This Business and Moment...

You probably want to make it an inside IR35 contract because what you've described sounds like a classic Friday-to-Monday scenario that you'd struggle to argue is outside IR35.

Also don't ignore the possibility that it's just a ruse to effectively extend your notice period whilst they find a replacement - it could be they don't want you as a long-term contractor but equally they know they need to find a suitable replacement before letting you go.
 
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t2na said:
Yup, this was my initial response. Adjusting my existing full time contract to a fully remote contract would be my preference, I think they're worried about the implication across the rest of the business where they've tried to be quite set on the office days requirement.

It's one of the points to be discussed, I'd rather not go contract if I don't have to. I'm also worried about mortgage implications too. We're selling our house where we live currently and moving into rented where we're relocating to - so I'm not too sure how that then effects applying for a mortgage if I'm contract.


Yeah, I've done a bit more reading into IR35 and essentially I'd be doing exactly what IR35 was designed to cover! It does give me some potential leverage to ensure that any contract/package means I'm no worse off but I'm going to have a bit more of a read through that website, thanks for the link, super useful.
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You can always take the contract role whilst keeping an eye out for a fully remote permanent role (or something commutable to your relocation).

I actually spoke to a friend who has been a contractor for many years about mortgages this week. He told me generally lenders will want to see 3 years books to make an offer, but that there are some specialist lenders who will work with 1-2 years (he did this when he first started contracting). I imagine you'd struggle with <1 year but definitely get some advise on this from a professional!

Don't let them stiff you with regards to day rate - You'll probably want to account for ~230 paid days a year at around double your current salary imo. Remember things like pension contributions will need to be 100% from you. And your job security will be the notice period in the contract (no possible future redundancy cycle etc).
 
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Contemplating a job move - same sort of role but in a bigger organisation facing different challenges. Headline pay is similar, possibly a bit better but it's 3 less hours a week (officially), and within walking distance so no real commute but also hybrid so only 2 days a week in the office. Would also get me into the local government pension scheme with similar contributions to what I pay now. Also 2 extra days holiday a year. Works out to be a payrise of 10-15% depending on what they offer within the advertised salary range, before taking the savings from the commuting into account and then it's 15-20% payrise.

Would be putting my current employer somewhat in the lurch to leave now though, not that it would cause ill-feeling as I've already broached the subject of leaving within the next 12 months sometime ago.

Decisions decisions. They actually contacted me about the role with a slightly lower salary 4 months ago, so mustn't have been able to find anyone suitable.

Also sounds like the manager is IFAC-qualified so would be able to sort out my PER to finally get ACCA member status as I'm currently in the lurch with it since our company auditors refuse to do it as company policy.
 
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RobHu said:
You can always take the contract role whilst keeping an eye out for a fully remote permanent role (or something commutable to your relocation).

I actually spoke to a friend who has been a contractor for many years about mortgages this week. He told me generally lenders will want to see 3 years books to make an offer, but that there are some specialist lenders who will work with 1-2 years (he did this when he first started contracting). I imagine you'd struggle with <1 year but definitely get some advise on this from a professional!

Don't let them stiff you with regards to day rate - You'll probably want to account for ~230 paid days a year at around double your current salary imo. Remember things like pension contributions will need to be 100% from you. And your job security will be the notice period in the contract (no possible future redundancy cycle etc).
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Yeah, I had a chat with our mortgage advisor and they said about the same regarding 3 years of books - or in some cases 1 or 2 years. That's one part that does concern me because we're renting to find an area that we want to buy in - we don't then want to delay that by a further few years.

My preference is not to go contract side and to instead have the office for 2 days requirement dropped which I've communicated to the company so we'll see! Appreciate all the replies and help as well, it's a completely new avenue to me that had never really been on my radar up until a few weeks back.
 
I had been a Santander mortgage holder for about 7 years (a contractor the whole time), but when I went to borrow more money to buy a larger property they were completely unhelpful.

Halifax on the other hand were completely nonplussed about lending to me and speaking to others, they seem to be very contractor friendly.
 
We had a team meeting today in the office and we allowed people to bring their dogs in! It's been the best work day I've ever had. So relaxing and stress removing having a handful of dogs in the office. At lunchtime we went for a walk and it was great to have just a personal relaxed chat.

I know this may trigger some people, but for us in our office it was a really positive element.
 
Freefaller said:
We had a team meeting today in the office and we allowed people to bring their dogs in! It's been the best work day I've ever had. So relaxing and stress removing having a handful of dogs in the office. At lunchtime we went for a walk and it was great to have just a personal relaxed chat.

I know this may trigger some people, but for us in our office it was a really positive element.
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Ah I remember the days of bringing the pooch to the office, productivity went into minus percentage as many cuddles were required. We used to do it on special occasions.

In other news, work has become frustrating, worked 18+ hour days from September until January and then got marked down on attitude for pointing out where we could have done things better on my review. All the public talking about we want to learn lessons, we want feedback etc but then when you give it you get punished lol.
 
Team next door to me allow dogs, my team have requested to bring their dogs in - will save them bills etc. It's a no from me, so now i'm the bad guy :(

I have a dog and it would be useful for me to bring her in, but i wouldn't want to impose a dog wandering around the office on anyone, the smell, the 'accidents', the attention the dog would need throughout the day etc.

I have seen this in other offices and the dog requires a lot of attention at the cost of productivity - so it's a hard pass from me. Also allowing on 'special occasions' is a slippery slope.
 
All the dogs were well behaved. It also softened the really tough meeting we had. There were only 5.

Each to their own of course. I personally couldn't think of anything better. After the initial flurry of excitement the dogs just flop over under the table or just sit by you.

Everyone was up for it but we only had 60 people in yesterday anyway.

I do understand it's not for everyone though - people were aware there would be dogs in yesterday. And we have 2 floors so people could choose to be away if needed.

I personally love the fact that we're open minded about this stuff. Far more sensible than the whole pronouns thing or banning banter etc ...
 
Freefaller said:
We had a team meeting today in the office and we allowed people to bring their dogs in! It's been the best work day I've ever had. So relaxing and stress removing having a handful of dogs in the office. At lunchtime we went for a walk and it was great to have just a personal relaxed chat.

I know this may trigger some people, but for us in our office it was a really positive element.
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Last studio I worked at allowed dogs in all the time. It had big grounds so loads of space for em outside. I liked have pooches around, although there were occasional mishaps (**** in the boardroom :D ). Really depends how well behaved they are.
 
mid_gen said:
Last studio I worked at allowed dogs in all the time. It had big grounds so loads of space for em outside. I liked have pooches around, although there were occasional mishaps (**** in the boardroom :D ). Really depends how well behaved they are.
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Agreed. Fortunately as we were all senior leaders/managers (not that that has anything to do with your ability to train a dog) with quite a lot of life experience (i.e. old :p ) and discipline the dogs were well trained. A couple of them didn't bring their dogs in because they knew that they wouldn't be "good" enough to be in such an environment. It's a question of maturity really.

However, it's really healthy (IMO) to have a more relaxed approach to work sometimes, especially was this was a pretty tense and difficult meeting to have - the dogs did help soften the day significantly.
 
Freefaller said:
Agreed. Fortunately as we were all senior leaders/managers (not that that has anything to do with your ability to train a dog) with quite a lot of life experience (i.e. old :p ) and discipline the dogs were well trained. A couple of them didn't bring their dogs in because they knew that they wouldn't be "good" enough to be in such an environment. It's a question of maturity really.

However, it's really healthy (IMO) to have a more relaxed approach to work sometimes, especially was this was a pretty tense and difficult meeting to have - the dogs did help soften the day significantly.
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I've worked with an app agency for a few years now and whenever we spend days at their office they always have their dogs around.

It definitely helps make things feel a bit more relaxed, especially when you've got meetings to discuss things that aren't always the most enjoyable to bring up. Although I wonder if they bring their dogs in on those days to deliberately impact the mood...
 
t2na said:
I've worked with an app agency for a few years now and whenever we spend days at their office they always have their dogs around.

It definitely helps make things feel a bit more relaxed, especially when you've got meetings to discuss things that aren't always the most enjoyable to bring up. Although I wonder if they bring their dogs in on those days to deliberately impact the mood...
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Well if it's deliberate then it can't be a bad thing if it has a positive impact surely?
 
Freefaller said:
Well if it's deliberate then it can't be a bad thing if it has a positive impact surely?
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Ah 100%, I'd rather spend an hour petting a dog and talking numbers than talking numbers without a dog or two in the room.

It clearly has a positive impact either way considering we've continued to work with this particular agency for 8+ years now.
 
Looking for a good cloud server for our Ltd Co. We currently have the entire folder structure in my personal OneDrive. While it has served us well, it's not exactly professional - sharing folder links for example comes under a personal email address.

Is anyone in here familiar with different cloud services? I know of OneDrive, Sharepoint, Dropbox and Google Drive but I'm wondering if there is something else that is well-priced, integrates with File Explorer and has version history. Ideally this integration with File Explorer won't clash with my personal OneDrive, which I would like to keep connected.
 
Cadder said:
Looking for a good cloud server for our Ltd Co. We currently have the entire folder structure in my personal OneDrive. While it has served us well, it's not exactly professional - sharing folder links for example comes under a personal email address.

Is anyone in here familiar with different cloud services? I know of OneDrive, Sharepoint, Dropbox and Google Drive but I'm wondering if there is something else that is well-priced, integrates with File Explorer and has version history. Ideally this integration with File Explorer won't clash with my personal OneDrive, which I would like to keep connected.
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If you are currently using OneDrive then the best option for you would probably be Azure.
 
You might want to start a new thread. I'm a 365 cloud admin but at the Enterprise scale. I wouldn't know other products and how they compare for SME. Other than messing around for personal and family use. They've all got quirks imo.
 
Cadder said:
Looking for a good cloud server for our Ltd Co. We currently have the entire folder structure in my personal OneDrive. While it has served us well, it's not exactly professional - sharing folder links for example comes under a personal email address.

Is anyone in here familiar with different cloud services? I know of OneDrive, Sharepoint, Dropbox and Google Drive but I'm wondering if there is something else that is well-priced, integrates with File Explorer and has version history. Ideally this integration with File Explorer won't clash with my personal OneDrive, which I would like to keep connected.
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Buy a office365 business sub for your LTD company? Run your email, one drive etc through it - can run both your one drives at the same time, one will say work / org name and the other personal.
 
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