Why I Don't Do Unpaid Overtime and Neither Should You

Post by Tichy » Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 4:50 PM UTC

batista wrote: post #101

Tichy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't read all of what you wrote, just one question: if there is freedom of contract, why wouldn't an employee be free to negotiate a contract that can't be cancelled on short notice?

Didn't read all of what you wrote, just one question: if there is freedom of contract, why wouldn't an employee be free to negotiate a contract that can't be cancelled on short notice? Because the power is on the side of the guy giving the job, not on the guy having to pay mortgage and feed a family with two kids. Sought after, rock-start, "I'll shop around", programmers are by definition few and far between. And eve…

Post by bdunbar » Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

Spoom wrote: post #131

bdunbar wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory shouldn't there be health insurers who are willing to ensure you just as long as you pay your rates? There are, in actual fact, insurance companies in the US that will do this. Some make it a business to cater to self-employed folks who don't have company insurance. It's been a while since I thought about this, but (IIRC) the 'private companies pay for insurance' deal got started in World War II, as a perk.…

Having been a contractor previously, I can tell you that the main reason I moved over to being a full time developer for a company (complete with 1.5 hour commute) was that no private plan would cover both myself and my wife, mostly due to various medical reasons associated with my wife that I won't get into here. Suffice it to say that the only way we could get her covered without a ridiculous deductible and per-mon…

Post by jandrewrogers » Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 4:54 PM UTC

troels wrote: post #59

x5315 wrote: post #21

I work at Twitter, where i regularly work longs hours (my standard work day is something like 10 - 19:30) and am frequently on call. I even spend time at the weekends thinking and hacking on specific problems. I feel that the author's post doesn't apply in my case, because: - Some of the problems i work on are amazing. They're interesting and fun, and i enjoy them outside the normal "work hours". - Twitter has an "un…

> Twitter has an "unlimited"—be respectful to your team—holiday policy. I've probably taken about 6-7 weeks off in my one and a quarter years here. Curious as to how these things work in the states. I take it that you pay for the time off from your salary? (E.g. you don't get any for the period) Do you have any time off that is paid by your employer?

Post by snowwrestler » Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

urbanjunkie wrote: post #55

grellas wrote: post #48

The U.S. has a strong free enterprise foundation and its laws reflect this. Freedom of contract remains the rule even though it is much criticized in some circles and has been hedged considerably over the years. In employment, the old rule was that you could pretty much fire anyone at will for any reason and, if you did, you incurred no legal consequence. This is pure freedom of contract. In time, this unrestricted f…

"I don't believe that most such employees see their work as "slavery" when they have to work excessive hours. I think they see it as career development" That made me laugh. "Top executives" typically have compensation packages that, to some degree, directly tie their compensation to the overall company performance. Thus, the harder they work, the more likely it is that the company will perform to or above expectation…

Post by henrikschroder » Tue, Feb 28, 2012, 5:08 PM UTC

ootachi wrote: post #147

dpritchett wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd imagine the only time you'd see an economic rationale for systematically overworking your team would be in a moon shot / burn the ships scenario, neither of which seems necessary for a service company. Perhaps if the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was a buyout in the tens of millions you'd be tempted as a part owner. Even then the front-line employees being whipped would be unlikely to get a significant pi…

Long hours are the key to profitability, as Philip Greenspun put it: "From a business point of view, long hours by programmers are a key to profitability. A programmer probably needs to spend 25 hours per week...Thus a programmer who works 55 hours per week is twice as productive as one who works 40 hours per week.... A product is going to get out the door much faster if it is built by 4 people working 70-hour weeks…