Are you okay with it, or do you get kinda mad when you boss asks you (at the last minute) to put in some extra time in to get something done? What are your thoughts on this?

first

Hey Bucket.

psychodelicide said:

HI!!!!!

It's currently all voluntary where I'm working. It's okay if I choose to do it. When I was at IBM, though, I was working mandatory every other weekends.

I always work overtime. Unfortunately I'm salaried and we don't get paid for overtime at my company. That blows.

I quit work back in 98. I haven't looked back. My life is so much better now. I sudgest you all go quit your jobs. If you are not working for yourself, you are only working for someone else.

MickG said:

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. In my field (law), it seems that working as an associate (employee) attorney can be a pretty good deal, at least in your first few years. You don't have to worry about finding clients. You don't have to worry about paying overhead. You're probably salaried, so you don't have to worry about having a slow month, and it's easier for you to budget your money.

Of course, this comes at a price. According to the "Rule of Thirds," a law firm should bill out its associate attorneys at a rate where 1/3 of the money goes toward overhead, 1/3 goes toward the associate's compensation, and 1/3 is profit for the partners/shareholders/members (attorney-owners) of the firm. But I think that's a pretty decent arrangement, especially since you're probably making a good living, even if you're not at a large firm and earning six figures.

Now, traditionally what happens in law is that after seven or so years of experience as an associate, you become a partner/shareholder/member of a firm, and thus you are "working for yourself" to some extent. However, some large firms have literally hundreds of partners, and I'm also aware of arrangements where one attorney owns the vast majority of the firm and the other partners have only a token ownership interest.

I've got a book called How to Start & Build a Law Practice -- it's considered the book on how to do this. The author recommends that you have a year of living expenses in the bank (or some other source of money, such as a working spouse), as well as enough capital to get the practice started. Good luck getting that kind of money when you're fresh out of law school and potentially have over $100,000 in student loan debt.

Someday I hope either to have my own practice or be a partner/member/shareholder in a firm. But for now, I'm perfectly fine with being a mere employee.

I enjoy working for Corporate America. The best parts include working hard hours, bringing home peanuts, and having the government take 50% of what I earn! Awesome!

psychodelicide said:

I would not work overtime. I just say I can't I have other committments.

luv4u said:

If I said that, my boss would laugh and walk away.

overtime should be against the law

it depends. i don't mind if it's something that has to be done and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it. heck i'll even work on weekends to get stuff done timely.

what i mind is when my boss rolls into work two hours late, messes about for an hour then takes a two hour lunch break, then messes around in his office on the phone until 4:30 p.m. at which time he asks me if i can stay late to finish something he hasn't gotten around to starting work on.

i hate working late to make up for someone else's lack of organization.

I'm on salary so it's expected for me to work at least full time anyhow. The only thing I hate is when I'm off for a few days, then check my email and it's a bunch of tech problems and other crap that I can't leave go till I get back. So I end up doing more work from home and feel like I never had any days off.

ya gettin paid for it right? so why bitch about it not bein mean or anything but if you're gettin paid for the ot shit do it.

I like OT $ I do it when I can. When I can't, I tell him to fuck off

Employees at my work sign up for overtime. Overtime is given out based on how much ot money you have earned during the year. The overtime cap is set at 35,000 a year. Many people reach that.

OT is a valued part of the job.

I can pretty much work as much or as little OT as I want. If I need to stay, I need to stay. If I get my work done, it's done.