Has anyone got experience or tips for looking for jobs with work-life balance?

[James1979]

You wouldn't want to pay their taxes though...

No but it’s all relative. Their disposable income is roughly the same as ours.

Some of the purchase tax is high. In Denmark when I was there, purchase tax on a car was 180% of its new price. Regardless of the age.

Chatting to the guys and they said it’s not that bad. It stings when you get your first one but then you just pass the pain on when you sell etc.

 

[keithski122]

I have a good work-life balance, work three days a week.However the downsides are no sick pay, minimal holiday and £12 per hour.
I thought it was normal business practice that an employee needs to earn three times their wage.

 

[Ross365]

Reason for considering leaving is the crazy salaries being offered in tech.

Could you be a bit more specific about what you mean by "tech"? I suspect that refers to matters IT, AI, computers basically.

Over the last 40 years there has been massive shrinkage in the number of people employed in the "engineering sector" viz, defence, nuclear and aviation industries and I know any number of people involved in "technical work" in those industries who were forced in early retirement. I'm talking metallurgists, chemists, various kinds of engineer.

I bloody loved the last job I had, but then the company was sold to the Yanks, who we knew were buying it just to close it down, so I took the generous escape package. Only done bits and pieces since then, and I live in high tech Oxfordshire!

 

[pedrobedro]

might be one soon

My wife just retired so there's a vacancy for a Saturday van driver 7 hours a week and she only got 4 days holiday a year and minimum wage. Of course the 4 days also include a week either side of the Saturday so you could call that 8 weeks off

 

[TechnicAl]

Could you be a bit more specific about what you mean by "tech"? I suspect that refers to matters IT, AI, computers basically.

Over the last 40 years there has been massive shrinkage in the number of people employed in the "engineering sector" viz, defence, nuclear and aviation industries and I know any number of people involved in "technical work" in those industries who were forced in early retirement. I'm talking metallurgists, chemists, various kinds of engineer.

I bloody loved the last job I had, but then the company was sold to the Yanks, who we knew were buying it just to close it down, so I took the generous escape package. Only done bits and pieces since then, and I live in high tech Oxfordshire!

I can confirm that

 

[TechnicAl]

You've earned it, enjoy it!

I am....and have been for the past 11 years....best "job" Ive ever had

 

[rcx132]

Could you be a bit more specific about what you mean by "tech"? I suspect that refers to matters IT, AI, computers basically.

Basically that. But the demand is in the architects, the guys who design how the solutions fit together to help the business. The guys that fix the computers, run the cables seem to be excluded from the demand I'm not sure what's happening with developers as that's often off-shored. Basically there seems to be a problem finding people who know what will work to fit what problem.

. If it's about being billed out at 2-3 times what your salary is then I'm afraid you need a bit of a reality check as that's exactly what happens.

So the margin I get billed at is x4. Cost of doing business is 40% in consultancy, "utilisation" also comes into play as often people are sitting with no work between projects, with us expected utilisation is 70-85%.

 

[redlig]

I think the main thing you need to look into is exactly what you want out of the balance, what you're willing to put in and what sacrifices you're willing to make.

By that i mean if you want more time off are you willing to work longer hours, sacrifice weekends and seeing family as frequently if you need to get stuff done quickly so you can take blocks of days off.

I'm in a situation looking at returning to a job i really don't want to do, doing long hours and OT, because it pays well and will afford me time off to spend abroad every so often.

The second most valuable thing in life is your time to do with as you please. ( finances permitting)

 

[pedrobedro]

Me too.....I get 7 days a week off and someone puts money in my bank account.......Id call that a good deal

It's crazy isn't it ? Now my wife retired she actually gets more than when she worked.

 

[addjunkie]

I will add....if the work life balance is good salary ok, then the grass isnt always greener on the other side, sometimes its brown and sticky.
And as someone with worldly experience in various places and having hired and fired many contractors. They dont pay big money for nothing. The bigger the money the worse and shorter it usually is.

As someone who walked away from an obseecenly high day rate as a contractor on a 3 year contract, to do nothing much apart from clean holiday lets, there is more to life than money!

 

[8ob]

I think with the advent of "B" and the inevitable period of adjustment we can expect a shift in skill requirements. Some folk will definitely need to start wearing a different hat if they want to survive.

Bob

 

[Mikes]

Maybe that's why rates have gone up, to offset the tax that contractors are paying? Businesses still need contractors to stand up temp teams to deliver short term needs, IR35 meant contractors pay more tax, supply dropped, demand didnt, market had to readjust.

IR35 is partially to stop so called contractors just working for the same company all of the time when in reality, they should be employees. Particularly relevant where you are providing a service based upon your skill only. To a genuine 'contractor' IR35 should not change their tax liability. It's common through many industries (construction in particular) and HMRC are closing a loophole that has been abused for many years. The apparent large difference between what the company pays you and what they charge for you is because they find the work, take the risk, pay your holidays, pay you long before they get paid etc.
Over the years I've had to work with lots of self employed 'contractors' and there were many who did very little apart from keep telling me how good they are, moaned all of the time, left contracts at the drop of a hat as their mate was on a job nearby that was paying £1 hour more etc. Most of these blokes never saw a job from start to finish so for a good work life balance start by looking at what you do and hopefully being proud of it at the end of each day. If you take home a good wage and have plenty of holiday, no compelling reason to do overtime etc. then you have cracked it. Go home at a reasonable time each day and get in the shed and do some welding! Perfect work-life balance.

 

[skotl]

IR35 is partially to stop so called contractors just working for the same company all of the time when in reality, they should be employees. Particularly relevant where you are providing a service based upon your skill only. To a genuine 'contractor' IR35 should not change their tax liability. It's common through many industries (construction in particular) and HMRC are closing a loophole that has been abused for many years. The apparent large difference between what the company pays you and what they charge for you is because they find the work, take the risk, pay your holidays, pay you long before they get paid etc.
Over the years I've had to work with lots of self employed 'contractors' and there were many who did very little apart from keep telling me how good they are, moaned all of the time, left contracts at the drop of a hat as their mate was on a job nearby that was paying £1 hour more etc. Most of these blokes never saw a job from start to finish so for a good work life balance start by looking at what you do and hopefully being proud of it at the end of each day. If you take home a good wage and have plenty of holiday, no compelling reason to do overtime etc. then you have cracked it. Go home at a reasonable time each day and get in the shed and do some welding! Perfect work-life balance.

Agree with all of that!

Although IR35 is a complex area it pretty much boils down to (in my opinion, of course) treating you as an employee if you are effectively working for the same company each day.
Fair enough, to be honest - these are "disguised employees" as HMRC refer to them and should be treated and taxed as such.

If I ever go back to contracting it will be if I can build a portfolio of roles (NED / CxO) that will keep me out of IR35.

 

[rcx132]

Agree with all of that!

Although IR35 is a complex area it pretty much boils down to (in my opinion, of course) treating you as an employee if you are effectively working for the same company each day.
Fair enough, to be honest - these are "disguised employees" as HMRC refer to them and should be treated and taxed as such.

If I ever go back to contracting it will be if I can build a portfolio of roles (NED / CxO) that will keep me out of IR35.

All agreed except for one big problem. Most companies either don't have the capability to figure who's in and who's out of IR35, or don't want to take the risk and just apply the rules to everyone.

After my business closed I managed to find freelance work for a while serving many clients which put me outside of IR35. But it was seriously hard to find work, most businesses are used to contractors being like 9-5 employees but on a short term contract, they just aren't open to the idea of ad-hoc work, ie true consulting and true IR35 exemption.

But things could change. There are boutique consultancies appearing left right and centre and they are doing very well, possibly as a response to IR35.

 

[skotl]

All agreed except for one big problem. Most companies either don't have the capability to figure who's in and who's out of IR35, or don't want to take the risk and just apply the rules to everyone.

After my business closed I managed to find freelance work for a while serving many clients which put me outside of IR35. But it was seriously hard to find work, most businesses are used to contractors being like 9-5 employees but on a short term contract, they just aren't open to the idea of ad-hoc work, ie true consulting and true IR35 exemption.

But things could change. There are boutique consultancies appearing left right and centre and they are doing very well, possibly as a response to IR35.

I think that's largely true, and if you can find a business like that (or set it up with likeminded people) then that's the way round it.
Two key components of being outside IR35 are: working for multiple clients and substitution.

If you have a handful of people who do bits of work for different clients during the week, and there's (theoretically) little differentiation between who does what (in other words the client is happy to accept any substituted resource) then you're a true services consultancy and are outside IR35.

My slight disagreement with your first paragraph is that most companies now apply the rules to everyone because they are supposed to!. If a person works 35-40 hours a week, four weeks a month, for the same business then they are an employee. IR35 has been around for almost 20 years but was loosely enforced - it's now being enforced in the manner that the legislation was written. It was a good ride for a lot of contractors, especially in IT, but the times have changed

 

[rcx132]

I think that's largely true, and if you can find a business like that (or set it up with likeminded people) then that's the way round it.
Two key components of being outside IR35 are: working for multiple clients and substitution.

If you have a handful of people who do bits of work for different clients during the week, and there's (theoretically) little differentiation between who does what (in other words the client is happy to accept any substituted resource) then you're a true services consultancy and are outside IR35.

My slight disagreement with your first paragraph is that most companies now apply the rules to everyone because they are supposed to!. If a person works 35-40 hours a week, four weeks a month, for the same business then they are an employee. IR35 has been around for almost 20 years but was loosely enforced - it's now being enforced in the manner that the legislation was written. It was a good ride for a lot of contractors, especially in IT, but the times have changed

Do you know anything more about these small boutique consultancies? A few of them have data and business architects at the gov dept I'm deployed at and they've been headhunting saying they are growing and again offering very decent salaries. Public sector is moaning about cost of the large suppliers (Fujitsu, IBM etc) and maybe that plus IR35 is letting these boutiques thrive?

 

[skotl]

Do you know anything more about these small boutique consultancies? A few of them have data and business architects at the gov dept I'm deployed at and they've been headhunting saying they are growing and again offering very decent salaries. Public sector is moaning about cost of the large suppliers (Fujitsu, IBM etc) and maybe that plus IR35 is letting these boutiques thrive?

Yeah - they're definitely worth looking at, however I'd say that most of them are servicing private sector businesses and typically the small to medium sized ones. This is because of the difficulty in getting onto procurement deals at large corporates or in the public sector - with the latter there are often "framework agreements" that guarantees certain business to the incumbent supplier. It is very difficult for a small business to make any long term headway in the public sector.

 

[tom 748]

i work to live,not live to work

 

[mike os]

Balance or money, take your pick

 

[zeppelin builder]

That's a bad path of logic to follow.

all my working life in "britain " i have never had what could be called a good employer just use you as a tool