Sitting in the office...opinions pls...

[ratewhore]

It's all a matter of setting expectations at the outset of the contract.

[smiff]

I like that one. Listen, unless your current contract states you must be at your desk 9-5, 5 days a week, you are entitled to work where you like. I always take the view that the client has no right to complain to me unless a deliverable is late.

Never been that lucky, most of the time I have had good relationships with clients, however, not THAT GOOD that they trust me to work from home.

One day....

[KathyWoolfe]

I like that one. Listen, unless your current contract states you must be at your desk 9-5, 5 days a week, you are entitled to work where you like. I always take the view that the client has no right to complain to me unless a deliverable is late.

And, I concur with the others, make the contract reflect what you want come renewal time or leave them to it...

Unless they're explicit about letting you work from home, most managers like to have you where they can see you and make sure you are actually working. Your managetr seems a bit spineless to give the excuse that your permie colleagues are objecting. If it's a business issue then he should make a proper business case for having you travel to the offcie every day.

[ratewhore]

Managers are paid to manage, and if that means listening to permies complaints then that's what they get paid those high salaries for.

I like that one. Listen, unless your current contract states you must be at your desk 9-5, 5 days a week, you are entitled to work where you like. I always take the view that the client has no right to complain to me unless a deliverable is late.

And, I concur with the others, make the contract reflect what you want come renewal time or leave them to it...

[em:two]

Thanks everyone.

The contract has changed alot from when we took it on and got a response from the manager this morning implying that wfh would be fine as she'd previously agreed and that they'd delegated the extra work to someone employed to do it rather than asking us to do it.

Seems the prospect of losing 2 contractors wasn't too appealing to them.

[KathyWoolfe]

Permie's are a pain where i am as they have started moaning about me working from home on documentation. I simple leave it up to their manager to deal with and carry on doing what i know i can do at home.

Good luck

Managers are paid to manage, and if that means listening to permies complaints then that's what they get paid those high salaries for.

[Cooperinliverp00l]

Sounds like you have almost bent over all you can for this client. Me personally would up the conditions of your contract upon renewal to something that would make you want to stay there or if your not really bothered then walk away and find something local.

Permie's are a pain where i am as they have started moaning about me working from home on documentation. I simple leave it up to their manager to deal with and carry on doing what i know i can do at home.

Good luck

[expat]

...
Now we both turned down local work for this so that we could help these people out of a jam.
....

You did what???

Either you are doing them a favour, in which case it sounds like they are being ungrateful and don't deserve it; or you did what you wanted for yourself, but now it has changed such that you don't really like it any more.

[expat]

WSS - make it clear what you want from the new contract, either better pay, working from home or whatever.

If the client doesn't want to do that, then walk. It's a business relationship, nothing more than that - if you can afford to walk, then be prepared to do so.

Never forget that in contracting, not taking a contract (or extension) is always one of the options. It doesn't work for me without that.

[TheFaQQer]

Frankly this contract seems to be more trouble than it's worth to you.

You are in a strong negotiation position to either increase the rate to make it worth your while, or get it in your contract that you'll provide the deliverables from home and go into work on an occasional basis.

The choice, as they say, is yours..

WSS - make it clear what you want from the new contract, either better pay, working from home or whatever.

If the client doesn't want to do that, then walk. It's a business relationship, nothing more than that - if you can afford to walk, then be prepared to do so.

[Turion]

Frankly this contract seems to be more trouble than it's worth to you.

You are in a strong negotiation position to either increase the rate to make it worth your while, or get it in your contract that you'll provide the deliverables from home and go into work on an occasional basis.

The choice, as they say, is yours..

Absolutely agree. Demand to be allowed to work at home as condition of the renewal. IR35 means nothing to your permie manager, but you walking might. If not, walk and take a local contract. Tres simple.

Just seen this: "we could work from home given that we'd each have an extra 4 hours a day to work in without the travelling"

Meaning what? 4 hrs extra unpaid work???

[cojak]

Frankly this contract seems to be more trouble than it's worth to you.

You are in a strong negotiation position to either increase the rate to make it worth your while, or get it in your contract that you'll provide the deliverables from home and go into work on an occasional basis.

The choice, as they say, is yours..

[em:two]

Hi all

I wondered if I may get some opinions on my situation below.

Myself and a colleague (who lives local to me) took on a contract which is located the best part of a 2 hour drive from home. We took the contract on the basis of slightly shortened hours and car sharing everyday to keep the costs down, otherwise it's not worth the money you see. Now we both turned down local work for this so that we could help these people out of a jam.

So, the first month or so was fine as our job entailed being out on the road meeting people and helping them out etc (no we aren't The AA!) with go live support on a new system. From about a month in my colleague started getting sent elsewhere which meant that we both had to drive (we're talking £30 day travel costs in diesel here). We let it slide for a while but the last week or two we've started being given jobs which we weren't brought in to do. Now to start with this was fine, we said ok as a favour, and not to come across as picky and immature for want of a better word.

Now this extra work we've been given is all stuff we could do from home (all Visio project maps etc etc) so the line manager agreed we could work from home given that we'd each have an extra 4 hours a day to work in without the travelling. Now this caused the usual issues with perm staff and now the line manager's asking us to go in everyday to do stuff we can do at home just as well, and without the journey.

So, we've politely put it to the manager today that it's better for us IR35 wise to be working at home on this, that it's a long journey to do just to work on the same thing we can at home, and also that they did agree that we could do this already. We did also say that we are obviously more than happy to go out and about and travel to do the job we were originally brought in to do, but not this extra work that is all office oriented.

Now I can see this causing problems when the line manager replies tomorrow and I know they're desperate for us to stay there. We've also politely put it to them that this contract, which is due for extension at the end of March, may not be so attractive if we have to trek for 4 hours a day to the office to do a job we weren't brought in to do and that one of the still available local contracts would likely suit better.

If you guys were in my / our position, what would your stance be?

Thanks all!