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Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

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Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#241

Post by thewarrior »

bokonist wrote: post #51
drewblaisdell wrote: post #9

Perhaps this is a good thread to pose this question. I am a front-end engineer in my early twenties. Right now, 40+ hours a week is doable and I am paid well, but I don't need all of the money I'm earning. I would gladly take a 50% salary cut and work ~20 hours a week. The only problem with this is that I feel like this is a risky thing to bring up with an employer. Has anyone ever had any success getting a good part…

Software is generally a winner-take-all market. Software has zero marginal cost, so the company with the most revenue can invest the most upfront into making a better product, giving it even more revenue. Furthermore, in most cases there is little incentive for customers to ever use the second best product in a segment. So when building software, you not only have to meet the customers needs, you have to meet the cus…

I'm from India , wanted to ask how this logic applies to companies supplying IT Services instead developing original products.

Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#242

Post by xbryanx »

drewblaisdell wrote: post #9

Perhaps this is a good thread to pose this question. I am a front-end engineer in my early twenties. Right now, 40+ hours a week is doable and I am paid well, but I don't need all of the money I'm earning. I would gladly take a 50% salary cut and work ~20 hours a week. The only problem with this is that I feel like this is a risky thing to bring up with an employer. Has anyone ever had any success getting a good part…

You should consider bringing your talents to a mission based non-profit. In many non-profits, half time employees are more common, and the pay will absolutely be less. You might also just find the work that much more meaningful.

Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#243

Post by squarecat »

crusso wrote: post #226
squarecat wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, for the sake of discussion, why wouldn't your big red button pusher take home a majority of the profits? Without them, what do you have? As I understand it, your scenario is how unions justify their continued existence. (If you're not already an American Republican, you really should look into it. trollolol...)

Without them, what do you have? You just hire another shlep who can wake up on time to hit the red button. If you can't find a reliable person to hit the button for you, you do the R&D to automate it. As I understand it, your scenario is how unions justify their continued existence. You're reading an argument that I didn't make. If you're not already an American Republican I'm a libertarian. I believe that if all you…

Admittedly, my second two statements are largely digressions. But as to the first...

My basis was that the button pusher was critical to your business and automation was not feasible, since you would have done that from the beginning. I don't know which economic concept this describes, but the idea is that you are compensating the button pusher based on their absolute, objective value (no pushing, no profit) rather than subjectively (skill-less "schlep").

Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#244

Post by crusso »

Ilmarinen wrote: post #237
crusso wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US and Scandinavia Notice that I mentioned cultural diversity. There is a reason that Scandanavia can manage with a more socialistic government. The gene/meme pool is far less diverse and evolutionarily created reinforcement of good communal practices are already present. A thousand years ago and beyond, if you didn't grok cooperation and thoughtful planning, you starved and died come winter. Scandanavia is like a pe…

> Here, we deal with many self-interested gene/meme contributors who are more self-interested than community-interested. And you Sir are a prime example. In fact, you do everything you can to spread such memes in the society. The irony of that sentence amuses me.

Sure, I do well in an environment where individuality, motivation, and creativity are rewarded. Then again, I'm also a rule follower who would enjoy living in Scandanavia in communities with a strong social conscience, even though it does lead to "lowest common denominator" solutions to problems it faces. In Scandanavia, the lowest common denominator isn't far below the mean, since the society is so homogenous. In the USA, the standard deviation is much greater.

In the end, though, those little petri dish cultures are not where the action is in the world. One merely needs to look at the last 200 years of innovation and invention to have the overwhelming impression that the USA method for technological and economic progress is to be admired and pursued. It's a damned shame that so many people here are hell bent on taking us backward to a one-size-fits-all European style socialistic government.

Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#245

Post by peterhost »

grellas wrote: post #127

The 40-hour week is forever gone in the startup world, and that is simply one of the trade-offs in having moved from a world where big enterprises emphasized long-term relationships with defined pension benefits and health coverage for life to a new world in which such enterprises have faltered and sunk only to be displaced by the startups that disrupted them through technical and other innovations. One can howl at t…

And this is the top ranking comment ? Proof that hacker new is seriously loosing its shit. (Mayb we should call it startup news ?)

Come one, go learn some history. At least the article's writer did know some (a lot)

Re: Bring Back the 40-hour work week (March 2012)

#246

Post by jneen »

jotux wrote: post #113
jneen wrote: post #81

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, since few people seem to know it. If you are a software engineer or IT professional working in California, and are paid less than about 81K a year or $35/hr, you are legally entitled to extra overtime pay. Definitely something to talk to a manager (or a lawyer) about. See http://www.california-labor-law-attorney.com/it-professional... .

FTA: >If you work in the computer industry and do not fall into any of the exemption categories: administrative, professional, executive or the computer software exemption, you may be entitled to overtime pay. Generally non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime and exempt are not. I believe most software/IT professionals hired full time in CA are exempt employees.

I'm pretty sure most "Software Engineer" positions are non-exempt, unless paid above the threshold. I'm not a lawyer, though, so here's the list of exemptions in the law itself (CA Labor Code s. 515.5(b))

    (b) The exemption provided in subdivision (a) does not apply to an
        employee if any of the following apply:
    (1) The employee is a trainee or employee in an entry-level
        position who is learning to become proficient in the theoretical and
        practical application of highly specialized information to computer
        systems analysis, programming, and software engineering.
    (2) The employee is in a computer-related occupation but has not
        attained the level of skill and expertise necessary to work
        independently and without close supervision.
    (3) The employee is engaged in the operation of computers or in
        the manufacture, repair, or maintenance of computer hardware and
        related equipment.
    (4) The employee is an engineer, drafter, machinist, or other
        professional whose work is highly dependent upon or facilitated by
        the use of computers and computer software programs and who is
        skilled in computer-aided design software, including CAD/CAM, but who
        is not engaged in computer systems analysis, programming, or any
        other similarly skilled computer-related occupation.
    (5) The employee is a writer engaged in writing material,
        including box labels, product descriptions, documentation,
        promotional material, setup and installation instructions, and other
        similar written information, either for print or for onscreen media
        or who writes or provides content material intended to be read by
        customers, subscribers, or visitors to computer-related media such as
        the World Wide Web or CD-ROMs.
    (6) The employee is engaged in any of the activities set forth in
        subdivision (a) for the purpose of creating imagery for effects used
        in the motion picture, television, or theatrical industry.
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