Programmer's unpaid overtime.

[Kent Ross]

Is it fair for programmers to work long hours of overtime and not get
paid for the work? If you are a programmer who has been working for a
while you probably
know there can be some issues with not getting paid for overtime.
Companies can take advantage of programmers with the long hours needed
to complete projects. If you feel you are having difficulty getting
paid for what you have
done, you are not alone. There are people out there who are willing to
lend a hand. Check out this site:
http://www.bigclassaction.com/class_action/computer.html
You can send them a complaint for free and they pass them along to
lawyers for evaluation. This one seems to be specifically for
programmers who have worked for Computer Sciences Corporation. There
is, however, lots of other info on the site that might be more to what
you need, but this is a currently hot subject. I hope this might help
somebody out.

kr0

 

[Cloud Burst]

1. My supervisor gives me a task. I agree on the timeline. I'm on
the hook for delivering it. If that ends up meaning overtime,
so be it.

2. My supervisor says "This needs to be done by Tuesday!", I do my
best. If that means working overtime, so be it. I think that's
why God created bonuses, stock options, and comp time. Oh yeah,
and pizza and Chinese take out.

2. Programming is an art, not a science. I've personally never had
the luxury of working from specs that even came close to being
blueprints that specified exactly what, and how, I would do my
job. Sheesh, half the fun of programming is DOING IT MY WAY!

3. Just what we need -- an "us against them" pendulum swing. I'm
100% against such a thing.

4. Perhaps I'm still naive...

CB

 

[Kevin]

3. Just what we need -- an "us against them" pendulum swing. I'm
100% against such a thing.

4. Perhaps I'm still naive...

Besides, consider the money most software engineers are making (less
glamorous now, granted, but especially consider a few years ago). Now
consider the money you'd be making at a physically-labour-intensive
alternate job (construction foreman, plumber, electrical contractor). I
think we "code monkeys" are being paid very well for our (comparatively
easier) work!

(though being laid off two years ago in the dot-com bubble burst certainly
wasn't fun..)

 

[nos]

yaw, but not as fun as working in a
spa providing high colonics

 

[RGonzalez]

It isn't fair, but when you have 3 Indians ready to do your job for $7 an
hour, you'd better start "burning the midnight oil" or they will do it for
you!

 

[nos]

a friend of mine is being replaced by some guy for $300/month
more like a buck eighty

 

[Anton V. Goldberg]

It isn't fair, but when you have 3 Indians ready to do your job for $7 an
hour, you'd better start "burning the midnight oil" or they will do it for
you!

Better be good enough so they can not replace you with any number of
Indians.
Anton V. Goldberg

 

[delusion]

If you feel you are having difficulty getting

paid for what you have
done, you are not alone. There are people out there who are willing to
lend a hand. Check out this site:
http://www.bigclassaction.com/class_action/computer.html
You can send them a complaint for free and they pass them along to

This to me seems to be pretty standard. Working for an outfit in
manchester once I had to drive down to london in the early morning
install software configure comms train and drive back up again which
meant i'd be back at 10pm as a complete zombie as I recall. I did
that for months and months with no overtime. Seems to me that
employers must think we are glad to have them to work for. I must be
owed at least 1/3 on top of all the work I've ever done in permanent
positions. Class actions? I agree with them. We should be able to
walk back into places and say we OWN that code.

 

[Dave Glasser]

(e-mail address removed) (Kent Ross) wrote on 5 Nov 2003 11:41:56 -0800 in
comp.lang.java.programmer:

Is it fair for programmers to work long hours of overtime and not get
paid for the work? If you are a programmer who has been working for a
while you probably
know there can be some issues with not getting paid for overtime.
Companies can take advantage of programmers with the long hours needed
to complete projects.

What is not fair is when an employer fails to honor the agreed-upon
terms of employing you. If an employer agrees to pay for overtime, and
then reneges, that is not fair, and they should be sued. More often
than not, however, an employee accepts a salaried job fully aware that
they can be required to work unpaid overtime, and then gets all upset
when the employer actually decides to use that aspect of the
employment agreement to their advantage. The way to prevent this from
happening to you is to never accept a job where the overtime policy is
not to your liking. Be sure you get it spelled out clearly in writing
first if you're really worried about it. And if, after accepting a
job, you find that you don't like the overtime policy even after
you've agreed to it, you're free to walk away any time you want.