RE: Work vs marriage

(There's a storm coming when it comes to employment practices. The current practice is not to pay overtime to all salaried employees however the original intent of the law only applies to officers of the corporation, VP's, directors, and the like. Companies have conveniently interpreted the law to their benefit but now they're beginning to lose in lawsuits for overtime from ordinary salaried folks like us. Steve Orr

I don't think most DBA's are directed to work more than 40 hours per week. We often due so when experimenting with new features, when after a fairly slack time, we are inundated with requests for our services, and on those rare occasions we need to fix problems that we, ourselves, have created.

In return for these hours DBA's need to be able to take compensation time whenever they want. So if things are humming along splendidly on a Wednesday morning, and you have accrued the hours, and the fish biting, or the surf's up, you want to walk along the bay, the ocean or through some woods, or you want to play with your children, or spend time with your spouse; then leave the office, tell your manager, or at least a co-worker where you plan to be, and get otta-there!

You'll be better able to handle the next crisis. Getting outta-there can help when bedeviled by a particularly perplexing problem. How many of us have concentrated for hours on such a problem to no avail, and then while engaged in a completely unrelated activity, the answer wells up from out of nowhere. An answer so blatantly obvious, so aesthetically pleasing, you wonder how you could have possibly overlooked it. Unfortunately there is no control over when this upwelling occurs, it may happen as soon as you are away from work, or
it may stir you from your sleep that night.

If you abuse these privileges, then you should be dismissed.

I fear the push for overtime pay will negatively affect our abilities to use compensation time. Hours will have to meticulously recorded, A relationship based on trust will become a closely monitored one.

If you have a manager who directs you to work overtime, then you should be compensated for it.

Ian MacGregor
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Received on Sat Jun 03 2000 - 15:29:15 CDT