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Comment by oellegaard | Hacker News Reader

I completely disagree with this article. If you need someone working, lets say 30-40 hours per week and you hire an on-site consultant then the consultant will also spend some time going to the toilet, talking to people at the office etc.

To go with the many unscientific formulas used in the article, here is one more:

consultant_cost = employee_cost + revenue_to_consultant_firm

employee_cost = consultant_cost - revenue_to_consultant_firm

In short: If you actually need a full time developer (and are able to find a qualified one), you are better off hiring him yourself, if you need him for a while.

The article is well-written but it's marketing mumbo jumbo for hiring consultants.

Disclaimer: I work as a consultant, but I'm hired because they don't need my position full time and they don't have other people in house who have the same knowledge.

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I think the premise is that consultants often bill by the hour and don't include bathroom breaks, screwing around, etc... as billable hours.

We use consultants who bill by the hour. They don't charge us for lunch, but other than that, they are considered on the clock. We don't micromanage, so we are charged for any screwing around. . .unless we micromanage and they really overdo the screwing around and as long as they are meeting their milestones, we rarely - if ever - know if/when they are screwing around. It's not worth it to us - financially or mentally - you to micromanage to that level. Ditto for bathroom breaks.

I think that indeed is the case if you use them for an hour or two. If you have them hanging around full time at the office, I doubt they would pause it for a 5-10 min bathroom break.

I have never worked with any consultants like that. The ones I have worked with count hours almost the same way as normal employees.

We have some excellent consultants. They bill in 15min increments. So I assume we don't pay them for dicking around if they do partake (and they do, as they're human). They're still 100% utilization.

Assumptions... Most consultants charge for total time on-site. Not just at their desk working on your project. I think you're confusing consultants with Freelancers.

What is the difference between Consultant and Freelancer? Coming from the UK I'd call myself a Freelancer. I work on-site, paid by the hour, but I do invoice for toilet breaks, lunch, and so on. A Consultant in my mind is someone who comes in and advises on projects, and a Freelancer is someone who sits at a desk and performs skill-based tasks.

What is the difference between Consultant and Freelancer?

The former has better marketing (and a commensurate increase in rates, naturally).

But seriously, given the breadth of roles that could reasonably be described as freelance, there's little meaningful or objective distinction between freelancers and consultants. I don't think the distinction between freelancing and contracting is particularly relevant today either, though some would strongly disagree.

IR35 :-)

For non UK folk IR35 is a rule brought in to penalize self employed IT people of course self employed lawyers and accountants don't have this problem.

As a Brit interviewing to work remote for a SV company (as a contractor, due to residence) IR35 is something I really need to wrap my head around.

At first glance, it's a bit scary.

Consultants usually provide advice/strategy, whereas contractors, which may be freelancers, do the work. Often these roles may exist under the same umbrella with a firm recommending a direction and assisting with hiring or staffing to execute the plan.

I share these definitions.

What do you think, regular employees work 100% of the time?

That varies from consultant to consultant. I work full-time on one client site as a consultant and I include time where the client is having casual conversation with me, time in the restroom, etc., in the time that is billed. But I am also expected to be there 40 hours a week. Part-time consultants may differ in policy.

Except you are 'hiring' a person you do not get to interview. Most consultant's I've worked with come with a less than desirable level of expertise. In which case you burn several weeks finding suitable replacements to do the work.

I guess it depends on the consulting/contracting model, you use, but we get to interview our consultants, so it's easier for us to determine if they have the expertise we need - or we think/hope we need.

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