Working as a Consultant for existing employer?

[suzimum]

Hi, I would appreciate if anyone cabn advise me or share experiences. I am on mat leave from a job I've done for almost 9 years. My employer is happy for me to return after a year on 3 days a week, but I have always worked extra home - often weekends etc. and I know that during busy times I will end up doing this once I go back.

However I also know that my employer will only pay me for the days I am in the office since this issue came up with another employee. So I can see myself working just as hard as before but only getting paid for 3 days.

So I am wondering if I should approach them re working on a consulting basis (we have consultants in the company too)for a figure closer to the amount I earnt pre pregnancy. I am not sure how to go about this though or the implicatons.

Sorry for the long ramble, but thanks for reading and hope to hear from someone!

Do you mean as self-employed? If so, in my experience it's unlikely that HMRC would be convinced that you continuing to work for your existing employer doing (presumably) the same job and not working for other clients would be a genuine self-employment situation.

Also, if your employer only wants to pay you for 3 days on an employed basis, what would be the advantage to them to pay you more as a consultant?

I reckon your best bet is to work out how you can do your job in 3 days as per your proposal. You can't literally do the same amount of work as you were doing 5 days, so you need to work out how you can do 40% less, if that's the proposal you are putting to your employer in terms of your working hours. And then stick to it!

Hi suzimum

I think your concern is valid. I went down to 2 weeks a month and ended up being given the same amount of work with the same deadlines. I was just expected to finish it in 2 weeks instead of a month.

The consulting option will be hard to swing by HMRC if you are trying the IR35 or something but if you go self-employed I don't think it will be a problem. I am presuming you want to rather go onto a daily or hourly rate as opposed to the 3 days a week option? Look carefully at any overtime clauses as if you have a daily rate you are often not paid overtime on that. Remember that as a consultant you do lose out on perm perks - so investigate that carefully - holidays start to cost more money as you are not getting leave pay, not working and still spending money. Also you might have a hard time convincing them to up your rate but it depends on how much they want you, I suppose...

I would talk to HR and tell them your concerns about going onto a 3 day week first and see if they have any solutions.

Good Luck

I went down to 4 days but my workload remained the same and they used to call me all the time on my day off.

I don't think that self employed consultancy would benefit you that much. Yes you will get paid for the hours you work, but you wont get paid sick leave or holidays so you will may not be any better off. Plus you have no employment rights. HMRC may see this as a way of getting out of paying tax and you don't want to get on the wrong side of them.

Either you have to broach the subject of paid overtime or you need to learn how to push back and set expectations about just how much you can achieve whilst you're in the office. Oh and don't answer calls or emails on your day off.