New Contract Day

TTony

Agreed verbally, waiting for the formal paperwork.

I've done contract PM work for years.  Mostly in the BigCity which has involved a min 4hr round trip door-to-desk-to-door commute (that's a min 4hrs that can easily be 5 or 6 hrs when the trains are screwed) and a £1k/mth bill for the train fare.

Bit of a pita, but I live in the country and work in the City, so that's been the deal for most of the last 10 years.  The downside is that I have no time to do anything during the week apart from work, commute & sleep.  The upside is that a month of working pays for at least a month of not-working, so I've been able to take fair chunks of time-out too.

I've been on my latest break for a few months, but knew I'd have to go back to work sometime, and wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

Today, I concluded discussions with a (previous) client on new contract that will be home-based with them paying any travel costs if I have to step outside my front door.  To be fair, the scope of the role is Europe, Middle East & Africa, so I might as well spend all day on conf calls & emails from home as from an arbitrary office location in the City.  Naturally, the £rate is a bit lower - but the 20% reduction in income is partly offset by the elimination of travel costs, and more than offset by the extra 4+ hrs/day.

I'm quite looking forward to being able to have a life outside work & commuting again, whilst also having an income.

I'm also aware that it's going to be very different to what I've been used to for my whole working life.  No face-to-face interaction.  Miss all the non-verbal communication, all the informal chats in the corridor, all the lunches - and bumping into people around the city at lunchtime - and the quick-after-work drinkies.  And I'll miss the buzz of the City too.  

But it should be an interesting experience.  I might blog it as some sort of sociology study.

Obviously, I won't be able to be on here whilst also being on conference calls ...

PolarityMan

TTony said:

Obviously, I won't be able to be on here whilst also being on conference calls ...

Yeah that's like totally impossible and no sort of responsible person would ever attempt it.....ahem.

chrispy108

Sounds miles better to me, I can't imagine a big commute being sustainable. I work about 5 minutes away and love it.

DiscoStu

I'm away on work right now. I'm really busy and don't have time to be posting on the internet.

richardhomer

Not sure how old you are Tony - but I think there's a point in life where taking the easier option makes sense.

I think there's great value in the social interactions which come about from work - equally there are no prizes for commute-induced heart attacks.

Sounds like you've hit on a great opportunity. I wish you luck with it.

dchwhite

Colour me green - I've had jobs which had 1 day pw wfh but not all of them! Good luck with it.

BigMonka

Sounds like a great opportunity - congrats Tony. You clearly must be good at what you do!

Is PM project management?

musteatbrain

Didn't realise you were a PM Tony. I've been covering my employers PMO and Programmes contractor recruitment activity for the past 2 years.

TTony

richardhomer said:

Not sure how old you are Tony

Me neither - so that's a clue

BigMonka said:

Is PM project management?

It is.  Shorthand for project, programme and/or change (in the generic rather than IT sense) management.

Also known as applied common sense.

richardhomer

TTony;968207" said:

richardhomer said:

Not sure how old you are Tony

Me neither - so that's a clue;)

Sounds like you're about my age....

TTony

musteatbrain said:

Didn't realise you were a PM Tony. I've been covering my employers PMO and Programmes contractor recruitment activity for the past 2 years.

Getting into PM was another of those accidental career moves - but there always seems to be plenty of contract PM work about.

You're up North though (according to your profile), whereas I tend to only get as far North as Moorgate (which, for anyone unfamiliar with the geography of London, is about 1.5 miles North of the river).

octatonic

Congrats Tony.

Home is the best place to work.

Roland

Well done Tony. You will love it.

There are lots of useful things you can do whilst participating in conference calls: walking the dog, playing guitar, weeding the garden, admin. Walking to work is a doddle, you can even nip home for a fresh cup of coffee.

Just make sure that you keep up the social interaction now that there's no coffee machine or water cooler to meet around.

McToot

Nice one Tony. Hope you don't like cricket, golf, football, cooking, gardening, guitars... These things (or at least watching them on Sky) can get in the way of home working.

What? Eh? Oh...

octatonic

McToot said:

Nice one Tony. Hope you don't like cricket, golf, football, cooking, gardening, guitars... These things (or at least watching them on Sky) can get in the way of home working.

What? Eh? Oh...

I find the best way to be disciplined is to have a separate space to work in.

It is easy for me because the workshop is the only place I can do workshop stuff, but when I was in IT and contracting I was much more productive when I had a dedicated office room, rather than trying to work on the sofa or kitchen table.

musteatbrain

TTony;968211" said:

musteatbrain said:

Didn't realise you were a PM Tony. I've been covering my employers PMO and Programmes contractor recruitment activity for the past 2 years.





Getting into PM was another of those accidental career moves - but there always seems to be plenty of contract PM work about.

You're up North though (according to your profile), whereas I tend to only get as far North as Moorgate (which, for anyone unfamiliar with the geography of London, is about 1.5 miles North of the river).

I'm currently accidentally falling into a project management role. I'm in Manchester but we have contracts all over the UK. Nothing exciting at the moment, closest we would get to you would be Slough. It's a beautiful part of the world.

TTony

octatonic said:

McToot said:

Nice one Tony. Hope you don't like cricket, golf, football, cooking, gardening, guitars... These things (or at least watching them on Sky) can get in the way of home working.

What? Eh? Oh...

I find the best way to be disciplined is to have a separate space to work in.

It is easy for me because the workshop is the only place I can do workshop stuff, but when I was in IT and contracting I was much more productive when I had a dedicated office room, rather than trying to work on the sofa or kitchen table.

No Sky here @McToot, so I'm safe there.

And @octatonic is 100% right - I've had the separate work room since we moved in here, trying to "work" in a shared area would be impossible.

Need to sort out a new office chair ...

DiscoStu

I work from home 2 days a week and am out on the road the other 3. I make my own hours and that's how I've decided to work it.

Working from home is pretty cool but it can be lonely some days as I live alone. No kids, no pets.

I am going through so many Nespresso pods nowadays!!

welshboyo

I work from home with some travel and its good, you'll get used to it and in a few months you'll be wondering how you managed the commute!!!

Word of Advice - keep guitars and home office separate....I haven't and the temptation is too much, however, its quite nice sometimes to be on those conference calls on mute with a guitar in hand practicing a few licks....

Its rough with the smooth as some days you don't switch off until a lot later than you would in a normal office environment.

I have also saved a small fortune from not having to buy lunch/coffee!!

DiscoStu

welshboyo said:

Its rough with the smooth as some days you don't switch off until a lot later than you would in a normal office environment.

I have also saved a small fortune from not having to buy lunch/coffee!!

This! The company feed me for the three days a week I'm away and I'm definitely noticing a healthier bank balance after only 6 weeks on the road.

But yeah, I sometimes work at home in to the late evening planning and doing reports so I either work over my 37.5 hour week or I can decide to take days off due to having fulfilled my contracted hours.

Jalapeno

Envious, well done old chap !!!!!