So someone like me, should I want to go into contracting shouldn’t be affected?
Cause this guy said something about the job being ‘outside of IR35’
Well now you’re going beyond my expertise, but my waves hands understanding is that if you’re not just hiding the fact that you’re essentially a permanent employee pretending to be a contractor/limited company then you’re fine.
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If you are a contractor working exclusively for one company for years and years, HMRC will take an interest.
Though you should be fine if you work for different companies simultaneously like a consultant. Or you have short-term contracts working exclusively for one company and than moving onto another company and then back again to the first company.
Caveat : That’s how I think it works after watching a 2 min video.
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The key thing there is the timing isn’t it. We all know the problem, you get to Friday afternoon and everything’s not done so the urge to clean up is irresistible. The best solution imo is to set aside early Monday for that stuff, or as a second best Friday morning.
Also of course everyone cocks up. The important thing is you cleared the air and fixed the misunderstanding. Staff appreciate that and are forgiving as long as it doesn’t happen all the time.
There was a point in my job a few years back when my team coined the phrase “the Friday problem”, which is when something unexpected and baffling to solve invariably appeared straight affer lunch every Friday, causing mass wailing and gnashing of teeth.
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When you have a chat about something on the phone then ask someone to put something in writing and then the e-mail doesn’t cover enough detail to give full clarity of what you’ve just discussed.
I’m in a meeting that not only could have been an email, it literally was, and it’s still overrunning
unsubscribe
I’m on a teams call and someone has Alf as their profile photo. Quite off putting…
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The word ‘capacity’
Work
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The fucking screen, the keyboard, all of it
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Work are looking to try and bring in some kind of on call process to offer support 24/7.
Looks to involve you being on call for a week at a time and you could be called at any time there is an issue. That involves being no more than half an hour away from a computer, staying in an area that has no phone signal and not having alcohol.
I can’t currently think of anything I want to agree to less as the lockdown starts to ease. I don’t have any friends within 30 mins of here and normally make good use of weekends.
Its meant to be opt in but getting a lot of pressure to join as if anyone doesn’t opt in it means the others will have to do more weeks. There is 5 in my team so if everyone opts in we will have to do it every 5 weeks.
How much more are they paying you?
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And if nobody opts in?
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What happens now if something goes wrong out of office hours? If 24/7 support is important, then a team is created with that in mind and it’s part of the job description when joining. It’s a bit off to have an office-hours based team and then surprise them with 24/7 support some years later.
My workplace does 24/7 on-call support across many teams. Colleagues are always happy to take on extra shifts from others because they are paid £500 per week for the inconvenience and £60 an hour when called out. Some teams have one person covering a week while other teams rotate a person every night.
I’ve done on-call before and you don’t have to lose your freedom at weekends if work gives you a laptop and a mobile for tethering. Social options are limited (no benders, no raving), but I have logged in from a restaurant and from dinner parties. I didn’t mind because the extra money was stashed in the “fun fund” - treats for me and me only. That kept me going when on calls for six hours since 1am.
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What’s your Union situation? Sounds like something id get the union straight away involved in
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Don’t know your work situation, but as others have said that sounds like something you should be very healthily compensated for.
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@laelfy @froglet @Unlucky @hardworking Thanks for everyones replies. Don’t want to spam this thread with individual replies though. I was in a bad mood last night after it being brought up and reading through the current plan, The idea is definitely less appealing to me as we get closer to coming out of lockdown.
Currently there is no real process but if something goes wrong out of hours the team lead gets called and is expected to either fix it or call someone else to fix it. You can then claim overtime for the hours worked.
New plan does involve you getting paid an extra 300 for any weeks on call and I can’t deny the extra would be nice and the idea of saving it for something special is a nice idea. Nothing has been said about laptops or tethering but I am not holding my breath, still waiting for a few things to make it easier working from home. Good to hear you can still get some things done though.
I’ve sent a list of questions I want answering but my gut is to not opt in. I think our team is too small to do this. I think once every 5 weeks is too often for me personally and it could very easily move to once every 4 weeks. My wife is also not a fan of the idea. It messes up her weekend plans if I am not as mobile and she going to get woken up if I have to get up in the middle of the night and while I might get a bit of leeway, she still has to be in school at 8 the next morning.
Oh and not unionised. Maybe I should look into it but never heard of IT being unionised.
It’s quite common to have other teams sharing on call duties so that it doesn’t all fall to one small team - have they explored that?
Or is there another team that already works 24/7 or does on call that could take it on? My boyfriend’s work did this because it made more financial sense for the business than having two teams on call.
Don’t feel bad if you want to opt out. If everyone opts out your company will find another solution.
If I could take my laptop with me for any times I had to be away from home for more than 30 minutes it would probably be ok. If the expected frequency of call outs was low then it could be a nice bit of extra cash for not doing much.
BUT
£300 after tax is not actually all that much.
What if your week falls on a week where you have a wedding or event and no one is willing to swap?
I’d probably say yes to their request but I’d maybe think quite hard about having a tight contract in place that 1) pays you more for it 2) means you are able to protect important events etc