Halp me vet the stipulations in my long-term work contract
February 3, 2020 5:33 PM Subscribe
Yes, it's true, you are not my lawyer. And Saul Goodman is unreachable at the moment.
However, you may be able to help me vet a list of stipulations in the work contract I'm about to draft, especially if you have longterm freelance or contract experience. More fun inside.
So, thanks to a social phone call I made over the weekend, I might have a long-term employment contract coming up. It would be partially onsite, partially remote, and would be part-time.
My liaison at the company and I are within range on terms. Here are mine:
Am I forgetting anything glaringly obvious?
So, thanks to a social phone call I made over the weekend, I might have a long-term employment contract coming up. It would be partially onsite, partially remote, and would be part-time.
My liaison at the company and I are within range on terms. Here are mine:
- Up to x hours a week, to be done either 8 hours a day x days a week or 6 hours a day x days a week. (This is already agreed on.)
- I am available as of x date in March [due to existing vacation plans with friend, who's already paid for their plane ticket.]
- Up to 4 calendar months a year onsite, April-December, with no more than 4 round trips to the place of business. (Exception being the start date in March this year.) I will work from within the U.S. the remaining time. [Liaison and I have already discussed my plans to relocate .]
- 4 weeks of no-work per year, not including major holidays.
- I am to be paid via direct deposit or I can invoice company via Wave or Stripe.
- I run Linux on my personal laptop: if this is not acceptable to company, I'm willing to work on a laptop that is company property, to be returned should my employment end.
Am I forgetting anything glaringly obvious?
Schedule for invoicing/submitting timesheets and for getting paid.
posted by yeahlikethat at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by yeahlikethat at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Best answer: A few nitpicks I'd want clarified:
- Who pays for travel (or other expenses) and how quickly do they need to pay you back by if you get reimbursed? Who puts you up when you are on-site? Are you on a per diem or do you pay those expenses?
- How much advance notice and/or approval you will need about the not-work days? Make sure you define "major holidays"
- Does travel time count as "work" time? If so, at 100% or 50% or something else?
- Who do you report to, what manner of reporting will be necessary when you are not on-site and are there hours you will be expected to be working (i.e. if you are having a not-work day and there is a mandatory staff meeting, do you need to make that?) and in what time zone?
- Are there any HR requirements for the job and onboarding? (I had some truly hellacious and time consuming onboarding for a job I did, I always ask about this now)
- is weekend work a possibility and or/ necessary?
posted by jessamyn at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
- Who pays for travel (or other expenses) and how quickly do they need to pay you back by if you get reimbursed? Who puts you up when you are on-site? Are you on a per diem or do you pay those expenses?
- How much advance notice and/or approval you will need about the not-work days? Make sure you define "major holidays"
- Does travel time count as "work" time? If so, at 100% or 50% or something else?
- Who do you report to, what manner of reporting will be necessary when you are not on-site and are there hours you will be expected to be working (i.e. if you are having a not-work day and there is a mandatory staff meeting, do you need to make that?) and in what time zone?
- Are there any HR requirements for the job and onboarding? (I had some truly hellacious and time consuming onboarding for a job I did, I always ask about this now)
- is weekend work a possibility and or/ necessary?
posted by jessamyn at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Expenses?
posted by praemunire at 5:50 PM on February 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 5:50 PM on February 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Who pays for travel and accomodations and per diem when you're onsite?
Are the various hours your choice or the company's? For example, do you have any say as to when the four weeks of no work are? Are the four weeks contiguous or can they be scattered over the year? What about your time onsite? Contiguous or scattered? Do you have any say as to when they are? There are more than four months from April to December. What is your preference?
Are you a contractor or an employee? What about taxes, unemployment insurance, and social security taxes? If you're a contractor and pay some of these, your actual hourly rate is a good deal less than the stated rate. This relates to contractor/employee status. Your employer and you may agree that you are a contractor but the IRS has rules about what a contractor is vs an employee. Check them.
Who do you report to? Who evaluates whether your service is adequate and on what standards? If you take directions from more than one person, that's going to make your work much more difficult. It would be good if your contract specified who would supervise your work. That person would distill the company staff's various needs and instruct you on what specifically you should do.
If your company is outside the US, I don't know how that affects your taxes. Will you be liable for taxes in both countries, for the whole time or for the time you're resident with the company?
Good luck to you.
This is a lot of stuff. I've not been a freelancer but before retirement, I was instrumental in the writing of a variety of major contracts and have developed some experience on identifying the unwritten assumed exchanges of a contract and putting the assumptions in writing in advance so both sides reach a meeting of the minds before the work begins.
Thus, I've only posed some questions which I think you and the company should address before you both agree to the contract. Maybe some of these are not important to you. For example, maybe you don't care if your non-work, non-earning time is in one or two periods--unpaid vacations, if you will--or scattered throughout the year at the contractor's desire.
posted by tmdonahue at 6:00 PM on February 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Are the various hours your choice or the company's? For example, do you have any say as to when the four weeks of no work are? Are the four weeks contiguous or can they be scattered over the year? What about your time onsite? Contiguous or scattered? Do you have any say as to when they are? There are more than four months from April to December. What is your preference?
Are you a contractor or an employee? What about taxes, unemployment insurance, and social security taxes? If you're a contractor and pay some of these, your actual hourly rate is a good deal less than the stated rate. This relates to contractor/employee status. Your employer and you may agree that you are a contractor but the IRS has rules about what a contractor is vs an employee. Check them.
Who do you report to? Who evaluates whether your service is adequate and on what standards? If you take directions from more than one person, that's going to make your work much more difficult. It would be good if your contract specified who would supervise your work. That person would distill the company staff's various needs and instruct you on what specifically you should do.
If your company is outside the US, I don't know how that affects your taxes. Will you be liable for taxes in both countries, for the whole time or for the time you're resident with the company?
Good luck to you.
This is a lot of stuff. I've not been a freelancer but before retirement, I was instrumental in the writing of a variety of major contracts and have developed some experience on identifying the unwritten assumed exchanges of a contract and putting the assumptions in writing in advance so both sides reach a meeting of the minds before the work begins.
Thus, I've only posed some questions which I think you and the company should address before you both agree to the contract. Maybe some of these are not important to you. For example, maybe you don't care if your non-work, non-earning time is in one or two periods--unpaid vacations, if you will--or scattered throughout the year at the contractor's desire.
posted by tmdonahue at 6:00 PM on February 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Up to 4 calendar months a year onsite, April-December
Apologies for stating the obvious - can you legally work in both the USA and the employer's site? If not, is your employer proposing to sponsor you for a visa, either for the USA or for the employer's site? Visa sponsorship is not typically consistent with contractor status.
I am to be paid via direct deposit or I can invoice company via Wave or Stripe.
Wave/Stripe will take about 3% of your invoice, whereas direct deposit is close to 0% expenses. I'm not sure why you'd volunteer a 3% pay cut, but if so, I hope you do so consciously.
I'll need to know if they're paying me on a W2 or 1099 before I accept that rate.
I'm really concerned about this for the same reasons as tmdonahue. Your employer or you do not determine your employment status - the IRS does. If you/your employer pick contractor and your employment parameters are inconsistent with a contractor status, the IRS can determine that you are an employee. In the very short term, the IRS determination that you are an employee tends to be in your favor - notably, you're no longer responsible for SSDI taxes. However, in the longer term, it tends to be greatly detrimental to your employment status - notably, your employer will probably want to either terminate you or modify your employment agreement to become in compliance with IRS standards for contracting.
The following statements from you are not generally in line with contractor status. You should read various descriptions of the 20 factor test from the IRS to get further information.
Apologies for stating the obvious - can you legally work in both the USA and the employer's site? If not, is your employer proposing to sponsor you for a visa, either for the USA or for the employer's site? Visa sponsorship is not typically consistent with contractor status.
I am to be paid via direct deposit or I can invoice company via Wave or Stripe.
Wave/Stripe will take about 3% of your invoice, whereas direct deposit is close to 0% expenses. I'm not sure why you'd volunteer a 3% pay cut, but if so, I hope you do so consciously.
I'll need to know if they're paying me on a W2 or 1099 before I accept that rate.
I'm really concerned about this for the same reasons as tmdonahue. Your employer or you do not determine your employment status - the IRS does. If you/your employer pick contractor and your employment parameters are inconsistent with a contractor status, the IRS can determine that you are an employee. In the very short term, the IRS determination that you are an employee tends to be in your favor - notably, you're no longer responsible for SSDI taxes. However, in the longer term, it tends to be greatly detrimental to your employment status - notably, your employer will probably want to either terminate you or modify your employment agreement to become in compliance with IRS standards for contracting.
The following statements from you are not generally in line with contractor status. You should read various descriptions of the 20 factor test from the IRS to get further information.
Up to x hours a week, to be done either 8 hours a day x days a week or 6 hours a day x days a week.posted by saeculorum at 6:12 PM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
4 weeks of no-work per year, not including major holidays. (set hours of work is a factor indicating employment, not contracting)
I'm willing to work on a laptop that is company property, to be returned should my employment end. (furnishing of materials is a factor indicating employment, not contracting)
My wife is an employment attorney and reviews these sorts of documents all day every day and charges between $150 and $300 for this kind of document review. There are nuances that vary from state to state and I think it is crazy that more people don't go to a professional in this kind of situation. The cost to try to make something right later or the potential loss is so much larger than the cost of the service.
National Employment Lawyer Association Find-A-Lawyer directory
posted by Lame_username at 8:57 AM on February 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
National Employment Lawyer Association Find-A-Lawyer directory
posted by Lame_username at 8:57 AM on February 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
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- an option for overtime, only if both parties agree, at a rate of $z per hour?
- requirement of advance notice of termination, assuming both parties have option to terminate without cause,
posted by metahawk at 5:43 PM on February 3, 2020 [2 favorites]