of 3 days in the office.

Now, in the olden days that's usually what I would be doing and would be glad of the clarification on home working up front, but as soon as that was mentioned I was already thinking it wasn't for me.

It's at a quite frankly absurd rate (Inside though), and even then the desire to get the Tube to Old Street isn't appealing whatsoever.

Makes my moonlighting a lot harder too

When I got job specs stating that client is flexible but it will be hybrid working, a few of times I've tried the approach of quoting different rates, like £X for days I'm working from home and £1.5*X for when I'm required to be in the office just to see what they said but it never got me anywhere

[ensignia]

I just interviewed for a well known company, who state it's a minimum of 3 days in the office.

Now, in the olden days that's usually what I would be doing and would be glad of the clarification on home working up front, but as soon as that was mentioned I was already thinking it wasn't for me.

It's at a quite frankly absurd rate (Inside though), and even then the desire to get the Tube to Old Street isn't appealing whatsoever.

Makes my moonlighting a lot harder too

[eek]

I guess the government will push for companies to call employees back to the office to help the economy. Even if you go to the office 1 day a week, it's probably 1 coffee and 1 lunch that you'll buy from a local business.

To which as a business owner my first question has to be - what's in it for the business..

[PCTNN]

Why?

What purpose would it serve? Other than making people miserable (apart from commercial landlords of course)?

I guess the government will push for companies to call employees back to the office to help the economy. Even if you go to the office 1 day a week, it's probably 1 coffee and 1 lunch that you'll buy from a local business.

[PerfectStorm]

How one sided huh?
I guess you live far in the northern nowherelands, love the WFH trend but hate to realise full WFH was always a temporary thing, and as soon as the next recession comes your a** is going to be in 3-4x days a week ! Or you'll just get outsourced !

Why?

What purpose would it serve? Other than making people miserable (apart from commercial landlords of course)?

[NotAllThere]

... hate to realise full WFH was always a temporary thing...

Thanks, JRM.

[bballer3221]

There is a bit of presenteeism creeping back into the industry now. Good on principled contractors for voting with their feet against such rubbish.

And nothing says "we have no money for pay rises and we care about staff morale" like shelling out hundreds of thousands of pounds for commercial property that no one wants.

How one sided huh?
I guess you live far in the northern nowherelands, love the WFH trend but hate to realise full WFH was always a temporary thing, and as soon as the next recession comes your a** is going to be in 3-4x days a week ! Or you'll just get outsourced !

[PerfectStorm]

There is a bit of presenteeism creeping back into the industry now. Good on principled contractors for voting with their feet against such rubbish.

And nothing says "we have no money for pay rises and we care about staff morale" like shelling out hundreds of thousands of pounds for commercial property that no one wants.

[PCTNN]

PCTNN you're a designer, if I recall? How are you finding the market?

Pretty good if you're based in London or willing to go to London 1 day a week. Until say 6 months ago 100% remote was pretty much the norm, now 80% of the contracts wants you in 1 day a week.

Outside ir35 contracts are scarce, tend to be shorter (2-3 months) and with rates lower than they were 5 years ago. Inside ir35 contracts rates are the same as 5 years ago.

So yeah, the market for UX/UI Design is not brilliant but if you're good and have good relationships with agents and clients you can still make a living.