Noticing a clear upturn in the market regarding placements versus opportunities, I have found myself in lengthy discussions with contractors recently about what is considered a “professional day”.
My response has always been (and remains); you pack up your bags when the job is done. Coming from a project management background, I have led teams cross functionally and would not consider it good form to leave individuals to get on with parts of the project whilst I went home and put my feet up. On the other hand, I also do not believe in sitting around shuffling papers for the sake of making up the hours on the quiet points, either.
Though a contractor is not an employee, their egg is still in the company's basket for however long they've signed on.
So it amused me recently to speak with one contractor who seemed adamant that a professional day should be the office hours of 9-5. When I challenged this viewpoint, I received a response which I haven’t come across before, which is that there is no bonding to the organisation due to the nature of contracting. I was taken aback – yes, you are not a permanent employee, but you are paid a very fair rate to create an attachment to your project and the team associated with surely? This attitude is not a one-off, either, as continued discussions with prospective candidates has uncovered a change from the almost desperate contractors who were willing to work all hours, drop their rates and sell their souls.
As the market churns and opportunities increase thus forth “upping” the day rates, it would appear the empathy and connection to assignments / employers has drifted somewhat.
Naturally this is not across the board and I am very pleased to confirm that at Arras People we not only source the right skill set and experience – we also ensure we find the right personalities and mindset for our clients. Something which candidates should take into consideration when speaking to recruiters about roles.
Interesting viewpoint, which I welcome feedback from project professionals out there…
Twitter: Andybud
It is an interesting observation,and one that I have personally witnessed at my last company, the working hrs were 8-4 but if you saw someone leaving at 4ish the joke was ‘they must be a contractor’. If you discussed the topic with them the answer would be ‘i work my contracted hrs’. On the flip side to that there is also an informal pressure not to be the first person to leave the office at the end of the day. So I think sometimes it is professionalism and sometimes politics. Having said that I was once PMing a pan European telecoms project that involved upgrading the WAN circuits for every site in zone 2, it involved a 1 hr outage for a specific site each time. To minimise the effect of the outage the upgrades were scheduled for 8pm the activities for which I would lead, although I could have claimed overtime I chose not to as I felt the timing of the outage was critical to the project and part of my PM deliverables regardless of the timing (damned principles)
Twitter: jugglingsand
IMHO, you have to realise that as a professional there are going to be long days and short days. You have to balance work and life, and I mean really balance it properly.
I would suggest that if you’re having to put in uber-long shifts on a regular basis, then there’s something wrong about the level of staffing, or you’re not working smartly enough.
If I was working with someone who wasn’t prepared to pull out all the stops once in a while – say to get things finished to meet a deadline, then I would be asking myself some serious questions about their commitment. I’ve always worked on the principle that I like to tie up the loose ends and then go, rather than leaving everything hanging.
Ultimately having a short-term perspective such as “I can’t stay to finish the proposal because I’m going home early to water the plants” won’t do you any good in PM or any other profession.