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So in this day and age when it takes less than 15 minutes to establish a LLC and set yourself up as a private contractor, why would anyone work for one of these employment agencies?

Many people have to use these temp agencies because they don't have the skills needed to run their own business. Take a software business, being able to program isn't all that's needed to run a software company. The person also has to be able to market their skills as well as all the stuff needed to run a business. Simply sticking up an "Open for business" plaque isn't enough. Most businesses fail and many people who do make it only do so after failing in more than one business startup. "The Seven Pitfalls of Business Failure and How to Avoid Them".

Falcon

Oh, dear me! Isn't it horrible that people exist outside of your sphere of concern, and have interest that in no way jibe with yours? I guess the emancipation proclamation really got under your skin, didn't it?

You're a terrible communicator, who only succeeds in demonstrating your utter disdain for anything that isn't you. Your management model is clearly based around the theory that your employees are thieves, and therefore not to be trusted. You espouse an authoritarian power model, with you at the zenith. In short, you're a model of exactly the kind of boss people don't like to work for, and yet you don't seem the least bit interested in understanding why.

There's a relatively new saying you should become intimately familiar with: People don't quit companies, they quit bosses. The reason you need to understand this is that, believe it or not, bucko, things are going to get a whole lot harder for you. As Boomers retire and the younger generation -- acknowledged by HR departments throughout many Fortune 500 companies as "the most difficult to please generation of workers yet" -- your management style is going to lead you to a lot of failed projects and unmet deliverables as workers see the way they are being treated and offer you a well-deserved middle fingered salute as they walk out the door.

If anything, knowing that this is coming down the pipeline towards you is perhaps the best Christmas present of all.

Happy New Year.

If anything, Apple is even more uptight about this sort of thing.

Google X was one of those ad-hoc projects that Google encourages its employees to get into. Which results in cool stuff, but also stuff that should have been run by the lawyers first.

...but weren't new rules for overtime pay implemented under Bush's first term? - I specifically remember something about programmers/IT workers no longer *qualifying* for overtime pay ("overtime exempt")

Googling for it turned up this link

But if EA pays by the hour, they are in trouble. Salary jobs may have a difficult time.

As an indie game developer, my hours are similar. But since I can basically do what I want/enjoy - so it isn't quite so bad - I'm not in it for the money. (I may change tunes if I ever start a family or something.)

Business Know How

Federal law sets a pretty low cap for "exempt" as far as salary goes - $455 per week.

The wiggle room comes into play when you consider what the job descriptions are: is the employee someone who is instrumental in computer programming, or do they merely use the computer to do their jobs better? In other words, an artist may not be exempt, while a programmer who wrote the program the artist uses would be.

I'm sorry to say this. My spouse used to work for Parsons Technology before Bob Parsons sold it and founded Go Daddy. After a year of seven-day-fourteen-hour workweeks, my spouse walked and took a job for a lower wage with more time. After two years at that job and *lots* of study, he got a job that has a 50-55 hour workweek.

You and your spouse have three choices.
1) Stick it out, because you're scared. Nobody loves a job that much after a year of hours like this.
2) Blow the whistle to California Bureau of Labor Standards and the mainstream press. Forget getting a job in the industry again. The life of a whistleblower sucks. You need to be aware of that before you call them on violating the 72 hour workweek cap that California has for even Exempt employees.
3)Get a job in another industry. The problem with whistle-blowing etc., is that your job *can* move overseas, just as a factory job can. Find a job with local stability.

Best wishes.

What's next? Having your On-Star system auto-dial one of those Long-Distance scam numbers in Sao Tome? http://www.businessknowhow.com/newlong.htm

When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, "because that's where the money is."