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Old 03-25-2010, 08:18 AM   #40 (permalink)
james t kirk
Junkie
 
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Location: Toronto
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stare At The Sun View Post
So, an update!

However, once I started working, the real fun began. They began to ask me to work a few extra minutes off the clock like. Hey, go ahead and punch out, and do that last bit of work on the file there, and I'll see you tomorrow. So it started out innocent enough, but when my off the clock hours started to become more and more frequent I started to do some digging. This was the corporate policy. The store managers were expected to work at least 50 hours a week, and the MIT's were supposed to work more than their 44 paid hours a week.
I found this to be pretty unethical, so once again, my search for a new job resumed.
I was reading this thread thinking it was pretty interesting, but really, all this has happened before and will happen again. (To steal a line from the Hybrid in Battlestar Galactica.)

Then I read the bit about you not liking to put in some extra hours to get the job done. This is the way of the world friend. I've been working like this since I finished University in 1989. (I graduated from Engineering.) If you're in a certain position, work is no longer thought about on an hourly basis. You get a yearly salary divided by 12 or 26 and that's that. You have certain goals to accomplish at work and if you can get them done in 40 hours - good for you. If it takes you 60 hours, it takes you 60 hours.

Here was my last week:

Saturday - fly to Quebec City from Toronto, rent car, drive for another 4 hours to destination in Quebec. = 10 hour day

Sunday - work all day with my boss in the office. Dinner with boss, discuss work till 10 p.m. = 14 hour day

Monday 8 a.m. to till noon in office, get in car drive 8 hours to St. John New Brunswick to prepare for meeting with client. = 14 hour day

Tuesday, meeting in St. John till 2:00 p.m. Drive back to Quebec, arrive office 11:00 p.m. = 15 hour day

Wednesday - all day in office - 8 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. = 10 hour day.

Today, returning to Toronto, in Airport in Quebec City right now. Will be another 10 hour day

Working a 10 hour day 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. is the norm in my industry. Working weekends - expect to work 1 day a weekend (albeit on a more relaxed pace) pretty much every weekend.

Do I get paid for it?

No, I don't get paid by the hour, but my boss just came to me yesterday and said here's a 10 grand travel vouture - take you and your girlfriend to Europe for 2 weeks this summer.

That's why they call it work. Reading your post about not liking the deal - welcome to the way that it is. I would not hire you with a work ethic like that. Sorry. (You packed it in after 3 weeks?) Now I know that working as a Manager Trainee at the video store is not your prefered option and the pay probably wasn't anything spectacular, however, in the kind of work that you're looking for - odds are it won't be an hourly kind of remuneration. As a professional, you cannot approach work as an hourly thing. It just doesn't work that way.

Do I work insane hours every week? No. It's a give and take thing. But 50 hours is an average week. 60 above average. It can go from there.

Last edited by james t kirk; 03-25-2010 at 01:13 PM..
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