overtime for programmers
a programmer working for the knowledge adventure division of vivendi-universal games has sued them for overtime pay on the basis of being asked to submit falsified time reports and being paid less than $44.63 per hour (a cut-off for automatically becoming an exempt employee under the computer-related occupation exemption).
i remember having that timesheet system imposed while working at was then the knowledge adventure division of cendant. or maybe it was vivendi by then. certainly pre-universal.
if only a lawsuit could be filed against the company for turning a place that creates games for kids into a soul-draining sinkhole.
knowledge adventure is the first place i worked where an executive told me that my stock options would be worth more than a million dollars, if i recall correctly.
this is one reason why i don’t work stupid hours.
(link via marcus of the sadly defunct mr. cook.)
Comments
Not that I'm defending any of this, but be careful what you ask for. I have a feeling that a lot of programmers would not be very happy punching a time-card, being made to come in exactly at 9. Because if it turns into an hourly job, that is what will happen. At least in the places I have worked, programers have enjoyed a lot of freedom in how they use there time. Also, because of the nature of bugs, jobs will turn into quota driven tasks, etc.
Ron
yeah, i recall being told by the most senior KA exec in 1995 or so that our stock options would be worth $5, $10, or even $15 a share.
he forgot to mention that my stock would turn out to be worth that much TO HIM. (to ME, it turned out to be worth a whole lot less than that, which explains my ongoing dependence on my job for income.)
don't make assumptions that execs mean what they say they mean, because, clearly, execs mean what they don't say they mean, as long as you understand that what they don't say means something different than what you think they said, or, as in the KA case, what they didn't say.
i think we can all agree these matters are pretty clear, especially marcus, who made out like a bandit on HIS stock options.
Add a comment
Sorry, comments on this post are closed.
Jim it reminds me of the time I was working for an dubious outfit for the past 10 months where they've promised that I would get various things from shares in the company, etc. and things have never materialised from their side. Reminds me of the time I had a job at another dubious outfit a couple of years back.