I suspect that if more of us were hourly, weeks would rarely exceed 40 hours!
From: Jon Harris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 10:22 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: So, Why Do We Do It? John, I know for me it is that in 1 year, 10 months, and roughly 2 weeks I get to retire and go work for a company that will hopefully pay me better or not treat me like dirt simply because I try and save a bunch of (l)users from stupid mistakes. I am also tired of the after hours work for nothing other than the management will not allow me to do it any other way and the "but you were not authorized to work those hours" from managers that told me to get the job done but not disrupt anyone else's work schedule. I also know for me the overtime stopped for the most part when I went from salary to hourly. Now the managers have to sign off in advance of any OT work of any form. I still get emails and calls asking for me to fix something on my time off and I just refer them to my boss, I actually just forward the email to my boss or if they do accidentally get me to answer the phone I tell them to talk to him, he makes the rules. I have never gotten a second request and my junior has messed up a couple of times so no one asks him for anything more than something simple, but then he has been very good at hiding when there is work to be done anyway. I also get to work hours that for me mean I have to deal with the users a lot less, and makes the managers stew a bit more, but my supervisior actually likes my hours. I work 3 11.5 hour days and one 7 hour day. On days with more than 8 hours I am suppose to get a half hour for lunch but usually just stay in my office and ignore the phone. I also am at work a 4 am on my work days and since most of the staff don't usually get in until about 9 most of my day is done. Jon On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 2:05 PM, John Hornbuckle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: I was recently talking to a technician who works for a company we sometimes hire for projects. He's salaried, but working just 40 hours in a week is pretty rare for him. Looking at the poll in another thread and how many of us are basically on call 24x7x365 for no additional compensation, I have to ask... Why? Why, as a profession, do we allow ourselves to be treated this way? Is it that the pay is just so good that it's worth it? I know a few folks on this list have indicated that they get compensated pretty well, but my sense is that most of us just earn average pay and aren't living the high life. I'm not really sure why. We have skills that are in high demand, and take years to develop. Why are we selling ourselves short? Personally, my pay is just so-so. For the area I live in (poor, rural, and with a low cost of living) it's decent, and I do work in the public sector rather than private-that's always going to hit you win the wallet. But I generally get to make up the extra time with time off, a long lunch, maybe going in late or going home early. Plus I get vacation and sick leave that's pretty generous by American standards, and participation in the state retirement system. So all in all, I can't complain much. But I know a lot of people who work in the private sector for pay that's only so-so, and regularly work 60-hour weeks. Why? John Hornbuckle MIS Department Taylor County School District www.taylor.k12.fl.us<http://www.taylor.k12.fl.us/> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
