Quit my job (for a new job). Old job wants me to be available for contracting. Steps to take?

Question

The company I am leaving has asked that I make myself available to answer questions and/or debug programs occasionally should the need arise. I'm not opposed to this. After searching google for some kind of standard contract for this sort of thing, I didn't see any.

Is there a standard contract for this sort of thing that you use?

Are there any other steps I should take to ensure this kind of arrangement works smoothly?

Answer 1

You are in a good position here as your old company has asked you for help.

Take the following steps;

1. Get the agreement of your new employer
2. Decide on how much time you are prepared to spend on this and when you want to spend that time.
3. Pick a sensible hourly rate - ask a recruitment agency in your area what the average is and charge that.
4. Agree on how much notice your old employer must give you for a request for work.
5. Agree when and how your old employer can contact you. You don't want them ringing you at your new employer so e-mail conversations is probably best.

Be prepared to negotiate - while you are in a good position if you ask for too high a rate (for example) they might suddenly find that they have the skills in-house after all.

Answer 2

Pick a good hourly rate, and cash in! Just be sure your new company is ok with you doing this. For example, they may not want you doing work for your old company if they are a competitor.

Answer 3

I'm going to go against the grain here a little bit here...

You've got a new job. You had good reasons to leave the last place and go find a new job - whether it be topic, pay, conditions, lack of career progression opportunities, etc.

Your new job requires 100% of your attention while you're there. If they sense you are 'moon lighting' by keeping the old job going, they'll be annoyed and you'll be in trouble. Do you want this?

As you've already left your previous job, if the post matters to them, they'll be looking to hire someone to take over from where you left off.

If not, they'll be looking to get away from whatever projects you were keeping going before you left.

Either way, the amount of work your previous employer has for you to do is probably quite low and you will have to give up your evenings and weekends to work for them, so you are perfectly entitled to charge whatever you like for contract rates, but please bear in mind the following:

1. Whatever you charge (say $180/hour), you have to deliver good value on this. You are not going get paid to read email or do on-line learning.
2. Emails and phone calls to arrange, hand-over, clarify the work shouldn't really be billed, but use some common sense here.
3. No expenses claims - how much is a phone call, really?

Good luck!

Answer 4

I would say as time permits make yourself available for outside contracting. That means today they say "We would like X hours from you next week / specific date" and you say "Yes / No / How about N hours?"

Answer 5

I'm in the same situation. I have a work request sheet, which is basically like a detailed case diagram. Whenever they want me to do work, they fill out:

1. Name
2. Pre-Conditions
3. Steps to perform
4. Post-Conditions

I know the internals a bit better, so I'll adjust the pre/pos conditions and maybe add/remove some steps as necessary. They OK the changes, and I provide an estimate of how long it'll take. They agree to that, and I start working. And I bill through the nose. I left there for a reason.

Answer 6

The guy who had my job before me did this, and charged the company something ridiculous. I believe like $95/hour for consulting.

Granted, part of his goal was to NOT do any more work for the company... but we did end up needing him for a couple things, so we paid.

In a way that's a good way to go. You don't want your old job trying to take up all your time if you're going into a new full time job.

Answer 7

You left. They obviously don't manage well, and hadn't balanced the risk of you leaving against the potential loss of productivity your departure leaves them faced with. You don't owe them any favours, and frankly, a new job generally needs all your attention especially if it's a full-time position. I'd be really unhappy if I found that one of ours is moonlighting. I wouldn't bother with it. You've left that mess behind, right?

Answer 8

Do you have competing interests between the two companies? Where I work I'm not allowed to do this. I signed an agreement that I wouldn't work for another company, that is in the same industry, for N months if I left voluntarily. Make sure you check into that so you don't get sued by one or the other. Lots of companies have various types of non compete agreements.

Answer 9

I have done this and in my case my former employer set me up as a "Casual Employee" basically hourly on demand. They paid my Social Security tax etc. and I just fill out a timesheet when I do work for them. I have a computer from them and do most of my work remotely when it's needed. I actually live almost 2000 miles away now.

Go for it.