5 ms·

> My last company tried very hard to make me "on call" without any extra compensation. I had a company try the same shit (on top of even more shit). Took a job

by 67726e 11y ago

> My last company tried very hard to make me "on call" without any extra compensation. I had a company try the same shit (on top of even more shit). Took a job, the pay was... not terrible. However they oddly took the time to stress that as a programmer I am exempt for overtime. After a while I was put as the "on-call" guy for deployments and crashes. I thought it was just during work hours, since we had dedicated sysadmins at the company, but it was in fact nights and weekends. The fact that they hid that during the interview and waited a couple months in when any other job offers I would have had dried up can only be a calculated move on their part. When they asked me if it was going to be a problem, I told them yes, I quit. If you're going to try to take whole weeks of my free-time for the company you sure as shit better compensate me for it. I'm not going to spend my weekends sitting around the house when I could be out hiking, kayaking, or fishing and spending time with my friends. Especially not when you go out of your way to stress you don't owe me anything additional, and especially not when it's done in such a conniving manner.

samstave 11y ago
Yeah, I've worked at places where we give everyone a bonus for being on call for a period. This was years ago, but I think we added $500 to anyone's paycheck if they spent the week during that period to be on call.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
  We did this for a couple years and it worked out well. So well, that some people would take the "on-call" phone in exchange for your cash (the co. paid out in Visa gift cards) since there was really only a small chance that there would be a support call anyway. Once Finance decided they weren't too happy with how the IRS might view that, the payments were canceled. And since the devs weren't dumb enough to work for free, support was scaled back to office hours only.
  - jonas21 11y ago
    Hmm... I wonder why they thought the IRS would have a problem with that. I used to work for a large tech company that, at the end of each quarter, would count the number of weeks you were on call, multiply that by $X, and then pay that to you as a bonus. It would get reported on your W2 and have taxes withheld, just like any other bonus.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
      That was the problem. Apparently, in order to cut down on paperwork, someone had just bought a bunch of $x gift cards and they were handed out to the people on support each week. As a one-time thing, it probably wouldn't have been a problem, but as an ongoing perk, it needed to be taxed like a bonus.
      - samstave 11y ago
        The idea of taxing bonuses so heavily is an idea that should die in a fire. that said, the IRS should cap bonuses to some level - such that the bonuses in the finance industry are eliminated.
        AndrewDucker 11y ago
        Bonuses are pay. They should be treated exactly the same as any other pay.

by 67726e 11y ago

samstave 11y ago

Yeah, I've worked at places where we give everyone a bonus for being on call for a period. This was years ago, but I think we added $500 to anyone's paycheck if they spent the week during that period to be on call.

HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
We did this for a couple years and it worked out well. So well, that some people would take the "on-call" phone in exchange for your cash (the co. paid out in Visa gift cards) since there was really only a small chance that there would be a support call anyway. Once Finance decided they weren't too happy with how the IRS might view that, the payments were canceled. And since the devs weren't dumb enough to work for free, support was scaled back to office hours only.
- jonas21 11y ago
  Hmm... I wonder why they thought the IRS would have a problem with that. I used to work for a large tech company that, at the end of each quarter, would count the number of weeks you were on call, multiply that by $X, and then pay that to you as a bonus. It would get reported on your W2 and have taxes withheld, just like any other bonus.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
    That was the problem. Apparently, in order to cut down on paperwork, someone had just bought a bunch of $x gift cards and they were handed out to the people on support each week. As a one-time thing, it probably wouldn't have been a problem, but as an ongoing perk, it needed to be taxed like a bonus.
    - samstave 11y ago
      The idea of taxing bonuses so heavily is an idea that should die in a fire. that said, the IRS should cap bonuses to some level - such that the bonuses in the finance industry are eliminated.
      - AndrewDucker 11y ago
        Bonuses are pay. They should be treated exactly the same as any other pay.