Contractor vs Staff

Yarrgh · February 5, 2019

I'm a money grubbing contractor. I've been on the verge of being out the door of my current work place since late November, but have managed to cling on since then with some bits and pieces.

I get subcontracted out to a big company who overspent and will be re-hiring us contractors all back in April. I'm on a decent rate so it's ok if I am not working until the new batch of work ramps up in April but life will not be particularly extravagant until then.

However, I just got asked if I would like to go staff by the guy I am working for over the last couple of weeks. I have been working on a few projects in-house for the current company I work for, and have done well and get on with everyone. I guess a staff role will be less money, but there's holidays, and sick pay and security of income and the inevitable IR35 crunch of contractors over the next few years. I've just tried to get in touch with the resources manager about what the staff role pays etc. so until then I guess I'm out on my ear on Monday for a few weeks unless the offer is tasty enough to get me back in as staff.

Have any of you reprobates jumped from staff to contractor or vice versa recently and what was your experience of it? How much of a financial impact was it for you?

liamefc91 · February 5, 2019

Been a contractor for 10 years since i was 17, now in a job where its mixture of staff and contractors.. mas how once they get a cough they are off sick and i can’t do that. Tore ny acl when i was 20 and had statutary sick pay, lucky i still lived at home with mum and dad. Got a mortgage and a kid now so dont do anything in spare i.e football incase i get injured. Plus they get shift allowance >£7k a year which i dont. Hoping the new firm coming in will take us all on in September then i can sack off my other 2 part jobs. And get back to football. Just to add to insult to injury one of the staff got lot go got a nice £90k pay off and a nice £20k a year pension.. one of the contractors got let go; he didn’t even get a phonecall off the client. I would jump at any staff job tbh

trueblue84 · February 5, 2019

Been contracting over a year now after 10+ years as a permi. I will never go back. Contracting is more lucrative, but the number one reason is I am free. I don't get dragged into corporate bs and am in the job because I'm good at it, not because I'm part of the furniture.

st.domingo · February 5, 2019

trueblue84 said:
Been contracting over a year now after 10+ years as a permi. I will never go back. Contracting is more lucrative, but the number one reason is I am free. I don't get dragged into corporate bs and am in the job because I'm good at it, not because I'm part of the furniture.

Yeah, this echoes my experiences. Corporate life blows goats on the whole, so anything you can do to sidestep the horse manure is worth it, IMO.

Against that you are most likely relinquishing any ambitions you may have had of climbing the greasy pole (albeit many people prefer actually making/doing stuff as opposed to wasting time in meetings, politics, moaning employees etc.; just to say there’s prob a glass ceiling that you will encounter unless you can carve yourself out a lucrative niche).

And then as OP details there seems to be an increasing trend of enforced holidays at year-end when mgmt decides the budget has run out.

Pros and contras, like anything else.

EDIT: oh and beware of HMRC - I speak from experience on this one...

trueblue84 · February 5, 2019

st.domingo said:
Yeah, this echoes my experiences. Corporate life blows goats on the whole, so anything you can do to sidestep the horse manure is worth it, IMO.

Against that you are most likely relinquishing any ambitions you may have had of climbing the greasy pole (albeit many people prefer actually making/doing stuff as opposed to wasting time in meetings, politics, moaning employees etc.; just to say there’s prob a glass ceiling that you will encounter unless you can carve yourself out a lucrative niche).

And then as OP details there seems to be an increasing trend of enforced holidays at year-end when mgmt decides the budget has run out.

Pros and contras, like anything else.

EDIT: oh and beware of HMRC - I speak from experience on this one...

My accountant is great with this, thankfully. Everything is digital so super easy to manage.

OneTrueLegend · February 5, 2019

I've been offered contract work before, but it's mostly in London between 6 to 12 months. Twice as much as what I'm on in a staff position, but I've never gone for it because I didn't fancy travelling 4 hours a day or relocating and living in a bedsit. I guess you have to weigh it up and think what's best for you

Yarrgh · February 6, 2019

st.domingo said:
Yeah, this echoes my experiences. Corporate life blows goats on the whole, so anything you can do to sidestep the horse manure is worth it, IMO.

Against that you are most likely relinquishing any ambitions you may have had of climbing the greasy pole (albeit many people prefer actually making/doing stuff as opposed to wasting time in meetings, politics, moaning employees etc.; just to say there’s prob a glass ceiling that you will encounter unless you can carve yourself out a lucrative niche).

And then as OP details there seems to be an increasing trend of enforced holidays at year-end when mgmt decides the budget has run out.

Pros and contras, like anything else.

EDIT: oh and beware of HMRC - I speak from experience on this one...

Completely forgot about all that corporate stuff that only matters when you are staff. And Performance Development Reviews. And having to socialise with the office. Etc. I hated all that stuff... because once you're expendable, you're gone and no one cares and all that being chased to fill in goals and targets mounts up to a huge heap of meaningless rubbish. Plus the office I am in is a real officey type office with people putting themselves under pressure to achieve targets so they have the latest mercedes in the car park - this has no interest for me.

When I first went contracting, I realised that the guy next to me which is what rate I would go on, would be better off after 2 weeks financially given that he'd be given a week's notice and I'd be given a month's. Plus he'd get 3 weeks to not be in the office whilst I'd be forced to come in.

Also my wife is on the payroll of my limited company, so NIC for her are paid, and she also takes dividends, which is a very tax efficient way to take money out of contracting. That'd vanish too. If only the client hadn't ran out of money in so spectacular a fashion! Grrrrr.

Would I be considering a staff role if I wasn't facing 6-7 week's inactivity? Probably not. So there's my answer, unless the salary is superb and the prospects and benefits are great, that it's worth whatever the cut i take home pay is. I will see the resource manager and ask him what the deal is. If it's any good, then we shall see what we shall see.

degsy · February 6, 2019

(Not so far) back in the day, the aim was to get on the staff, but job security mostly a thing of the past.
He who works and does his best, goes down the road with all the rest