Contractors on Salary?

An anonymous reader asks: "I recently got a new job (yes I am one of the lucky few) as a contract programmer. In part of the contract negotiations, the company would not allow me to work on an hourly rate, but instead placed me on salary. I have run into problems in the past where I have had to work an absurd number of hours as a programmer, and am curious where to draw the line. Obviously it is not ok to just leave at the end of an 8 hour shift if there is still lots to be done, but what if the poor project management is not your fault, and heavy deadlines are coming up? Can the company legally make you work 10-16 hour days? I would consider myself new to the industry but not unexperienced. At the company I used to work at, I worked crazy hours and didn't know it was OK to say that the hours are too much. What do you all think?"

Comments

two questions

[josephgrossberg]

1) Why won't they hire you on an hourly basis? Or, at least, why did they claim that salary was their preference? (Maybe they want to exploit; maybe they don't want you doing one hour of work, seven of minesweeper and then billing for all eight.)

2) If you are signing a *contract*, why don't you put an hours-per-week clause?

Joe

IANAL, but...

[tenman]

Q: Can the company legally make you work 10-16 hour days?

A: Yes. Well, technically no, but you are not an employee so yes. You see, an employee has to be given a total of 30 minutes rest for 8 hours of work, and while I can demand that the employee stay over 8hrs/day -or- 40hrs/wk, The state law makes sure that I compensate them with breaks, food, sometimes lodging. It gets to expensive for me to hold my employees longer than normal. I once figured the breaking point is at 9.5 to 10 hours a day. If I require my people to stay 9.5hr/day, I'm not really losing anything. However, at 10hr/day, I lose my butt. On the other hand, my lawyers have written our contracts such that when I hire a developer to work on a contract, they agree:

• Work in the office on business days (M-F): This means that the contactor can't work from home or decide to work tue, wed, thu. (of course they each have a set number of sick days, and vaca, etc...
• Work at the "corporate" pace: This is requirement very arbitrary. It's purpose is two fold. One, it allows me to get out of the contract with poor performers, and two, it allows me to squeeze late nights out of any contractor. It states that the contractor(s) must perform his/her/their tasks at such a pace as to not delay the development of the companies staff.

I know that it doesn't seem fair, but my view point on it is like this. If you hire a mechanic to fix your car, and they say that for $300 they can get it done in 4 days. If it take seven days, the total cost to you is greater than the price your agreed on for the service that you got. So in effect the mechanic broke your contract. I pay my contactors for end results, not time spent creating results. The Company that I hire contractors for, expects that for $300 they can get their car fixed, and if that doesn't happen it looses money.

So yes, a company can require the entity that it contracts with to what ever it takes to provide the end product on time and with a certain level of quality. And my company also requires that all work done... be done inside the confines of our building. But no, it can get really expensive the keep regular employees.

Re:IANAL, but...

[hey!]

[A]
This means that the contactor can't work from home or decide to work tue, wed, thu. ...
[B]
If you hire a mechanic to fix your car, and they say that for $300 they can get it done in 4 days. If it take seven days ... mechanic broke your contract.

Umm, so if the mechanic manages to get it done in two days, he has to spend the extra two days working on your car, even though it is fixed, so you can get your money's worth?

The idea that you can death march programmers to quality software on time is stupid. I've on occasion worked long, long hours -- it's part of the creative process. You have to strike while the iron is hot. On the other hand, I've taken comp time later. I pretty much follow the same policy for people who are reporting to me. If they're accomplishing stuff at a good pace, I look the other way when they need a little personal time. And if you hire good people, you don't have the problem of squeezing extra time out of them -- quite the opposite. I send people home if I think they are working beyond their ability to contribute efficiently.

Creating software is about making dozens of decisions per hour, from how to name variables to how to structure systems of code. Fatigue doesn't lend itself to good decision making. All things being equal, I'll take a single, rested, motivated coder over five who are keeping their seats warm.