Let us all bow our heads in commemoration of the great works of Lex Luthor. Were it not for him, all of humanity regardless of race, creed or orientation would be under the tyrannical fist of superhumans.
Same employer, same job, same office.
I have only worked about five hours of this after hours work.
I volunteered for the first three hours because I was under the impression I would be doing less work. By less work, I mean verifying information and leaving the call process up to the processor. Instead, at the last minute, upper management felt everyone should process unless they were associated with the collections department who was volunteering to perform the verification work. I immediately let upper management know that I would not volunteer for their 'after hours' work in the future.
Being a tool, I volunteered to work an extra two hours because it meant getting paid $50 cash that night on top of the bullshit after hours pay.
So on Thursday, during my lunchtime, I phoned the Department of Labor. The woman I spoke with said it seemed awfully shady and said I had two years to dispute the overtime pay. She advised me to contact the IRS to make sure I was being taxed correctly since I am certain overtime pay is taxed differently than bonus pay. My recollection is that bonuses are taxed more heavily because they're akin to being gifts rather than something earned by a worker. Next she recommended contacting the Colorado Legal Services office if I had any further questions.
The only thing I can say in defense of my employer is that this after hours work is considered voluntary.
This after hours pay is a scheme to save money. 75% of the people in my office have been on the job for more than three years and would be making substantially more than $15/hr in overtime. Another of the cost-cutting solutions implemented by my employer has been a change in the bonus plan. Originally people who were top performers of the month were judged on their productivity, error rate and teamwork. First place would get $300, second place would get $200 and third place would get $100. Usually this performer bonus was given out in addition to a group productivity goal that would be $300 for the top goal and $150 for the regular goal. When someone busted their ass, they were substantially rewarded by the company. Now there are no top performers, no group goals and upper management's line is simply "Everyone can be a top performer". Supposedly this came about because other people would complain that the same people were always getting the big bonuses. My attitude towards these people is "I say tough fucking shit. Work harder and reap the rewards." Now I'm lucky to get an extra $500, most likely stuck with a regular $300 bonus.
When I contacted the Colorado Legal Services office in Colorado Springs, I was told they didn't cover those situations but gave me a lawyer referral number with the advice of "Keep trying" because the line's always busy. Should I happen to get free time this week, I'll spend a day on the phone trying to contact them so I can see my options and what routes I can take as an individual.
Plus the potential for not missing time at work only serves to increase my stress. I could look for another job or testing the waters in the current marketplace. I could be working on my site. I could be outside riding my bike.
Have I mentioned that I'm stressed that upper management might pull a fast one and decide that someone should be shuffled over to the collections department? That's not the fucking job I applied for back in 2002. I've seen how collections works, I know about the high turnover rate, I don't care about their fucking bonuses.
They wouldn't pay overtime for the 6 day week but they'd give you two 5-day paychecks. One week you'd work 32 hours a week and one week you'd work 48 hours and you'd get two 40 hour paychecks at the rate you signed up for.
Remember: You had to go to management to set this up. If you didn't talk to them first, you were expected to come in on your scheduled days and work your scheduled hours. There was even one guy who worked 5 6-day weeks in a row, then took a week off to go to Utah to visit his family. He got 6 paychecks for 40 hours. I used it once, maybe twice. It was more nice that we had it than that I'd use it all the time, of course. But it was nice to know that I could work two 12s in week one and take a day off for the DMV or Vegas or what have you in week 2 without it affecting my paycheck for better or worse.
Anyway, I worked with a guy named Jake.
Jake did a thing where he asked if he could take off tuesday. He was told, sure, just come in on your regular day off on Friday, because we don't have coverage for Friday. Everyone's happy! Well, Jake decided that he'd instead work a 12 on Wednesday and a 12 on Thursday and he'd still get Friday off. He was told "We need you on Friday". He told management "If I come in on Friday, you'll pay me overtime." They said "Look, we'll give you the following Monday or Tuesday off in the next week to compensate you."
Jake went to Colorado law and said "In this section right here, it says that if I work more than 40 hours in a work period, you have to pay me overtime." Jake showed up on Friday. Jake got his overtime which amounted to an additional 4 hours of pay. Everyone else in the office lost their ability to trade time around. People tried to explain to Jake that they would each have given him $20 to just show up and take the following Monday or Tuesday off. He explained that it was the principle of the thing. Anyway, I always resented Jake after that. As did everyone else in the office.
Voluntary overtime is voluntary overtime. Going to Colorado law won't result in everyone getting regular time-and-a-half, it'll just result in no one being able to work extra for extra money.
And if the issue is the extra $50 you'd end up with, I will give you $50.
I strongly disagree with Jaybird. The situations are different. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one. prak, Loufah and manfriend chimed in on the thread.
If the company wants more hours to be worked they are likely doing so because they have some need. The policy that Jake fought against did result in more hours being worked and thus was unlikely to provide of a need the company had.
If the company needs the hours worked they will pay the legally required rate to get the work done; unless they can get around it because people don't want to rock the boat.
Date: Fri Jan 13 15:08:35 2006 MST
From: Loufah (#116455)
To: *stonecutters (#213)
> My recollection is that bonuses are taxed more heavily because
> they're akin to being gifts rather than something earned by a worker.
Let us know what you find out. My understanding is that bonus and overtime are both "supplemental wages", and more tax than normal is withheld because it's treated as if you got that amount *every* pay period, but come April 15 it's taxed just like ordinary earned income.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15/ar02.html#d0e1448
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Date: Fri Jan 13 17:34:15 2006 MST
From: manfriend (#117367)
To: *stonecutters (#213)
>To the best of my understanding this would not be the case with spivak's company. They are actually trying to get people to work overtime and not be paid for it.
prak is right. contact wage and hour. they're voilating federal law. they'll protect your identity and go through the comapny's records and make them back pay everyone and that'll be the end of that.
overtime and bonuses are all wages and should be taxed at the same rate.
but don't listen to jaybird, mkl, he's full of shit. they're violating federal wage and hour laws.
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Hey Dad, consider today's entry to be bringing up the subject with you. When it comes to stuff like this, I'd rather have you read it all and hear my side in full.
