Contracting/Self Employed Advance Notice

[PictureTree]

For any of you out there who use self-employed guys/gals, what sort of notice do you give them about upcoming work and changes to work you’ve already asked them to do?

 

I ask because planning my income around ‘we need you tomorrow morning’ and ‘we only need you for a few days next week instead of the X full weeks we said’ is getting a bit tricky, especially when I’ve put off other stuff. 

[htb]

The norm for life as self employed, juggle like f***

[Mick Dempsey]

Depends on if you’re talking about professional tree workers or brash draggers who are on the dole working for cash.

[Mark Bolam]

Facebook is full of twats asking for ‘any good climbers available tomorrow?’.

The answer is no.

 

I used to book gun climbers like Rich Rule sometimes 6 weeks in advance for big jobs, which could be painful when the weather didn’t want to play.

We’d firm things up in the week leading up.

 

We give about two weeks lead time for most SE lads, but are lucky knowing what days they can normally expect unless anything changes either end.

 

I expect @Joe Newtoncould give you some advice from a top notch freelance climbers perspective, or Rich but I can’t bloody tag him!

 

 

[AHPP]

Deposits focus the minds of people engaging freelancers.

[Joe Newton]

9 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Deposits focus the minds of people engaging freelancers.

Terrible idea. I want all my money after the day, not part of it because I've already spent some. 

[Joe Newton]

57 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

Facebook is full of twats asking for ‘any good climbers available tomorrow?’.

The answer is no.

 

I used to book gun climbers like Rich Rule sometimes 6 weeks in advance for big jobs, which could be painful when the weather didn’t want to play.

We’d firm things up in the week leading up.

 

We give about two weeks lead time for most SE lads, but are lucky knowing what days they can normally expect unless anything changes either end.

 

I expect @Joe Newtoncould give you some advice from a top notch freelance climbers perspective, or Rich but I can’t bloody tag him!

 

 

Yeah I'm pretty much booked through October now. I'm terms of changing days I'd expect a couple of weeks notice. I try and give more than that if I have to cancel a day.

 

Because you're essentially a specialist with a long lead time is really difficult to call in sick or cancel because if the inconvenience to the contractor.

 

And if a climber is available for tomorrow, there's usually a good reason why.

[spuddog0507]

5 hours ago, PictureTree said:

For any of you out there who use self-employed guys/gals, what sort of notice do you give them about upcoming work and changes to work you’ve already asked them to do?

 

I ask because planning my income around ‘we need you tomorrow morning’ and ‘we only need you for a few days next week instead of the X full weeks we said’ is getting a bit tricky, especially when I’ve put off other stuff. 

I take it from reading the above you ae fairly young, and i get the feeling that you think you are being messed about ? I have been self employed since 1984 and seen a fair bit over the years, i have heard about every excuse thats been thought of over the years, 

  Top and botom of it is, if you are good at what you do and get on with the job  people/ other companys  will be queing up for you, there seems to be a drastic shortage of good young lads coming throught at the moment, plenty that want to play on a phone all day but that dont get the job done, 

 2  lads i use now n then (1 climber 1 groundie ) both now in there 30s and i know if i wanted either of them or both for a couple of days it will be 2,3,4, months before i could get them, bothe of them are good hard working lads, 

 work at it try and get in with 2 or 3 other tree teams etc and you will be never with out work, and dont be frightened of ringing some one else if you get a day cancelled, as there as been many days where we could of done with another pair of hands or two on site to help out,   

[PictureTree]

No, not young. Pushing 40 and have obviously worked in other jobs. The problem is that whilst I’m pretty flexible there’s kind of a limit to how much anyone can go with the flow. There’s a big difference between accepting that work ebbs and flows and being told at the start of the week that you’ll be needed for another three weeks solid and then a few days later that there’s been a change of plan and you’ll not be needed the next day but probably a couple of days next week and then one day the week after that. I’m experienced enough to know the difference between tricky workflow management and dud  planning/communication because that’s not industry specific.

 

I slog away all day and I’m paying my way through the tickets and getting more experience so I’ll hopefully become a more attractive option for other operations in the area as I ‘level up’ which will allow me to have a bit more income security. The only concern is if, having done all of that, the expectation is that it’s OK to just drop a contractor who you’ve had booked well in advance. 

Edited July 23, 2021 by PictureTree

[spuddog0507]

1 hour ago, PictureTree said:

work ebbs and flows and being told at the start of the week that you’ll be needed for another three weeks solid and then a few days later that there’s been a change of plan and you’ll not be needed the next day but probably a couple of days next week and then one day the week after that

This sounds very much like the way i was treated by some one i subbed to in the mid 80s and there is only so many times you can be arsed about, all i did was i found myself 2 days a week with some one else that where set in stone for thur/fri then there was the odd wk when i had a few days of my own so that wk was full, the original guy i subbed to was now chasing me, he then asked me for Mon-Wed for next 4 wks at least, this didnt happen as in the 3rd wk i only worked the monday for him as he cancelled tus/wed, i later found out he had gone to the Ovel to watch cricket for 3 days, the wk after i only did the mon with him and when i told him i was else where for rest of the wk he was not happy and i just threw it back at him what he had done the wk before after asking me for 3 days for 4 wk, this then encouraged me to look for other people to work with and it soon came to the point where i was working 6 days a wk, so i know where you are coming from and there is only you who can sort this out but this problem is one of the downfalls of being self employed and relying on some one else to supply you with work,,,