12/7 and Overtime on a Salary? 932
over-timeout! asks: A company I work for (in the U.S.A.) had submitted a statement of work to a client, who waited for a month before signing the work order. The work order explicitly stated a timeline which would start from the time the order is signed. However, the client is insisting on the project being completed by a fixed date, as discussed with our company's management, instead of the deadline that starts from the signing of the work order. Although our company representatives tried to push back on the date, the client refused. Because the client is among our company's biggest customers, our company's management caved in and agreed to their deadlines. Management has told us meeting deadlines means that for the next month to six weeks all of the developers involved will have to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. The contractors involved are going to get compensated by being paid by the hour. But us salaried employees are going to get nothing in return for trading in what's left of our life so someone else in the company above us can make money. Obviously this isn't fair, but what are the alternatives in this down economy, where jobs are hard to find?" A related articles on this subject discusses suing for overtime, and California residents should find this companion article pertinent, as well. What can you do when management agrees to a timeline and a workload that may make your job, as a programmer, difficult-to-impossible?
They pretend to pay us... (Score:5, Funny)
12/7 is the best! (Score:4, Funny)
And if you're married, it puts such a strain on your home life.
AND you're not being paid overtime either, which is icing on the cake!
Five letters (Score:5, Funny)
Work 8 hours a day. (Score:5, Funny)
- A.P.
Get even (Score:5, Funny)
hire some more temorary workers (Score:4, Funny)
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry, the E.U. is outsourcing its I.T. jobs to India and the Ukraine, too. Although, I suppose that "unemployment" is approximately the same as "long, poorly paid vacation."
Re:Is this even legal? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:12/7 is the best! (Score:3, Funny)
Please, Students have it much worse (Score:1, Funny)
Believe me, there is worse than 12/7. My personal favorite was a ~23/6 project where my one hour rest was lining up enough lab chairs to make a makeshift bed
And the greatest part about being a student is that I make about -$40,000 / year despite being massively overworked. Overpay? Please, I'd just like to break even.
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:5, Funny)
I know, my point-of-view is a little bit too much over at the other edge, but I just can't imagine getting into a state where my employer says "you have to work the rest of your life for me and sell your soul for the company" -- and all *I* do as a reaction is Asking Slashdot "what should I do"?
What he should do? Kick the man's ass, of course! I've heard of "slave to the minimum wage", but this beats everything!
Stop taking showers (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hen-hearted numbskulls (Score:3, Funny)
Damn, I was half expecting to see that quote attributed to "--- Gollum".
Is The Company Publicly Traded? (Score:4, Funny)
Is The Company Publicly Traded? Is the project going to form a major percentage of their revenue?
Short the company's stock.
One thing is certain: The contractors will figure out a way to keep the contract going, wasting more money, and all the code written by your group will look something like this:
From experience (Score:5, Funny)
That said the FIRST thing you should do Monday morning is to call your State Department of Labor. What you are being asked to do may be illegal.
NEXT, if you work at a big enough company, mention the situiation to your boss's boss or boss's boss's boss (aka Senior of Corporate Management ). They might not be in the loop about what is going on. This may be in violation of company policy. Or they may be smart enough to know the signs of a death march and take steps to stop it before it gets started.
But, if they can't help you you have a couple of options...
- Work the hours and don't complain.
- Explain to your management that it is not possible for you to put in those hours on such short notice. Explain the outside of work commitments that you have in your life. Apologise for not being able to work the extra hours, and then don't work them.
- Say nothing to them, just don't work the hours.
- Keep a log of when you and everyone else on the team comes in and goes home. Next time your review comes up show them what a good resource you are.
- Do the same as above, but put a packet sniffer on your managers PC. Next time you have a review, show them what a hard worker you are and what porn sites they have been surfing during business
hours.
- Start coming to work in a Star Trek uniform. demand that everyone refer to you as 'Commander'.
- Every day at 5pm hit the emergency power off in the server room and pull the fire alarm.
- Make generous use of the rm -rf * command.
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:2, Funny)
And then management pretends to renew your contract.
And the government pretends to pay welfare.
And then you complain on slashdot and we pretend to care.
And everyone is happy?
Re:Grin and bare it... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:more letters (Score:2, Funny)
Management pushing you too far? (Score:2, Funny)
Fight CLub 1999
Re:Law of diminishing returns... (Score:3, Funny)
I was trying to convince a lead "programmer" of that one Friday at 11 pm... we were on an out-of-town project, and I suggested we knock off, get a night's sleep, and finish the project in the morning. Nope, he wanted to finish that night and drive home in the morning. So us programmers went back to work.
About fifteen minutes later, a scorpion turned up in his cubicle (this was the Oklahoma panhandle, and not an uncommon occurrence). After the other two programmers screamed like little girls and I disposed of it (did I mention I'm female? What I wouldn't have given for security-camera footage) we went back to work again.
Unfortunately, staging a Scorpion Incident would only work for the article-poster if the decision-making management is also working the same hours, is arachnophobic, and will fall for the same trick 28-42 times in a row...
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They pretend to pay us... (Score:2, Funny)