Am I wrong in thinking this?

[Kenny_Z]

So my company just did a 50% cut to the work force. I lost some great coworkers. They just changed my hours to tuesday through saturday, to include this saturday. That'd put me at 8 hours overtime except I'm salary, that'd be 8 free hours to a company whose decisions (not exactly legal, can't go into it) just caused a mass layoff. I do not feel right about that. I've just sent an email to my boss and his boss letting them know I'd like that time offered to people who are hourly as overtime hours before I work it. I'll work the time if none of those other people take it but I will not willingly give the company free money. To me it would be like telling every one of those people that their work was so worthless that I will do their jobs for free.

I'm not ungrateful that I still have a job, I feel very blessed to not have been one of those that was cut. But, I can't in good conscious give this company that time without it having been offered to others first. Am I wrong?

[sean]

I don't think you're wrong but it also seems the job market sucks so kinda a catch-22. I'd probably approach them and ask to start this new schedule next week or ask to be off on Tuesday to compensate you for extra day you have to work.

[mluder]

In principle I agree with you completely. But if I understand correctly, they are asking you to work one extra day this week and then subsequently you will be back to a 40 hour week Tues - Sat. They are well within their rights to do that.

Delving a little deeper, it sounds like it's not a place you want to work for very much longer. I'd get out of there if possible. They obviously don't value their employees and are more interrested in making profits for upper management. Not a company I would work for.



So my company just did a 50% cut to the work force. I lost some great coworkers. They just changed my hours to tuesday through saturday, to include this saturday. That'd put me at 8 hours overtime except I'm salary, that'd be 8 free hours to a company whose decisions (not exactly legal, can't go into it) just caused a mass layoff. I do not feel right about that. I've just sent an email to my boss and his boss letting them know I'd like that time offered to people who are hourly as overtime hours before I work it. I'll work the time if none of those other people take it but I will not willingly give the company free money. To me it would be like telling every one of those people that their work was so worthless that I will do their jobs for free.

I'm not ungrateful that I still have a job, I feel very blessed to not have been one of those that was cut. But, I can't in good conscious give this company that time without it having been offered to others first. Am I wrong?

[Farrar]

This is the management style of everyone with an MBA I have ever worked for. And yet my girlfriend is getting her MBA and she hasn't been taught this. So I don't know who teaches the style, but there's evidently a school out there that teaches that in order to maximize profit you can have no regard for your employees as people. Just think of them as work units. Calculate how many work units you need as a skeleton crew, if they all work 150%, do not take lunch or time off, etc. Conduct a mass layoff, leaving only that number of work units. Delegate all of your own work (except for fun stuff like executive lunches, management retreats, and conventions). Instead of hiring new work units, give the existing ones new tasks and more work. They cannot be promoted because they're "indispensable" at their current job. Nonetheless, if they complain about their workload, threaten to fire them and hire a younger, more eager, and cheaper work unit.

Under this scheme, good luck to any worker who wants time off for any reason other than their own illness or a death in the immediate family. The end of overtime is obvious -- salaried workers are cheap if you do it right. There's also the reduced benefits. Watch your pension shrink as you get closer to collecting it. And at the end of the year those leave hours you earned don't roll over, just as your boss planned for them to when he said, "We can't really afford it if you take some time off right now..." over and over and over again.

I have experience with this and it sucks. If you can get out, I suggest you do so, but be warned: managers like this are EVERYWHERE, and the job market is awful these days so be careful.

Good luck.

[pezzonovante88]

You should definitely be compensated (overtime, day-in-lieu) or have the new schedule begin next week.

[Kenny_Z]

It's not the extra work time or the lack of pay for it. I've done a lot worse than that for this company, I worked a 36 hour day once and then after some rest came to work as normal the rest of the week. I didn't expect anything extra for it, it had to be done. I once worked 80 hours a week as a hourly employee and at the end of the week was retroactively made salary so I didn't cost that much. Yeah, I am an idiot. I loved the job though, it was worth it to me. This is more of a matter of principle. If they say "no, work it" I'll work it with a clear conscious.

I'm a lot better at sticking up for other people than I am at sticking up for myself.

[jackb]

What do you do?

[Jonathan]

Farrar is right about the management tactics. Big business doesn't care much about the individuals. I will say that if you've seen a few ethically bad decisions made, you will certainly see more. Sort of like spotting some bugs in your basement, you might have spotted a few, but there are many more down there hiding.

My advice would be to start working on your exit plan. If not solely just because of the sketchy decisions. If they have disregard for over working you, not compensating you and even more to change how you're paid in the process, then in my opinion this company is a good candidate to have someone get hurt because they also make poor decisions on things like overhead crane maintenance, PPE while working with chemicals, locking and tagging out equipment, etc. When bad things happen at companies, it is rarely a freak incident, but instead is usually related to a series of poor decisions. You only have to look as far as Chernobyl, the space shuttle Challenger, or any number of the last few oil rig disasters.

I heard recently, "your job won't love you back" and from what I've seen in the past 15 years is that very few coworkers will be one day coming to your funeral. If your gut feel says something's not right, and you took the time to write this thread, then I think you already know the answer.

Good luck. Yes, the job market might be slow right now, but good companies are always looking for good people.

[Kenny_Z]

I'm a network engineer. I keep internet, voip, and video (iptv) working for a lot of customers. The only reason I've done so much is because of the customers. Every time I worked over it was because we had some really bad issues we were trying to fix. The 80 hour week was because there were local businesses losing money because of our stupid engineer's idea. (he was fired for it) and the 36 hour thing was because of an earthquake in LA, it overloaded the BGP tables in certain cisco models. I literally worked with TAC around the world to get it fixed. When we got back to New York the guys recognized us and were floored that we hadn't swapped out shifts the whole time.

I've already started shopping around. The main problem is that I can't really move to take a job. I can't sell this house for what I owe and my entire family is here. The local jobs in my field require a secret clearance. But, wow...the pay is a lot more than I make now. I may just have to try for that clearance...I'm not a wanted criminal as far as I know ;)

[mluder]

I'm a network engineer. I keep internet, voip, and video (iptv) working for a lot of customers. The only reason I've done so much is because of the customers. Every time I worked over it was because we had some really bad issues we were trying to fix. The 80 hour week was because there were local businesses losing money because of our stupid engineer's idea. (he was fired for it) and the 36 hour thing was because of an earthquake in LA, it overloaded the BGP tables in certain cisco models. I literally worked with TAC around the world to get it fixed. When we got back to New York the guys recognized us and were floored that we hadn't swapped out shifts the whole time.

I've already started shopping around. The main problem is that I can't really move to take a job. I can't sell this house for what I owe and my entire family is here. The local jobs in my field require a secret clearance. But, wow...the pay is a lot more than I make now. I may just have to try for that clearance...I'm not a wanted criminal as far as I know ;)

A-HA! Based on all the evidence to date I have surmised you work for Comcast. ;)

All kidding aside, companies have lost focus on service, both to their employees and to their customers. How many times have you been to the grocery store and encountered long lines and only 2 check stands open? Ever been to Home Depot on a Saturday afternoon and can't find a single emploeey to help you? Has your store replaced humans with self serve checkstands?

All of these are earmarks of a culture that is endemic in the modern american business climate. It began in the 80s but really escelated in the last few years. When the recession hit companies were forced to go lean. When executives found out that they could still operate with half the staff and just pile more work on remaining employees they struck gold. As the economy turned around, instead of highering back workers, they stayed lean and just took home bigger profits.

Now you have a short labor force who is overloaded and could care less about providing quality service to the customer cause they see their bosses don't give a damn about the guy out on the floor. And this is the person that represents the company to the general public.

OK... Gotta put away my soap box.

Cheers.
Steve

[Kenny_Z]

It's not comcast but I have heard some things about them too.

Management did offer it to the hourly guys and one of them took it.

[mluder]

It's not comcast but I have heard some things about them too.

Management did offer it to the hourly guys and one of them took it.

Good to hear.

Steve