Reply to: Contractor commuter family formula

[Boney M]

Do the commute, those hours i spend on the train are used for CBT's on my ipad which in turn increase my daily rate over the coming months

[scooterscot]

Exactly what makes it sanctimonious?


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[EternalOptimist]

my last 10 years have revolved around the profit, not the rate.

and I count quality time amongst the profit.

It's a complex EO formulae, but it works for me

[craig1]

Christ, I find this kind of sanctimonious drivel irritating.


I guess some people may deem some short term sacrifice to be worth it. Or perhaps they have no choice through no fault of their own.

The last 6 years of contracting have been definitely take whatever work is going to stay in work. It's not the contractor boom times of 1995-2001 and 2003-7 where I really had to put in almost no effort to keep myself working locally. Since 2007 I've been employed fully but it's been all in London with only exploitative trash contracts and "employed consultant" roles out my way. It does look like it's improving as I've had more than a few recent sniffs from companies realising they need to be paying far better rates to get anyone but bargain basement contractors.

[MaryPoppins]

Reading the commuter threads / BBC stories I'm aghast at the sacrifices made all in order to earn a few bucks. So it got me thinking; what would you pay per hour to be with family?

Christ, I find this kind of sanctimonious drivel irritating.


I guess some people may deem some short term sacrifice to be worth it. Or perhaps they have no choice through no fault of their own.

[scooterscot]

If one of my previous contracts had offered me a genuine WFH contract but cut £200p/d from my normal London day rate then I'd take a while to consider it and probably say yes!

Generally I'll do this at the minute. When negotiating a new rate, the WFH rate is quite a lot less maybe a third from the on-site rate. For some clients it's a real bargaining chip.

[scooterscot]

Life is too complex to apply a simple formula like the above....

I understand. You never know what hand life shall deal you and I suspect everyone shall have circumstances that differ. My only goal is to understand what price I'm willing to pay to not be with family, as I'm more 'I don't know what's happening two weeks from now' and future goals, well I try not to attach to much to them as too many members of my family seem to kick the bucket from cancer and I live life knowing everyday matters.

[craig1]

Long. long ago in permie land I did a course on time management, they had an exercise where we had to value our personal time. The exercise took into account our salary, available income, savings, debts, happiness, friends and so on and involved lots of subjective analysis to get a very vague figure for each of us. Mine came out at £40/ph mainly due to my huge protectiveness of my free time. I've not really updated that figure so it's stuck in my head but I'd imagine it'd be higher these days.

That came into real effect when negotiating for my new role I start on 6th Jan... My normal daily commute when working in London is 4.5 to 5hrs a day, the commute to my new site is 30 mins drive each way meaning a reduction of about 4hrs commuting a day. My new rate is £125p/d below my normal London average but that's still me up on the day according to that free-time calculation. If one of my previous contracts had offered me a genuine WFH contract but cut £200p/d from my normal London day rate then I'd take a while to consider it and probably say yes!

[socialworker]

Who the fook gets out of bed for £25 per hour?

[Damon]

Life is too complex to apply a simple formula like the above.

I agree with the sentiment though, it's all to easy to chase the £ and miss out on time with the family.

In the last three years I have spent a fair amount of time away from my family and I only have my kids 50/50 so some weeks I wouldn't see them at all.

This might sound a poor choice but post-divorce the lucrative contract involved has helped me accelerate my financial recovery and I have recently spent 3 months over the summer full-time with the children having a wonderful time. Add to that 3 months on bench and it's been a great 2013 for them, my new wife and family.

I guess what I am trying to say is in life's ups and downs sometimes you have to make tough choices but set against a longer term goal it can be the right choice.

My war chest is pretty full again and I can make better 'quality of life' choices going forward based on the outcomes of time working away.

[MarillionFan]

Fifteen dorra PC fixie.

$10 more than Mrs (5 dollar sucky sucky, love you long time) Suityou01

[mudskipper]

You will, next month when your warchest runs out again.

Fifteen dorra PC fixie.

[MarillionFan]

Who the fook gets out of bed for £25 per hour?

You will, next month when your warchest runs out again.

[suityou01]

I'm sure a great many of them commute, even if permie. Indeed I'm certain many of them shall be temporary workers with no paid holidays. The government has recently been boasting about bringing unemployment down, but many new positions are temporary.

You stat is

[scooterscot]

The thing is that if you had a choice of working locally or commuting 2 hours as in your example, for £12.50, then anyone who chose to commute wouldn't be doing it for the money. I can't think of any likely 2 hour commute that wouldn't cost £12.50 or more in petrol/train fare etc.

Exactly. Actually in my example the earnings during commuting was less @ £8.20p/h.

I'd like more folks to consider what they're working for for that time spent away from family. My guess many don't have a clue. In the early years of contracting I was too focused on the rate. Today I'm more focused on knowing what a client is prepared to pay me for not being with my family.