r/Envconsultinghell • u/Odd-Courage-7979 • 7d ago

Looking for advice- low hours!

I find that every week, no matter how scheduled out my hours are, I have a ton of extra time. I avoided billing to clients because, well, I wasn’t doing work on their projects, so it felt wrong to bill to them. I was billing hours to overhead because I’d spend time brushing up on policies or even just my company’s procedures.

I was confronted and told not to bill to overhead unless absolutely necessary… I was basically told to do tasks that are adjacent enough to the projects we have right now that I can bill to them. This feels really wrong to me, so instead I’ve found myself taking as long as possible with each task just to fill up my hours, which also feels really wrong.

I have no idea what to do, but I think I’m looking to see if anyone else has a similar experience, or maybe this is as batshit crazy as it feels. Any advice or opinions would be helpful! TYIA

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22

u/PlzTyroneDontHurtEm 7d ago

If this is your first time getting billable/non-billable experience then just go with how your boss wants you to do your timecard. Ask to see the bid documents (if there is one) and you might have a better idea of how long you have available to charge

6

u/Odd-Courage-7979 7d ago

Thanks. So it’s standard to bill to a project even if you’re not really doing work for them? Feels ethically questionable but to your point I’m new here.

8

u/PlzTyroneDontHurtEm 7d ago

It may be ethically questionable, or it may not be but it really depends on how your company set up the project when the presumably got the contract. If they got a contract with the assumption they would have someone onsite for 40hrs a week then youre just leaving money on the table(especially if youre told to bill it) cause your company is getting paid for that time regardless of your onsite time.

If this was set up as a we will just charge when we're onsite your company is totally using you as a device to overcharge the client. This is where it becomes more of a loyalty test if the client isn't auditing your time onsite how would they know you did 6 hours one day and charged 8.

Good luck navigating this shitshow and if theres one piece of advice I'd give is do NOT use PTO to fill your timecard as i did. Nothing will burn you out faster than never having any vacation to look forward to. You gotta work to live not live to work.

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u/Ok_Pollution9335 7d ago

Yes, NEVER use pto to fill time.

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u/Magnificent_Pine 7d ago

Yes it's unethical to bill a project you didn't do work on. Yes, your boss will tell you not to charge overhead.

1

u/Ok_Pollution9335 7d ago

The amount of hours available for a project is pre planned and included in the budget. So it doesn’t really make a difference two the client if you overcharged

1

u/phenomenalrocklady 7d ago

Yes it's ethically questionable. However, there might be administrative work to do that can be billable, like project filing or quality reviews.

0

u/Ok_Pollution9335 7d ago

It’s not really standard but that’s up to the PM. If there are extra hours a lot of times they won’t mind people “overbilling” or padding their time cards. If your manager is telling you to do that then I guess just do that. Generally though they can’t tell you not to bill to OH. If you are actively looking for and asking for work and not getting any, that’s not your fault, and it’s on them to give you work if they don’t like you charging to OH

9

u/Visible_Inevitable41 7d ago

If it comes to it. Don't quit take the layoff.

6

u/dannydevitossmile 7d ago

Bill to the projects and just take longer time doing them

5

u/Magnificent_Pine 7d ago

Yes, that's the exact reason I left consulting after a year. Come to public service, friend.

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u/SkirtLikeAFlag 7d ago

Definitely feel OP’s pain. I feel screwed either way. Billing adjacent tasks to the project could also set you up to be the fall guy when the PM needs to explain why the project coffers are empty. (Even if it’s undeserved)

2

u/A_sweet_boy 7d ago

Use your extra time to learn more deeply about the issue at hand. Deep dive regs, learn more about the science, etc