I worked at a university in Florida that did this to me. I was being made to work overtime on a few software projects and making a nice little amount of extra money. Then one day I found out that I was being "promoted" to a manager title. No raise or any extra benefits, but I was no longer allowed to get overtime. It was part of a campus-wide initiative to cut costs. And now that I was a manager I was expected to wor…
> I worked at a university in Florida that did this to me.
Florida academia and pay fuckery, name a more iconic duo. FIU Alumni and Ex-Employee Here.
In my country there is a legal difference between an employee and a manager position, so just giving the title alone doesn't mean anything. There is nothing really different about it in reality, but to truly be a manager you need to have a different job contract.
Additionally there is a limit on the ratio of managers to employees, if it's too high can get you in trouble with the labour board. When my company opened an office here, the first thing they did was hire the managers who then hired the team below them - but due to the limit not everyone could have the manager title at first.
> 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.
A lot of unions directly block solving disputes, choosing instead to deny all disputes. I know one union that was perfectly happy letting government workers make sox figures while "working" from home, while they produced objectively zero work over a period of months. These were the type of workers that would keep government equipment after retiring, quitting, or rarely being fired, requiring the government to send of…
> I know one union that was perfectly happy letting government workers make sox figures while "working" from home, while they produced objectively zero work over a period of months.
"Companies save billions of dollars by giving employees fake “manager” titles" is fraud. If you do not like unions because ONE did something that you do not like , how much do you hate companies were you have thousands of examples of bad behavior?
> As much as I dislike Thune power corporations can hold, unions are not a fix all and can become the same overlords.
I do not know what concept do you have about unions, but it seems come from anti-union propaganda and not from any reasonable definition of what a union is. Unions gave us the eight hour work week, vacations and many more rights. That is not "overlord" behavior but being able to negotiate with powerful corporations.
I’ve said it before but I’ll keep pounding the drum that the FLSA needs to be completely rewritten.
Any work more than 8 hours in a day should result in overtime pay regardless of type of work or base salary.
It’s ridiculous that companies can force people to work 24/7 with no extra pay just because those people happen to work with computers or in "knowledge" work.
And even developers/IT folks are largely not making FAANG money. They're working at hospitals/insurance companies making the equivalent of what a factory worker made in the 1950s.
I guess this is news if you study at Harvard Business School, not so much if you've had a job in industry anytime in the past 30 years.
This is even a trope on sitcoms and has been forever. lol
Every teenager who has ever had a job at a convenient store/fast food/restaurant/hotel/etc knows this. Enough of the population simply likes it because it keeps prices low for them, and maybe some of them justify it themselves by having been already subjected to it.
I worked in IT for a large Telco, as an "Application Manager". I managed nobody and was responsible for a few big systems (but not accountable, an important distinction)
Eventually getting to know the union rep it was widely accepted they had added "Manager" to the title of every salaried employee so they didn't have to pay overtime, could call you in after hours, etc.
It made us smile when even 18 year old call centre people had "Manager" in their title on their first day at their first job.
I expect the IRS will start regulating this the way they did the abuse of contractors.
The result will screw some people for whom the arrangement (contractor / exempt) works will, will make the paperwork tedious, but will overall help most workers.
In my country there is a legal difference between an employee and a manager position, so just giving the title alone doesn't mean anything. There is nothing really different about it in reality, but to truly be a manager you need to have a different job contract. Additionally there is a limit on the ratio of managers to employees, if it's too high can get you in trouble with the labour board. When my company opened a…
My first thought as an easy fix for this was similar to what you are suggesting - I was thinking to be truly qualified as a manager you need to have at least 1 or 2 direct reports over a certain period of time or else you don’t qualify. I think in practice that is essentially almost the same as the ratio requirement you are talking about.
The key take-away here is to know what you're doing. Schools don't teach this stuff. High school doesn't teach personal finance to a necessary degree, nor do they teach kids the realities of both the job market and the impact & traps of a college education. They've been geared themselves to feed the college industry with fresh victims and leave students with "passion" ...a passion that cannot pay the bills. We need a fundamental shift from college tracks to productivity tracks. Teach kids how to manage money, file taxes, start businesses, tinker, invent, start trade businesses, and bring back shop class. Dump the idea that you need a college degree to be successful, you don't, unless you are committed to entering a profession like medical, law, or applied sciences. The failings of today are the result of the shortcomings and bad ideas of 20 - 40 years ago. The amazing part is that this can be fixed in a single generation with the right leadership, will, and plan; which mind you has already been written and executed successfully but 70 years ago.
Banks have been doing this for decades. If you're not a VP within 3 months some may wonder if something is wrong with you.
Some of the answers excuse this as "only a VP has signing authority." That probably accounts for some of the VP titles. I kinda doubt that all the VPs in your average BofA office are always signing things, and couldn't possibly just go to their boss for a signature, like normal people do.
I was under the impression it was partially a client relations thing; "Oh, I'm talking to a vice president of the bank! I must be important!"