There are a lot of jobs that require out of hours support, specifically those that aren’t tied to business hours. In tech at least, many of the sites and services you use are built off the backs of software engineers that are paged at 5am because latency is a little higher than normal.
I don’t raise this to say that this rule is bullshit, but to say that there are a lot of arguments that will be used to push people to work longer than their allotted hours. IMO this is absolutely required, but I would go further and say that any contact outside of working hours implies a working contract, and guarantees that the employee is paid for the disruption caused. That includes on-call too, which is often unpaid.
Labor laws in the US are, frankly, hilariously bad. You deserve unlimited sick pay, at least 25 days holiday (separate from sick leave), and the removal of at-will employment. What is described here is the bare minimum of what you should have.
Those of us who admin critical systems know when we’re responsible and know which folks call us regarding those systems. I’m not answering a call from a random manager but If the engineering chain calls, they don’t abuse the privilege.
There are a lot of jobs that require out of hours support, specifically those that aren’t tied to business hours. In tech at least, many of the sites and services you use are built off the backs of software engineers that are paged at 5am because latency is a little higher than normal.
There is a very easy solution to this dilemma: pay someone to stand ready at off-hours.
While true, there are some complications to this:
- Unsociable hours usually require more pay
- If you’re already working 40 hours a week, focusing on stuff out of hours is going to be hard. I know this all too well!
IMO, this is EXACTLY where outsourcing should be used. Either move someone from the US (or your home country) to where you need support, ensure you have a good triage system for issues that might come up, etc.
I worked retail for 10+ years, and never once did I receive more pay for working on weekends, nor have I ever met anyone who has.
What is complicated? You give two bullet points and a potential solution that all fall under the umbrella of “paying someone.” This solves the problem.
It’s a simple solution to what’s a more nuanced problem.
Be honest. If faced with the choice to cut hours/roles, move roles overseas, or to “pay more”, do you think many business owners will do the latter?
You need to consider the nuance here, otherwise you find a similar situation to the minimum wage rises, where businesses complain about the operations not being viable because they need to start treating workers like humans.
Yes, I agree. We definitely need to consider the “nuance” of a situation where business is asked to treat their workers like human beings.
My first job in the late 90s did just that - 1 hour pay for every 8 on call. 4 hours when you get a call (even if it took 5 minutes.)
Hey guess what, some people have to work on weekends too. Seems like we were able to figure that one out no problem.
says the guy who definitely blows up his employee’s phones after hours
…and is irritated when he gets after hours calls.
Yeah he is one of those that won’t respond when people try to work out if issue is resolved
Oh, you just know that dickbag has an answering service, still. My asshole of a father did until he retired earlier this year.
If employees start ignoring their boss’s calls, texts, and emails outside of work hours, an after-hours emergency might have to wait until the next business day, which O’Leary finds unacceptable.
Did this fucking fascist consider hiring more staff and going 24/7? How is it the problem of salaried workers that their boss is too fucking cheap to hire enough people to get the level of support that he wants?
I made this a few years ago, about 6 months before walking out on a job I’d had for 11 years.
Fuck all these sociopaths. Right in the ear. With a rusty spoon.
And all these laws have carveouts for emergencies. Although I have a feeling Mr O’Leary would probably count having to do a presentation on Monday morning for some guy he met golfing over the weekend an emergency.
If your service needs to operate 24/7, then it needs to be staffed 24/7. If it doesn’t need to operate 24/7, then staff will resolve the issue during normal work hours. Most businesses have IT teams stagger their start time so that someone comes in early and can deal with issues that may have risen the night before and prior to other employees arriving.
he said in a clip he shared of a recent interview with Fox News
ahh yes, as broadcasted to the group who are consistently brainwashed to vote against their own best interests. mission accomplished
Fuck you, pay me.
but that’s why we made you salary with low wages!
He’s also ignoring the fact that if your job’s responsibilities are mission-critical, chances are you have a contract which stipulates situations in which you can be contacted after hours. It’s about Joe Schmoe IT guy being called in at 7pm while he’s having dinner with his family and being told to come to work because Greg the assistant to the Sales VP forgot his password again. Greg can fuck right off until tomorrow morning.
The server going down at 2am is mission-critical and the guy in charge of it will definitely be answering that call to fix it.
At my job we’re expected to at least try to be available if needed after hours which in my 3 years here has happened once and it took about 30 minute and I waited until my son went to bed for the night.
In return we get to leave for doctors appointments, picking up kids, errands etc without having to use PTO or make up the time. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the developers and no one abuses it to much.
At my old job they tried to get us to work after hours pretty frequently for a fraction of what our hourly rate was, we were salaried but when you broke it down you’d be getting like $20 an hour instead of $50. Ridiculous and almost no one did it.
Right, but he’s placing a subtle idea on people that wage theft isn’t a thing, overtime shouldn’t be a thing, and we shouldn’t have regulation for that. There’s a reason SREs get paid so much money, and it’s because it’s in their contract that they have to be the ones to rotate shifts and be up at 2am during an upgrade or otherwise, and he’s just mad he can’t pay everyone less and make more money
Just average capitalist things. Nothing to see here.
You beat me to it 😂
The only correct answer. Pay for that availability if needed around the clock.
Call his ass after hours constantly and see how he likes it.
Two way street, right Kevin…? What an ass.
It’s valid. I don’t check email unless I’m at work, fire me.
Fuckers like this make me regret my career in IT
Kevin O’Leary is a cunt. Yeah, I said it.
I know people who live around where his wife was driving the boat and got in an accident and the people in the other boat died.
They all think she took the fall for him and he was drinking and he was the one driving. They were both drinking let’s be real - heading home from dinner on one of the most exclusive cottage lakes in Canada gimme a break.
Their opinion is he should have been charged and guilty.
The wife got back to the dock and took a big drink if I recall correctly to “calm her nerves” - oldest trick in the book.
Anyway, this shithead says what?
As usual they get to live and their innocent victims pay the price.
You know what would be awesome? If Kevin O’Leary died in a house fire, trapped and begging for his life.
Is that harsh? I gave up caring years ago. These people have every possible resource at their disposal to not be absolute pieces of shit. But they just can’t stop doing shit that leaves millions of people dead, injured, or much more commonly, in a state of poverty or near poverty for their entire lives because these assholes never learned how to share.
So I’ll say it again: I hope Kevin O’Leary dies in some excruciatingly painful way. Bonus points if him being a jackass kicks it off and he has to suffer the consequences of his own actions.
I didn’t know who he is until this thread, but from the few articles I’ve since read about him, I absolutely hope he dies slowly from acid burns over 95% of his body.
Just a gargantuan piece of shit, the embodiment of capitalism and the perfect, unfiltered example of why it will never really work.
Fuck Kevin O’Leary.
🍽
Kevin O’Leary should be in a gulag.
“Billionaire who benefits financially from harassing his employees after hours instead of staffing those hours mad at concept that you shouldn’t do that.”
Repost with that as the title.
