Tricky situation - am on fixed contract, but client not sending work through on time....

[Cornflakemum]

Not sure how to handle this...

In theory I have the 'perfect' job at the moment:

• 3 days a week (over virtually whatever hours)
• flexible location - I only need to be at the client office about once a fortnight.

It is a 'fixed rate' contract, so I get paid the same rate per day, for up to 3 days a week.
It is 'non-exclusive' so means I can work for other clients at the same time. ( I have a couple of other small ones).

When I started out, we agreed that I would commit to 'core hours' within school hours, so 8 - 4 pm Mon/Tues/Weds and then a half day on Thursday. I said that Fridays were 'off limits' but suggested that there might be some flexibility on Thurs afternoon if necessary occasionally.

Problem is, the organisation of the work coming out to me is abysmal. I often find myself phoning/chasing on a Friday or Monday morning to get sent something.
This week (school holidays) I had arranged childcare on Monday, but I didn't actually get briefed on anything until 2 pm, and now I somehow have to find an extra day this week (and more childcare!) to fit it in.

The same happened when I ca,e back from holiday - took me a day to chase after work.

It's well paid, and uber-flexible, so I don't want to burn any bridges, but I also feel like they are taking the piss, and expecting me to be really flexible, when in reality I can't be, as I need to organise family life and childcare.

How can I address this in a proactive, business-like way?

Forgot to say, DH says I should just invoice them for time I sit waiting for them to send me work, but as I have to complete a timesheet for each client/project for them I wouldn't be able to allocate it anyway - not without lying. Besides, it would make me look very inefficient, as it would look as if I spent 2 days doing soemthing which should just have taken one!

I have the opposite problem, I am on a day rate but my workload is so heavy that I go over 'normal' working hours almost every day and don't get paid any extra.

I have a colleague who was in a simialr situation and she started charging for the hours she was available ie if they say they need her at 9am on Monday then she charged for it, whether they sent her work or not. It encouraged the company to get their act together and send the work over in a timely fashion, but it didn't really end too well as they took away a lot of her hours when the contract was up. Of course the problem with being a contractor is that if you make too many waves then they can get rid pretty easily.

Tricky situation to be in when you've got children to juggle as well. Not sure I've got anything to add really.

tbh I think that this is part of the deal if you are genuinely self employed. If you had fixed hours for which you were paid irrespective of whether they asked you to do any work, and you had no responisbility to complete that work outwith those hours, then that would sound more like direct employment.

That said, I had a client a few years back who behaved like this. I started arranging meetings and going physically to their office on Monday mornings. If they were not organised with the next phase of the project for me, I would charge them for the time - which they had to accept since I had honoured my part of the contract, and they could see that I was available for work rather than sitting in the garden (at least not until I'd left their office 15 minutes later ).

I think you have to start charging them for the days they've promised you work. Then they will realise that they have to schedule programming your work into your workload. I got fed up of clients asking me to work and then not getting the work to me, so I gave them lots of hints that I was running out of work and would clearly say "I am booked in to work for you on these days so I really don't want to have to charge you for not working - but I do have to pay childcare costs so I will have to charge you anyway if there is no work".

I found often people just "forgot" I was there as I work miles away and tend to just go away and get on with things. But they have a responsibility to provide work for you, just as you are responsible for giving them plenty of notice that you're running short.

It's difficult isn't it? It's a fine balance between keeping what could be an amazing contract and allowing them to mess you around.

I am properly freelance, and it is a pain when you've arranged childcare and have no work to do. Even more annoying when you have to fork out for more later. I have just accepted that as the situation now though.

Your position is different. Is there a desk there in the office if you want it? If so, I wonder if it would be worth you going into work on Mondays, and then you can make sure when you leave on Monday evening you also have enough to do on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think people forget you very easily when you're out of sight.