Re: Exempt status for Tech Writers

[Suzette Leeming <suzette -dot- leeming -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I have mixed feelings, and I'm not sure what the effect is (if any) for
techwriters in Canada.

On the one hand, I prefer to be deemed a professional and paid salary for a
set number of hours. If a few extra hours are needed occasionally to satisfy
a deadline, that's part of the job.

On the other hand, I am seeing more and more companies take advantage of
their staff (not just techwriters) and expecting them to work ridiculous
hours, without extra pay. Sometimes this is because of reduced staffing
trying to maintain the same amount of output, but sometimes it's because a
company is reluctant to increase their staffing levels even though the
workload has increased. And, why should they, if they can get an existing
staff member, as a salaried employee, to work 50%+ more hours for no
additional pay.

Maybe I'm just cynical. Traditionally, I have seen companies pay overtime to
salaried employees whenever they work in excess of 40 hours/week, but I am
seeing less and less of that as companies attempt to overwork the staff they
have.

Suzette Leeming
Stouffville, Ontario
*Who has never asked for overtime pay, but also rarely works over 40 hours a
week.*

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 2:24 PM, beelia <beelia -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> You all may remember that a tech writer sued Sun Micro, contending that she
> had not been paid for all hours worked.
>
> Now it appears this has gone to class action:
>
> http://schubertlawfirm.com/practice-areas/technical-writers.html
>
> There has been some discussion on this topic before, but now that writers
> are being solicited to join the class action suit, I think it would be a
> good idea to re-open the question.
>
> I personally do not want to be an hourly employee, and I think this is step
> backwards for our profession.
>
> What do you all think?
>
> Bee
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
> solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or
> HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals.
> http://www.doctohelp.com
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
> authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
> once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control!
> http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as suzette -dot- leeming -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/suzette.leeming%40gmail.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.
>
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat