[spike021]

I've got a friend on the assembly line in Fremont. He says he doesn't mind the hours too much. However, they basically keep adding extra or overtime shifts to his schedule. I think right now he might be working 5 or 6 day weeks, and I'm fairly sure they're minimum 8 hours, and obviously with overtime could be several hours above that.

Sounds awful, but in some ways isn't that how manufacturing has sort of always been?

[mikestew]

Sounds awful

Sounds better than bustin' ass for 60 hours/week for my base salary. Your friend is getting paid 1.5X for every hour over 40. And, yes, it is not uncommon over the years. My dad would seemingly work every overtime hour given. And at time-and-a-half, so would I.

[lotsofpulp]

50% extra for giving up your time with kids, excercise, sleep, family, and general fun in life sounds like a terrible deal.

[sgc]

it really depends on how much you make and what your cost of living is. In many situations that extra cash is a life changing difference.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

Then you should consider yourself very privileged. Not everyone is in your position.

[lotsofpulp]

The person I was responding to was expressing gratitude at having the opportunity to earn 150% ones normal wage per hour. My point is that it’s not enough to offset the opportunity cost. If anything, employers should be discourage from asking for overtime pay at all, and make it 10x regular pay or something instead of 1.5x so that people can enjoy a better work life balance.

[mikestew]

The person I was responding to was expressing gratitude at having the opportunity to earn 150% ones normal wage per hour.

You working salary at your local tech whatever? How much are they paying you to come in on Saturday? I ask because you seem to have missed the point.

And 1.5x is the employer discouragement. Who wants to pay 50% more because of poor planning?

[lotsofpulp]

I understand what you’re saying, that 50% is better than nothing. Which obviously, I agree with. My contention is that even 50% is not enough to make up for what the worker gives up. Obviously the lack of opportunities may force the employee to accept the arrangement, but I’m speaking about a work life balance overall.

And there are many positions where the cost of hiring/training/retaining employees is higher than 50%, so it’s more advantageous for employers to just give overtime, which employers obviously utilize. But because an employer can force the employee to work overtime, it’s not clearly a beneficial arrangement to both.

[rconti]

vs 0% extra; not so much.

[threeseed]

The problem with overtime is that in most cases it's not a choice.

You either do it or be forced to quit.

[thaumaturgy]

Yeah, I worked for a while for an electronics component manufacturer that had a monthly hockey stick production schedule. For the first half of the month, I came in to work to wipe down my desk and bullshit with my coworkers. For the last week of every month, it was all-hands plus overtime. If the last day of the month happened to be a Monday, the production manager would try really hard to talk you into coming in for the weekend.

It was absurd. Sensible people hated that place, while a lot of other folks just accepted it as normal.

I suspect the conflicting accounts of life at Tesla work out similarly.