Workers Working An Extra 20 Hours a Week Thanks To BYOD 202
Qedward writes with the apparent downside of bring-your-own-device policies. From the article: "Many employees are working up to 20 additional hours per week unpaid as a result of bring your own device (BYOD) policies adopted by their firms, many of which have no security safeguards. According to the quarterly Mobile Workforce Report from enterprise Wi-Fi access firm iPass, a third of mobile enterprise workers never fully disconnect from technology during their during personal time The report also said that 92% of mobile workers 'enjoy their job flexibility' and are 'content' with working longer hours. In fact, said the report, 42% would like 'even greater flexibility for their working practices.' But 19% of mobile workers said their companies did not require security on smartphones or tablets to access work data."
Cry me a river... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Funny)
Occasionally glancing at your cellphone while getting black out drunk with your idiot friends doesn't sound like work to me...
I'm a taste tester for Johnny Walker you insensitive clod! They want to know how bad my blackouts and hangovers are!
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Occasionally glancing at your cellphone while getting black out drunk with your idiot friends doesn't sound like work to me...
I'm a taste tester for Johnny Walker you insensitive clod! They want to know how bad my blackouts and hangovers are!
You hiring? I'm more than qualified and have a long history a d rich experience with various forms of whiskey, including blackout and falling down experience.
And do you have extra openings for my mates?
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Funny)
Occasionally glancing at your cellphone while getting black out drunk with your idiot friends doesn't sound like work to me...
I'm a taste tester for Johnny Walker you insensitive clod! They want to know how bad my blackouts and hangovers are!
I'm going to put in an application with Trojan right now.
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Funny)
You're seeking a job as a condom taste-tester?
Not my idea of a dream job, but if it's what floats your boat....
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Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if it is, I'd rather spend 15 minutes at 11pm typing an e-mail that will solve a problem right then, than having to spend 2 hours fixing something first thing the next morning.
My boss is one of those guys who doesn't check his e-mail at home (or at least not very often) and not on his smartphone. But he goes home at 3 as part of his flex hours. If something happens that he's really really needed, well, you wait until tomorrow, which just adds stress, confusion and sometimes creates new problems as people try and do what they need without him, and make life hard for themselves.
I'd rather be 'on call' every day for 4 hours after work, on top of my 8 hours a day at work if that means those 8 hours aren't spent cleaning up messes created in my absence, or if that means other teams (including other time zones) can actually get their shit done on time. That makes my working hours a lot less stressful, and gives me more time during working hours to do things like post on /.
I did a job once that was multinational - next day for anything. So if we had a problem that needed authorization for spending or an engineering decision or whatever at 10 in the morning our time, we'd be stuck waiting on our arses until the next day for someone at one of the corporate offices to look at it. Which was just a huge waste of time and money, and made doing anything on site a nightmare because you could never be sure how long you'd be stuck there.
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not all jobs involve problems where the repair commitment expands over time. Maybe car mechanic? Factory on a quota/piecework system? Struggling to think of a stereotypical /.er job like that. Personally I've never had to do anything afterhours, in decades, other than fundamentally because there's an angry waiting internal or external customer. Never to save time.
So if we had a problem that needed authorization for spending or an engineering decision or whatever at 10 in the morning our time, we'd be stuck waiting
That's an executive level cultural problem thats outside your paygrade to fix, so don't worry about it or change your lifestyle. I've intentionally never worked anywhere without a 24x7 escalation sheet and a culture of "better ask forgiveness than permission". I've turned down jobs at bureaucratic micromanagement style companies for those exact cultural reasons. If thats the way they want to run things, thats fine, but its not my problem, I'll patiently wait.
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"From: Doe, John [US/CORPHQ]
Sent: Fri 2/13/2012 6:35PM
Help I have a small grease fire! I am contemplating dousing it with water. Any advice? --JD"
If I can tell that idiot to use baking soda instead of water, he will stand a much better chance at saving himself and others a lot of time, money, and effort as opposed to ignoring it until monday. The analogues in the business world are MANY, I come across them all the time. If you don't see them, maybe you aren't in that kind of job, or you just aren't th
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I get called out after-hours or on the weekends from time to time. Yes, 10% -- maybe even as high as 20% at times -- don't really need my attention RIGHT FREAKING NOW but for the most part, the people who escalate to me are pretty good at triage and won't call me unless there's something they really need me to look at. And when I do get called to look at something, I generally don't get called out on the carpet for the steps I've taken to resolve the issue unless I do something *REALLY* boneheaded, and off-hand, I can't think of a single time in over six years with my present employer that that's happened. I've maybe had my boss say something like, "You probably should clear that with a manager before doing that again," once or twice, but that's about it.
As far as being on-call for an additional four hours every day after my eight hour shift (from your original post)...well, if my employer needs fix-it guys after hours that badly, then they'd better hire some more employees, or they'd better up my pay significantly so that I can retire early. Otherwise, I'll answer the phone when/if I have time, but I make no guarantees. I'd consider six hours in the office and four hours on-call for an eight-hour-a-day salaried position, since I know I wouldn't get called every day, but I'll find a new job if you tell me you want to pay me for eight hours a day and have me on-call for free for an additional four. Life is too short to spend 12 hours a day working indefinitely. My parents worked their butts off for years. Then in 2006, my dad died from an aneurism. They had made all kinds of plans for what they'd do "one of these days" and never got to accomplish A. Single. One. Of. Them. because they didn't take time while they had the chance. My mom, a "32-hour per week" employee worked 5x12 (sometimes 6x12 or more) for the last year before my dad died; she just about completely missed out on his last year on earth. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I *can* be taught. The only time you have is RIGHT NOW. IME, there are very few people who wished they could have worked a few more hours in their lifetimes, but plenty who wished they'd crossed a few more items off their bucket lists or spent a little more time with their loved ones.
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:4)
Your point is taken, but for the record I wasn't the one who made the "original post" and you weren't the target of my example; I was pointing out that many jobs outside of car mechanics and factory work DO involve snowball issues that are best dealing with early on. An ounce of prevention, as it were. If you don't experience this in your job, then it sounds like a good spot and I suggest keeping it for a long time. Those of us who arent that lucky, get that availability has its price and its benefits.
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Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Funny)
"From: Doe, John [US/CORPHQ] Sent: Fri 2/13/2012 6:35PM Help I have a small grease fire! I am contemplating dousing it with water. Any advice? --JD"
If I can tell that idiot to use baking soda instead of water, he will stand a much better chance at saving himself and others a lot of time, money, and effort as opposed to ignoring it until monday.
Perhaps, but conversely, if you ignore the request, you stand a much better chance of never having to deal with that particular moron ever again!
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It reminds me one of my experiences
We were trying very hard to get our users not to bother the in situ support but to call the help desk, with users trying to call the in situ tech because they knew him personally.
One day, nearly at the end of the day, I got a call from a stressed user "My PC has caught fire!". I thought "Ok, she needs a replacement" and told her to call the help desk and got out.
When I was arriving home, it dawned on me that the user never did say that the fire was already out... and maybe
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This.
The cell phone with real email capability, full document attachments, links, etc was a godsend.
It got me away from my desk, while remaining fully responsive to my customers and employees.
Its cut international long distance charges to zero with skype and SIP clients right there on the phone.
By and large the intrusion into private time has been less than you might expect. Most people are fairly responsible
about calling after normal business hours, and the few pests that require excessive hand-holding so
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Even if it is, I'd rather spend 15 minutes at 11pm typing an e-mail that will solve a problem right then, than having to spend 2 hours fixing something first thing the next morning.
You seem to have missed reading the headline, let alone TFA "Workers Working An Extra 20 Hours a Week". You won't get two hours off tomorrow for your 15 minutes of work at 11pm. You'll still work be at work tomorrow morning. Now that you have put yourself on call at 11pm, they don't need to pay someone else to do it, so staffing levels go down, your workload goes up. If you're a shareholder this is great. If you're an employee, if you're married and have children, or you just like to sleep at night, maybe
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Even if it is, I'd rather spend 15 minutes at 11pm typing an e-mail that will solve a problem right then, than having to spend 2 hours fixing something first thing the next morning.
You seem to have missed reading the headline, let alone TFA "Workers Working An Extra 20 Hours a Week". You won't get two hours off tomorrow for your 15 minutes of work at 11pm.
The thing about a lot of knowledge-based jobs is that usually a company (even a big one) has one, maybe two or three people with deep domain knowledge into a particular subject. This means that you are responsible for every issue regarding subject X, regardless of if it's too much work or if the issue comes up on the weekend or whatever. If you choose to ignore things over the weekend, and to ignore things that require working more than 8 hours a day, sure you can probably get away with it and you might e
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Even with W2 gigs...I make sure I am going to be paid at least the hourly rate (easy to calculate from salary) for every hour I work.
Is your time not worth that much to you? Life is short man...don't give your hours to a company for free.
some places have the walmart attitude of no OT (Score:2)
some places have the walmart attitude of no OT and work off the clock to get it done.
Even hourly contract jobs some times have the don't even thing about putting down OT hours.
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Simple enough...then those are gigs I would not work....
Again, MY time is worth too much to me....my life is too short to not spend as much of my time doing what "I" please.....if someone else wants my time, they have to PAY for it...simple, really.
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That's the thing, it's not about "free" vs "paid". If my job were to deburr widgets and I got paid $1 per widget that I successfully deburred, sure I won't sit around on my free time deburring widgets without making any extra money for it. That's not what this economy is like though. If you are in a position where you can bill OT for every moment you spend thinking about work, great for you. Not many are in that position though, and those that aren't realize that a competitive advantage can be had by be
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You have to value yourself, and know your self worth.
If you are good, then in reality,
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I've never understood people that don't demand to be paid for every hour they work....?
Depends how you're paid. And how you want to count 'work'.
If you are responsible for something, and that guarantees you a decent monthly/yearly salary and isn't an hourly rate then you take responsibility for it, and you find the way that minimizes your stress level. Being part of any organization that's going 24/7 means you necessarily have to deal with occasional things at odd hours.
As I said (and I realize you're not replying to me), I'd rather reduce the stress in the hours I'm officially at work and
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I suppose that time I sit on the can reading the email is 'work' and that you could add that up to show my work week is longer,
Exactly.
The story, I believe, is over hyped.
They seem not to just measure the time spent reading emails (because there is no way that adds up to 20 hours per week). They simply attribute all the time you might receive and read an email to an extra hour at work. Of course that is just silly, as two minutes reading an email and sending a one line reply from a cell phone between the 6th and 7th green hardly count's as an hours worth of work.
Getting yanked off the golf course to come into the office EVEN ONCE
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Perhaps they use a legal/union standard for their math -- 2 hour minimum for each interruption.
Me, I get paid to get the job done. If my brain starts writing an email at 10:30 pm, I'm happy to get out of bed and type it up. Saves me the need to remember to write it the next morning, and I get turn-around from others because my message is the latest in their inbox. This willingness to work on something for a tad after dinner or late at night means I go home at a normal predictable hour, see my family and
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Perhaps they use a legal/union standard for their math -- 2 hour minimum for each interruption.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, but didn't want to stir up all the union members on slashdot.
It looks like angling for a way to get paid to answer an email.
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My stress level is low too....I leave work thoughts behind the second I leave the work site.
They don't pay me to worry about work when I'm not there...my time is too important to me to give it away for free to a company. My time is my time.
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Tell your boss you will do anything at your own risk.
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If you're good enough...there are plenty of jobs out there to be had man....if you're good enough, no...you don't have to take shit off a boss.
Look no job out there cares about YOU anymore....develop that mentality...mercenary.
Smart thing to do..incorporate yourself, and contract...just be confident, know the going rates, and learn to negotiate....no matter what job you work these days, a W2 is just as disposable to them as a contractor is....so, you
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Again, I really practically ne
Re:Cry me a river... (Score:5, Insightful)
I work my ass off when at work...but I bill every hour. My time is too important to me, to just 'give' it away to work.
When I walk out the door and it slaps me on the ass, all thoughts about it and concerns about it end at that door.
If they need me, sure I'm there..and I'll work all that is required, but never for free.
If they know they have to pay you, they will think twice about asking you to do stupid shit that can wait.
Even when I work W2, I make sure and negotiate into my employment agreement, that I get paid at least hourly rate for any extra hours worked over 40 per week.
Know your worth....insist on getting paid for your time, I don't think many of us out here are that altruistic.....
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You don't sound American. Here in the U.S., we brag about working long hours and not taking vacations. Whoever gets the rawest deal from the massah is the winner!
Disclaimer (Score:4, Insightful)
If "did not require security" didn't make any sense to you, you're not alone. It looks like they actually meant "did not use our magic tiger-repelling-rock based product". The whole "report" is a slashvertizement.
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Where I work, we have a VPN that people can hit with a myriad of devices, and the VPN runs a couple of tests to make sure that you've got adequate security on your device before allowing the connection (no, it doesn't nmap it, and no, I'm not going to describe the process on an Internet forum). T
"Hamlet's BlackBerry" and "In Praise of Slow" (Score:5, Insightful)
Two excellent books which made me question why I had my email pushed to me, notifications popping up, looked at work email before I went to bed and so on. Switching email to "pull" (both work and personal, both mobile and computer), not having work email enabled on my phone unless I actually needed it, and minimising distractions ("silent" on my phone means no vibrations either — no distractions), I've found that I get a lot more done in a given period of time (may sound silly, but "Getting Things Done" did a lot for me here, too), and am generally more relaxed.
I'm a huge fan of being connected, but this experience has made me realise I truly value having connectivity available when I want it, rather than letting things rule me.
Re:"Hamlet's BlackBerry" and "In Praise of Slow" (Score:5, Insightful)
I noticed that with my boss today. We were chatting and his "push" email updated, so he glanced at it. Then we resumed chatting and his email updated so he glanced at it again. I found it annoying & made our chat last 1.5 times longer than it should have. I check my email just twice a day..... I figure if it's urgent they can pick up the phone and call. Or send an instant message.
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I'm a huge fan of being connected, but this experience has made me realise I truly value having connectivity available when I want it, rather than letting things rule me.
+1
I love my smartphone (Galaxy Nexus), tablet (Nexus 7) and highly-portable laptop (MacBook Air), and it's very convenient to have 24/7 access to my desktop at work via VPN, my work e-mail and IM on all devices, etc. I love the flexibility all of that provides. However, I also have my mail client (Gmail) on my phone & tablet configured not to provide any notifications at all for new e-mail in my work account, not even the icon in the notification bar and I keep my work IM account turned off except w
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Mind Blown!
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LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
But 19% of mobile workers said their companies did not require security on smartphones or tablets to access work data.
Somehow I don't think 19% of mobile workers can tell the difference between http and https access to their corporate webmail, much less the intricacies of imap on port 143 vs imaps on port 993
Asking them is about as wise as asking the average man on the street if his blood is RH positive or RH negative and then basing your blood bank inventory plan on their random choices. I'm guessing the average moron would assume RH is a disease so you'd skew negative, but the actual population is mostly positive (exact value depending on where you live)
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Why was device security mentioned in the summary at all? It's not in the article that this submission is ostensibly about. Which of the two issues was the submitter hoping to discuss?
FWIW while my cell phone is able to connect to my work email, it only checks for new mail manually. I still check it once during evenings and once or twice on weekends, but I've gotten much better about ignoring anything that's not truly urgent until the next workday. Just because a particular faculty member didn't think about
"Flexibility" like that can go to hell. (Score:5, Insightful)
The report also said that 92% of mobile workers 'enjoy their job flexibility' and are 'content' with working longer hours
Well done, what a great way to undermine your own wage and working conditions.
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If they 'enjoy' and are 'content', then it's hard to say they've 'undermined' themselves. They have perhaps undermined 'you' and your conditions, but that's called competition.
Hard to say they've undermined themselves? How about if they were paid, lets say, $10/hour. That contentment of which you speak is costing them $200 per week net, assuming 20 hours a week. Quite a sacrifice, wouldn't you say?
Secondly, you're damn right it undermines me. It undermines you as well. Working extra hours a week unpaid isn't competition, its a race to the bottom. How precisely does one compete with someone who works for free?.
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Working extra hours a week unpaid isn't competition, its a race to the bottom.
Capitalism is a race to the bottom. It's about providing a product or service for least possible cost. By definition that's a race to the bottom.
How precisely does one compete with someone who works for free?
If I'm willing to provide the same service as you at half the cost, that's my right and is plain old competition.
This is entirely different than 'illegal dumping' and such stuff where products are sold below cost. That isn't the case here. The people are choosing to work extra hours in order have more flexibility in their job. If you can't compete with that
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You're correct in that capitalism is a race to the bottom. I don't deny that. You are also corrent in that if you provide a service cheaper than I, then you're going to get the gig and I'm SOL.
But lets also take this to the extreme. You're an entry-level IT geek getting say $12/hr. You are formally paid for 40 hours work, but you're effectively working 80 hours (and, the key in this whole discussion....UNPAID).
Your net effective pay is $6/hr, NOT $12/hr. NOW....does that violate your state minimum wage
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from an objective point of view
If were talking about that, then yes I agree. We're talking about how they FEEL about their situation, which is far from objective.
If they get to be home when the kids come home from school, how much is that worth? An extra hour a day? It's all dependent on how *you* value your time and the ways you can spend it - which again is far from objective.
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What's funny in this is we're both arguing the value of our time. But somehow, and I don't know where, the boat left & you aren't on the boat.
My time is the most valuable commonity I posess. I demand a high value for my time, and my work/life experience allows me to command a high value for my time.
I am NEVER willing to give away my time for free to anyone but my family. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen - my employer is not immune in any way to this screw-the-worker attitude of today. But, qu
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Seriously, if you have kids, sometimes making more money isn't worth the sacrifices of never seeing them during the week because you had to work and rush hour took 3 hours to get home.
If *THEY* are happy with the situation of trading extra hours for flexibility, they've made what they consider to be a fair compromise...and as such haven't undermined themselves at all.
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Since they are now working 20 extra hours per week, their total weekly working time has gone up to 21 hours thanks to BYOD. Yay for progress.
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The report also said that 92% of mobile workers 'enjoy their job flexibility' and are 'content' with working longer hours
Well done, what a great way to undermine your own wage and working conditions.
It goes both ways. "Boss says I'm working 24x7 now... I'm redefining working as I occasionally glance at and ignore my email while eating, surfing the net, listening to music, playing games, drinking, talking about sports, endless smoke breaks, flirting ... oh wait were you talking about while at work or while at home? You mean there's supposed to be a difference?" It can be a real productivity killer. I know at a previous employer a punishing pager schedule (basically working part time 2nd and 3rd shi
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My job flexibility means that when the boss says "update that server" I can do it from home, during off hours, when nobody at work cares that they can't get email or whatever. That means less explanations to the other bosses, fewer complaints, and I can focus more on my other duties while actually in the office.
A morale boost like that could come from a raise, or from me logging in from via my cell phone, while watching TV with a drink in hand. I'm okay with the latter.
Re:"Flexibility" like that can go to hell. (Score:4, Insightful)
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I don't mind doing work out of hours - that goes with working in IT. I do object to being paid for it - either in time off or in financial recompense. The UK bosses I've worked for have always understood that this is how it was. The American bosses I've worked for, less so. Suffice to say, I don't work for American bosses unless I absolutely have to. Thankfully they are few and far between.
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I do object to being paid for it...
I'm going to assume a missing negative in there somewhere...
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Depends on what they're doing AT work. Many people listen to music or talk radio or audiobooks... same stuff they'd be doing if they were at home. So no real difference in home vs. work.
Also there was a time, for about 10,000 years, when work and home were integrated because it was the same place (your farm or your shop). That experience shaped our brains' wiring. It is only recently that the two became separated.
I work +20 to makeup time (Score:3)
The time I wasted on my Bring Your Own Device's applications instead of working. 12 hours a day are my new norm (and leave the weekends for myself).
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If I had mod points I would mod this up. This is the exact point I made the last time this subject was discussed on /.. I have not RTFA, but I have to wonder if they just asked people how much time they spent working when outside of normal working hours, or if they also took into account the amount of time they spent not working during normal working hours. I wonder if, on average, number of hours spent working hasn't really changed.
That said, I do what a previous poster suggested, which is to pull work
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That said, I do what a previous poster suggested, which is to pull work email when I want to. I don't even own a smartphone
I own a smartphone, but I only set up my personal e-mail on it. If something is broken after hours, we have a department tasked with monitoring our network after hours who knows how to reach me.
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I'm curious how much time was saved because the individual are actually able to use computers that work.
I am sick of getting into an office where I am a "software developer" with a computer worse than those who use a web browser and Microsoft Office. Do they realize that an IDE and application server, let alone "the other stuff" take far more resources and I could work, not exaggerating, 100% more efficiently. When I have to wait 1 minute for something that should take 5 seconds, then I wind up getting di
Its not the device.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Its not the device.. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a free country, choose your master wisely.
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It's a free country, choose your master wisely.
Mind = blown
I bring my own device to work daily. (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they do private work (Score:3)
Wow.. lots of dumb.... (Score:2)
Sorry, but I work less with a BYOD requirement. IF you are too cheap to buy me an iPad you require, then I am going to screw off using that ipad during work hours.
Also Work more at home? I dont even answer the bosses phone calls in the parking lot 3 minutes after I leave.
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You wait until you leave? ;-)
Personal things at work. (Score:3)
How much time does the average worker spend on personal things while at work? Checking personal email, personal phone calls, surfing the web and playing games during non-break time? They may not consume 20 hours of work time doing these things, but they are being done.
Maybe you won't have to bring your work home with you if you do your work while at work.
What did you expect to happen? (Score:2)
Users never seem to be able to see past their noses when wanting to use personal gadgetry for work.
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That's interesting. People are willing to work more it they don't have to interact with IT?
BOFH would be proud.
BYOD (Score:2)
They should just be honest and call it MARFYOB.
Question for fans of BYOD (Score:2)
How do you propose to keep company data private?
If you have a work-issued machine, the lines are clear: Work stuff is on the work phone/laptop/whatever, and it's password protected. Home stuff is on your device.
If it's BYOD, and Junior wants to play games on you iPhone, you just handed him a device that has your work stuff on it. If it's your own device, it's much more likely to be less protected and touched by more hands than a work device.
All those stories on the /. frontpage about credit card numbers sto
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Many people don't need to carry around things like credit card numbers. Actually, why would ANYONE need to carry around credit card numbers? That sounds like something that should always remain on the server, locked in a closet somewhere in the company's building.
I don't work in industry but frequent glances over the stuff the business people are always pecking away at on their notebooks and Blackberries seems to indicate that most of it is boring busywork.
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People aren't necessarily carrying around customer cc numbers on their phones.
Rather, when you blur the lines of work and home, you make it easier for attackers to get in an in to the corporate network, where they they proceed to grab what they want to.
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That sounds like poor security to start with. If the device is leaving the building (or COULD leave the building) the network shouldn't trust it with important things, especially not without a separate piece of information, like an RSA key fob value.
It doesn't matter whether it's a company laptop, somebody's personal phone or home computer, if it's not physically secured it shouldn't be trusted.
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Many people don't need to carry around things like credit card numbers. Actually, why would ANYONE need to carry around credit card numbers? That sounds like something that should always remain on the server, locked in a closet somewhere in the company's building.
I don't work in industry but frequent glances over the stuff the business people are always pecking away at on their notebooks and Blackberries seems to indicate that most of it is boring busywork.
It would appear the GP has committed the Slashdot mortal sin of illustrating a point with an example . . .
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You can feel free to replace "credit card numbers" with whatever piece of sensitive information you like. If the device can leave the building it shouldn't have sensitive information on it, and it shouldn't have access to sensitive information, at least not without a separate form of authentication. What difference does it make who owns it?
a few questions on this (Score:2)
Okay im going to assume this is in jobs where you are not being paid hourly (since the Wolves at the DOL find extra hours without extra pay "interesting")
1 are companies actually paying for the extra "on call" time?
2 do they also realize that your response time may be impaired if you can't stop and sit down to do X?
3 are they just using this to comp for "dead times"?
I've been on call since last October (Score:2)
I get $50/week for it.
It's kind of lame.
I wasn't able to start taking vacation again until about 3 months ago, and even then I was required to always be in cell coverage areas, within 10min of an internet connection and carry a company laptop with me at all times. I once had to remote in from a pontoon boat while tethered to my cellphone.
Hourly pay (Score:2)
I wouldn't "happily" work more if I were making salary. Salary is based on a 40 hour work week. So by the end of the year the overs and unders should average 40 hours a week. Most companies don't see it that way. It's just a way to get around labor laws.
Since I get paid by the hour I work as much as I need to. I have a couple clients that want to make me salary and I'm going with "no" on that. Working from home, making my own hours and having a direct correlation between time and money seems to be ide
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I don't feel like a number? Look I have a name: cpu6502. Not just here but on facebook, on gmail, and at work (though each name is different). People even call me by that name.
No actually I feel more like a cow (human "resource"). The company provides a stall for me to hang out with food, water and toilet facilities located nearby. From time-to-time it milks me for product, which it can sell on the open market. As long as the company does not abuse me, I am a happy cow. ;-)
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As long as the company does not abuse me, I am a happy cow. ;-)
From Robert Plant's Liar's Dance:
Kneel before the fatted cow
Let's take a little moo before we go
We won't be back again
Somebody had to say it... (Score:2)
Bullshit.
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People keep losing their identity due to *how* computers have pushed society's evolution. We're all numbers now but not because that's how authorities preferred it.
We should go back to the good old days on the factory floor. Oh wait we didn't even have numbers then. Whoops. There never really was a golden era "for the masses".
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Actually, his offering was on par with you whiny complaint (above).
Do you really think it was ever any better? Seriously?
Twelve hour days in dingy factories, or 16 hour days trudging behind a house guiding a plow?
People have always been tools, willingly, because even an uneducated farm hand understood that they were trading their hours of existence for food and shelter.
Suggesting that we fail to see people as individuals simply because now, just as in the stone age, there is a necessity to work in order to
Re:Your actions harm me (Score:5, Insightful)
When it becomes trendy to work long hours, employers start to require it. Then, I have to work those same long hours, because there are no jobs where a proper work/life balance is respected.
Thanks a lot, you damn busybodies!
Actually this. 1000 times this.
We had an individual in my office. For the sake of this story, we will refer to him as "Fuckwit".
Now, Fuckwit came in to work 7 days a week, and roughly 12-14 hours per day. He was paid a standard 40-hour-workweek salary, and effectively then volunteered 60 hours more a week.
This became the standard against which the rest of the staff are measured. Fuckwit is doing it, why the fuck can't you? Fuckwit needs you while you are on vacation....fuck your vacation, do what Fuckwit wants of you. Never mind Fuckwit is a single male with no girlfirned, no kids, no social life, whatever. Fuckwit has set the bar.
Today, Fuckwit is on a 2 year sabbattical because (from what I've heard) he hit the wall and burnt out to shit. But guess what? He set the fucking bar, which we still to this day fail to measure up to. Management could care less that it destroyed Fuckwit, requiring a massive sabbattical...they got 3 1/2 years of 100 hour workweeks out of him before that happened.
Now, multiply Fuckwit across America. Millions of Fuckwits who are "lucky to have a job at all" working double the hours they are contracted (and often paid) to do. So suddenly, we have millions of Fuckwits doing the effective job of 2 people....where the company SHOULD be hiring 2 people, but why the fuck would they when there is Fuckwit who will do it anyway.
And then we wonder why unemployment is shot to shit right now. Of course there are hardly any fucking jobs being created, because they keep making US do the work for a job that SHOULD be created.
In other words, fuck every last one of you Fuckwits out there. YOU are fucking us all. Personally, I hope the stress eats you up inside till you have a mental breakdown or a fucking heart attack. THen these companies might actually have to, you know, hire the appropriate number of staff instead of fucking us all.
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this would suck.
I am currently in an environment where long hours and constant availability are required, but it is great. I dont have to sit a round the office with nothing to do. I come in around 10 to 10:30 most days which allows me to do marathon training runs in the morning. I have 2 days with 9 am meetings, and I work those into my life. If there is nothing going on in the afternoon then I can leave before 5. I may need to make production changes around 8 or 10 at night, but those are not so bad as th
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The way you describe it your "long hours and constant availability" job has rather short flexible hours and the constant availability is never abused.
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We already have this. It's called Slashdot!
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BYOD should be amended to mean 'Bend Y'ass Over, Dude'.
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I was once asked by my boss to come in on the weekend, which turned out not to be an emergency, just routine work that could have waited. I double checked my contract, and found I could be paid overtime. So, come Monday I submitted my claim for overtime. The boss never paid me, but I also never got called on the weekend to do routine work. Worth it, consider the hours others were being expected to do
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Have you ever been unemployed before? Have you lost your wife over it? Have you had to move back in with your parents in your 30s because 12/hr is all employers now think you are worth in this new economy disregarding your previous salary? Have you ever been forced to work 70 hours a week with 2 jobs so you can pay off your student loans and not starve yourself or family with 2 crappy jobs?
That realty is how what 40 to 50% of Americans live. Underemployment and unemployment is about 20% if you use the U3 s
Re:Your actions harm me (Score:4, Insightful)
I get paid by the hour
Then sorry, but you're not even remotely what I described.
Whether 12/hour or 50/hour, you are being paid for every hour you work. I...and "Fuckwit" from my story...are not.
Life sucks. This economy licks ass. No, I haven't gone through the hell youve described, and (knock on wood) I hope I don't ever have to. I sincerely wish that you hadn't either.
But back to the original point....if you are working 80 hours on a salary-only position (or have an employer that refuses to pay OT even if legally required to), then you are a fuckwit, and you are directly contributing to this economy continuing to suck. I mean fuck, honestly, do you understand why the economy continues to suck 3 years after the economy tanking? I'll give you a hint....its the ~8% (documented) unemployment, with a true rate likely somewhere between 15-20%.
If you have 15-20% of your able and willing workforce not making anything...and then not spending anything...which means that corporate revenues are down...which means more bastard CEO's preserving their personal/shareholder bottom line over that of the whole...which means more layoffs to satisfy thier personal incomes...which means a higher unemployment...which means more people not making anything...and the circle goes on and on and on.
The bastards and fuckwits and losers out there that are so thankful to be working that they're doing ANY unpaid overtime is directly contributing to this cycle. Government regulations (well, to be more percise, the lack of regulations & this giant conserviative push to destroy the unions) is only making it easier for corporations to get away with this shit. We're not only fucking ourselves right now, but we're fucking our kids...our grandkids...to this level of corporate slavery.
This ISN'T the norm. This shouldn't be the norm. But as long as there are these losers willing to effectively do 2 people's work, with 2 people's hours, for 1 person's salary, then yes, you're right, we're all fucked and this WILL be the established norm...not just for when the economy sucks, but for all fucking time. Freedom, power...that which is freely given away will never be returned.
Don't give yourself away people. And seriously...if you do....don't bitch at me when you drop of a massive heart attack & lose everything because you have to spend a month in the hospital & your boss replaces you with another moron willing to drive himself to an early grave. You dug your grave....fucking lie in it slave. I have no sympathy.
Honestly, one of the only ways I can see to fix this is unionization...and I fucking hate unions. But unless we are all willing to stand together & demand this gets fixed (and if they don't fix it, fuck em. Good luck meeting shareholder expectations if you have no workforce). But that would mean that people would actually have to think outside themselves as one individual....all the "me me me look at me my situation is different I'm special I have to do this blah blah fucking blah" has to go away....and we all know THAT will never fucking happen.
Honestly...I feel for my kids. My work life sucks, but isn't downright festering shit yet. Their generation? We're laying the foundation for them to be nothing but slaves to corporate interests. Quite frankly, I'm disgusted by the greed.
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Gee Wiz. When IT stops putting up obsticals, people can actually get work accomplished. Who'd of thunk it.
Aw, whoseums confuses longer hourses with more productivities? You do! Yes you do! Wuzzle wuzzle wuzzle.
You're so adorable, with your wee little toes and your backwards ideas about working productivity. I could just eat you up!
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Can I work for you? Seriously?