Request manager to bill 40 hours per week

Question

I have been working as a contractor for a company (IT department) for about 4 years so far. In average, I work for about 30 hours per week, depending on the tasks I have assigned, sometimes 20-25 hours and sometimes 35 hours. It is rare to actually work 40 hours.

I really like the job and the fact that I work from home 3 days per week and on site for 2 days is a big plus (it takes me around 1.5 hours to drive there). Last year my supervisor told me about the possibility to join the company but the company policy does not allow employees to work remotely. He told me that they were planning to change that policy at some point and we agreed to talk about that in the future.

I just got an offer from another company with a better hourly rate but they require to work on site for 5 days. They are only 15 minutes away from my place so I am considering this offer as I expect to work for 40 hours per week.

Now, the situation is that I would really like to stay with my current employer and one thing I have on mind is to talk with my supervisor and make some kind of agreement to be able to bill 40 hours per week even if the hours for that week are less. For example, if they assign me only 30-35 hours for a week, round it to 40. Don't take me wrong, is not that I want to take advantage of them but rather a way to have a stable and secure income per week.

I am happy with them and I believe they are happy with me, but I am not sure if this is a good idea as it can be seen as something non-ethical (or maybe even not legal?) and I don't want to have my reputation affected.

And to clarify, this is in US I have the contract with a managed services agency, not with the company. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Selling your time as block-time billing is perfectly ethical and legal. The company could commit to purchasing a monthly block of hours from you (40 hours per week x 4 weeks) and they would then commit to paying you a set monthly fee for this block of time (40 hours per week x 4 weeks x your hourly rate). Any unused hours would be forfeited by the client, or you could choose to let them roll some or all of their unused hours into the following month.

Whether or not this would work for you and your client in this situation is something you'll need to discuss with your client, but it's a perfectly legitimate, reasonable, and common practice.

Answer 2

That's called "salary". You want to be a salaried employee and get paid a standard amount based on a 40 hour week. Nothing wrong with that.

You can even negotiate getting paid an extra amount per hour if you had to go in after hours. Again....nothing wrong with that, and I've seen it happen.