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I originally responded only to Shirley, but would love
to receive more feedback from the group on this.
This week I was contemplating asking my supervisors to
move me to a *non-exempt* status! I do not think they
will allow this, but wonder if you've received similar
responses from others, or if you've experienced a
similar situation yourself.
I work for a small software company, and everyone
except the administrative assistant is either exempt
or a contractor. The hours are long - roughly, I work
over 80 hours/week. And, there is no compensatory
time. So, if you work day and night for several days
straight, and then need to go home for a shower and
sleep . . . well, you must remember to be in your seat
from 8 AM - 5 PM! If you would like to see the doctor,
that is sick time. To keep up with the workload,
though, you enter in the timekeeping system, for
example, a 1 hour sick time (since the doctor sees you
for an hour during normal work days) and then you
enter 1 hour that you "made up" because you cannot
afford to get behind in the work (this allows the
company to bill our client for you work).
I'm not sure this makes sense, but let's say that it
is quite possible to work 80 hours/week, and yet still
have deducted sick/vacation time during that same
week, to take care of necessities such as sleep.
As you can imagine, this is not something that the
average person can sustain for very long.
I've been in the tech writing business for almost 12
years now, and have found myself in this position
twice (two different companies). But, at the other
company, we did have compensatory time . . . .
What has been your experience with this? Is it
possible that your company is trying to protect the
tech writers?
Sorry for the long email, and thanks for your time!
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