An update on job situation

mattx4 · 7 Dec 2022 at 18:23

dowie said:
If you work 6 hours on project 1 for client A, and 3 hours on project 2 for client B and 1 hour on project 3 for client C - which hours are "overtime"? It makes no sense IMO, they're just billable hours, the client doesn't care what other work you did that day, they're just paying for the work you did for them and an hour of billable work is at a set rate.

It's usually only a thing in bigger projects where we are going to there 6months+ and full time for the client

dowie · 7 Dec 2022 at 18:25

mattx4 said:
It's usually only a thing in bigger projects where we are going to there 6months+ and full time for the client

Why is it a thing though? Surely the client just pays a standard rate for each member of the project team, you surely don't turn around and say well Brian worked some longer days here and so these hours will be "overtime" and subject to a different billing code do you?

mattx4 · 7 Dec 2022 at 19:42

dowie said:
Why is it a thing though? Surely the client just pays a standard rate for each member of the project team, you surely don't turn around and say well Brian worked some longer days here and so these hours will be "overtime" and subject to a different billing code do you?

Its only happened on one project I've worked on. It was a long project on a day rate but allowed hours over 8 to be billed as overtime. Day rate for longer projects gets a discount and hours over billed at standard rate. Not every project is time and materials

dowie · 7 Dec 2022 at 20:19

mattx4 said:
Its only happened on one project I've worked on. It was a long project on a day rate but allowed hours over 8 to be billed as overtime. Day rate for longer projects gets a discount and hours over billed at standard rate. Not every project is time and materials

Ah, interesting, not had that before. IME when I've done consultancy work on a client site it's simply been a case of logging billable hours, off-site when doing billable R&D work it may be billable hours or it may be something a client has agreed in advance for a fixed cost (timesheet is still logged accordingly but more just for internal reporting purposes - did the AM & PM who agreed to the terms with the client get it right vs the actual hours worked), ditto to maintenance work, that's not directly billed they've already agreed to an annual fee for that stuff but if some clients are taking up a lot more time than others that is something account managers need to get a grip of.

peterwalkley · 7 Dec 2022 at 22:43

Consultancy isn't 9 to 5 clock in and out - those clauses are there just to make it clear that overtime isn't a "thing" at your level. You will end up doing longer hours some days and fewer on others. It'll balance out over time. There's no overtime, but equally the firm is not going to dock your wages because you did a 3 hour day.

413x · 8 Dec 2022 at 18:28

peterwalkley said:
Consultancy isn't 9 to 5 clock in and out - those clauses are there just to make it clear that overtime isn't a "thing" at your level. You will end up doing longer hours some days and fewer on others. It'll balance out over time. There's no overtime, but equally the firm is not going to dock your wages because you did a 3 hour day.

That's what I'm hoping. Tbh I'd rather longer + shorter days. Short days means I can get out on bike or kayak.

Just don't want to be on 9-10 days regularly and never any 4-5 for example.