Does Your Company Pay For Broadband? 1125
masq57 writes "My fellow administrators and I used to have company provided ISDN lines in our homes so that we could respond quickly to issues after hours. That was changed in the last few years to letting us expense our broadband service. Now our new CIO has elected to stop that benefit using the argument that we should be dedicated staff who desire to be responsive and should do what it takes to make that happen. The rumor now is that we should also pay for blackberries, cell phones and pagers. What sort of experiences do the rest of slashdotters have along these lines?"
Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Next thing's to work on finding an employer that isn't run by such cheap bastards.
Consider it a pay cut... (Score:5, Insightful)
Paying for those things is a company's way of passing the employee some cash-value compensation without it being considered taxable income. So, add 20%-30% (depending on your personal tax rate) to the cost and consider that as have been subtracted from your pay package... consider yourself insulted.
yech (Score:3, Insightful)
CIO is a doofus? (Score:4, Insightful)
Cell phone unlisted. (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't give in on this issue. Do you really want your employer to have you at their beck and call 24/7 on your dime?
No way! (Score:2, Insightful)
The real question is... (Score:3, Insightful)
In my experience, a dialup connection works just as good for a plain text/shell connection - IMHO ISDN lines were overkill (ofcourse this depends on the actual environment context).
Typical (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell them that if they treat you 'competitively' to what other companies are doing, then you will either work as hard as other employees or find a company that treats you better than they do.
We are going through the same thing here, and there is nothing worse than cutting back on employee benefits, pay, and perks and justifying it by saying 'we are doing what everyone else is doing'.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
What the company used to give you was, to some extent, a benefit to partially compensate you for your availability. They have chosen to reduce your benfits. You make the call.
Cancel all of it then. (Score:5, Insightful)
My employer will pay for broadband, cell phone but not pager (what's the point? text messages cover paging) for employees it considers mobile which is almost everyone outside of our main sites. Some areas even get better broadband rates because of deals negotiated due to the amount of employees we have.
several things (Score:3, Insightful)
What a crock. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your CIO sounds like an asshole. "Dedicated" means dedicated to the work, not dedicated to spending money for your own company. (Hint to CIO: People work to get paid money. Not to spend money for their employers.) If the company needs you to have internet access to do your job, they should pay for it.
Any company which demands you restructure your own personal finances in order to be able to afford an internet connection that they require you to have had their head up their ass. Your personal finances are none of their fucking business. I realize it's much easier said than done, but if I were in your position and had such demands placed on me, I'd quit.
Put this arrogant prick in his place. All of you should collectively refuse to pay for broadband yourselves, and let him see how "productive" you are without his help. It is not your reponsiblity to spend your own money for "the good of the company."
What a crock of shit.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Work tools = work pays for them (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I'd suggest polishing up your resume.
Damien
Company won't pay ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Reading between the lines (Score:5, Insightful)
What your new CIO is not telling you is that your department budget has been cut back and they are no longer able to pay for your broadband. If they won't let you itemize your broadband connection, ask if you can itemize dialup connection and phone costs for every call you have to make for business reasons.
If you have to be on-call, then they should at least reimburse you for cell phone/pagers costs. I'm not sure about blackberries, tho.
My company pays for my broadband and whenever I'm on-call, they pay for my cell phone costs and they provide the pagers. They also pay overtime for on-call related work, but my personal policy is, if I don't have to leave my house, I don't charge them. Also, they usually understand that if I stay up half the night soving a problem (from home or at the office), I'll probably be late for work in the morning and tend to look the other way.
How is your company's overall situation? Are finances suffering? Read between the lines on what your boss told you and figure out wether it's safe to protest or you should simply start thinking about employment elsewhere.
Disclaimer: IANAL, YMMV, caveat emptor, boni anima teuri amen, and all that.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
How I miss those days... walking towards the time clock, thinking of what I'd do the next day, punching out and moving onto personal things for the evening and not having work come to mind until the next morning just after I punched in.
When one is a salary man, a bit more is expected, within reason (which is the key).
Yeah. Right... (Score:4, Insightful)
*AHEM* Not that I'm saying your ISDN line wasn't a good tool to "respond quickly to issues after hours" but...
In reality, your fellow administrators and your used to have a company-provided ISDN line in our home, pretending to need it to respond quickly to issues after hours, so you could get free internet in reality. Trouble is, your company wisened up to the fact that you shafted them, and decided that a a regular dial-up account, an automated phone call, SMS or Blackberry messages work just as well to "solve issues after hours".
Been there, done that. The bubble is finished, get over it...
Safe Auto internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Some the company should pay for (Score:3, Insightful)
Non-reimbursement is insulting and quasi-illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:2, Insightful)
Easy solution: Quit using personal equipment for work. Its actually nice not being able to be reached 24/7. The other Engineers wish they could turn in their phones.
--Eck
Throw the argument around to them (Score:3, Insightful)
But getting to my Subject Line - Throw this at the VP (or whomever)... How can you ever expect to have an accurate Income / Expense sheet when you are shifting business costs to the workers? You're actually doing a disservice to the shareholders, because they're going to look at the bottom line. They will see smaller (or marginally decreasing) expenses related to reoccurring expenses, and think management is getting more effcient. This works great until the expenses get uncovered somehow (people quit, get a union involved, contact congressional representatives who then ask questions, etc).
To be very frank, bosses like this bury a company. It shows leadership is willing to be unethical to increase margins. As a MBA with 10+ years of network & telecom and military leadership training, I'd say the ship is sinking and it's time for you to get out.
Make them pay (Score:3, Insightful)
In my previous job, I finally started refusing to pay for things that the company required me to have to do my job. You want me to have a pager, provide it. You want me to have a cell phone, provide it. You want me to have a home computer, provide it. You want me to have an Internet connection, provide it. My boss had a breakdown, and his boss was livid, but Human Resources came to my rescue and told them bluntly they had to pay for what I needed to do my job, and that I couldn't be disciplined for refusing to subsidize my employer.
If you love your job, talk to your personnel department and see if someone can talk sense into your bosses. Otherwise, I'd look for a job where they treat you fairly.
Re:Easy one. (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree...to an extent. When you're salaried, more is expected - but how much more is still open for debate. In this case, work would have my home number. That's a reasonable effort on my part to be available. Just because all these technologies (wireless, pagers, broadband, cell phones) exist doesn't make it my responsibility to enslave myself to my employer 24x7.
Re:Consider it a pay cut... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
On top of that, writing off $400 off your taxable income is silly and saves you approximately $0 for 99.99% of America.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're a Unix admin or Oracle admin, and your job is to keep those things running 24 / 7 / 365, you better be reachable or you won't be working.
Sure, if your a Systems Analyst or Software developer, it's not big deal. I doubt it would be an issue.
But many companies stipulate you MUST keep the servers running all day, period. So, if a server goes down or something goes wrong, it's either get out of bed or get into the unemployment line.
I knew a DBA that would get calls at 3 or 4 AM. She hated it, REALLY hated it, but she knew she had to do it.
Sure, some companies won't care so much if Oracle crashes at 9PM or an intranet site is up. But some need / want them running all day, everyday.
Re:Easy one. (Score:2, Insightful)
pagers, cell... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a collective struggle between workers and owners (and their proxies, bosses). This series of events shows the subjective weakening power of the workers side here. They want you to pay for the privilege of being a 24/7 on-call wage slave. There's not much you can do as an individual, although if your company gets worse than industry average you can split.
What you can do is band together with other IT workers and educate and organize. You may remember recently there was a desire to retract the FLSA laws from even moe people. Most IT people legally have no right to overtime anyhow, despite the 19th century battles for an eight hour day. In fact, your time is now around-the-clock, and at your expense. Communicating and organizing with organizations like TechsUnite, the Programmers Guild, Washtech and whatnot will keep you appraised of these things. The ITAA, the IT owners lobbying group, has been lobbying in Washington DC for years, and was flooding newspapers with stories of IT labor shortages in the late 1990s. This has been a common industry tactic - industries used to flood newspapers with stories of labor shortages in the early 20th century, which newspapers like the Industrial Worker used to mock.
The two big factors in the struggle are hours worked and pay per hour. Employers always are trying to expand hours worked, workers if they have any power are trying to reduce the number of required hours. In terms of pay per hour, the fight is over how much of the wealth you create, and workers create all the wealth, goes to you in wages, and what percentage goes to the owner in profit.
Something people say is companies are getting tighter due to the economy, as if political economy was something completely alien from people like the weather. On the contrary, employers felt their expected rate of profit was falling in 2000 so they stopped capital spending, thereby creating unemployment, which drives down wages. They do this until their expected profit rate comes into their expectation range again.
Re:What a crock. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is it? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost certainly one or the other. If the company is hurting, an dthis is a part of across-the-board, temporary cost-cutting measures, they should say so, and you can decide how to react.
Otherwise, there's a clueless twit loose, and s/he needs to be dealt with, or your group (if not the company) is dead, dead, dead unless something changes.
As for the details in the meantime, I agree with the "Easy one" poster. It woiuld be one thing if you'd hired in under those terms. But just yanking them because the new guy has his own definition of reality? Maybe you should explain that a real CIO provides his people with the best tools for their job.
Re:Consider it a pay cut... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is typical American neurotic thinking (I'm American too, I'm not trying to flame you here).
Loyalty is to other people. Respect is something you show other people. It is nonsense to be "loyal" to a company, or to "respect" a company. This idea is simply American corporate brainwashing.
Companies are incorporeal entities, not deserving of loyalty or respect. Be loyal to yourself and your employer (your employer is a person, not a corporation). Think nothing of this vaporous concept called "the company."
"The company" can go fuck itself.
Are IT guys just spoiled from the dotcom boom? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell, McDonalds' employees pay for their uniforms.
Is it really that unreasonable to expect computer professionals to have a computer and internet access?
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
But it's another thing entirely for an employer to provide those devices with the expectation that you'll be reachable, then to say "you're now responsible for paying for this stuff. And, oh, by the way, you still need to be reachable 24x7." At that point, it's time to question why they've suddenly become so tightfisted and to look for employment at someplace more financially stable, more considerate of their staff, or, ideally, both.
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless it is your job to care about such things; -or- you are an officer of the company with a vested interest in the internal financials...
!!!
Why would you give a rats ass as to the "entitlements like this which eat into their budget both in cost of services" in the first place?
You are employed to do a job, no?
You are given tools to do said job, yes?
On your logic, I think I'll start taking my own trash from my office becuase I care too much about the office cleaning budget to let the janitor do it. Hah!
Re:Easy one (Score:5, Insightful)
My employer doesn't pay for broadband, since it is just a convenience that allows us to not have to come into the office. We are paid to be on call, which means doing whatever is necessary for access to the systems. They also do not pay for cellphones. That said, if you use your cellphone for work purposes, you can expense that portion of the bill. They do pay for the pagers we are required to carry. I didn't like this at first, but it does make sense. It is a good compromise that lets my employer pay for what they benefit from, and I pay for the rest.
Re:A little of this, a little of that (Score:5, Insightful)
Will you *shrug* your way to 60 hour work weeks, pay increases that don't keep up with the cost of living, purchasing your own software, paying for any equipment repairs?
Will you *shrug* your way back into the conditions that made unionism necessary in the first place?
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
i think you are missing the point regardless of being paid salary. you aren't expected to have any of that stuff, and if they do expect that, then they need to at least increase your salary so you can afford the extra expenses they expect you to pick up. your salary is meant to compensate you for your time, you give them a service, they pay you for it. that salary is not meant to pay for work-related expenses. so while a bit more would be expected of someone on salary, it's also not within reason to expect that person to pay for all these work-related items if they normally wouldn't have them anyways.
the only way i'd work for a company that expected me to provide my own cell phone, computer, and broadband connection was if i knew they were paying me a fair amount higher than the average salary for my position.
Re:Consider it a pay cut... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cell phone unlisted. (Score:3, Insightful)
Next HR performance review:
"Employee AxemRed is very capable but seems to have a drinking problem. I recommend we let him go before the problem scales any further".
Re:Consider it a pay cut... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the case of unincorporated companies I would agree. But corporations exist for the purpose of avoiding liability. If the corporate rulers have no personal stake, no liability in the company, I see no reason to treat the company as a personified entity.
Yes, a mom-and-pop shop run as a partnership is a completely different story.
IMHO, when a group of people decide to incorporate a company, that company becomes its own entity seperate from the people who run it, and is therefore not deserving of any respect or loyalty that would be due to actual humans.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like an exec is getting a bonus for reducing expenses. Do you want to pay for his/her bonus?
It's understandable if you're in a trade that requires you to bring your own tools to work, but IT work doesn't sound like it, particularly if you read EULAs and take them literally for something you personally bought but use to advance the goals of commercial concern. If it's not in the terms of your employment to provide your own tools, do what I do and say (truthfully in some cases) I don't have it and I'm not buying it with my own money.
Best of luck, hopefully your boss isn't a dickhead and tries to sack you for insubordination.
Happened to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Then they decide to stop paying for cell phones. I bitch about it being a short sighted penny-wise pound-foolish policy. Said bitching falls on deaf ears and they cut funding anyways.
Fine. My out of office message now specifies contacting my boss, not calling my cell phone. If work calls outside of my "free" hours timeslots, they pay for that portion of my monthly bill. If I use 300 minutes of the 500 plan minutes in a month, and 30 of those are for work use, then work pays for 1/10th of my bill.
If its the weekend and work calls my cell phone I do not feel an urgent need to pick up. If they leave a voice mail I feel just fine not responding until I'm in the office on Monday.
To put it short, if my employer feels that it is not important for them to be able to reach me when I am not in the building, then I'm going to act like it's not important for them to be able to reach me when I am not in the building.
And you can take your team-player should-be-willing-to-pitch-in speech and stick it where the sun don't shine. You're taking advantage of an expensive resource that I'm paying for out of pocket, if you're not willing to help mitigate that cost then I'm not willing to let you use that resource.
Saying that I should be willing to use my broadband, which incurs a usage fee, for work just because I already pay for it is like saying I should be willing to drive people around in my car just because I already pay for it.
There's a law against forcing someone to use their private vehicle for work related tasks without compensating for fuel and wear and tear... I see no reason that same principle shouldn't apply to any resource.
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
And trust me, this does not cost a company as much as it costs you after you account for the tax writeoffs they get. Most providers also give businesses discounts that the regular consumer does not get. What costs you a couple hundred probably only costs them half or less. And the "labor" to track the services for one employee amounts to little more than a couple extra minutes in the payroll process. Might add up for large businesses, but it's a pitiance for the small businesses. Certainly nothing you'd need an extra employee to keep track of unless you're a large business.
Re:Cell phone unlisted. (Score:5, Insightful)
Then, when they terminate you, take their ass to court and ask for the evidence that you were not performing your job correctly. Your personal life and what you do on your off hours is none of their fucking business.
Business perspective: Some questions (Score:3, Insightful)
There are some questions that need to be answered:
If the answer to any or all of the above questions is "yes" -- especially the last one -- then the company should pay for it since it is the principal beneficiary of the work that these devices and services enable. It is up to the employer to provide the facilities, materials and tools required to do the job (unless it is explicitly stated otherwise in your employment contract).
If the company is willing to accept lower customer satisfaction ratings or interruptions in business continuity by not paying for these items, then it should be optional for the employee to pay for or use these items in their work. If it's not important enough for the company to pay for these things then it certainly isn't important enough for the employee to do so.
Whatever the case the employees should not be put in a position where they are forced to fund business operations to do their jobs -- which is very much what this sounds like.
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
CONTACT A LABOR LAWYER NOW. Get a consultation, see who will just talk to you. Talk now.
That or start looking for a new job (or both).
Basically they hired you annd expect you to provide 24x7 service. Now they are taking away the very tool they gave you to enable you to provide that service, and expecting you to maintain that level of service?
Thats a big change in expectations. They are basically adding a new requirement to your job. You were hired or placed in your current position with 2 expectations 1) you would provide coverage and be available for coverage in off hours and 2) that your employer would provide you with a means for being contacted and doing that work.
Can they change that requirement and then fire you for not meeting it? I don't know. Maybe they can, maybe they can't. IANAL.
Secondly remember strength in numbers. I recomend highly talking with fellow employees about this and not going it alone... impress upon them how heinous it is, and that together, you don't have to put up with it. (what are they going to do? fire everyone?)
-Steve
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have broadband at home that I routinely use to check/maintain/update my servers at work. My boss knows my cell phone number, and uses it whenever she needs to get in touch with me. I make work-related long-distance phone calls from home.
I don't get directly compensated for any of that, but at the same time I am treated as a professional, and I'm given the lee-way to schedule my work, and conduct myself the way I see fit.
I am expected to keep some semblance of a 8-5 workday, 5 days a week. But in reality I have an extremely flexible schedule that works to my benefit 99% of the time. Nobody checks to see when I get in the office, or when I leave. When I need to leave, I leave. And if I am completely bored, stressed, or whatever, I can just go for a walk, or whatever I want to do.
If I've got a reason to stay home (let's say waiting for a delivery, or a repairman or something) I can just sit back at home, and check on things while I'm waiting...without taking any 'time off'.
That's why I had no problem going in to work on the 4th of July to work on the database server (not my server, but I rely on it anyway) when it went down. No need to even tell the boss to try to get some Kudos. She knows that I'll do what I need to in order to keep things going the best I can, but at the same time I have a real life, that is my real priority.
She gets 24x7 support, and I get my freedom.
Now don't get me wrong- I bust my butt during the week to make sure that any evening/weekend calls are kept to a bare minimum. I've probably only had to come in 6 times over the last 3 years. So it's not like I'm tethered to my job, but I've got a great trade-off that works for me and my boss.
Remember- money isn't everything...your sanity and peace of mind are worth far more.
Good sex, comfortable shoes, and a warm place to go to the bathroom...that's all I need.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:2, Insightful)
Furthermore, we implemented a product life-cycle that is realistic. We don't expect a ten year old PC to continue to function, so we replace them. We may repurpose the box, but nothing over four years old is used as mission-critical. That way, I get called only in emergencies. Amazingly, this allows me to support three locations, ten servers on seven platforms, and almost a hundred users.
In short, they pay $50 bucks for my phone, and can call me anytime, but they take important steps to prevent the problem rather than squeeze the budgets and require more IT staff.
Re:What a crock. (Score:1, Insightful)
Try this out for size: taking the position that your employer MUST provide a cell phone for you, if they wish to be able to reach you on said phone, is easily countered with "okay, but you may not use the cell phone for any non-work-related purpose".
See how you like carrying two cellphones - one for work, and one of your own (unless you intend to defraud your employer by use of the phone for personal calls).
Surely you don't think that it is your employer's responsibility to provide you with a cellphone for personal use? Same reasoning applies to broadband, blackberries, etc.
Really, the bottom line is: deduct the cost of cell service from your compensation... is it still worth keeping the job?
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, the breed of company that will ask you to pay for your own equipment will probably also penalize your advancement opportunities because you don't put in a 60-hour work week like the rest of the "committed" employees.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
I do my job, and try to do it well, but, I do NOT work for free...ever. That's why I like contract work...good bill rate...and you get paid for all your time. I don't believe in this 'for the good of the company' and greater than 40 hour weeks w/o compensation.
If you get forced into this...incorporate yourself...at least you can write off your cell, broadband, etc. at the end of the year as YOUR company expense...
Re:Easy one. = Easy way out the door (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't work from home, you don't carry a pager, and you don't give them your cell phone number.
Instead, your replacement will take care of all those pesky "issues" like decorating your cube and picking up your paycheck. If you really are an integral part of keeping a company running 24x7, then your salary probably already reflects it. Let's be honest: most folks have 1+Mb Internet connections and cell phones anyways. It's not like the co. is asking you to maintain a DS3 into your basement.
It's easy to sound-off on /. posts, but you're facing a reality of today's business world. Try negotiating an in-between solution. Discuss with management that you recognize most folks have Internet connections and cell phones anyways. (Now, they'll recognize you live in the real world with them.) Then explain you are committed to the company, cite examples, etc... (Yea, basically kiss-up a little). Then explain that you'd like to expense a portion of your business-related expenses. If 50% of your cell calls are work related and a fourth of your Internet time is resolving work issues, then you'd like to expense those percentages of those bills. Explain how this arrangement would help you adjust your budget during this transition period that the co. is going through.
After a while, you can push those numbers up a little since no-one will actually look at every in/out-bound number on your cell phone bill. ;-) And as for the so-called transition period, how many "temporary fixes" are still in place years later? ;-) Don't take any big stands on this issue. Don't bring it up in the weekly staff meeting. Let this negotiation occur quietly between you and whoever approves your expenses. It's the real world, population: us.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
I work from home at will (which amounts to 3 days/week). This clearly blurs the lines between "home" and "work". I'm accessible at all hours (though it's rare people require my time outside of 8-6), I get a lot done, and I'm incredibly happy w my situation. My salary is fine (nearly 3x what I started at 6 years ago), but my satisfaction w my job comes from the quality of life that comes from this degree of flexibility.
good for you for finding some of this too!
chris
Yes, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
I work for a major telco, and our management currently pays for broadband for people who are required to provide 7x24 support, people who work from home, and senior management.
In a relentless drive to lower costs, this policy is under review, but we haven't heard the results yet.
Most of my co-workers have laptops (I don't) and they expense their broadband bills monthly. I could expense my broadband, but in order to do my job remotely, I would have to install additional software on my personal computer. Given that there is no place for personal software on corporate assets, I believe that there is also no place for corporate software on my personal assets, so I manage with a 56k dial connection when I do 24x7 support.
I see no need to try to expense my phone bill, because I would have that regardless and there is unlimited local calling anyways.
A previous manager once asked me for my personal cell phone number so that he could have it printed on my new business cards. I asked if I could expense the bill for my cell phone if I agreed, only to be told that the company does not pay for personal use items. That being the case, I decided that my personal cell phone would remain for personal use only.
I don't view this as not being a team player. I work a lot of unpaid overtime, and when there are fires to be put out, I stay for the duration until things are under control.
I do not see it as being part of my job description to subsidize a multi-billion dollar corporation. If they want me to be available outside of the office, they can provide me with a cell-phone and/or pager. I will not use my own assets to help them do their job
Cost of doing business (Score:1, Insightful)
1. I'm a dispatcher and work with mechanics. The mechanics make really good money, however they're expected to buy their own tools. Some of the tool boxes have $20,000 in tools. And that's normal for mechanics. The world might be going that way, but if you can make more money someplace else it's your right to go do it.
2. By being a company man, doing whatever it takes to be available, working inconvenient hours, and being a team player I've managed to double my salary in a few years, and expect to do so again in a few more. Hosing everyone else by being unavailable and not doing your job isn't going to get you anywhere.
There's my 2 cents
unionize (Score:4, Insightful)
If half the CIO's of the fortune 500 were giving evil eyes to your CIO because of a sympathy strike on your behalf, this would be an entirely different story. Such a CIO could be endangering their carreer if they turn the screws too tight on their staff.
Let's be realistic (Score:1, Insightful)
While Carly's alturism is questionable, the statement is very poignant. Regardless of what your personal feelings on your employer are, the reality is that they provide a means to live. Very few of us grow our own food or own land on which to build a house meaning we must buy these things. In order to buy these things, we must involve ourselves in the societal structure of work.
For a momentary aside, I recently left the technology sector to try my hand at marketing and frankly the payscale/workload equation outside technology is terrible by comparison. In an ideal technical situation, a system administrator is doing the job best when the phone never rings thus leaving free time to improve. Not many jobs are like that.
So integrating into the society of work requires a few things above and beyond the listed requirements of adequate skill. For many jobs in many locations, a worker must have transportation and a wardrobe of some effect. Neither of these are required specifically by an employer, however, if an employee cannot make it to work or looks below standard upon arrival, chances are that employee will not be employed for very long.
Carly's quote is of relevence because in order to keep that nice, well-paying tech job, the employer must remain competitive in the field and the employee must as well.
If you have a stable tech job and make a fuss about the cost of broadband, you are ceasing to be competitive. If the employer pays for the connection, that's icing on the cake.
I've read all the ranting about "my time" and "their time" and all of that nonsense. Above all, an employee should enjoy their job, else everyone suffers. So if an employee reasonably enjoys their job, they will do what's required to keep that job. If that means taking a $45 a month unofficial paycut, so be it.
But chances are anyone truly invested in technology will have a broadband connection at home and often carry a cell phone. Share it, answer it, don't answer it, do whatever you want to...
To continue my aside, tech. works are seriously among the most spoiled individuals in the workforce. While our roles are crucial, they are also often overstated as well. If you ever leave the fluff of the tech. sector, you will find that many jobs are way more ass-kicking and paying for broadband is the least of your concerns... after health-care in many cases.
nuckcl(at)yahoo.com
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Elizabeth sent me this story called "Geek Player, Love Slayer" out of the Missouri Review. Being the production monkey formerly known as the IT Guy, I found a bit of humor in it as well as some relevant commentary, including the line Liz originally quoted in her email, How did Computer Guy become the lifeguard of the decade? as well as How much cultural power will the Geek Player amass before people realize he's just a guy who can talk to machines? and Those guys had a certain pathetic, introverted arrogance because they knew they had the rest of the office by the stones. But they were basically frightened of people.
http://www.missourireview.org/index.php?genre=Fi ct ion&title=Geek+Player%2C+Love+Slayer
Over the years of spending so much time in the lurid blue embrace of the cathode ray tube (and now the pale glow of ubiquitous liquid crystal flat panels), I understand these concepts. Technology was raised to a power in that wrinkle in time when everyone needed a computer to do busines
What's fair (Score:3, Insightful)
For general users, I provide them with a machine, and we pay for the cablemodem. The caveat is that the machine will be used *exactly* for work, and nothing else. They're free to connect a personal machine to that cablemodem, but the stuff I provide had better not ever touch anything other than here.
At home, I pay for the cablemodem since it's a legacy anyway. I do have, however, a machine that is dedicated for work - simply because I've told my employer that I will *not* pollute my personal property with their required software, nor will I compromise my machines' usability with their software's requirements... unless they wish to take responsibility / liability for the impact of their software on my machines - if their crap bones it, they pay. Obviously, they got me a dedicated box for the task.
So, fair's fair. If they want you to be accountable for providing equipment, then you have complete authority over how it gets used. Likewise, if they want authority over how it's used, then they are accountable for providing it.
Sounds like your CIO wants the authority, while sticking you with the accountability. Use that exact expression when you discuss this topic, and you'll discover that your CIO must change his verbiage one way or the other, very quickly.
BUT..... (Score:5, Insightful)
He may not have any choice, but his piece of mind will be greatly increased if he can find another job with reasonable superiors. The ones he has now are making unreasonable demands at his fiscal expense.
Of course your boss "loves" you. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, you sure do.
You get the "freedom" to come in on the 4th of July to work on someone else's server.
You get the "freedom" to spend your money on work related Internet.
You get the "freedom" to spend your money on work related cell phone minutes.
And for what? To be treated like a professional? Wouldn't you rather be compensated like a professional?
Where I work, we have what's called "leave days", and when we need to take leave, we do, it's why they give them to us. When we are sick, we take "sick days", we don't have to ask, that's what they give them to us for. If work requires us to be on a pager, they supply it, common sense says it's their responsibility.
I'm very sure your boss "loves" you. But as for me, I don't own the company, I require compensation for my work. And, because I work for professionals, they treat me as a professional, without asking me to shell out a lot of cash for the privilege.
Re:Consider it a pay cut... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps you know of cases where this is different, fine. Just don't paint your pessimistic picture with such a large brush.
Re:BUT..... (Score:5, Insightful)
As was the situation with my 'choice'. If I didn't 'choose' to apply myself the way I did, someone else would have. The very least would have me making significantly less money and someone else as manager -- and frankly, I like being 'the man'.
"This guy", as you say, has choices to make too. Just let him make sure that choice is informed with full understanding of the concequences of either.
Dedication? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been salaried my entire career (over 10 years), and I've never had an employer who felt this way. If the job gets done in 30 hours, I move on to the next job for the last 10 hours.
To get back to the topic, I telecommute full-time. I live in Cary, NC; the home office is in Minneapolis, MN. My employer pays for my broadband, and a phone line in my home office.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:4, Insightful)
Reality? Check, please.
you pay == you can turn it off (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that's the case for most of the IT staff among us anyway.
My company doesn't pay for broadband. I live an hour away. I pay for dial up (and use the T-1 at work when I need something big). When there were problems recently I had to tell them it's difficult to do the work at dial-up speeds.
When they asked if I was thinking about moving to broadband I said I think about it all the time. Right now I'm foolishly squandering my funds on food, shelter, transportation and medical bills. If they let me work from home several days a week, I could offset broadband by the subsequent reduction in transportation costs.
They didn't like that so they're looking into paying for broadband....
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
If the job requires it, the boss pays for it.
Non-tech example: my wife took the kids and their nanny to an amusement park. Did the nanny have to pay? Of course not. If the nanny needed to rent bowling shoes at the lanes or skates at the rink or skies on the slopes in the course of doing her job, would she need to pay? Of course not.
Why, then, do employers expect us to pay for the things we need to do our jobs?
One possible reason: lack of backbone from so many techie-dweebs just giving in instead of rocking the boat. Hey, if we were good at negotiation and business skills we'd be running the company ourselves. Just ask Paul Graham.
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
The poster, on the other hand, seems to have done such extra work, but has been 'rewarded' by being asked to pay for the equipment he uses to provide that extra service to the company. This doesn't look like it's going to go as well.....
I'm all for the 'give a bit more' camp, but when the employer responds by sucking you dry on the backside, I'd say you should at least keep your ear to the ground for better opportunities. Either that, or have a quick talk with the CIO and make sure that (s)he understands the implications of such stupidity.
On the more practical end: If you use broadband at home anyways, then don't sweat it. On the other hand, if the primary use of broadband at home is to service work, I'd cut it and let the employer deal with it. Similarly with cell phones and pagers. If they aren't paying for it, I'd say they have no right to demand it.
They're the ones getting the benefits of you having those 'toys' If it's not worth it to the company, then why should you be footing the bill for something that doesn't pay it's way??
Oh, and by the way: Does the CIO still get his car expensed?
Re:BUT..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've found that "the job market is bad" is just an excuse for "I suck and no one will hire me".
Re:Easy one. (Score:4, Insightful)
Network ownership = data ownership (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Of course your boss "loves" you. (Score:5, Insightful)
I (to some extent) can do the same thing. If I've got everything accomplished that I need to do by 3pm, then I'll head off. No early meetings? I'll come in around 10:30 or 11am. To be sure, if there's an emergency, I'll stay late or come in on weekends to make sure the fire is out. The boss is happy that all of his special projects (as well as my regular work) are done on-time, or even ahead of schedule, and I'm happy that I can split early in the afternoon, beat the rush home and have a relaxing afternoon/evening.
The compensation of not being a 9-5'er from monday through friday is exactly what I like. And that's easily worth the $80 or so a month I pay for cell phone and internet that I use for work as well as my own purposes.
N.
Re:BUT..... (Score:5, Insightful)
But why is it a one or the other situation? I was in a position a few years ago where I bent over backwards to make myself available as well. I was known to respond to emails within minutes usually (yes, yes, no life..), and the reputation it gained me help me survive two layoff rounds. (finally got canned when I had personality conflicts with the new CEO, but that's a different story...)
However, I insisted if they wanted me to do this they had to pay for my broadband and part of my cell bill. They saw it as a fair trade for the amount of productivity they received and the increased response time. We also had an agreement that if I had to come in at 3am, I got half a day off.
This didn't stop my advancement, I received a promotion during my time there while others stayed in the same position, and received a raise during a year money was tight and most others received none. You can have your cake and eat it too, you just need enlightened management. I'd say this fellow's bosses are jerks, seeing employees as liabilities rather then assets/team members.
Be firm, make sure they understand what you're contributing to the company. Keep fighting, go higher up the food chain if you have to to avoid brain dead managers. Hopefully someone with half a clue is running the company. Otherwise... get that old CV out, because no one deserves to be treated like that. You deserve to be compensated for your dedication, no be taken for granted.
Re:What a crock. (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's be realistic. Sure, a part of the benefit you derive from your job is probably doing that job well--and not being rewarded for doing it well. Why did I leave out not being rewarded for doing it well? Because that is really part of what I am guessing is the primary benefit you derive from you job--being rewarded for it (i.e., pay and other monetary benefits). The simple fact is you can not provide food, shelter, warmth or any other basic necessity for yourself or members of your family from the sense of a job well done.
First, if your CIO is really such a f_ckw1t that he thinks your sense of a job well done is compensation for your job taking over you personal life--at your expense--he should not be in an executive--much less any--management position.
Second, using your CIO's logic, as an executive of a company his sense of a job well done should be pleasing the CEO, maybe president, board of directors and, really, the shareholders (assuming it is not a private company). Therefore, perhaps he would like to make himself available at all times--at his own expense--so he can field questions from irate stockholders every time the stock ticks down. I bet not.
Finally, I wish you all the luck in your life and career and no additional stress, but I find it really unfortunate that companies who employ d1psh1ts like your CIO don't fire them quicker or fail faster. In my opinion that is really the beauty of the dotcom fallout: a lot of companies managed by complete idiots failed as fast as possible.
Also, if you decide to leave, would you re-post telling all of us the name of your company? That way, if we wish, we can express our displeasure by never buying another single thing from them ever again.
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
Cash and/or Perks = Business Respect (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been around the corporate racetrack a few times; long enough to know that when your boss starts counting pennies, it means that she don't consider your services crucial to the bottom line.
Corporate executives frequently get all kinds of benefits and bonuses, anything from hard cash, interest-free loans, company cars, company-financed homes, dry cleaning, free lunches, maid service, etc. all because there is a perception that these individuals are difficult to replace and are critical to successful implementation of the company's long-term strategy. I've rarely heard anyone in a boardroom argue over the merits of any company-financed perk, except in cases where management was looking for an excuse to get rid of someone and wanted to encourage that person to get rid of themselves. The message is clear - if your company is tightening the ropes on this type of spending, than there's a good chance that someone has determined that you are:
Don't fool yourself into thinking that flexible hours or last week's heroics in fixing the email server mean anything to the people at the top of the corporate food chain. The problem with IT is that every system failure is often seen as an indication that you're not doing your job properly, and even when nothing fails, it's a red flag to your boss that she can probably get someone less qualified and less expensive to do the same job that you're doing. It's a no-win situation. Unless you're dealing some moneymaking aspect of the company (i.e., that the company generates cash via IT services) than chances are good that you're about to be sidelined and replaced. Cash and compensation is always the bottom line for respect in any business endeavor; if you're not seeing dollars or perks, you have no respect coming down from upper-management.
Re:Easy one. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:As a European... (Score:3, Insightful)
We stupid American money chasers... We forget that our ideals, morals, and families are all that really matters. We're slaves to the almighty Buck, and those of us who manage to see clearly enough to realize that this is ludicrous, are branded as either stupid, or hopelessly idealistic.
I say those who are willing to give up their ideals and lives for the sake of a corporation don't deserve them in the first place. Kind of like what Ben Franklin said regarding security vs. freedom.
Re:Easy one. (Score:2, Insightful)
Writing something off as a business expense doesn't mean that you get it for free -- you still have to pay for it. Then, if and only if, you meet the minimum amount, you can deduct it (which just means that you won't have to pay taxes on those expenses, but you are still out the money). What is the minimum amount? It has been a few years since I even bothered to look at that part of the tax form. Isn't it some percentage of your gross income? Thus, if your unreimbursed business expenses aren't high enough, you get nothing (except the satisfaction of knowing that when your manager said to bend over and grab your ankles -- you did it).
Re:Easy one. (Score:5, Insightful)
Either nobody wants to work for you - for good reasons - or you just aren't looking in the right places - or you just have no clue what is "qualified" (i.e., you're far too strict on what is necessary or not necessary to be "qualified".)
Employment technigues in most companies are a joke.
You need to ask three questions of a prospective employee (after thoroughly explaining the details of the position and what you want done in the foreseeable future in that position):
1) Do you want to do this job?
2) Can you do this job?
3) Can you give me a reason why you feel you can do this job?
If they can give you a *truthful* reasonable answer to those three questions, hire them and get on with the job and stop looking for "Mr(s). Right".
Oh, yes, you do have to tell them that since they got hired fast, they can also get fired fast if any of those answers were *not* truthful.
Re:Easy one. (Score:3, Insightful)
bennies slang term for benifits
Here's what I would do (Score:3, Insightful)
But no off hours stuff. If they ask why? Well, I don't have internet access/cellphone/whatever anymore.
A company shouldn't be burning your personal assets (cell phone minutes, bandwidth etc.).
So if they need you to do work, they should be providing the means to do so (that's why companies have offices).
I'd play hardball. Want me to do work? Provide the means.
Want me to be accessible via my cell phone? Reimburse me for the minutes you use.
Simple as that.
Shouldn't have to pay a company to do work for them.
Sounds like crap to me (Score:1, Insightful)
My Solution (Score:1, Insightful)
>50 others, and enjoy what I do.
So would I.
Where I work (yay, supposedly we're one of the top 10 place to work for) in theory, we are supposedly expected to work until the job is done. Oh, sure, if its done, we can leave early.
Now reality rears its head...my team is understaffed by 50%, and there is no budget to hire more people. Never mind that our Director makes a big deal at every staff meeting about how the company has so much money coming in they don't know how to spend it.
In the rare instances where one is actually done early and heads out...they get the evil eye from managers who arrive at 10:30A.
The deal was that we put in insane hours, and by now we should have been rich from those stock options and bonuses. When they start handing out the options and bonuses like '99, they can expect 60 hour weeks. Until then, I'm doing my job the best I can in 40 hours.
Why does management treat employees like shit? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the employees let them.
I live 10 time-zones away from the current client I'm supporting, which means their working hours are 6pm till 2am my time.
So, I have a full development environment at home, including legal copies of all the software I need, broadband access, etc. All paid for by my employer (actually, the PC belongs to me).
When the phone rings (never after 10pm) the meter starts running, every call, every email, every 'log on at 9 and check everythings ok' is billed for.
Why does my employer pay for all of this?
Because they want the work done, and I don't work for free.
Don't Lose Control of your phone, DSL, email (Score:3, Insightful)
A decade or so ago, one of my friends had the recommendation that you should always have your own email, independent of your employers, so you've got continuity and people can reach you even if your job situation changes - especially so you've got an email account for your resume. It was good advice, as I found out six months later when I got laid off :-) These days, of course, the idea of not having independent connectivity and half a dozen email accounts seems old-fashioned, but back then it was important. I haven't done that with my cellphone (I suck at doing regular paperwork, and I've had the company-provided phone number for almost 10 years, and we're a quasi-stable company though we do keep laying people off.)