Re: Exempt status for Tech Writers

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

My "angle" is that I'm trying to make the point (apparently without much 
success) that in the context of a discussion bearing the title of "Exempt status 
for Tech Writers," the words "non-exempt/exempt/hourly/salary/professional" have 
very specific meanings in federal and state labor laws: they determine the 
method an employer is required to use to calculate if and how the hours worked 
by a direct employee *in the current pay period* affect that employee's *next 
paycheck.*  Yes, many employers bill their customers for their employees' 
services by the hour, and yes, most employers use some sort of staffing ROI 
calculation to determine the value of an employee's time, whether it is worth 
the expense of hiring or keeping that employee and how much to budget for that 
employee, but none of these are used to calculate if and how the hours worked by 
that direct employee *in the current pay period* affect that employee's *next 
paycheck,* and they are irrelevant to a discussion bearing the title of "Exempt 
status for Tech Writers," .  The same is true for how being called a 
"professional" or not affects an employee's self image or social status in the 
world, or how people who are not direct employees under state or federal labor 
laws happen to bill their time.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
> Not sure what your angle is, but a doctor's fee structure is time-driven
> like a lawyer's or anybody else's when their professional life is their
> business. The number of patients a doctor sees in a day is predictable
> (it is normal over time), and the amount of money they need to bring in
> is known or predictable. They spread one across the other to determine
> how much revenue each 15-minute time slot has to generate. You're paying
> them for their time, even when the bill is for an exam.

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