#workplaceboundaries

My entire life, I’ve heard that what you want is to become a salaried employee. In theory, this means you get the schmancy job title and any prestige that comes with it, a higher salary, and better benefits. Corporate types always say, “you get paid the same no matter what it takes to get the job done.” Sounds like a great deal, right?

Slow down. That’s only in theory. What it really means is they don’t want to pay you overtime for all the overtime hours they plan on having you work. Some folks say, “The OT you would’ve gotten is factored into the salary total.” Well, in theory, that’s probably true.

The reality is something else altogether. And many companies abuse the status of “salaried” and use it to pay less for more work.

And what about the opposite? I am a highly efficient worker. I think fast, move fast, work fast. I am always ahead of schedule and I’ve only ever had one boss who could keep me busy eight hours a day. Well, most of the time. Sometimes I even turned in her ridiculous amounts of assigned work early and they had to go find more for me to do. So let’s say I fulfill the duties of the job I have been hired for, on average, in 30-35 hours a week. Let’s pretend I have a counterpart who takes fifty five hours to do the same work. Now, we are both paid similarly and are salaried employees. But having fulfilled my responsibilities and turned in my deliverables, shouldn’t I be able to go home and still get paid the same? If it doesn’t take me forty hours or more, shouldn’t they be happy? And why should I have to hang around the office or do even more extra than I already do to fill in a forty hour time card?

Again, that stated purpose of salary is like the company saying “we will pay you a flat rate to complete this work.” Well, I completed it, so what’s with the evil eye when I leave on time, even though I really should be able to bail any time I want under this arrangement? I can guarantee you I won’t be paid OT for working over forty hours, but I will most certainly be docked if I put in 32 and don’t use PTO, regardless of whether my work is finished or I’m way ahead of schedule on my assigned tasks.

I really don’t honestly get this, other than appearances or something. But I think “salaried” should work in the same way for people like me who don’t need forty hours to get it done, and get it done right, as it does for someone who has to spend longer than forty hours to do the same thing. Everyone is different. Just because it’s easier for me, I don’t think I should be penalized.

My hope is one day I will find a place that is happy I’m knocking the work assigned out of the park and who doesn’t care when I’m there, because I’m killing it and getting them what they need early or, at worst, right on time for when they need it.

Right now all I get is people staring at a clock and celebrating folks who do less in more time because they stayed at the office from sun up to way past sun down. Sure, they are missing their deadlines and turning in subpar work. But they put in 13 hours yesterday. By the way, we’re going to need you to pick up the work they aren’t getting done and fix what they did do, because it’s wrong. Also, can you coach them up to your level?

Oy vey.

What I see is an inefficient worker who needs training or someone who works in an understaffed department. But what do I know? Everywhere I go, that’s what’s happening and I end up with yet another “super job.” No raises or bonuses or anything, just taking the load off others and providing training. And still crushing it in under forty hours, leaving on time, and people gawking and not understanding how that’s possible even with the results sitting right in front of them.

Management reaction is usually this: let’s not reward this guy or let him do his thing and leave early because he’s always ahead of schedule. Never, ever pay him a compliment. Who cares if we reviewed it and had to grudgingly admit that it’s really stellar work and people are thrilled it’s happening so fast that it has far exceeded their expectations on time to deliver? It’s not like he’s putting in fourteen hours a day. Only thing that matters is how much time you spend In the office, how much sleep you lose working, and how much danger your personal relationships are in.

That’s commitment. That’s sacrifice for the company. Doing a great job in forty hours or less means you are lazy and don’t work hard enough. You should be doing more, even though you ask for more to fill up the time and we can’t come up with anything else to assign you. So here, run these meetings we scheduled to start well past your usual quitting time. Don’t even think about coming in later to keep it to eight hours. We will have you in the office fifty hours a week yet! Ha ha!

Seriously, that’s actually happened to me. Many times. So here’s hoping that reasonable company with good management who rewards this kind of thing is somewhere out there.

I’m contacted many times daily by IT recruiters. I have a pretty versatile skillset, and there are a lot of jobs open in my area. But I’m noticing an uptick of the so-called “super job,” which is where employers try to cram multiple roles into one to save money. Here’s a good example, which I’m going to break down for you. It is an altered version (I removed company identifying information) of a job description I recently received an interview request for:

“Specific tasks may include but are not limited to the following:

Managing development and assessment of inventory for machine connected locations Reporting on planned demand against projections for machine connected locations Capturing product metrics and reconciling by region and by data plan Regularly connecting with appropriate Telecommunication contacts to determine if there is back billing, Client status of payments, billing information corrections Examination and reconciliation of billing and financials related to application Understanding of application fees charged by the vendor that are related to signal strength or quality, develop reporting Execute audits of orders and disconnects Examination of data usage, and development of reporting Examination of connections and gateway alignment, and development of reporting

SharePoint: Developing dashboards and reporting Enhancements to work trackers Addition of workflow to reporting pages Automating metrics capture and reporting from trackers Integration with Excel for dash boarding

WLAN: Monthly metrics and status reporting which includes: tracking of deployments across the Enterprise, capacity of critical infrastructure (Controllers and licenses, PI hardware and license, MSE hardware and license), demand forecast across the Enterprise Development and publishing, updating information for monthly operational updates

Skills & Capabilities: Advanced Excel expertise pivot tables, formulas, charting Powerpoint expertise SharePoint Developer Data Collection, Data Analytics, Data Manipulation, Metrics Generation Highly self-organized and works without constant supervision Network background and experience.”

Could I do it? Sure, I have experience in all of those areas and I have the skills listed. But for you non-IT people, this is what they’re really looking for: a) a Sharepoint admin and developer (usually 2 roles) b) a BI developer, c) an application support analyst, d) a server/network admin, e) a report writer/designer, f) a level 2 (or 3) help desk analyst, g) a data analyst, and h) an inventory asset manager.

Count those: that’s a minimum of eight roles for one person. EIGHT. Each would be a full time responsibility at a reasonably staffed company, requiring a seasoned asset manager and IT professionals with advanced skills or certified in these very separate areas: Network, Database, Business Intelligence, Sharepoint, Excel, and Programming. I know many IT people who are advanced and/or certified in one of these areas, maybe two or even three.

I don’t know any who are at this level in six. I’m viewed as an oddity by my IT peers because I have a good level of competency in them; “a jack of all trades but a master of none,” people tell me.

But that’s because I’ve been forced into doing this “super job” thing before, multiple times. I know exactly what it means: 10-12 hour days at the office, logging in when you get home, middle of the night “emergencies” where 9 out of 10 don’t actually require immediate attention and could’ve waited until morning, and no real time off because “you’re too important to be out of contact.”

So, this must be a six figure salary to put up with all of that, right? Nope - it’s $40 an hour (83.2k yearly) contract to hire (so no benefits. It says three months but in my experience that always get extended to between 12 and 18 months), and if they hire you expect that number to drop under 80k yearly. Oh, and you’ll be salaried then and lose the hourly rate, so kiss all that time and a half you were getting for the insane overtime hours goodbye.

Thanks, but no thanks, I replied.

Time is the most valuable commodity in the world - once it’s been spent, you can never get it back.  I am not a workaholic.  I have an active life outside of work, and I actively protect it; these are the five boundaries I set right away at any job.

5. “I’m not interested in management.”

You should see the looks on people’s faces when I say this.  I’m what you’d call hyper-efficient.  I can do in forty hours what companies usually need two or three people to do.  I know this because I have trained my replacements and they always get two or three people for what I did by myself. The worst was a job where I served as the lead application systems analyst, the data analyst, a helpdesk support tech, an assistant network engineer, and a sql report writer all at the same time for 16 months. At the decent companies I’ve worked for, upper management sees this and salivates.  I’m not only experienced in multiple areas of IT, I am good with people and good at coaching them up  They’re thinking “management material.”

I’m looking at the 24/7 phone calls, the 12 hour day meeting schedule, the divorces, and the number of guys around me collapsing from overwork and stress being sent to the hospital.  Sure, the money would be nice, but you can’t enjoy it if half is earmarked to go to your soon-to-be ex spouse, you’re exhausted, or in a worst case scenario, dead. I don’t want any part of what comes with that kind of title. Been there, done that. No, thanks.

4. “I’m not interested in leading projects or being involved in project management.”

See #5.  But less pay, more pressure.  No, thanks.

3. “I don’t look at email when I’m not in the office.”

When I leave work, I leave work.   Unless it’s a 24/7 on-call position – in which case, I would not have taken the job – there is nothing you can send me that is so important it can’t wait until tomorrow that I would have any power to fix (”The network is down!”  I am not a network guy.  “The database is down!”  I am not a DBA). I’m not going to babysit my phone in case some workaholic wants something or has a question at 11pm.  If the system isn’t spontaneously combusting and the company isn’t losing money over it, whatever it is can wait until tomorrow or whenever I’m back in the office.

2. “Remove my personal cell phone number from the Outlook directory.”

My phone is my phone.  If you’re not paying for it, you don’t get to use it.  It’s okay for my supervisor or my team to have it (and not abuse it.)  But I don’t need someone from Wyoming who can’t figure out how to log into Windows calling me at 2pm on a Saturday to talk them through it. Especially when I’m Level III and there’s a Level I 24/7 call center and a Level II they didn’t bother to call first.  Just…no. You can give me a work cell phone, but off work is still off work and I won’t be carrying it with me everywhere I go. It’ll be in my work bag at the house until it’s time to go to work again. If it’s an emergency, that’s different, and I’m sure an appropriate level person who has my personal number will find a way to let me know.

And if some enterprising business person takes my personal cell number out of the company directory and uses it? I have it removed and tell their supervisor and my own that it is not to be used for business calls and I will neither answer nor return those calls.

1. “I am not recording this as a PTO day if I have to spend half the day working.”