Author Topic: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time  (Read 5083 times)

Mega

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Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« on: July 22, 2014, 04:38:38 PM »
Hi Folks,

I need some advice on how to approach my employer regarding compensation for travel time for a new project I will be starting.  I don't know how to do this without making a "career limiting move", as this is a smallish company, and the owner is less than accomodating for family / personnel issues.

Currently, my employer only compensates for travel time outside of the greater Toronto area. The employer also just implemented uniform employment contracts / h.r. Policies. When I mentioned the drive to my boss (not the owner) she essentially said suck it up, I drive that much everyday too (she lives on the opposite side of the city)

I have nearly closed on a 12 month contract for my services as a project manager. I expect to be able to increase our rather low rate by $20/hour. This means the company will make an additional ~$40,000 on my time at the client, as well as open the door for price increases for our other consultants. (I am already working at this client on a different project)

However, this will lock me in driving 2 - 2.5 hours a day. To put it in perspective, this is 500 - 600 hours a year... In terrible Toronto area traffic.

I am actually very interested in this project. It is critical to the success of the business, as in if they don't complete this project in a year, they are no longer manufacturing product. I suspect telecommuting isn't an option (need to interact face to face + I have a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old at home).

I also had a revenue neutral promotion to manager from consultant last year. (I was well compensated as a consultant, and am now just at the average for management) on the plus side I have 4 weeks of vacation a year.

So I have a couple of choices:
1 - Ask for compensation of travel time and deal with the fallout.
2 - Suck it up.
3 - find a local, bike-able job with similar compensation.

What are your thoughts?


jpo

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2014, 04:42:57 PM »
You're a contractor? I wouldn't expect any sort of accommodation if that's the case.

Build commute time into your rate. Farther commute time == more $$ required.

Personally I wouldn't commute more than 30 minutes each way and that is a stretch.

Mega

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2014, 05:15:04 PM »
Technically I am an employee of the company. They get to determine where I work.

That is something I hadn't thought of, becoming a contractor.

beltim

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2014, 05:25:42 PM »
I don't see why you would expect to get paid more if you're still in the same metropolitan area.  I think you're better off asking for a raise, justifying it by the increased business and higher hourly rate that you're bringing in for the company.

09ujfew0jids

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2014, 05:49:49 PM »
I don't know Canadian tax law and am not offering tax advice.  However, posit that travel reimbursement (up to the Canadian tax authority defined limit per mile, if any) would be tax free and you pay some high marginal tax rate for regular employment income.  Why not make the offer that they pay mileage and also agree to reduce your salary by the amount that the mileage is expected to be (or some fraction thereof if you want to ask for a raise, or have your initial offer with room to negotiate)?  They have no reason to say no to this offer, and you would profit by your marginal rate times mileage at least.

Goldielocks

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2014, 09:31:31 PM »
I don't know Canadian tax law and am not offering tax advice.  However, posit that travel reimbursement (up to the Canadian tax authority defined limit per mile, if any) would be tax free and you pay some high marginal tax rate for regular employment income.  Why not make the offer that they pay mileage and also agree to reduce your salary by the amount that the mileage is expected to be (or some fraction thereof if you want to ask for a raise, or have your initial offer with room to negotiate)?  They have no reason to say no to this offer, and you would profit by your marginal rate times mileage at least.

Mileage over a set amount is taxable benefit.  The reimbursement rate decreases after a certain amount too.

One idea is to ask for a fleet / company car and reimburse gas too, to offset your added costs.  Reimburse hwy tolls too so you have less traffic.

Try asking for 4x10 hr work days and or shift start that is earlier or later than rush hour.

Perhaps ask for 7.5 hr work days with same pay? A better option is to start your day at your work, then drive to client on company time, then home on your time.  Most people assume mid day travel is not personal time!  I know I don't claim travel on full days but do on part Days or multiple sites.

If I recall, the excess distance over your normal commute can be considered work mileage expense.  But most people don't claim time for inside city travel.

rmendpara

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2014, 09:58:13 PM »
Hi Folks,

I need some advice on how to approach my employer regarding compensation for travel time for a new project I will be starting.  I don't know how to do this without making a "career limiting move", as this is a smallish company, and the owner is less than accomodating for family / personnel issues.

Currently, my employer only compensates for travel time outside of the greater Toronto area. The employer also just implemented uniform employment contracts / h.r. Policies. When I mentioned the drive to my boss (not the owner) she essentially said suck it up, I drive that much everyday too (she lives on the opposite side of the city)

I have nearly closed on a 12 month contract for my services as a project manager. I expect to be able to increase our rather low rate by $20/hour. This means the company will make an additional ~$40,000 on my time at the client, as well as open the door for price increases for our other consultants. (I am already working at this client on a different project)

However, this will lock me in driving 2 - 2.5 hours a day. To put it in perspective, this is 500 - 600 hours a year... In terrible Toronto area traffic.

I am actually very interested in this project. It is critical to the success of the business, as in if they don't complete this project in a year, they are no longer manufacturing product. I suspect telecommuting isn't an option (need to interact face to face + I have a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old at home).

I also had a revenue neutral promotion to manager from consultant last year. (I was well compensated as a consultant, and am now just at the average for management) on the plus side I have 4 weeks of vacation a year.

So I have a couple of choices:
1 - Ask for compensation of travel time and deal with the fallout.
2 - Suck it up.
3 - find a local, bike-able job with similar compensation.

What are your thoughts?

Dude (or lady), you got a promotion with no raise.

What. The. F*ck.

Do you have no self worth? Don't put up with that crap. If you have more responsibility and are operating at a higher level in the projects then you should be making more. If not, then find someone willing to pay your keep.

Go for #1 >> #3 >> #2.

If you're the managing partner, would you give employees a raise who don't have the confidence to even ask for one?

dragoncar

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2014, 10:54:08 PM »
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

The major problem is simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is futher complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later aditions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.

Mega

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2014, 05:29:06 AM »
Dude (or lady), you got a promotion with no raise.

What. The. F*ck.

Do you have no self worth? Don't put up with that crap. If you have more responsibility and are operating at a higher level in the projects then you should be making more. If not, then find someone willing to pay your keep.

Go for #1 >> #3 >> #2.

If you're the managing partner, would you give employees a raise who don't have the confidence to even ask for one?

Thank you for the kick in the butt. That is what I love about this forum!

ThatGuyFromCanada

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2014, 12:12:45 PM »
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

The major problem is simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is futher complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later aditions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.

Would you will have been looking forward to it?
I once spent a year dead for tax purposes... but it was at a chummy little restaurant so I will did greatly have enjoyed it.

frugaliknowit

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Re: Job Advice - how to discuss travel time
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2014, 01:37:45 PM »
I also had a revenue neutral promotion to manager from consultant last year. (I was well compensated as a consultant, and am now just at the average for management) on the plus side I have 4 weeks of vacation a year.

I think it is too late to question the "revenue neutral (to you...total BS!!!)".

You are already doing #2, so continue while you vote with your feet doing #3 to their surprise (I know, consulting firms can be such ahxxes!!).  Good luck!!