For my YB-related content-creation project, I have reached my maximum allotted number of loggable (i.e., billable) hours: 28. From here until the end of the current pay period, which ends on April 11, I can work, but I won't be paid for my effort. And unfortunately, I'm not done: although I'm about 90% finished, it's going to take me another six or seven hours to complete the task. So that's six or seven hours' unpaid labor. How Dickensian.
Where's my gruel?
Personally, I find the accounting department's refusal to grant overtime pay asinine. What idiot works without being paid? How, exactly, are we motivated to work harder when there's no pot of gold at rainbow's end? The notion of working gratis because of some misguided sense of corporate loyalty is passé, in my opinion. That quaint sentiment belonged to my father's generation. While I enjoy my job, I'm not married to it, and it sure as hell doesn't define me.
At the same time, I know that if I give up the project now, without completing the final phase, I'll lose an important source of income. My in-class hours at YB total only 26 hours per week, and since my pay is modest, that's not much money coming my way. This curriculum-development work, while paying an even lower—laughably lower—amount, nevertheless provides me with a few hundred dollars' extra cash per month. That, coupled with my much larger pay from private tutoring, keeps my head above water.
Well, if you don't like your life, then do something about it. That's what I'm doing. I'm heading off to Korea to seek my fortune, so that I can eventually leave this nonsense behind me. Working for nothing? Jesus Christ.
After Saturday's eight hours (paid, thank Cthulhu), I'll be done for six weeks. This will be the first time in over two years that I'll have an extended break.
_
Saturday, April 06, 2013
90% done, and no more hours to log
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Yes, that Cthulhu is one cute, but really small, bug(ger).
ReplyDeleteWait.. Whu?
ReplyDeleteYou're moving to Korea to escape working beyond your scheduled (contracted) hours?
You may want to re-examine your brilliant plan.^^
(Full Disclosure - I love working in Korea, but recognize what it entails)
Mr. Montgomery,
ReplyDeleteHa ha-- yes, 'tis true: Korean places of work can screw you on overtime, as I know only too well from having worked at Sookmyung. But Korean universities also pay way better for my skill set than US places do; they require far fewer teaching hours for the amount of pay they provide; and they offer the Holy Grail of benefits: long, extended, PAID vacations. A side-by-side, per-hour pay comparison between a typical Korean uni and my current job reveals... well, no comparison at all, really.
In my generation - the last one with long-term job loyalty - you were loyal to your employer and would not leave unless there were a significant provocation or a stupendous outside opportunity. But you were not expected to put in unpaid hours unless you were a salaried employee, in which case you were getting paid well whether you were pounding out reports or traveling far from home on business.
ReplyDeleteIt's not reasonable to expect hourly employees to work for free: It's unfair and ridiculous. Scroo'm, say I.