Hi,
My first post so please be gentle...
I am on my first contract which is basically acting as a caretaker to several projects (end customers) that my clients are allowing to wither (because my clients were bought by a larger company and their technology incorporated in to a different stack and these end customers are not core business).
I have to timesheet all my time so that my client can bill the end customers and until recently (and for the last 16 months) I have been able to (easily) account for a full 40 hours per week that my client could then bill.
Now the withering is starting to really happen and its now going to be a lot harder to find that number of billable hours for my client (indeed it may be hard to account for even 20 hours some weeks).
The work is mainly architecture and development for end client new functionality or ongoing support.
I am the only person with knowledge of the workings of the code (its not terribly hard but there would be a learning curve as its evolved though many different hands and styles and there are many "quirks" in there).
Though there is no clause in my contract tying my hours to billable hours: the client has a clear rule that all contractors must be profitable.
So the dilemma... how do I handle this?
- Do I volunteer to drop my contract hours to say 3 days per week (the minimum I need to pay myself) in the hope that this keeps the contract going and use the other time for a 2nd contract (how do I find a 2 day a week contract?) or invest it learning new skills or just kick back and enjoy the summer.
- Do I sit it out and see what happens. My contract is for 40 days per week (though with only 5 days notice). Without me they will have considerable support issues and their reducing income stream would stop pretty much immediately. So they would probably have to backfill.
The first option appeals because it somewhat delays the termination (its quite a nice contract, I work from home etc), the second protects my short term income but I suspect it will cause the termination to occur sooner.
My first post so please be gentle...
I am on my first contract which is basically acting as a caretaker to several projects (end customers) that my clients are allowing to wither (because my clients were bought by a larger company and their technology incorporated in to a different stack and these end customers are not core business).
I have to timesheet all my time so that my client can bill the end customers and until recently (and for the last 16 months) I have been able to (easily) account for a full 40 hours per week that my client could then bill.
Now the withering is starting to really happen and its now going to be a lot harder to find that number of billable hours for my client (indeed it may be hard to account for even 20 hours some weeks).
The work is mainly architecture and development for end client new functionality or ongoing support.
I am the only person with knowledge of the workings of the code (its not terribly hard but there would be a learning curve as its evolved though many different hands and styles and there are many "quirks" in there).
Though there is no clause in my contract tying my hours to billable hours: the client has a clear rule that all contractors must be profitable.
So the dilemma... how do I handle this?
- Do I volunteer to drop my contract hours to say 3 days per week (the minimum I need to pay myself) in the hope that this keeps the contract going and use the other time for a 2nd contract (how do I find a 2 day a week contract?) or invest it learning new skills or just kick back and enjoy the summer.
- Do I sit it out and see what happens. My contract is for 40 days per week (though with only 5 days notice). Without me they will have considerable support issues and their reducing income stream would stop pretty much immediately. So they would probably have to backfill.
The first option appeals because it somewhat delays the termination (its quite a nice contract, I work from home etc), the second protects my short term income but I suspect it will cause the termination to occur sooner.
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