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1
- #1
spongebob007
Military
- Sep 14, 2007
- 265
Am I alone in not understanding why I should be willing to sacrifice my free time "for the good of the company"? It seems like from what I have read in many posts here and the attitude of many of my co-workers at my current employer that if you have chosen the field of engineering then 60 hour work weeks just come with the territory. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy engineering but when it comes right down to it, I work to live, not live to work.
Now as a salaried employee I realize that means that uncompensated overtime will be required, but I guess where I depart from what everyone else is that I feel it should be the exception and not the rule. Yes, I realize that stuff happens and in a crunch I might have to work 50,60, or even 70 hours a week to get through the crunch, but I don't feel like I should be expected to put in these kinds of hours every week. I do have a life outside of work you know.
I changed jobs a few months ago. When I was looking I was seriously in the running for another position besides my current employer. I wanted the other job more, but the money wasn't there (They really wanted to hire me but I think they also were really looking for a less senior person to work for less money), but the real tie breaker my current employer sold me on was the four day work weeks. Since I was giving up four weeks of vacation, I figured having every Friday off would make up for losing two weeks of vacation. After all, I looked back over the years and I usually only take one full week off. The rest of my vacation time went to taking long weekends throughout the year. It seemed like a deal too good to pass up.
So I took the job and quickly found out the off Fridays were a benefit that management really doesn't want engineers to use. We are already putting in a ten hour day M-Thurs. Management has repeatedly told engineering in department meetings that we are expected to work a MINIMUM of 45 hours a week. I really don't want to work 11.25 hour days to make it happen (frankly I'm not going to get 11 hours worth of work done anyway, my attention span just isn't that long.) The only real way to get the hours done in a reasonable way is to work on the off Fridays like many of my coworkers do. This aggravates me because they sold the four ten hour day work week as a benefit at my interview, but then basically tell me that if I want to keep my job I am pretty much going to have to work five days.
The reason is clear: My firm direct bills our customers for our hours. If I work 60 hours this week, the customer gets billed 60 hours, but I get paid for 40. The more I work, the more profit the company makes. Now why the hell should I care? I just don't see what it in it for me. My impression of corporate America is that when times are good the fat cats in upper management take more than their fair share, and maybe, just maybe if you are a good little worker bee and sacrifice your life to the company, you might get thrown some table scraps from the feast, but when times are tough, it is the employees who are expected to make the sacrifices. To me it seems very one sided, I can give 150% but yet be walked out the door tomorrow simply due to a corporate takeover or the whim of some know nothing bean counter looking to boost margins.
Now as a salaried employee I realize that means that uncompensated overtime will be required, but I guess where I depart from what everyone else is that I feel it should be the exception and not the rule. Yes, I realize that stuff happens and in a crunch I might have to work 50,60, or even 70 hours a week to get through the crunch, but I don't feel like I should be expected to put in these kinds of hours every week. I do have a life outside of work you know.
I changed jobs a few months ago. When I was looking I was seriously in the running for another position besides my current employer. I wanted the other job more, but the money wasn't there (They really wanted to hire me but I think they also were really looking for a less senior person to work for less money), but the real tie breaker my current employer sold me on was the four day work weeks. Since I was giving up four weeks of vacation, I figured having every Friday off would make up for losing two weeks of vacation. After all, I looked back over the years and I usually only take one full week off. The rest of my vacation time went to taking long weekends throughout the year. It seemed like a deal too good to pass up.
So I took the job and quickly found out the off Fridays were a benefit that management really doesn't want engineers to use. We are already putting in a ten hour day M-Thurs. Management has repeatedly told engineering in department meetings that we are expected to work a MINIMUM of 45 hours a week. I really don't want to work 11.25 hour days to make it happen (frankly I'm not going to get 11 hours worth of work done anyway, my attention span just isn't that long.) The only real way to get the hours done in a reasonable way is to work on the off Fridays like many of my coworkers do. This aggravates me because they sold the four ten hour day work week as a benefit at my interview, but then basically tell me that if I want to keep my job I am pretty much going to have to work five days.
The reason is clear: My firm direct bills our customers for our hours. If I work 60 hours this week, the customer gets billed 60 hours, but I get paid for 40. The more I work, the more profit the company makes. Now why the hell should I care? I just don't see what it in it for me. My impression of corporate America is that when times are good the fat cats in upper management take more than their fair share, and maybe, just maybe if you are a good little worker bee and sacrifice your life to the company, you might get thrown some table scraps from the feast, but when times are tough, it is the employees who are expected to make the sacrifices. To me it seems very one sided, I can give 150% but yet be walked out the door tomorrow simply due to a corporate takeover or the whim of some know nothing bean counter looking to boost margins.
![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
and it usually happens at 1600 on a Friday (The 'Four O'Clock Friday Foul-up Factor') and that in our business it needs dealing with regardless of time of day or night. What really irritates me is the arrogance of our godforsaken personnel department who refuse to recognise the sacrifices we make in ruined plans and abandoned arrangements to support the business, usually at near-zero notice. They refuse to either remunerate us for our efforts or sanction time off in lieu once things are back on an even keel. In their eyes we're just regular office guys.