Contractors- How do you manage your holidays in any at all!

bettersoon

How many weeks unpaid holidays do you take a year? if so, do u take them inbetween contracting roles? If you have a 6 month contract, would you be able to take a week off in the middle?

InsideInsurance

The challenge of taking holidays tends to be more of a mental one that I am not only paying £X for my holiday but I am losing £Y in revenue making the holiday much more expensive.

Tend to take about 2-3 weeks holiday a year off but try and tie it in with bank holidays given I will be losing money on that day anyway.

Never had a client who had any problems with taking leave, obviously need to plan it in with the work but never had a short role (the contract itself may only be 3 months or such but the programme is 12months+). If you are doing a fixed 3 months or such then probably a no go, by the time you are up to 6 months I'd argue its fine.

bettersoon

OH might get a 3 month contract, they'd wait 4 weeks if successful. We are having a new baby in july so the timing would be perfect for him to take a week off, thats if they don't extend.

Seems like a bad idea to walk away from his premenant job now! just thinking of the amount of holidays he gets and paternity leave...but we need the money so have to make sacrifices!

InsideInsurance

It all depends on how much you are making as a contractor -v- what you got as an employee. The old rule of thumb was to take the annual salary and divide by 100 to get your target day rate.

Needless to say, if you achieve this then you're on track for increasing your income between 2 and 3 times what you had as an employee and so can afford to take a few days off a year even if it feels painful at the time.

I walked away from perm work at the beginning of the credit crunch and not had a day out of contract yet and my current contracts just been extended for another 12 months. If you are good and to some extent lucky it can be very lucrative.

Whilst the contract is 3 months is that the maximum length? I've never had a longer than 3 month initial contract but never had a contract that lasted less than a year excluding one that I walked away from. When considering contract roles you need to understand the probability of renewal.

easy

bettersoon wrote: »

OH might get a 3 month contract, they'd wait 4 weeks if successful. We are having a new baby in july so the timing would be perfect for him to take a week off, thats if they don't extend.

In our experience (DH and I both contracted over several years), most organisations offering an extension to contract will be happy to allow you to negotiate a week or 2 off before starting again - unless the project is at a critical point. DH has only ever been refused once, because a 6 month project was over-running, and they extended his contract by just 2 months specifically to reach completion at the deadline date.

bettersoon wrote: »

Seems like a bad idea to walk away from his premenant job now! just thinking of the amount of holidays he gets and paternity leave...but we need the money so have to make sacrifices!

I don't think there is ever a good time to leave a permanent job if you think too hard about it. But in this day and age, no job is REALLY secure...

My DH has gone into perm again, but only because it was offered by a company he knew, and knew he would fit in and be comfortable there. Also before that he had worked for 2 years living away from home Mon-Fri, and we wanted our family life back.

wapow

Personally, whatever my contract term is, i work it without any absences.
Also, taking holidays depends on how much i earn.

My holiday at the moment is 6 months going to 7 !!!!!!. Normally i'll take 2-3 months before i get a new contract. But ive moved from C to Perm work, and this is why it has taken so much time. Yes funds are low and its a b-ache. However i should have commited my new company to a contract a long time ago before they delayed my work!

InsideInsurance

wapow wrote: »

Personally, whatever my contract term is, i work it without any absences.

Some would say that is admirable, others would say crazy and some clients wouldn't accept it as forcing people to take 2 weeks off work can be used as a counter fraud practice.

One of the chaps is currently on his 7th year with the client... are you really saying if you were him you wouldnt have taken one holiday in all that time? Nor in the next year that they've just renewed him for?

wapow

I spologise. I wasnt very clear.

I usually take contracts upto 9 months. I will take any holidays i am supposed to, or just get paid out instead.

If i was taking a contract of 9 months upwards. HECK YEA ME WANTZ HOLZ Yo!

serious_saver

I regularly have my contract renewed but my 'employer' makes sure I have at least one full working week off approximately every 9 months. Often the week off falls between 2 contracts. This sounds nice but they don't do it out of kindness. They want to make absolutely sure that I don't start to accrue any additional employment rights by doing the same job continuously.

The actual policy will really depend on the company that he is contracted to work for. My OH once worked as a contractor for a company in a job he loved. In that 12 months he didn't take a single day holiday or a single day off sick and they paid him cash for the holidays days that was entitled too. Although he loved the job I wouldn't recommend going for that length of time without a break.

The most significant downside to contract work can be the lack of sick days. I only get paid for the days I work so I don't officially get sick pay. It means I end up dragging myself into work when I really should be tucked up in bed.

If he does decide to switch to contract working I would suggest that he stipulates at the beginning that he cannot work that week.

InsideInsurance

serious_saver wrote: »

I regularly have my contract renewed but my 'employer' makes sure I have at least one full working week off approximately every 9 months. Often the week off falls between 2 contracts. This sounds nice but they don't do it out of kindness. They want to make absolutely sure that I don't start to accrue any additional employment rights by doing the same job continuously.

Most larger "employers" aka clients insist on you either working through an umbrella company or running your own Ltd company and so there is no chance of you being considered an employee with rights from the client as you are legally an employee already but to the umbrella or your own Ltd.