When I resigned from my last permanent job, I felt like contracting was my best option. At the time, I said I’d share about it but I didn’t do it much, so I’m catching up here.
What I liked
The first thing should really be that, I’ve been in that role for nearly a year and didn’t think about resigning at all which is quite an achievement for me 😉
Good project, good team
I’ve mentioned it in previous posts: I feel very lucky, as even when you have a good idea of what the team, project and organisation will be like before you start, you can never know how it will really turn out to be, especially as some roles in my project team had not be hired yet when I started last October.
The team is nice and the project is interesting. I started at pre-discovery stage, and we are now in Alpha. There is a lot to do but we are given time to do it – well, this is me comparing to previous projects, we could do with more time… I feel trusted to do my work, which I really appreciate.
More time, hands-on and doing ‘all the maps’
In my last 3 roles, every project felt ‘urgent’. When you work as a consultant, the time scale for a discovery is often 6 to 8 weeks. Here, we had 4 to 5 months. It’s great because we really needed to get a good understanding of the problems to solve and the scope is huge.
I particularly like that it’s very hands-on and I get to do so many different maps to support the work on this service, and well, yes I like creating maps. I also like working on forms and we have a lot of them. I got to organise quite a few workshops too, so I’m having a great time.
Organisation ‘politics’
In a previous post “ways of working“, I was comparing my experience in different settings, as I’ve worked in government as a permanent, a consultant and now as a contractor. The sense of ‘belonging’ is different in these 3 scenarios – at least it is for me.
I was a permanent civil servant when Brexit was under discussion and then voted in a referendum I could not take part in, but which was going to have a huge effect on my life and family. I was receiving emails at work aimed to all civil servants and giving an enthusiastic vision of what was coming. It was not good for me, it felt wrong.
As a consultant, you are involved in two spaces, each with its own organisation politics. Both can feel wrong for different reasons. People are often much better than me to detach themselves from the organisation they are working for. I struggle with that, I feel responsible even though I do not really have agency to change things despite trying.
As a contractor, I feel my responsibility is to the project and the team. I can get involved wider if I want to and if the organisation is happy for contractors to get involved in communties of practice for example. This is the case for me at the moment and I enjoy it, but I could also just focus on the project. This helps me to detached myself from the wider organisation politics.
What surprised me
Extension
I know a lot of contractors and being extended or not seems to be decided at the last minute, like the last week or even 1 or 2 days before the end of their current contract which is stressful.
But I got an extension more than 2 months before the end of my initial contract. It was a really nice surprise.
Money
I knew that some contractors were paid a lot, but then, they don’t have job security compared to permanents in government. The pension is much less. They don’t get training/personal development opportunities. If they need time off for medical reasons or to care for someone, they are not paid and can lose the contract. So the money is there to compensate this, so you can save and use it when you’re not working.
I didn’t know concretely how much I would get after tax. So when I started to get paid, it felt like a lot. I initially felt quite guilty about it too, especially at a time where so many people are struggling and being laid off abruptly. I’ve relaxed more into it now, but I feel like my work needs to bring a lot of value, so I do a lot – it’s kind of my default mode whatever I’m paid when I’m interested in a project anyway.
SD community and wider
As a permanent member of staff, I’ve always been a bit puzzled at how we were treating contractors sometimes. For example in one place, there were different mailing list and some emails were only sent to permanent members, which I felt was odd because sometime, it was affecting the strategy of the projects we were on and everyone should know about it. Or they can attend some meetings but not others as they are ‘paid to work on projects’, not to attend meetings, but then what does it mean? if a meeting is a waste of their time, is not also a waste of my time as a permanent?
Many places do not include contractors or consultants in their community of practice, which again feels weird to me. Contractors usually work in lots of places and can bring a wealth of information to communities of practice.
So it has been really nice to feel included and I try to contribute as much as can when I have the time.
It’s probably one of the reasons why I do not need extra activity outside work these days, because I feel I have what I need within my work life.
Another reason is that I’m working 5 days a week, so I don’t have that much time outside work hours. These last years, I was working 4 days a week, wether is was part-time or condensed hours. I do miss my 3 day weekends. Which takes me to the next part.
What I learned
Need to take more time off
I don’t take enough annual leave. I’ve never been one for long holidays, but because as a contractor, I’m not really prompted to take time off, I have not taken enough. I’ll try to take more days off to make longer weekends for example.
I did take time off a few times to meet ex-colleagues in Edinburgh or Glasgow for example, it was really nice. I tend to meet people one to one now instead of a group in a meet-up setting. I like that better.
Interview experience
I’ve mentioned that a few times already I think, but I do not expect you to have read or memorised my previous posts ahahaha. I was really surprised by my interviews as a contractor, it was so different than being interviewed for a permanent role. I felt people were selling me the job rather than me having to prove myself. Which seems to happen a lot, but then I’ve also been part of interview panels for other contractors and they didn’t have it as easy as me. The thing is, even with a thorough interview, it’s hard to know if the person will be a good fit or not.
Check your tax code
I’ll be honest, I’m still not super clear about how this all works. I thought it was up to your employer (so for me, my umbrella company) to deal with HMRC and ensure you have the right tax code. It was the case initially, but then after April, I had another tax code which was not correct, but I wasn’t sure about it and didn’t think it was on me to know that.
After checking online and then a long wait in a call to HMRC, it looks like it was wrong and they are now taking extra tax so by next April I should be back on track with the correct level of tax I’m supposed to pay. So, don’t trust your umbrella company to check you have the right code.
Freelancing world
I’ve been contacted twice to potentially do a bit of work in accessibility training. After the initial contact I started thinking if I could do it. I like the variety and was tempted, I could have taken a few days off from time to time to do this instead but getting paid would not have been straight forward, because I would have had to set up a limited company which is not worth if it’s only a few days work in a year.
I think that if your freelance income is under £1,000 in a tax year, you don’t need to tell HMRC or file self-assessment – but if you are in this situation, please don’t trust me on that, do check.
I could also have looked at other options than being paid and Leah Lockhart gave me a few alternative ideas which might be useful to others. You can:
- ask for the speaking fee to be donated to a charity of their/your choice and proof of donation needs to be made before speaking
- make a list of people you can suggest to speak instead of you or you can team up with someone who could use the fee more than you
- suggest bartering time or skills with the organisation
In the end, I’m glad I didn’t go further with the limited company thing, as twice, I was ghosted and the person who had contacted me initially just stop communicating after a few messages.
This was a good reminder that it’s the wild West out there and ghosting is a very common experience for contractors and freelancers.
So overall, I feel very lucky and happy!