Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Travis brings up a good point. the legality of it. It difficult to implement a policiy, that is not 100% legal. If not documented, how can one be held accountable for following it. If its documented then you just gave your employee the abilty to win a law suit agaisnt you, as you've admitted the policy and practice of it. So to effectively launch an on-call policy, one must first consider the legal ramifications and account for them. Take note that it is not necessarilly a requirement to pay full minimum wage for on-call duty. Just like the airlines that pay a reduced wage when they are on-call. However, conflicting law infers that if an employee is on-call, they must be paid for being on-call even if they are not performing work and jsut on standby. The exact interpretation of these law really depends on what duties they have when they are on-call. Do they just work when an insodent comes in? Are they required to comprmise their life in any way while in on-call status? And how will this apply? Again questions best answered by legal council knowledgable with the laws of your state, as state employment law usually has further restrictions. We found that the person that took/qualified the off-hour service request should not necessarilly be the same person that actually went onsite to do the repair work. Expecially if they don't get paid to do it, or more so if they do get paid overtime. If you pay overtime, they go onsite when they may not normally have to, to rake up some extra top dollar pay. If you don't pay, then they are likely to respond slower to outages, such as wait until morning to investigate instead of when it actually happens at night. And what do you do when, an on-call tech responds 10 hours late, because they went away with their family anyway? How would you know, since you left it up to someone else to monitor when outages occured. By the time you find out that the tech responded to slow (the next day), its to late and nothing you can do able it to correct it sooner. And can you complain when they were expected to do it for free? What I do is I take the off-hours monitoring duty personally, so I can qualify when a site visit is required or not on the weekend. Then I call the tech on-call and make them go out, if needed. I often do the off-hour repair personally, jsut because I want to save on over-time pay, and want the techs to get some rest and fun, because I work them hard during the week, and they need the rest. I recently offloaded the night monitoring to one of our techs that I trust, in trade that he would not have to do the truck rolls on the week end. But I always have a different tech responsible for checking for outages in the mornings than the tech on night on-call duty so I have appropriate checks and balances. I have not found a perfect system yet, jsut because we do not have enough staff to share the duty adequately and still ahve checks and balances, where there is a second person on-call in case the first person missed it. What I plan to do is to start scheduling overlapping schedules so more of the day is handled by paid staff, and less time to be covered by on-call duty. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Travis Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:28 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff Hi, That's not legal (at least not in Idaho). Someone on salary still can only work 40 hours per week unless they are a manager, meaning they have 3 people under them, or they are a professional position (lawyer, doctor, etc.). One of my friends owns a drafting company. Had everyone on Salary for 2 years and was working them 50+ hours per week. They fired a guy and so he turned them into the Dept Labor. After the audit, they had to pay back overtime to everyone (costing them almost $40,000 for the 2 year period). We have guys on call. If they have to go after hours, we give them time off during the payperiod so they aren't over 40 hours. Travis Microserv David E. Smith wrote: chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives
RE: [WISPA] on call staff
How does this relate to a person that is salaried and expected to be available all the time? Dennis Burgess, MCP, CCNA, A+, N+, Mikrotik Certified [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.2kwireless.com 2K Wireless provides high-speed internet access, along with network consulting for WISPs, and business's with a focus on TCP/IP networking, security, and Mikrotik routers. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 12:15 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff Travis brings up a good point. the legality of it. It difficult to implement a policiy, that is not 100% legal. If not documented, how can one be held accountable for following it. If its documented then you just gave your employee the abilty to win a law suit agaisnt you, as you've admitted the policy and practice of it. So to effectively launch an on-call policy, one must first consider the legal ramifications and account for them. Take note that it is not necessarilly a requirement to pay full minimum wage for on-call duty. Just like the airlines that pay a reduced wage when they are on-call. However, conflicting law infers that if an employee is on-call, they must be paid for being on-call even if they are not performing work and jsut on standby. The exact interpretation of these law really depends on what duties they have when they are on-call. Do they just work when an insodent comes in? Are they required to comprmise their life in any way while in on-call status? And how will this apply? Again questions best answered by legal council knowledgable with the laws of your state, as state employment law usually has further restrictions. We found that the person that took/qualified the off-hour service request should not necessarilly be the same person that actually went onsite to do the repair work. Expecially if they don't get paid to do it, or more so if they do get paid overtime. If you pay overtime, they go onsite when they may not normally have to, to rake up some extra top dollar pay. If you don't pay, then they are likely to respond slower to outages, such as wait until morning to investigate instead of when it actually happens at night. And what do you do when, an on-call tech responds 10 hours late, because they went away with their family anyway? How would you know, since you left it up to someone else to monitor when outages occured. By the time you find out that the tech responded to slow (the next day), its to late and nothing you can do able it to correct it sooner. And can you complain when they were expected to do it for free? What I do is I take the off-hours monitoring duty personally, so I can qualify when a site visit is required or not on the weekend. Then I call the tech on-call and make them go out, if needed. I often do the off-hour repair personally, jsut because I want to save on over-time pay, and want the techs to get some rest and fun, because I work them hard during the week, and they need the rest. I recently offloaded the night monitoring to one of our techs that I trust, in trade that he would not have to do the truck rolls on the week end. But I always have a different tech responsible for checking for outages in the mornings than the tech on night on-call duty so I have appropriate checks and balances. I have not found a perfect system yet, jsut because we do not have enough staff to share the duty adequately and still ahve checks and balances, where there is a second person on-call in case the first person missed it. What I plan to do is to start scheduling overlapping schedules so more of the day is handled by paid staff, and less time to be covered by on-call duty. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Travis Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:28 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff Hi, That's not legal (at least not in Idaho). Someone on salary still can only work 40 hours per week unless they are a manager, meaning they have 3 people under them, or they are a professional position (lawyer, doctor, etc.). One of my friends owns a drafting company. Had everyone on Salary for 2 years and was working them 50+ hours per week. They fired a guy and so he turned them into the Dept Labor. After the audit, they had to pay back overtime to everyone (costing them almost $40,000 for the 2 year period). We have guys on call. If they have to go after hours, we give them time off during the payperiod so they aren't over 40 hours. Travis Microserv David E. Smith wrote: chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
It doesn't. The only one I'm aware of that meets that requirement, (24x7 uncompensated availabilty) is the owner of a company. :-) So have to be mor erealistic for everyone else, and improvise. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Dennis Burgess - 2K Wireless [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'WISPA General List' wireless@wispa.org Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 5:27 PM Subject: RE: [WISPA] on call staff How does this relate to a person that is salaried and expected to be available all the time? Dennis Burgess, MCP, CCNA, A+, N+, Mikrotik Certified [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.2kwireless.com 2K Wireless provides high-speed internet access, along with network consulting for WISPs, and business's with a focus on TCP/IP networking, security, and Mikrotik routers. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 12:15 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff Travis brings up a good point. the legality of it. It difficult to implement a policiy, that is not 100% legal. If not documented, how can one be held accountable for following it. If its documented then you just gave your employee the abilty to win a law suit agaisnt you, as you've admitted the policy and practice of it. So to effectively launch an on-call policy, one must first consider the legal ramifications and account for them. Take note that it is not necessarilly a requirement to pay full minimum wage for on-call duty. Just like the airlines that pay a reduced wage when they are on-call. However, conflicting law infers that if an employee is on-call, they must be paid for being on-call even if they are not performing work and jsut on standby. The exact interpretation of these law really depends on what duties they have when they are on-call. Do they just work when an insodent comes in? Are they required to comprmise their life in any way while in on-call status? And how will this apply? Again questions best answered by legal council knowledgable with the laws of your state, as state employment law usually has further restrictions. We found that the person that took/qualified the off-hour service request should not necessarilly be the same person that actually went onsite to do the repair work. Expecially if they don't get paid to do it, or more so if they do get paid overtime. If you pay overtime, they go onsite when they may not normally have to, to rake up some extra top dollar pay. If you don't pay, then they are likely to respond slower to outages, such as wait until morning to investigate instead of when it actually happens at night. And what do you do when, an on-call tech responds 10 hours late, because they went away with their family anyway? How would you know, since you left it up to someone else to monitor when outages occured. By the time you find out that the tech responded to slow (the next day), its to late and nothing you can do able it to correct it sooner. And can you complain when they were expected to do it for free? What I do is I take the off-hours monitoring duty personally, so I can qualify when a site visit is required or not on the weekend. Then I call the tech on-call and make them go out, if needed. I often do the off-hour repair personally, jsut because I want to save on over-time pay, and want the techs to get some rest and fun, because I work them hard during the week, and they need the rest. I recently offloaded the night monitoring to one of our techs that I trust, in trade that he would not have to do the truck rolls on the week end. But I always have a different tech responsible for checking for outages in the mornings than the tech on night on-call duty so I have appropriate checks and balances. I have not found a perfect system yet, jsut because we do not have enough staff to share the duty adequately and still ahve checks and balances, where there is a second person on-call in case the first person missed it. What I plan to do is to start scheduling overlapping schedules so more of the day is handled by paid staff, and less time to be covered by on-call duty. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Travis Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:28 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff Hi, That's not legal (at least not in Idaho). Someone on salary still can only work 40 hours per week unless they are a manager, meaning they have 3 people under them, or they are a professional position (lawyer, doctor, etc.). One of my friends owns a drafting company. Had everyone on Salary for 2 years and was working them 50+ hours per week. They fired a guy and so he turned them into the Dept Labor. After the audit, they had to pay back overtime to everyone (costing
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
I prefer to speak for myself regarding MVN policy on overtime since I run the company. We do not work our salaried staff like sled dogs regardless of the way Dave may have been misunderstood in his message. Dave did include a smiley face which was supposed to indicate he was joking. I have never told staff that they have to work more than 40 hours per week without compensation. I have told them that as a salary worker they are to make sure the job is done at all times regarding their position. Only professional level staff are on salary. They are not required to maintain a daily log of their time. They can and are encouraged to come and go as they please to handle their personal and work lives. If they work a long day I would expect them to take the next day off or leave early, etc. This is called comp time and is a legitimate way of handling settlement of extra work hours. I know that my staff understands this. My labor intensive techs work by the hour. They get paid time and a half for anything over 40 hours per week. They get paid sick time. They get paid personal days. They get paid vacations. They get paid holidays. They get bonuses. Just setting the record straight here. Scriv Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
RE: [WISPA] on call staff
So how do you handle the guys on call over a weekend? They may not get dispatched, but they are the tech responsible for responding in case of an outage, thus avoiding management having to hunt someone down on a sat. nite to work an outage. c -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:33 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff I prefer to speak for myself regarding MVN policy on overtime since I run the company. We do not work our salaried staff like sled dogs regardless of the way Dave may have been misunderstood in his message. Dave did include a smiley face which was supposed to indicate he was joking. I have never told staff that they have to work more than 40 hours per week without compensation. I have told them that as a salary worker they are to make sure the job is done at all times regarding their position. Only professional level staff are on salary. They are not required to maintain a daily log of their time. They can and are encouraged to come and go as they please to handle their personal and work lives. If they work a long day I would expect them to take the next day off or leave early, etc. This is called comp time and is a legitimate way of handling settlement of extra work hours. I know that my staff understands this. My labor intensive techs work by the hour. They get paid time and a half for anything over 40 hours per week. They get paid sick time. They get paid personal days. They get paid vacations. They get paid holidays. They get bonuses. Just setting the record straight here. Scriv Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.14.1/527 - Release Date: 11/9/2006 -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
We call people out if we need them. That is management's job. Maybe I am not understanding the question or concern fully. Scriv chris cooper wrote: So how do you handle the guys on call over a weekend? They may not get dispatched, but they are the tech responsible for responding in case of an outage, thus avoiding management having to hunt someone down on a sat. nite to work an outage. c -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:33 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff I prefer to speak for myself regarding MVN policy on overtime since I run the company. We do not work our salaried staff like sled dogs regardless of the way Dave may have been misunderstood in his message. Dave did include a smiley face which was supposed to indicate he was joking. I have never told staff that they have to work more than 40 hours per week without compensation. I have told them that as a salary worker they are to make sure the job is done at all times regarding their position. Only professional level staff are on salary. They are not required to maintain a daily log of their time. They can and are encouraged to come and go as they please to handle their personal and work lives. If they work a long day I would expect them to take the next day off or leave early, etc. This is called comp time and is a legitimate way of handling settlement of extra work hours. I know that my staff understands this. My labor intensive techs work by the hour. They get paid time and a half for anything over 40 hours per week. They get paid sick time. They get paid personal days. They get paid vacations. They get paid holidays. They get bonuses. Just setting the record straight here. Scriv Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Lets say you have 4 employees. You rotate them 1 week per month of on call duty for off hours. I think what he's getting at is how are they compensated for their week? But also, do you schedule the on call person? If not, then how do you make sure that every person in the company didn't happen to take a weekend trip to mexico? (it's not like they put weekend plans on the calander at work, you will never know who is in town) Now you got no one available to fix things. You put someone on call so you know you have someone to fix things. If the on call person wants to go out to the movies, then fine, but they would put their phone on vibrate and check it if it rings vs the not on call employee who would shut the phone off or wait until the 3 hr movie ends to check voicemails.. John Scrivner wrote: We call people out if we need them. That is management's job. Maybe I am not understanding the question or concern fully. Scriv chris cooper wrote: So how do you handle the guys on call over a weekend? They may not get dispatched, but they are the tech responsible for responding in case of an outage, thus avoiding management having to hunt someone down on a sat. nite to work an outage. c -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:33 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff I prefer to speak for myself regarding MVN policy on overtime since I run the company. We do not work our salaried staff like sled dogs regardless of the way Dave may have been misunderstood in his message. Dave did include a smiley face which was supposed to indicate he was joking. I have never told staff that they have to work more than 40 hours per week without compensation. I have told them that as a salary worker they are to make sure the job is done at all times regarding their position. Only professional level staff are on salary. They are not required to maintain a daily log of their time. They can and are encouraged to come and go as they please to handle their personal and work lives. If they work a long day I would expect them to take the next day off or leave early, etc. This is called comp time and is a legitimate way of handling settlement of extra work hours. I know that my staff understands this. My labor intensive techs work by the hour. They get paid time and a half for anything over 40 hours per week. They get paid sick time. They get paid personal days. They get paid vacations. They get paid holidays. They get bonuses. Just setting the record straight here. Scriv Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Brian Rohrbacher wrote: Lets say you have 4 employees. You rotate them 1 week per month of on call duty for off hours. Oh, okay, I get the question. Not applicable, I've been the on-call guy for three and a half years straight. :) David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
David E. Smith wrote: Brian Rohrbacher wrote: Lets say you have 4 employees. You rotate them 1 week per month of on call duty for off hours. Oh, okay, I get the question. Not applicable, I've been the on-call guy for three and a half years straight. :) Me too. Maybe someday I'll hire help. David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
When I was a service call electrician in the 70's. My boss required that we all shared the pager. There was 4, 5 or 6 of us. Everyone that was hired was required to join the rotation. We had it scheduled out well in advance. Each week we took the pager from the last guy and we were the ones who took the after hours emergency calls. We also knew when our turn was going to be and planned our vacations around it. We sometimes swapped around amongst ourselves. He paid us 2 hour minimums at time and a half or double time depending. He also gave use service trucks to bring home. It worked well because we all liked the extra money a nighttime service call would bring in. The best money was holidays at double time. The only thing he didn't do was pay extra for being on call, it was just part of the job. It all seemed fair to me. George Brian Rohrbacher wrote: Lets say you have 4 employees. You rotate them 1 week per month of on call duty for off hours. I think what he's getting at is how are they compensated for their week? But also, do you schedule the on call person? If not, then how do you make sure that every person in the company didn't happen to take a weekend trip to mexico? (it's not like they put weekend plans on the calander at work, you will never know who is in town) Now you got no one available to fix things. You put someone on call so you know you have someone to fix things. If the on call person wants to go out to the movies, then fine, but they would put their phone on vibrate and check it if it rings vs the not on call employee who would shut the phone off or wait until the 3 hr movie ends to check voicemails.. John Scrivner wrote: We call people out if we need them. That is management's job. Maybe I am not understanding the question or concern fully. Scriv chris cooper wrote: So how do you handle the guys on call over a weekend? They may not get dispatched, but they are the tech responsible for responding in case of an outage, thus avoiding management having to hunt someone down on a sat. nite to work an outage. c -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:33 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff I prefer to speak for myself regarding MVN policy on overtime since I run the company. We do not work our salaried staff like sled dogs regardless of the way Dave may have been misunderstood in his message. Dave did include a smiley face which was supposed to indicate he was joking. I have never told staff that they have to work more than 40 hours per week without compensation. I have told them that as a salary worker they are to make sure the job is done at all times regarding their position. Only professional level staff are on salary. They are not required to maintain a daily log of their time. They can and are encouraged to come and go as they please to handle their personal and work lives. If they work a long day I would expect them to take the next day off or leave early, etc. This is called comp time and is a legitimate way of handling settlement of extra work hours. I know that my staff understands this. My labor intensive techs work by the hour. They get paid time and a half for anything over 40 hours per week. They get paid sick time. They get paid personal days. They get paid vacations. They get paid holidays. They get bonuses. Just setting the record straight here. Scriv Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Not applicable, I've been the on-call guy for three and a half years straight. :) David Smith MVN.net I actually give out my cell phone number to my broadband subs so they can call me if they are out. I just recently started doing this. We don't have 24/7 tech support. -- George Rogato Welcome to WISPA www.wispa.org http://signup.wispa.org/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
George Rogato wrote: Not applicable, I've been the on-call guy for three and a half years straight. :) David Smith MVN.net I actually give out my cell phone number to my broadband subs so they can call me if they are out. I just recently started doing this. We don't have 24/7 tech support. Been there, do that. My cell is my only companys only line. There are some days that I am so pissed at my phone. I hear it ring and lose it, almost. :) Brian -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Been there, do that. My cell is my only companys only line. There are some days that I am so pissed at my phone. I hear it ring and lose it, almost. :) Brian Well that Pager I told you about, there was times as I was driving by the ocean, that I wanted to see how far I could throw it. My cell is private and I only hand it out personally to my broadband customers. I hardly ever get calls, but if a person has to call me because they really need to get serviced, they can. I don't like to lose a sub because they needed to work online or something important like this, and nobody was there to help. So if it means getting disturbed every now and then, I'm ok with that. I just think about the subs I've lost in the past for sloppy support and all the thousands they pay over the years. It hasn't been bad, but not going to let it get that way. -- George Rogato Welcome to WISPA www.wispa.org http://signup.wispa.org/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
George Rogato wrote: I actually give out my cell phone number to my broadband subs so they can call me if they are out. I just recently started doing this. We don't have 24/7 tech support. Gah, not even I got THAT far... A few of our biggest customers have either my cell number, or the lead field guy's number, or both, but there's NO WAY I'm making it public knowledge. Most of our end-users are residential customers, and to be blunt, I'm not sure I trust most of 'em to know the difference between there's a tower outage, you should look at it and zomg I visited seventeen porn sites and now my IE doesn't work, and the latter calls can wait 'til the next morning. David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
When we started out, we got the phone number 277-FAST and published it everywhere. It was a land-based line with call forwarding that forwarded to my cell phone. If I needed to be out of town, or needed a day off, we would forward it to my brother's phone. When I called back customers, they would get my cell number on their callerid, and a lot of people have it, but most know to call the main number for most things. That was how it was for the first two years. 24 hrs a day, and the voicemail full constantly. Cost: Business land line with call forwarding ($40/mo) and a 2500 minute cell plan with Sprint ($125/mo) After a while, I hired the services of my friend at answer360.com, where he hosts an auto-attendant. Press 1 for sales, 2 for accounting, or 3 for service. My brother takes the first two menu items, and I take the 3rd. After 9:00pm, they go to voicemail (that gets converted to WAV format and emailed to us) Thats been going on for almost two years. (add $40/mo). If a customer loses internet after 9:00 and blows a gasket, I will usually give them my direct cell number and tell him to call me any time. Making the customer think that you care usually gets them to calm down. Most customers are willing to deal with next business day service. Now going into our 4th year, we recently rented an office, and hired an office manager/secretary. We moved the line to that office, and put on call-forward busy/call forward no answer, and call transfer/disconnect services. If Shellie doesn't answer in 3 rings, the auto attendant gets it and fowards to me or J.D. (add $400/mo rent, $1500/mo salary, and $15/mo for additional phone services) Shellie does much more than just answer the phone. She also assembles CPE kits, tests CPE that have been pulled from the field, orders stuff, schedules installs, service calls, maintains the filing, handles the petty cash, maintains the calendar, and listens to the whiners. She may hand me a list of 5 people who called with slow connectivity If they are all on the same AP, I will reboot it, or check to see if there is an out of control P2P'er on that AP deal with it, and then call them back (or have Shellie call them back) to confirm that the problem is solved. That beats 5 separate incoming calls by a long shot. If/when we are going AP maintenance, and there is an outage for 30 minutes, she can tell all of the callers that it will be back up by 4:00p, and my phone doesn't ring. This concept has been working actually rather well. Pete Davis NoDial.net George Rogato wrote: Not applicable, I've been the on-call guy for three and a half years straight. :) David Smith MVN.net I actually give out my cell phone number to my broadband subs so they can call me if they are out. I just recently started doing this. We don't have 24/7 tech support. === Virus/Spam scanned by NoDial.net === -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Hi, That's not legal (at least not in Idaho). Someone on salary still can only work 40 hours per week unless they are a manager, meaning they have 3 people under them, or they are a professional position (lawyer, doctor, etc.). One of my friends owns a drafting company. Had everyone on Salary for 2 years and was working them 50+ hours per week. They fired a guy and so he turned them into the Dept Labor. After the audit, they had to pay back overtime to everyone (costing them almost $40,000 for the 2 year period). We have guys on call. If they have to go after hours, we give them time off during the payperiod so they aren't over 40 hours. Travis Microserv David E. Smith wrote: chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] on call staff
Travis Johnson wrote: That's not legal (at least not in Idaho). Someone on salary still can only work 40 hours per week unless they are a manager, meaning they have 3 people under them, or they are a professional position (lawyer, doctor, etc.). My business card says Network Administrator, which probably qualifies me as a professional. Realistically, though, it's rarely a problem; we only have big weekend outages once every couple of months. Besides, it gets me out of the house. :D Obviously, this is one of those things that will vary from state to state, and is probably best taken up with your friendly neighbourhood lawyer. David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
RE: [WISPA] on call staff
Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) That would be incorrect big-time. Check you local labor laws. Most states, just because someone is on 'Salary' does not automatically make them in-eligible for over-time pay. Keep your life simple, and your moral principles intact for the long run. A work week is 40Hr, when someone works more than that, the need to paid Overtime pay. There are other ways to deal with 'spike' in work time durations, Comp-time, variable schedule etc. The bigger issue in reality is How not to overburden and Burnout your after hours person ! These folks are a lot harder to find, if and when you loose such a person, you would be paying a very heavy personal price for it Faisal Imtiaz SnappyDSL.net -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David E. Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:16 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] on call staff chris cooper wrote: How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Put 'em on salary, that way you can work them as much as you want without guilt. ;) I'm not a tower climber, but I'm the one on-call pretty much all the time. In the event of a big problem, I'll usually triage it (drive to the tower, see if it's just a power outage or something else I can't easily fix), and if it's something for which we need the tower guy, I call him (and he gets normal overtime pay). David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
RE: [WISPA] on call staff
We run Friday at 5:30 to Friday at 5:30. We pay $75 per week, plus over time if they have to go out on a call. Mike Bushard, Jr Wisper Wireless Solutions, LLC 320-256-WISP (9477) 320-256-9478 Fax From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of chris cooper Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 12:37 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: [WISPA] on call staff How do the rest of you compensate tech staff for on call duties? We have an on call tech that monitors network remotely throughout weekend and is responsible for rolling to tower/major customer in case of outage. Thanks Chris -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
