Billable Hours Incentive Pay?

joey74055

What does it mean when this is listed as part of the benefit package for a company that has an open job?

"Additional 10% billable hours Incentive Pay"

L0gicB0mb508

Usually means, if you hit a set number of billed hours you get some type of bonus.

joey74055

Correct me if I am wrong, but does this mean that you drag your feet working for the customer so that the company that charges for the hours can get more billed hours from the customer? I am just trying to decipher if getting an incentive for more billing from your clients is ethical. I mean are you as the tech getting an incentive for taking longer and using up all of the customers time so that you can charge them more, or am I on the wrong train of thought. I wouldn't think that a company would encourage this.

joey74055

or is it if you finish the project below a certain amount of hours you get a bonus?

joey74055

sorry, or does it mean that if you worked so many set number of hours on a project you get the 10% bonus?

Just trying to understand.........

L0gicB0mb508

I guess it would really depend on your ethics. I used to work for a company that used this method. I personally didn't care for it. You end up having people bill huge amounts of hours by dragging their feet. I personally found it very hard to hit the bonuses by actually being honest in my billing. I will tell you this is just my experience, and I worked for a rather unethical company. Your mileage may vary.

L0gicB0mb508

joey74055 wrote: »

sorry, or does it mean that if you worked so many set number of hours on a project you get the 10% bonus?

Just trying to understand.........

I can just tell you how it was where I worked. We did it monthly. If you billed 160 hours+ you got an extra $1,000 for that month. If you are a service tech, it will more than likely be only hours you bill (while being on customer premises). You'll just have to ask them their policy. That company may be entirely different in their practices.

joey74055

L0gicB0mb508 wrote: »

I can just tell you how it was where I worked. We did it monthly. If you billed 160 hours+ you got an extra $1,000 for that month. If you are a service tech, it will more than likely be only hours you bill (while being on customer premises). You'll just have to ask them their policy. That company may be entirely different in their practices.

Ok, thank you. I was wondering if this (what you mentioned) could be what they mean. I am like you, I could never do that on purpose, in my mind that is unethical and wrong. But like you said, it might mean something else would just have to ask them.

L0gicB0mb508

Not a problem. Your best bet is to just ask them their practice. Even if it is what I mentioned, it doesn't really mean it's a bad thing. They could be very ethical about it. Anyway, good luck to you.

sambuca69

Consulting

apd123

I work for a partner that counts every minute. For example this week a coworker was onsite troubleshooting a FAX machine I was at the office so I helped him out by sending and receiving test faxes throughout the day. Technically we should both be billing our time but I didn't put any in as I think its just kinda silly to double bill like that. Also things like when I take 4 hours to take something that should have done in 1 just cause I made a simple error or made assumptions about the existing network. What do I bill for this? There is no simple answer to these and other ethical questions and most of the guys I work for are good people, but I am sure there are some that would secretly like me to "spend as long as it takes" on some T&M projects with clueless customers. Bottom line is if you are not billable for a partner you will quickly be out of a job so these things are not as simple for the engineers as you might think.

Thought I might add that I get no direct or indirect bonus or overtime based on hours worked. You could correctly argue that this could have bearing on a possible review in the future, but I do not believe this has any weight in the hours I bill one way or the other.

joey74055

sambuca69 wrote: »

Consulting

Hahaha! So I guess that pretty much sums it up huh?

joey74055

apd123 wrote: »

I work for a partner that counts every minute. For example this week a coworker was onsite troubleshooting a FAX machine I was at the office so I helped him out by sending and receiving test faxes throughout the day. Technically we should both be billing our time but I didn't put any in as I think its just kinda silly to double bill like that. Also things like when I take 4 hours to take something that should have done in 1 just cause I made a simple error or made assumptions about the existing network. What do I bill for this? There is no simple answer to these and other ethical questions and most of the guys I work for are good people, but I am sure there are some that would secretly like me to "spend as long as it takes" on some T&M projects with clueless customers. Bottom line is if you are not billable for a partner you will quickly be out of a job so these things are not as simple for the engineers as you might think.

Thought I might add that I get no direct or indirect bonus or overtime based on hours worked. You could correctly argue that this could have bearing on a possible review in the future, but I do not believe this has any weight in the hours I bill one way or the other.

Ok, thanks apd123 for the input. Do you enjoy consulting type work?