Professional day - How many hours?

[Ashwin2007]

For daily rate contracts,
How many hours are considered a professional day?
I have seen contracts varying from 7.0 to 8.0 hours, is there any standard?

[oracleslave]

For daily rate contracts,
How many hours are considered a professional day?
I have seen contracts varying from 7.0 to 8.0 hours, is there any standard?

Don't think so as I have seen 7.5 and 8 hours. I could be wrong though.

FWIW my take on it has always been that if I was going into a contract and worrying about 30 min here or there then I was in the wrong gig.

[BolshieBastard]

Some say 8 hours.

IMO a 'professional working day' is however many hours it takes to do the daily task be that 4hours, 7 or 12 hours.

[NotAllThere]

I work to the half day usually. It balances out in the end. I think I'm doing around 7 hours for day on average.

[BrilloPad]

I get paid however many I do. In theory it is 8 hours - but I sometimes do a half day and get paid a full days pay.

I usually do 8.30 per day though.

[TheVoice]

I normally work on the understanding that the day is as long as I make it.

At the end of the day, as long as the job is done (or at least the most part of what I've set out to do that day) then nobody can complain.

Most recent client wanted to moan about me not working 12 hour days like the permies, but when you've been in this game for a while you learn to close your ears to those kinds of idiots.

Try & steer clear of defining specific numbers of hours in a contract, then you can make your own up for whatever suits.

[Turion]

My working day is 8hrs, sometimes less. When working on daily rate, try to get expected hours per week (eg 37, 40 etc) stated in contract. Then you can work longer hours mid week and take Friday afternoon off etc. Be wary about being sucked into doing unpaid overtime.

Don't worry about what permies do, or other contractors doing 'charity work'. At current gig due to run up to go live, permies are working all hours and weekends for 'pizza pay'. Client asked me to do the same and I politely informed them that overtime will be charged. The realisation that they are paying for this extra time helps to limit the amount I'm expected to do. Anyways, it will pay for next years hols

[expat]

For daily rate contracts,
How many hours are considered a professional day?
I have seen contracts varying from 7.0 to 8.0 hours, is there any standard?

This is a frequent question. The answer IMO has to be that a professional day does not equal a precise number of hours, so the question, as asked, is misplaced.

So what is a professional day? It is not precisely defined, just because the parties involved are not prepared to come to an agreement about it. This only becomes a problem if the parties later come to a specific disagreement. Then the question becomes, who is going to do something about it, and what are they going to do? The answer is likely to be:
1. the client complains that you haven't worked enough (by which they mean that they haven't got what they want), and cans you with or without a threat, real or bluster, not to pay for what you have worked already.
2. the agent (abandoning all pretence that you gain anything from having them in the way) backs up the client, adding substantial additional badmouthing and threats that you'll never work again.
3. you yell back, eventually get paid probably, and go and get another contract.

What does it mean? It means they don't know yet, they'll tell you later how much you should have worked.

Or I'm an old cynic

[Jubber]

If I have to work on site I generally aim to be there 8 hours from start to finish, normally 9 to 5.

I work on the basis that if I can't get the job done in that amount of time, I'm not doing my job properly, or the project is under resourced.

[Turion]

I work on the basis that if I can't get the job done in that amount of time, I'm not doing my job properly, or the project is under resourced.

WHS, but in my case, someone or something else is not doing their job correctly and preventing me from getting my job done.

Current client recently dumped an extra set of requirements on me expecting, me to work a fortnight of 16 hr days to finish it, without extra pay. I refused, but proposed that my company supply additional resource (a guy between contracts) to cover the requirement. Surprisingly, they actually took it seriously, but in the end got work done by their indian offshore division (took over a month and then needed re-work , and still not working , and I'm not getting involved )