RE: Average hours worked

[Michele Marques <msmarques -at- rogers -dot- com>]

I don't believe in clock-watching, but I also don't believe in unlimited 
uncompensated hours worked.

The arguments I have seen so far against complaining about working 50 - 
80 hours/week seem to be (not necessarily in order of importance):

(1) You should love what you do for work (and thus, it is a joy to work 
rather than a chore) or else find other work (or work where the number 
of hours will be in line with what you expect).

(2) You are given a job to do, and should either work the long hours or 
find some way to work harder/smarter to get it done quicker.

(3) You're not hired/paid to work a set number of hours but to get a job 
done, which may or not be within 40 hours/week.

(4) As a salaried employee you are working by the job (task) and not by 
the hour.

(5) A plumber (or other contractor) who quotes you 1 hour to complete a 
job would only charge your 1 hour even if the job took 4 hours (if there 
weren't unforseen circumstances or a large change in what was expected).

My counter arguments are:

(1) Just because I love technical writing doesn't mean that I love every 
aspect about my job as a technical writer. I also love having an 
opportunity to do some things outside of my job. My love of the job 
means that usually I end up putting in somewhat more than my forty hours 
without extra compensation, but aren't enough for me to work 60 
hours/week without extra compensation ... and even with extra 
compensation, there's a limit as to how much I'm willing to work 60 
hours/week.

(2) The job I am given to do may or may not fit within the amount of 
time my employer and I agree are the general number of hours I am 
expected to work. There may not be any way to work harder/smarter ... or 
I may only figure out these methods by experience, in which case the 
next assignment I am given will require less time.

(3) Although I'm not paid to work a set number of hours, my contract 
also doesn't specify number of manuals per month. Also, during lulls, I 
doubt my employer would let me get away with working 10 - 20 hours in a 
week (although I could schedule vacation time for lulls).

(4) As a salaried employee, I'm not really working either by the task or 
by the hour, but by some not-clearly defined combination. If I were a 
contractor, I might have bid on a specific job. If my bid were a fixed 
price bid, I wouldn't be compensated for extra hours, but I might be 
kicking myself if I hadn't estimated the number of hours correctly. As a 
salaried employee, my employer assigns tasks and due dates and I may or 
may not be able to negotiate some form of compensation for extra work 
required for a specific project. I do expect to see some form of 
compensation eventually.

(5) Yes, if I tell my employer it will take 100 hours to get a job done 
and it ends up taking longer, I am willing to work the extra hours 
without extra compensation. But next time I will realize that the job 
requires extra time (unless I have learned some better approaches to 
accomplishing the task.) If my employer asks for an estimate and they 
still want me to work 60 hours per week (for at least a month) to 
accomplish the task, I do expect to see some compensation. It doesn't 
necessarily have to be overtime, but I do expect to be rewarded for my 
extra effort.

- Michele Marques
http://members.rogers.com/msmarques






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