25 years on and has much changed you ask... (RIP Rob Crossland)

[NotAllThere]

Made a sticky. Whatever else, Parasol was part of the landscape for a long time.

[edison]

That's two people whose death I've learned of via Linkedin in just the last five minutes

[NotAllThere]

Perhaps I will be here in another 10 years with my second post

That was 3 months ago.

Very sad.

Rob, 57, had been battling cancer for some time having been given the all clear earlier last year. Sadly, it returned and he passed away peacefully yesterday.

[northernladuk]

Sad to say Rob Crossland won’t be reappearing on this site. It’s just been announced on LinkedIn that’s he has died of cancer

Oh dear. Sad news. Thanks Eek.

[eek]

Sad to say Rob Crossland won’t be reappearing on this site. It’s just been announced on LinkedIn that’s he has died of cancer

[robcrosslandville]

TLDR; but where is the important stuff. Do you have a favourite Gladiator? When did you last bleed your radiators? Details man, we need details.

Athena / 2006

[northernladuk]

TLDR; but where is the important stuff. Do you have a favourite Gladiator? When did you last bleed your radiators? Details man, we need details.

[robcrosslandville]

Good evening from sunny Staffordshire...

My name is Rob and I am an.... ex-umbrella bod . I originally founded and was CEO of a business called Parasol which became Optionis etc. Before you swear at me, I fully and completely exited in late 2016 and had zero involvement with the Group around covid (industry wide tbf) and cyber incident (or any other grumble since sorry!). Before that I was a contractor and that career led me and a few others to form parasol with the impending ir35 threat in April 2000 (we are doomed Captain Mainwaring!). We built the first (as far as I know) online registration, contract, timesheet and expenses portal for April 2000 launch and for some bizarre reason I did that in perl(!) For printf sake what was I thinking?!?

Fast forward over many "adventures" and here we are with Umbrella's still being vaguely interesting to many for different reasons. Our original idea was that PAYE was a lot easier, simpler and safer than a PSC of 2000 vintage and some of that is still true today. Todays mini umbrella issues were 2001's outrage around composites for example (one for the kids).

So with the recent consultation, and todays autumn statement I thought I would come out of the very occasional lurking and bore the 2 have whom have got this far with some reflections over that 25+ year period. In many ways not much has changed and that is not necessarily a reflection on the Umbrella practice, moreso a reflection of our complex of tax. But fundamentally we can say:

• Employment legislation is far more complex and protects the employee to a much higher level than it ever did.
• Many of the recruit/employment layers in this world have rarely if ever been executed or tested. For example, claims against the working time directive (pre Brexit) were non-existent in the knowledge based worker world. Pay between assignments had a handful of activity in the good old swedish derogation days.
• Expenses came, went, came back, left and became illegitimate.
• The original principles of founding FCSA (yes you can blame part 1/8th on me), seem to have had some success (gets his tin hat ready) whereby compliance to an imperfect but agreed standard with a reasonable level of depth has worked. There are others too of course, and seeking to self-regulate was never a bad thing, not a perfect thing but it did not have its roots in financial self interest. Those early sessions and developments were very challenging around giving many things up.
• Holiday pay was an issue then, 25 on and it is all now fixed.....
• Take home pay is course a lot "worse" (for the contractor)

I can go on (and on) but for the one person left I will park that for now. Are things better for the "worker" or worse? Well, it remains a relatively safe option with a simpler construct (I did not say better). That still appeals to people entering the market and those who still prefer a simpler life (reason 2 parasol was founded). Would formal regulation and the associated penalties that might come as a result, kill ii off? I don't think so. The requirement to have "Employer of Record" has become truly global and continues to grow. Flexible (aka all there is right now) working is here to stay in various shapes and forms. Where "we" have perhaps failed is in providing enough protection for the lower paid elements of this overall market and exploitation around rates and pay has been allowed throughout the supply chain. That is more a reflection on society and politics than an umbrella company over a chip shop in Wigan.

So in many ways it has all stayed the same but in others, the landscape is very different. I think formal regulation is ultimately ok and the next form of Umbrella would exist to do some of the heavy lifting for that same supply chain. Perhaps I will be here in another 10 years with my second post, writing about why a contractor is not paying NI twice.

Here is to the next 25 years where Contractors continue to add value to projects, take some risks, get paid fairly and ideally well. Let us also hope that working through that employer of record (snappy) continues to afford protection and a good service in a safe way for all concerned. May all the dodgy sh1t be expunged and clever tax accountants fall off a rock (we never had them in my day lad... oh hang on a minute...).

All the best folks,
Rob