Contractor advice (civil service)

[Guitarb]

I used to work in the civil service as a grade 7 permanent employee but recently became a contractor at another government department in a grade 6 technical role. I started this week.

my new team have sent me an invite to an away day next week, but as a contractor do I need to go? I thought part of being a contractor was being able to have some distance with office politics and organisational culture. So I’d like to decline it but also don’t want to get on the wrong side of anyone! I feel this early on into the role, I’d be better off learning more about my lead area by getting actual work done as opposed to the ice breaker type activities that will occur during the away day.

my team is made up of a few contractors based around the country, but most of the staff are permanent employees and I think business support just extended the invite to me out of politeness as opposed to anyone wanting me there?

Just to add, the role is inside IR35, and I am being paid as PAYE via an agency, I’m not directly employed by the department.

I would check .It will depend on the nature and purpose of the away day. I know civil service teams who have very project or programme focused away days which are very much about planning and coordinating delivery. Yes there is team building and culture stuff, but frankly being a productive part of the team is just as important as a contractor as it is as a perm employee. In a Grade 6 role you will be expected to show some leadership as well - again regardless of contract status.

I would certainly not assume you don’t need to attend. I would check with whoever is overseeing your work whether it would be valuable to them for you to attend.

Also it’s unlikely to go down well if you openly dismiss it as being about office politics or unnecessary “team culture” stuff.

@Daffidale the thing is, I’m not sure if there may be HMRC repercussions if I am treated like an employee when I’m a contractor. As it’s my first contracting role, I’m not totally clued up on the legal side.

This therefore reinforces the need to clarify what the away day is.
I am Civil Service with the Army in one of the HQ Army directorates, a large number of our staff work across the country.
Our away days are fully business orientated, have not had any classic ice breakers for many years.

Sessions cover key projects and programmes, either underway or cover findings in lessons identified etc.
We work closely with a different MoD department and combine most of their relevant staff invited to our away day. They are more likely to include contractors and relevant contractors are included
The main issue was that transport had to be provided by each of the departments themselves - contractors were just people among us
In our own branch we do get specialist consultants, and they will be on a specific task. Only when relevant would they come to an away day, and while we were away

If you are a contracted specialist working in the branch contributing to the business output of the branch then you ought to be relevant to an away days business topics
If you are purely technical, such as the IT tech support then it would be less relevant
Grade 6 is a very senior level, therefore I should have thought that your technical skills / knowledge are essential to the business area

Your agency may be more concerned than HMRC, they want to be sure that they can bill the department for your time. If you’re working then they can

The HMRC concern about treating contractors as employees is when a business attempts to wash their hands of employer responsibilities by using ‘contractor’ roles in name only

No, the away day is just team
building & ice breaker activities - the meeting invite has an agenda as such. I haven’t been asked to prepare or contribute anything either.

Is it the case that as I’m inside IR35, this is may be a moot point? As I’m having tax & NI deducted at source? It’s hard to find accurate information online. Half wondering if I should seek legal advice as I have a 24/7 helpline via my home insurance.

I'd go just to 'show willing ', otherwise it may come across as frosty/ standoffish. Presumably you need to work with these people therefore building relationships is important?

It should be a moot point as IR35 was the ‘fix’ to the loophole of pretending employees were contractors

Yes I could go and show my face (I have attended and hosted loads of CS away days and conferences before so can act the part), but I’m just not sure what the expectation is for contractors.

There are some other contractors in my team at the same level, so I might see what they are doing before deciding.

It’s only a 6 month contract so I’m not super invested in cultivating relationships I suppose. There’s strong potential the contract may be extended, but I’m hoping to move house in the next 6 months where I may need a new role regardless…

Thank you

You might not be...but they might and it might be a factor when it comes to extend and the house move sounds uncertain.

Id maybe go to the first one and / or seek the views of your senior stakeholder?

I’m also a contractor and have been contracting in the civil service (and out of it) for many years. Hi 👋🏻

Yes, I think you should go. But it very clearly sounds as though you don’t want to go. Why is that? You are working in a team, within an organisation - get involved.

I just want to add a few comments to some of yours. Meant well, as I’ve been doing this for years and you say it’s your first contract.

’I thought being a contractor was being able to distance from office politics and organisational culture’
Yes, from politics, to a point. Definitely not from culture.

’not sure if HMRC repercussions if I am treated like an employee’.
They can invite anyone to an away day, as a guest if not an employee. Repercussions like this would be more like if they put you on funded specialist training.

’wondering if I should seek legal advice’
Dont overthink it!

’Its only a 6 month contract so I’m not super invested in cultivating relationships’
Hand on heart, if you only take one piece of advice - this is entirely the wrong approach. Contracting by nature is temporary and transient because a specific piece of work needs doing for a fixed time and a contractor is skilled and able to drop in and do that well. That doesn’t mean you should not be fully invested. You need to give it your all, because they deserve it and you should take pride in doing it. Your full employee colleagues deserve to have a team member who is fully invested aside from anything else. And the work you do will be far richer if you invest in relationships with the team you are working with.
On a practical level, word of mouth goes a long way for future contracts too. Many of my contracts have been by invitation from a previous colleague, or colleague of colleague. Invest!

Go to the team building day…

Sorry, how are you a grade 6 if you’re a contractor? That’s a civil servant grade and you’re not a civil servant any more so your post is a bit confusing there.

Might sound nitpicky but if you go round introducing yourself as a G6 people may assume you’re a civil servant when you’re not and the distinction does actually matter.

If you are Inside IR35 it’s completely moot. You are deemed Inside IR35 BECAUSE they are treating you like an employee. Working Inside means you can do employee-like things such as line management etc… One of its few advantages is you don’t have to worry about HMRC getting fussy about your status for tax reasons.

ps for this reason IMO it’s also fine to have an awareness of your CS Grade equivalent. You are probably filling a role that could be filled by CS so it will have a grade. Whether it is appropriate for you to talk about grades will depend on the department but some can be super hierarchical and being G6 may work in your favour with some people.

I would def repeat the advice again to just ASK whether it’s appropriate for you to be at the away day! Honestly at your level this is not complicated! Regardless of IR35 etc… they may have opinions as to whether they would prefer the money they are spending on you to go on you attending the day or on you getting your head down in the work they need you doing. But ultimately they are the client and it’s their call, not yours.

Yes, there’s line management of G7s as part of my role but luckily I’ve managed to dodge line management for the next few months!

thanks for your amazing advice @ExperiencedContractor it’s really cleared things up for me

You’re welcome. Good luck with it! Contracting can be a really rewarding career path. It’s a good way to build up variety in your experience. And continually working 6 months to a year then moving on keeps working life really fresh in my experience. Much nicer than being stuck on something for several years!

Have you recently received a pay off under voluntary exit?

From what I understand you are a contractor to the agency not the government department you are working for. If the agency is legit and working by all the rules it should be fine.

With an in demand skill set in a buoyant market, yes. Loads of contractors right now with massive gaps between contracts so whilst it's never been a stable career choice, its really quite insecure at the current time which may or may not be a factor depending on individual circumstances.

You sound like you still have the civil service mindset. You're a contractor now and need to make sure you're delivering. Stop using phrases like 'getting out of things'. You need to work hard and make sure you get renewed.

Big adjustment for people stepping outside of the civil service for the first time.

Quick question, how do other contractors approach timesheets? Do you do it by the minute eg finished 17:24, or round it to 17:00/17:30? I’m just trying to gauge what is standard and what is cheeky.

Timesheets for what purpose?

I've been a contractor for over 10 years, some of that time in the civil service. Generally have to fill in more than one timesheet in any one role but how that's filled in very much depends on what it's for. I.e some timesheets I fill in so I get paid, some I fill in so that recharges can be made. There's no hard and fast rule about units of time. Sometimes the units are 5 minutes, sometimes they're whole days.

Timesheets to get paid, seems I need to submit to my point of contact within CS, who submits to the agency on my behalf. I think, as the agency hasn’t actually clarified the process with me yet.

So my contracts are generally a day rate so I always report days worked (or half days). If your contract quotes an hourly rate I would use hours.