Hypothetically, a zero-hours contract, it is

Benched and unsubstituted

He reads with a wry smile the many congratulations that greet the announcement of being engaged in a new role beneath which is a story generally untold of process and procedure that confers invisibility and humiliation on the subject affected.

In a similar engagement just 5 years before, an associate role gave contract terms of 100% billing for client assignments and where there were no assignments you were benched at 50% of your daily contract rate. It placed the onus on the organisation to ensure that he spent as less time as possible on the bench, for they had to find him billable work to do.

That bench rate disappeared from associate roles after a year, and then responsibilities shifted in radically consequential ways. Now, he could be on contract but without a client assignment and hence, nothing to bill; effectively there is no income.

It was not working for him

Without rewriting the general terms of engagement, the apparent flexibility and fluidity the new construct brings would be ideal if he did not have to revisit the employment market, it is however exceedingly precarious, there was a period that engagements fell from 90% utilisation to 55% utilisation year-on-year that it was prudent to exit that arrangement.

They decided to reignite the associate relationship recently where the matter of full engagement was discussed at length and assurances were given that projects abound for him to rotate other full-time employees out of roles for longer stretches of time. These were convincing enough to lay trust in the prospect, there was work on offer.

After a presentation and discussion that constituted an interview, a contract engagement was offered as he was assigned to a manager who was yet to begin in his role. The scheduled start date of two weeks time was moved back a week because onboarding processes were ahead of the organisational line of management.

More snags and frustration

Then the proposed assignments with clients could not be taken up because they were of a security-sensitive nature for which enhanced vetting was required and the agency that should have immediately transferred the security status would only offer to share it and that would take months to conclude, even as the term of its validity was running out. This was besides the fact that there was no contracted activity with a sister executive agency he was assigned to for over 4 months already.

Now, having confirmed that the assignee had the necessary clearances even if not in possession of the new sponsor, this should have sufficed, but it took a barrage of pleading emails to engage that thought process and by then, the opportunities being considered for had slipped away.

Zero hours with style

Whilst a valid contract without client assignment seems to break you out of a stretch of unemployment, the critical element of earning an income is lost in the circumstances such that even the agency that facilitated the contract has abandoned the contractor in frustration and resignation.

The many times I have read about ‘zero-hours contracts’ I thought it was redolent of gig-economy stints, piecework, or on-call job roles where you were engaged but not guaranteed any work, along with other strictures that engender such contracts. You never consider this can apply to technical and specialist roles that pay well on an assignment, but nothing at all when not assigned to a client.

Some may suggest, you are at liberty to find other work and return to this associate role when available, it seems an ideal quite different from experience. The only apparent change to the situation is he does not have to undergo the interview and onboarding process anymore, he has everything to be assigned an immediate role, but until then, he is on the most sophisticated castle-in-the-sky highly remunerated zero-hours contract.

Each hour he is still scanning the job boards to send his CV and a cover letter still applying for a role in mid-December. It is going to be a cold lonely Christmas with little to cheer about if nothing changes soon. Bills due, rent due, what a sordid tale, it is. 

Work from home does not make you a dullard

How things have changed

In conversations with an ex-colleague, I was amused to learn of some exploitation of engagements being contemplated by certain clients employing freelance consultants.

During this pandemic, the employment market is a bit fraught, for some, they are well placed to take on interesting opportunities and certain circumstances have closed up availability that competition is keen. What this can do is weaken both the resolved and bargaining clout of the consultant as they have to weigh the options amongst the various choices.

One given change to the workplace dynamic is working from home or working remotely. People are only going into the office if there is no way that they can do their work from home. I, for one have never visited the premises of my office since I took on this role in May and it is unlikely I will for the term of my contract.

Home and away, the same

Whether working from home or in the office, the same expertise is still required to do the job. For subject matter experts, what they are hired for is knowledge, know-how, and experience, bringing much of their wealth of insight and ability to bear on situations in the environment where they are engaged.

What I have heard is some clients are considering paying a lower rate to consultants who are working remotely, maybe in the misguided view that unsupervised consultants who cannot be micromanaged with some jobs worthy manager watching over their shoulders to ensure they are mercenaries to the core mean a loss of productivity.

This forgets that consultants are by and large professional and dedicated to getting things done effectively and efficiently. My further argument is that consultants are paid for their expertise regardless of where they are working from. A consultant is not suddenly a genius at work and a dullard at home.

The skill is the deal

I have not heard that permanent staff will be subjected to this stupid idea, not that it can happen without a fight, a dirty one at that. In fact, if you do expect a consultant to come into the office during this pandemic, you should be paying danger-money. The organisation I work for had over 500 COVID-19 infections in the time from September to January with one death registered. I fall into a vulnerable group, so, I cannot attend the office at all.

One thing I know is that I have been able to do my job remotely as best I can within the strictures of the permissions and rights that have been awarded. I hope that alone makes me worthy of my remuneration and hopefully is a testament of a good workman that no one will countenance an idea so reprehensible and expectant of utter and complete repudiation.

Taking off in all senses

Look out to taking off

Looking out of my office window today reminded me of my last home in Nigeria but this was closer to the action.

The simple act of travelling by air is a beehive of activity you can never fully comprehend; lorries, trucks and odd-shaped vehicles in a secluded world, segregated from the normal world.

Then the most magnificent wonder than never ceases to amaze me, the streamlined bodies of metal that race down the tarmac and take off into the air to some destination near or far.

Even I cannot believe that I have not travelled out of the Netherlands for over 6 months, this a person who once felt 3 long weeks in Amsterdam needed a lengthier holiday abroad.

Yes, from my office window, I am in that world called air-side but I have no access to the place not that you want to caught in the traffic or deafened by the noise of all those vehicles – it just looks fascinating from the comfort of my office.

The buzz, the fuss

We were to complete a seemingly simple task today which probably should have taken 90 minutes but lasted the whole day – changes that are complicated by half-finished jobs of others that had been signed off until you find yourself lumbered with your situation and finding solutions to those discovered.

That, I think is the office excitement I missed and the making of an eventful day that I had no time to feel tired or yawn – I have just completed my second day at work and I really feel so good about that.

Like I said early in the month, after February is recovery. Lest I forget, I sent an update out to my friends, thanking them for responding and calling, one of the callers was my recruiting agent who managed my affairs some 14 years ago for 4 years in the UK.

I have a short 2-month contract, I intend to make the best of it – it is just so nice to have friends.

Don't piss me off

Between Early and Late

I could be utterly irrational at times because it takes just that little thing to piss me off - BIG TIME!.

Whilst I might be up around 7:30 or earlier in the morning, I just find it ever so convenient to get to work somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00. I do strive to make it closer to 10:00 but I do not run the public transportation systems.

Besides, leaving early means I probably would not get a seat on the Metro for the first 20 minutes as able and fit university students travel like old people needing support and occupying more space then necessary.

Now, getting to work early is really moot in my case except when I really have to attend meetings, my work is not in anyway operational, it is project and strategy driven, so what is important is that I put in my 8 hours per day, regardless of what end of the clock the 8 hours sits in.

A few weeks ago, the project manager I work with brought up this issue of arriving earlier; I strove to accommodate this “inconvenience” till I relapsed to type. I had hardly walked in this morning when an email arrived about this “so-called” agreement – that quite set me off.

Two days to the end

We have been vacillating on the terms and conditions of a contract tenure and status towards a renewal to start in July without much progress and as it stands, I really do not have a contract after the 30^th of June 2007.

So, I told him, since I only really have two days to run of my contract, I would endeavour to see that agreement through for those two days.

Frankly, I hate being micro-managed by petty tyrants exercising undue influence, it is really not necessary for me to be in before 10:00AM, but it is essential for me to fulfil 8 hours of work each day.

This whole thing then set the stage for a meeting with the director of my team who is trying to persuade me to take a permanent contract – Fat Chance! If I have to endure this kind of organisational annoyance and managerial aggro.

Punctuality and attendance are two different things for different types of people in a workforce; my situation is more about attendance than punctuality.

I have a month to make up my mind about this whole thing after meeting the director; having clearly highlighted my non-negotiable terms – I will not work in an operations team even though I am providing them solutions; I would not report to anyone below VP or the contract is off; I would not take on financial privation for the benefit of the company; basically, HR would have the runs because of the distinct things I would require in my contract.

I might yet again disappoint him if someone else does not take time to learn to walk on eggshells, I think I need a long holiday and the lack of rest is making me a tad irritable – must be that time of the year. Do I need to get sun-burnt? You bet, I do.