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When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

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  • When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

    ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
    ** This thread discusses the Content article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed0

  • #2
    When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

    ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
    Maria, brilliant essay.

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    • #3
      When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

      ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
      After a year of spending over 25% of my time away from home putting out company fires I realized there was more to life than the company and quit. Now I provide the same services to many customers using my own corporation. My wife is the HR director now. I get paid for all of my work, have a few vacation days, and take what ever sick time I need. That doesn't adress the corporate issue, but sure helped in my case.

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      • #4
        When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

        ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
        Agree with Maria's message, but let's not leave it there if you're in such a situation. First, we can push back on our employers to help limit the personal impact. Often, we are our own worst enemies. Second, for those who have bad situations, document your personal situation, print a copy of Maria's commentary, and send via snail mail to your US senators and US representative requesting legal remediation. You may want to attack this on your state's level too.

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        • #5
          When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

          ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
          There is a solution to the problems you present in your article: work in California. California, a number of years ago, passed new labor regulations giving technical employees special classifications regarding exempt / non-exempt: It's based upon salary level. There are down sides to working in California, though. Employees are required to clock in and clock out. Even if they only work an extra 15 minutes to fix one minor bug, they must be paid overtime. If the company is in an overtime restricted environment, an employee that is still incurring overtime would have to be disciplined and ultimately released. Regarding pagers and similar on-call devices: I don't know about other states, but in California if an employee is required to wear a pager and be available to report to work in an emergency, they are on-call and have to be paid on-call rates. In my opinion, any HR department located in ~any~ state allows non-exempt to be abused by both ends of the stick as presented in the article deserves to incur problems in retaining individuals and should come under review by upper management because they obviously are not considering the costs incurred when replacing an employee. Bill

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          • #6
            When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

            ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
            Bill, I believe that California also takes into consideration whether an IT professional is a manager in addition to salary. I've been in the computer biz since the mid-eighties, and witnessed the re-birth of the S/38 to the 400 and so on through last year. Spent most of my career in California, and in the 90's it wasn't uncommon for me to put in 60-70 hours a week - because I was HAVING A BALL. I was an IT Director for a 750MM firm in 2004 when the new law was passed and boy was it a nightmare. While I sympathize with those that are being taken advantage of, and agree that it is totally the employers responsibility to take care of (or quickly lose) their talent, I had other issues to deal with. My programmers loved working 50-60 hours a week because we had great technology opportunities... they were hungry to learn it and often my biggest challenge was getting them to go home once in awhile. With the new law, I had to tell them that (a) being switched to an hourly associate versus being exempt was in fact NOT a demotion... and (b) no overtime would be allowed unless it was strictly project related and pre-authorized. Needless to say there were some very hard feelings, and I lost some bright people to firms back East - even though I constantly fought the CIO for OT after the fact and helped with missed clock-in/outs just about every day. I was glad to do it, because I had been them once. No professional likes to punch a time clock or feel that big brother is ready to hammer 'em for taking initiative. It's a pity that the State had to step in to protect us from unethical employers, but that's another discussion that goes deep into the dynamics of the emerging global economy. Most of us can't afford to be out of work, and sadly, the iSeries job market is not the same as it used to be. My advice to those who feel they are being ridden rough-shod is to find another line of work. I recommend trades that require a worker to be present at the job site, or at least in the same time zone. Or, (good luck with this one) look for companies that still offer a pension plan. Not a 401K, but a real, honest-to-goodness pension plan. It's a great indicator of how much they value their people. In my opinion, the expectations of typical employers aren't going to get any better as global pressure on profit margins continues to increase. Loyalty is a hard to find these days when even tenured VP's get shown the door after a down year. Programming is becoming a commodity that can be done by the lowest bidder with the appropriate skill set - which makes it less likely that (a) programming jobs in general will continue to grow in the US, and (b) if they do, you'll be expected to be happy making 3rd world wages. Of course with boomers retiring in huge numbers starting in 2009, all of this may be moot. And IBM midrange programmers may be worth 200K in the next decade since so few of us will be left... Wow - Sorry for the long winded post - guess this kind of hits a nerve with me. Best wishes!

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            • #7
              When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

              ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
              Bill, Do you know if your following remark applies only to hourly wage earners? "Regarding pagers and similar on-call devices: I don't know about other states, but in California if an employee is required to wear a pager and be available to report to work in an emergency, they are on-call and have to be paid on-call rates."

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              • #8
                When Exempt Employees Get Screwed

                ** This thread discusses the article: When Exempt Employees Get Screwed **
                tom wrote: > Bill, > Do you know if your following remark applies only to hourly wage > earners? > > "Regarding pagers and similar on-call devices: I don't know about > other states, but in California if an employee is required to wear a > pager and be available to report to work in an emergency, they are > on-call and have to be paid on-call rates." By definition exempt employees are exempt from any and all overtime pay. Bill

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