what if you have to get a hold of them at two in the morning
People sometimes accuse me of being cynical, and yet here I was giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, thinking his objection might be that we don’t need such a rule because employees already had the right to not answer the phone by nature and tradition.
If the prick wants people on-call 24 hours a day then he needs to pony up the wages to match with accompanying extended holiday for downtime.
My general sense of this dude from Shark Tank is he’s an asshole. After reading about him for 5 minutes, he’s definitely an asshole.
I’m available for work after hours - 1 week a month, scheduled several months in advance.
I get about 1000€ extra for it, per month. And also 42 days of paid vacation per year, plus unlimited sick days.That’s what this rule would do - force employers to make it worth your while if they need you after hours, and force them to think about whether they really need that.
Fuck, I get about a 150€ for being on call for a week. I’m getting ripped off.
You guys are getting paid for being on call?!
Oh that’s employees boss. We’re the majority actually. And if you stop us from organizing or voting we’re still the majority, just angrier.
Fuck you, pay me.
The only correct answer. Pay for that availability if needed around the clock.
He’s also ignoring the fact that if your job’s responsibilities are mission-critical, chances are you have a contract which stipulates situations in which you can be contacted after hours. It’s about Joe Schmoe IT guy being called in at 7pm while he’s having dinner with his family and being told to come to work because Greg the assistant to the Sales VP forgot his password again. Greg can fuck right off until tomorrow morning.
The server going down at 2am is mission-critical and the guy in charge of it will definitely be answering that call to fix it.
Right, but he’s placing a subtle idea on people that wage theft isn’t a thing, overtime shouldn’t be a thing, and we shouldn’t have regulation for that. There’s a reason SREs get paid so much money, and it’s because it’s in their contract that they have to be the ones to rotate shifts and be up at 2am during an upgrade or otherwise, and he’s just mad he can’t pay everyone less and make more money
At my job we’re expected to at least try to be available if needed after hours which in my 3 years here has happened once and it took about 30 minute and I waited until my son went to bed for the night.
In return we get to leave for doctors appointments, picking up kids, errands etc without having to use PTO or make up the time. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the developers and no one abuses it to much.
At my old job they tried to get us to work after hours pretty frequently for a fraction of what our hourly rate was, we were salaried but when you broke it down you’d be getting like $20 an hour instead of $50. Ridiculous and almost no one did it.
but that’s why we made you salary with low wages!
When asked whether he ever encounters employees who silence their phones outside of work, O’Leary didn’t hesitate with his response: “The next moment is — I just fire them.”
TBH they’re better off.
Hm, unemployment collection and/or EEOC action for constructive dismissal, cool. My disability is “unable to work when off the clock”.
Canada has worker protections, too, so that would get expensive if he tried it at home.
Kevin, seriously, what actual value do you serve to the human race? What do you do that makes life better overall? I don’t mean new toys or new companies that produce more shit, what do you make for the average person that makes their life better? Nothing, is that answer. You had a chance way back, educational software could have been a human life changer… but no, you couldn’t make money on it. So go fuck your self. Vafancullo
It’s time to hold idiots like this guy accountable.
The first time you watch Shark Tank, you might think this Kevin guy is a bit of an asshole. However, if you carefully study his history, his successes, and dig deep into what the man himself is like, you discover that he is, in fact, a piece of shit.
If he were my boss I’d ignore him during work hours too, tbh.
“Who dreams this crap up?”
Working class people who make .5% what you do and don’t want to eat, sleep, and breathe work, you fucking fascist turd goblin.
EDIT: We have been informed by our team that our numbers above were off slightly. We apologize for the error and pledge to quintuple-check our math going forward.
Kevin O’Leary’s annual income is reported at $40+ million. The average salary in the US is About $60k. The number you’re looking for is 0.15%.
These corporate fucks should just die. No ifs, no buts, just fucking die like the scum they are.
Too humane
Die, and then get called back on the job after hours
Who the fuck would call their employee after hours? In none of the places I’ve ever worked, would the boss even think about calling me to do something when I’m not at work. Nobody would expect me to answer. You don’t need a law about basic things like that.
But see this is america where workers have paltry few rights. So we do need laws about basic shit like this. In the IT field on-call and after hours work is just expected, you’re expected to answrr calls and emails etc. It’s awful. So it’d be nice if there laws against it.
See, you’re just lucky. Many folks don’t have good bosses, so a law like this is good.
So You need a law for normal, decent behavior?
Have you been living under a rock?
Hell, one of the two major political parties in the US has been pushing (successfully in many states) to roll back child labor laws. Teens have died already: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/20/republican-child-labor-law-death
No only do we need the laws, but we need to be conscientious in applying them and making sure they stay strong.
Fighting fascism is exhausting, it’s a constant battle.
First day in the human race?
I think it’s pretty clear from my comment that I don’t need that law. But some people do, because some people have bosses who will not behave normally and decently unless forced to.
This law isn’t catered to you personally, don’t you think there are bosses or work places that call their employees after hours - it’s pretty common. I don’t mind, but I get mails and messages after hours and just answer them.
It does effect me without me knowing in some ways, but I personally feel it’s more important to help someone, that also might be stressed and decide to contact me, for some help or questions.
If the person or boss isn’t an asshole I don’t mind, but not everyone has that luxury, of having a boss that cares. Often they don’t want to contact you after hours.
If it was worth stressing about, it was worth discussing with me when I was on the clock. The entire premise of a job is that I work in direct exchange for money. No money? No work. Pay me or wait until next shift.
If it was worth stressing about, it was worth discussing with me when I was on the clock.
If your users suddenly start getting errors in prod at 6 PM, that wasn’t something that anyone would’ve known 2 hours earlier when you were still at work, but it affects business nonetheless.
However, a company of any real size should have employees who get paid to be on call to deal with ongoing issues. In the example of the software industry, this would be site reliability engineers who take part of an on call rotation.
But if you’re a max 20 person startup? You bet your ass that your average software engineer can expect a phone call.
So what I’m saying is that nuance is a thing. Working for a large corporation, or just in a job where nothing you do can be super urgent? Literally ignore your boss. Working in a small company where you taking that phone call has an actual impact on the company’s near-term financial performance or reputation? Might be worth reconsidering your stance, but probably not if your boss is an asshole and you know that no matter how well you perform, you’ll never get promoted.
Headline from 100+ years ago:
‘Who dreams up this balderdash?’: Andrew Carnegie slams new idea pushed by labor unions that will force employers to give workers two days off at the end of every week
or maybe:
Republicans continue effort to erode US child labor rules despite teen deaths
Oh wait, no… That one was from last year https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/20/republican-child-labor-law-death
Frustrated by this news, Carnegie would later hire Pinkertons to kill his own workers.
That is what CMU calls it college team right? The fightin’ pinks?
A couple hundred years ago, Kevin O’Leary would be whipping his slaves to death for objecting to being raped.
says the guy who definitely blows up his employee’s phones after hours
…and is irritated when he gets after hours calls.
Oh, you just know that dickbag has an answering service, still. My asshole of a father did until he retired earlier this year.
Yeah he is one of those that won’t respond when people try to work out if issue is resolved
