heh. Just to back this up, recently at the tech writer's list, someone wrote to ask if others had experienced the move from salaried position to hourly. There's as been a rash of that kind of thing lately:
1. Companies are moving employees to non-exempt hourly status, paying time and half in order to save money. (you figure it out..... )
2. The changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act have forced reclassification and companies are taking steps to use really strict interpretations of managerial, administrative, and professional labor to avoid lawsuit.
But what was really fascinating about the conversation was this: some people accused those who rejected hourly status of being snobs.
But, they didn't want to be hourly because they didn't want to be thought of as a mere clock watcher or, worse, union-type.
They said that people who worked on an hourly basis were people who had no commitment to their work, to the company, or to their profession. They were just paycheck collectors who worked to live.
Now, if that doesn't matter, if that belief is unimportant... well, I don't get it. It's damn important. It greases the wheels of the capitalist juggernaut. My dog! Look at this: these people would rather have the status of salaried employee or "professional" than to work on an hourly basis.
And it's funny, too, since they don't want to be viewed as clock watchers, just there to make a buck. Yet, they object to hourly pay because they might lose money. Which is it? Are you someone giving your all to the company as you claim? Or, are you someone who's watching the clock like everyone else?
It's some pretty twisted thinking going on there, to imagine you're gung ho for the company and for your profession and professionalism, yet are actually watching the clock, possibly recognizing that you enjoy the flexibility of having more control over your comings and goings and maybe even getting satisfaction of cheating the company by not really putting in the full forty. If that's making any sense to anyone. ' By their own reasoning, they believe that, as salaried employees, they are actually putting in less work for their salary, than a clock watching hourly type would put in for his or her hourly pay. So, the hourly worker become the clockwatcher and the salaried worker becomes the hardworking company man/woman by this logic.
It sure seems twisted, to me. Maybe Ted Winslow has some thoughts on this?
-- rwmartin