On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 22:05:41 GMT, wmbjk
wrote:
On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 17:52:43 GMT, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

There are a lot of companies who view making someone "management" a
cheap way to get an overtime-exempt slave, where they can saddle you
with 80+ hour weeks as a 'salaried' or 'exempt' employee, including
covering every shift where an employee calls in sick or just doesn't
bother to show up... Beware.

Missed shifts? Naw. Hey, if you're a *good* manager you'll only hire
employees who show up, and have backups on call for when they don't.
:-) Long hours slaving over the books? Sounds like most small
businesses. Think of it this way - apparently with only two weeks
experience, you can find out *exactly* what it's like being the owner
of a small business, except you'll be making more money than most of
them.

Backup employees on call? Give me a break... I know of one
convenience store manager who caught every employee in the store in
collusion and all systematically stealing from the till, fired the lot
of them - and then couldn't get anyone hired (or borrow employees from
another store) to cover the night shifts. Oops...

He ended up working 24 hours for a week. He had to have the
regional manager come in and cover the store for a shift during the
day so he could go home and get a few hours uninterrupted sleep and a
shower. And all this at a flat salary.

If I EVER get offered a salaried position, working hours are going
to be covered in that contract. I might allow them a little slack for
emergencies, but anything over 40 or 45 hours is going to be paid for,
either in OT or comp time off. Or they can hire me an assistant to
take some the load. Period.

I don't live to work, I work to live. I don't have much of a life
outside of work, but that's a separate problem... :-P

BTW, this branch of the thread got started partly because Gunner said
he drives 65k miles to get to work. At 55 mph, that's ~150 8 hour
days a year of LA freeway misery *before* he even starts turning the
wrenches. Not to mention the fuel, vehicle maintenance etc. Tuning up
the slurpee machine on his break would be a piece of cake by
comparison. :-)

If I was Gunner, I'd fix up a small fully self-contained motorhome &
a compact car Toad for errands, or a pickup and a self-contained
travel trailer. If you are going to be working somewhere for a few
days or weeks, rather than a killer commute to Fresno every night you
drive your house down and stay there. The "per diem" should cover the
gas both ways if you work it right.

Make the clients set aside a small /secured/ place to park, and
provide power & phone hook-ups. Or internet - if the company has a
highspeed T1 or SDSL Net connection you can run 100-baseT out there
and use Vonage for your phone.

As an added bonus, if Gunner can't get his house problems sorted
out, he still has a home - a little one riding on radial tires. ;-)

-- Bruce --
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.