141–150 of 202 posts
Was once a senior engineer at a small-ish office of a fairly large company. We had a particularly high-strung junior engineer that was prone to throwing fits if he didn't get his way. Apparently, one day, he threatened to quit for another offer. He was placated with some trivial pay increase and promotion to lead engineer (essentially leap-frogging the other seniors in the office in title - but not in pay). Except no…
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My coworkers and I used to joke that at banks, even cleaning staff get VP titles.
Banks hand out VP titles like candy so that the customers think they're hot stuff and being treated well.
There's more nuance to this topic than "Company bad! They trick dumb labor into a bad deal!" Money isn't the only form of compensation a job can provide. Give a low level worker a $0.43 cent raise, and they won't give a crap, it's not enough to change anything. But give them an 'employee of the month' medal and a new title, arguably worth much less than $0.43 cents, and they may actually prefer it! It's something for…
I’ve noticed that in larger technology companies there has also been a trend towards getting a “Manager” title but leading a team of 1-2 people. Maybe there will be intent to grow this to 3-4 people or more in future years, but that hinders giving others a title and their own small team (which can be considered career progression). Then you might see another leader (Manager of Managers, or “MoM”) who has 5 of these s…
You can go become a senior or lead developer in some companies with only two years of experience, but the head of the local very large international airport is a director.
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It's not "flexible" either. It's "non-accrued". The only reason it's non-accrued is so that the company doesn't have to pay you left over PTO when you leave the company and gets it off their books. Everything else is a euphemism to make employees feel good about getting fewer benefits. You could have this flexibility with accrued PTO. I've previously given employees additional, off-the-books time off because they nee…
One hint is that you only see this in jurisdictions without strong labor laws around PTO. Some places, you have to give at least X weeks accrued a year for all full time employees (might be laddered by tenure) and you have to allow them at least Y continuous days/weeks per year; they may also have to to spend all of their accrued time within a short-ish window (limited rollover). In this sort of environment, I've nev…
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Unionization is amazing. I do not know why especially people in US are so against this. Did they just gave up and are okay with the big corps fucking them over withouth having any leverage?
Living in America is expensive, wages are relatively low, and long labor fights result in financial devastation that might take years to recover from despite some of the gains being virtually negligible in terms of real impact on the wallets of employees. There are many people, especially of boomer age, who are still haunted by long-term strikes. Strikes have more of an effect when they're against smaller companies.…
source?
Was once a senior engineer at a small-ish office of a fairly large company. We had a particularly high-strung junior engineer that was prone to throwing fits if he didn't get his way. Apparently, one day, he threatened to quit for another offer. He was placated with some trivial pay increase and promotion to lead engineer (essentially leap-frogging the other seniors in the office in title - but not in pay). Except no…
I worked for a restaurant that did this to me. To make sure I hit the "minimum hours" (when you start talking about hours vs tasks or responsibilities you probably aren't getting into a legitimate salary arrangement) they would have me clock in and out, and I'd get pay stubs with 40 hours (less if I worked less) and the overtime hours paid at $0. They withheld my last paycheck when I quit and stopped responding to my…
When I was an 11 year old, I got a job working for a local swim club. I'd go to the property, open the gate, and clean the grounds and take out the trash. They figured since I wasn't technically old enough to work, they could pay me $2.30 an hour when $4.25 was the minimum wage at the time. I adjusted my recorded hours versus worked hours accordingly. Given that there were no cameras on premises, the timesheets were…
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If you're employed "at will" (and almost everyone in the US is) you can't refuse "promotions." From the company's perspective they are deciding to no longer employ you for position a, but they are simultaneously offering to employ you for position b. You can take it or leave it. Employment "at will" means either the employer or employee can end the relationship at any time for any reason or no reason at all.
> If you're employed "at will" (and almost everyone in the US is) you can't refuse "promotions." From the company's perspective they are deciding to no longer employ you for position a, but they are simultaneously offering to employ you for position b. You can take it or leave it. That's not correct. Being employed at will means that you _can_ be let go for refusing a promotion (or just about any other reason) but it…
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As a small government advocate, i have no issue with labor boards. the alternative is violence or unionization, neither of which are optimal in resolving disputes like these in a civilized and efficient manner.
> the alternative is violence or unionization, neither of which are optimal in resolving disputes like these in a civilized and efficient manner. Unionization is a great way of solving disputes. Many big corporations need to be counter-weight with some other big organization. To put violence and unions at the same level seems uncalled for.
There is however a third choice, which is government regulation. Unfortunately government regulations can't adapt as quickly as a union can to changes.
Maybe the relatively inflexibility of regulation is what is needed to maintain a minimum necessary commitment to living wages and reasonable benefits though.