[OrangeCoconut]

It's sad that so many companies force overtime without compensation. My time is the most valuable thing in the world to me, I couldn't imaging being given the choice of donating it to my company or finding another job. Maybe I'm just lucky to have avoided that situation so far?

I understand that there might be times when it's necessary but they should be few and far between.

[briansmith]

Hours and wages are negotiated between the employee and the employer.

Everybody should know how many hours a week they are expected to work and/or be on call before they start. And, you can ask for that in writing. If you ask them "how many hours a week am I expected to work" and they say "40", but they fire you for working less than 60, then the company defrauded you. But, if they say "60" and they fire you for working less than 60 then you only have yourself to blame.

If you have a written statement about the hours you are required to work or be on call, you can pretty much never be fired for failure to work more without compensation. Get it in writing.

[helveticaman]

What if they fire you for some shitty pretext?

[briansmith]

Let's say your employer lied to you in the interview, then fired you because you stuck to the original agreement. Then they lied about the reason they fired you so that you will have a difficult time getting unemployment benefits and you will have no reference to use for future interviews. What should you do?

A lawyer will be able to give you much better advise than I can. My guess is that your lawyer will help you get a nice little severance package and help ensure that your lying, cheating employer provides you with a solid reference to help you attain future employment.

I am not saying that you should get a lawyer so that you can sue them; I am just saying that a lawyer will be very helpful to understand the situation and for negotiating the terms of your departure. A lawyer's stationary is a very valuable negotiation tool.

Obviously, you should never sign anything or agree to anything, without your lawyer's advice. I think such a sneaky employer might try to trick you into signing away your rights immediately when they fire you. But, if you refuse to sign, what are they going to do? Fire you again?

[Tamerlin]

Federal regulations already set that constraint no matter what the hiring manager says.

[briansmith]

The federal regulations regarding overtime are very easy to work around. Regardless, it is always a better idea to agree to explicitly agree to terms up front instead of implicitly relying on what the law says; the law is a means of last resort.

Plus, for the right amount of money, a lot of people will be happy to ignore the federal regulations. I would take $10K a week for 80 hour weeks, for example.

[babul]

If you work hard, you should be rewarded (in a way that is meaningful to you). It is that simple.

However, practices like this are rife throughout industry.

[noonespecial]

We should call it what it is. When a company forces you to work more than the hours indicated in your job description when you signed on without additional compensation this is called stealing.

From now on, in place of "long hours" or "overtime" we should simply state... "Yeah my company had a big project due so they stole about 20 hours each from us last month", or "Our employer steals from us all the time, they call it 'being a team player' or something...". In fact, mention theft at every opportunity when discussing required extra hours. It works for the RIAA and music, it should work for the cube dweller too.

[allenbrunson]

i can certainly understand your frustration, but two wrongs don't make a right. if you use inflammatory language, you are only going to harden the position of the people on the other side.

a better tactic is to try to get employers to empathize with their employees. if they fully understood the anguish they are causing, they would be less likely to continue such policies. if that doesn't work, vote with your feet: work somewhere else.

it's a sad thing about getting angry: you yourself are negatively affected by it far more than those you are angry with. it's better to remove yourself from a negative situation than it is to flail around in it, making yourself feel worse.

[pchristensen]

You're using the RIAA as a mode of how to be successful and happy?

It's not stealing since you're still getting paid. It's just that the more hours over 40 (or whatever you expected), the lower your hourly pay goes. If you feel like you're working more hours than you agreed to, bring it up with HR or your boss or whatever. They should either lower your hours or increase your pay. If they won't do either, you should find a better job. Life is too short to feel cheated every day at work.

[blogimus]

Its not stealing because the music label is still being paid. I bought 1 CD from Sony and copied 9 others. Its just that their price per CD is lower.

[pchristensen]

Well, if you're working 400 hours a week and only getting paid for 40, you've got serious problems.

If you're getting fixed compensation, make sure you know the expected hours before you accept the offer. If they ask you to work more than that, renegotiate or refuse. If you're getting paid by the hour, then you're being compensated so no worries. Don't be afraid of the labor market - it's good times right now.