Self employment and contract work

[frozenrice]

A recent event that happened to a friend of mine got me thinking about self employment and contract work.
My friend runs a home based business and he contracts out to a few different companies as well as some private individuals.

Here's the situation. He recently took a 4 day weekend, but as Murphy's law goes, one of the companies that he's on contract to, called him up on the last day before he was supposed to go away (a Wednesday) at 4pm and asked him to get some work done by the following Friday. When he said he was going away for the next couple of days, a manager from the company got his panties tied up in a bunch and called him back and give him shit. He insisted that my friend work an all-nighter before going away to get the work done. As it is, the work required couldn't have been done by the Friday even if he did stick around so my friend told them not a chance. So the manager then asked for the electronic files so they could find someone else to sub it to, to which my friend said, even if he could find someone, for them to pick up and try to working on someone else's files will take longer than if they just waited.

What pisses my friend off is that he's been on contract with this company for well over 5 years and has always put them on his priority list when it comes to dropping work/putting off work for the other contracts. They know very well how he operates and that he has other companies that he works for as well. Also, he always gives them a yearly reminder in the early spring that his summer plans are to take extended vacations every other week.

It has never been an issue in the past for him to go away as the companies have always given him lots of lead time to get stuff done, but in this situation because of the one company's poor planning and communication it blew up into an issue. If they had properly communicated to him that this was coming down the pipe, they would have found out sooner and if he had known, he might have been able to make arrangements or planned ahead for this. So here's the question, because he's self employed and on contract, is he allowed to take vacation/time off whenever he wants or is he obligated to submit his dates to (all) the companies that he's contracting out to?

[ExtraSlow]

This is a situation where both parties are "right". His customers are entitled to make unreasonable requests and to plan poorly, and he is entitled to choose not to provide services when he has vacation planned.
He's not an employee.

That being said, most contractors choose to put making money ahead of personal plans.

[A790]

Communication is an essential part of making a remote contractual relationship work. RE: his obligation, that should be defined in his contract with his clients as well as the relationship that he has.

I don't think there is an answer that you can find here without more information to provide context surrounding his obligations and what he has/has not agreed to.

[revelations]

Is he on a call contract, service contract or a on-call-based contract (eg. we need to you to show up next week).

[ercchry]

If he has one exclusive contract and is usually in the office everyday working as part of a team, then yes you should be submitting vacation time, if it's piece work/remote/casual, as needed/has his own office (home or other) then yeah, make your own schedule, just make sure you meet deadlines

[Buster]

the handy thing about "contract work" is that there is a "contract" which outlines all of these things.

[frozenrice]

It'd be kind of like how an oil company might hire a lawyer or engineer for their services so i'm not sure how that can be categorized. he works out of his home, collects/remits gst, pays CPP/EI on his part time employee and all that other business stuff so i see his situation as business to business rather than a employer/employee setup. I don't know the exact details of any of his contracts so I don't know how he's got that covered if at all.

[suntan]

Charge more on the next invoice.

[revelations]

Yea that sounds like a service (or project) contract then. You are hired to deliver project X, perhaps by a due date.

If these dates are not stipulated (eg. deliver 50% of X by date Y) , and the contractor has informed the corporation about going away previously, then they can go pound sand.

[A790]

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It'd be kind of like how an oil company might hire a lawyer or engineer for their services so i'm not sure how that can be categorized. he works out of his home, collects/remits gst, pays CPP/EI on his part time employee and all that other business stuff so i see his situation as business to business rather than a employer/employee setup. I don't know the exact details of any of his contracts so I don't know how he's got that covered if at all.

That's all well and good but doesn't address the missing information. It's likely that there is a clause in the contract that addresses these issues.

Unfortunately, without that clarity, it's hard to give you a definite answer. My contracts with clients are structured so that I am deadline-centric, meaning it really doesn't matter where I am so long as my deadlines are met. I also work with other contractors that do have availability expectations outlined in their contract.

In your buddies case, the answer right now is "maybe".

[craigcd]

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This is a situation where both parties are "right". His customers are entitled to make unreasonable requests and to plan poorly, and he is entitled to choose not to provide services when he has vacation planned.
He's not an employee.

That being said, most contractors choose to put making money ahead of personal plans.

I agree with this.

I have a friend in a similar position, however he was laid off from the company and was brought back as a contractor 12 months later. He had a planned vacation for 3 months and things really picked up prior to him taking off, nothing that wasn't manageable. They were questioning his need to go away for that time although he had planned his work around it. My advice to him was in the future was to not to let them know he was going on vacation rather that he was unavailable due to other contracting commitments, which he does have from time to time. If they want to have exclusive rights to his work time they should hire him back as an employee and provide him with benefits and paid vacation.

[syscal]

The decision pretty much comes down to what you're willing to sacrifice to be self employed. Keep the client or risk losing them.

[Xtrema]

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The decision pretty much comes down to what you're willing to sacrifice to be self employed. Keep the client or risk losing them.

My take as well. Regardless if it's unfair or not, it's something the client needs. If you think your 5 year relationship is enough survive this or you don't value this client any more anyway, walk away.

If it was me, I would walk and give them what they need to continue without me and caution them that if the other guys cannot accomplish what they need and mess it up, you will have to bill extra hours to pick it up when you are back.

Of course, it really depends if you have "fuck you" money or not. If you really need the gig, and you can postpone the break, suck it up buttercup.

When I first was contracting and not quite established yet, I don't have "fuck you" money and probably didn't take any vacations for almost 3 years straight.

[ExtraSlow]

as a guy who has terminated a few contract workers, it's pretty damned easy, and you generally don't need much of a reason. That's the trade-off when you decide to do work as a contractor and not an employee.