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WTF are you talking about?

wage theft is a serious concern.. there have been many lawsuits over this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://www.shrm.org/resources...

Americans are making 20% less than they used to (article says "Millennials" but I don't know about you but I took a paycut when the economy crashed in 2008).

Men and Women are now fighting among ourselves over 1-3% (a percentage that might just be due to men not taking time off for child rearing) while the ruling class is laughing all the way to the bank with that 20%.

This has been modus operandi for centuries: wedge issues. You find something to divide the working class into manageable chunks. Race, creed, sex. Hell, when the Japanese couldn't do it with race because they were all Japanese they made up classes based on jobs and kept books of them by name.

Don't fall for it. Demand better pay for all workers. Support the push for higher minimum wage. Vote in your primary for pro-Union, pro-worker candidates who refuse corporate PAC money. Demand all workers get healthcare that isn't tied to your job so you can switch jobs at will.

We've got bigger fish to fry than this. Don't get into the trenches with your fellow workers fighting while the rich laugh at you

California specifically allows flex-time schedules, such as 4x10 and 9x80.

They allow 4x10 is there is a vote by the "work unit" to approve it. But it can't be done with a simple agreement between a single individual and an employer.

9x80 is illegal since it is more than 40 hours in one week. You can't do it, even if both the workers and the employer want it.

your company can even qualify for a tax credit for implementing them (it reduces traffic congestion).

I am interested in learning more about this. Do you have a citation?

Yes, if you work more then 8 hours in a day or more then 40 hours in a week. So if you worked 8 hours M-W, then 4 hours on Thursday, followed by 10 hours on Friday, you would get 2 hours of overtime. This obviously only applied if nonexempt.

See https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/how-to-guides/pages/californiahowtocalculatedailyandweeklyovertimeincalifornia.aspx for examples

Now, the third thing that this legislation does is it brings down the cost of health care for families and businesses and the federal government. Americans who are buying comparable coverage in the individual market would end up seeing their premiums go down 14 to 20 percent. Americans who get their insurance through the workplace, cost savings could be as much as $3,000 less per employer than if we do nothing. Now, think about that. Thatâ(TM)s $3,000 your employer doesnâ(TM)t have to pay, which means maybe she can afford to give you a raise.

Maybe I am misreading, but it sure seems like President Obama is saying there that everybody's costs (premiums for families) were going to go down. While I know of plenty of people getting raises after the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts helped boost the economy, I have never heard of a single person getting a raise from their employer because of all the money Obamacare saved them.

Care to comment?

I think you are misreading, he wasn't talking about a drop in premiums as much as a drop in the rate of increase in premiums.

I don't know what the numbers come out to, but it certainly seems like employers are paying less than they would have in the pre-ACA system.

No, salaried workers actually don't receive overtime pay at all right now for excess hours. Hourly workers are supposed to receive 1.5x their compensation--meaning if your employer pays you $30k ($15/hr) and spends $9k on healthcare and $1k on disability insurance, you need time-and-a-half based on $40k ($20/hr). They owe you $30/hr, not $22.50/hr. If you got a bonus, you also get time-and-half on that.

Many employers get this wrong. Enforcement is practically nonexistent.

In the marketing and Decision support industries especially, Liberal Arts dominate. Because, you know, English.

While I can't vouch for the numbers of employees, the pay certainly stinks

https://www.shrm.org/Resources...

http://work.chron.com/median-s...

There has to be some advantage to them to do this.

It's allowing them to claim these weren't mass lay-offs, which are separately regulated. See e.g. CA WARN law. There are probably others, as well.

There has to be some advantage to them to do this.

Most likely to avoid the layoff notice requirements in California law.

California is an at-will state. She could be fired with or without cause, unless she was government or part of a union.

Nah. Employer gifts are income according to the IRS. If they reported the donation as income on your W-2, yes, you could deduct that, but that's not what they'd do. They'd just not report it on your W-2, so that you don't have to deduct anything. Otherwise, people who don't itemize would get completely screwed over. https://www.shrm.org/resources...

I don't know about where you are, but here there employer gets to say when you're allowed to take vacation time, and you're required by law to give reasonable notice of resignation, which is generally understood to be two weeks.

[citation needed]

Can you cite a statute?

Yes, you are required to have an agreement with your employer for vacation... if you're planning to come back. But if you don't show up and they fire you, or you quit, then they're obliged to pay you out for any banked (paid) vacation days which you've earned.

It depends on the state, but many states either do not have a law or only force the companies to pay out accrued vacation if they don't have a policy that specifically says they don't pay it out. Here is a list of the policies per state, here is a PDF that has the actual statutes involved for each state.

Of course, they can just do like my company has done and get rid of accrued PTO altogether. The new policy is to take time off whenever you want. Of course, this is good for the company in two ways - they don't have to pay vacation out when they lay people off so they don't have that liability on the balance sheet and people will take fewer days because they don't know how much time off they are allowed to take. The slackers who took a lot of time off with PTO will still take a lot of time off, but the people who don't normally take a lot of time off will probably take even less. Win-win(company)-lose(employee).

The trouble is, those same Republicans have derailed national cyber security regulations since Obama has been in office. It's all been channeled through the US Chamber of Commerce.

Comprehensive cybersecurity regulatory reform failed for the second time this year in the U.S. Senate, increasing the prospects that the White House will implement some of the bill’s provisions through an executive order.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed to get the 60 votes needed under Senate rules to bring the bill up for passage Nov. 14, 2012, most likely dashing any chance that cybersecurity policy would be addressed in the lame-duck session.

“Whatever we do for this bill is not enough for the Chamber of Commerce,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the floor immediately after the failed cloture vote. “Cybersecurity is dead for this Congress,” he added. Republicans blocked the same measure in August 2012, saying it would lead to more government regulation of business.

So that was pretty much the end of it. The Obama administration declared some executive orders, but that clearly did not have much impact. Up until this latest incident the Party of Ignorance (R) got what they wanted: keep you hands off my bidness.

So no one should be very surprised that this happened. There is no bright line between big government and big business when it comes to matters like cybersecurity. Particularly with the amount of outsourcing going on. Don't forget that the OPM breach was not simply in a government network, but at security contractor USIS.

A background investigation firm with OPM, DHS, and other federal agency contracts notified the government that it identified an unlawful breach of its network. In a statement posted on the website today, USIS noted that it was working with the government to determine the ‘nature and extent’ of the attack. They acknowledged that it appeared to be a state-sponsored attack.

The firm is already under fire for allegations of contractor misconduct. The Justice Department sued the company earlier this year for poor oversight of security clearance investigations, and a White House panel investigated bonuses received by USIS executives.

The DHS/OPM/whatever are doing everything they can to cover up what really happened, so the trail to the contractors has been rather effectively hidden. They primarily want to keep evidence of their vast incompetency out of the public eye. That is taking precedence over remedial action to address the breach. This is why they are leaving the roughly 4 million government employees at risk just hanging in the breeze. If they were to do the responsible thing and help the victims it would reveal how extensively they failed.

Remember, horribly incompetent government security contractors are the new normal: Blackwater in Iraq, the TSA meatheads who infest airports, and now this. No one should be surprised. And they should be even less surprised when no one is held accountable and nothing changes.

But, in general, companies must pay their employees for time worked. If the company runs out, then principals can be held liable.

That is only true if the company is a sole proprietorship or partnership structure where there is no corporate veil. Claims for wages due to insolvency do not fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act unless the principle willfully filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying wages. Employees are considered creditors during a bankruptcy and may be paid according to their priority as a creditor but generally they will have no claim on the personal assets of the shareholders unless there was a personal guarantee of some sort or malfeasance.

Smaller company, wealthy principal, employees have a reasonable chance of getting paid, enforced by their state Department of Labor.

If the company folds then the assets of the company can be held to ensure payment but they are not likely to get paid except as a creditor of the company.

So that's how employees are different than investors, the "corporate veil" does not protect the company owner from liability for their wages.

That is NOT correct in the US unless there is evidence of malfeasance.

Those specific examples are closely-held, according to the only legal definition I was able to find. I also looked up self-insurance, and found a citations that say anywhere between 50 million and 90 million people are under corporate self-insurance health plans. "Pretty narrow" doesn't seem to apply when it's somewhere roughly between a third and two thirds of the entire insured workforce.

Some states might have the same issues. I know not to long ago, a California case involving a cop who gave a criminal defendant exculpatory evidence and reported the chief for hiding it got burned by the Whistle Blowers law not protecting her (I hope that's the same case). It appears that some states have even bigger issues to fix.

I agree. The FCC or perhaps a federal law that is more inclusive might be needed.

When Email Goes Bad

I'm not going to list all the reasons email is good. You know them already, I assume you are an avid email user. (Anyone reading this is online, and just about anyone who goes online uses email.) I'm also not going to tell you email is evil, because it isn't.The negativeproductivity impact of email comes from the way you use it, not the medium itself.

There are two ways email impairs your productivity:

1. It breaks your concentration.
2. It misleads you into inefficient problem solving.

Let's take the concentration impact first. I'm a software engineer, and programming requires extended periods of concentration. Actually this isn't unique to programming, a lot of fields require that you concentrate. (Probably just about everything worth doing requires some concentration!)

{
I maintain that programming cannot be done in less than three-hour windows. It takes three hours to spin up to speed, gather your concentration, shift into "right brain mode", and really focus on a problem. Effective programmers organize their day to have at least one three-hour window, and hopefully two or three. (This is why good programmers often work late at night. They don't get interrupted as much...)
}

One of the key attributes of email is that it queues messages. Unlike face-to-faceconversation and 'phone calls, people can communicate via email without both paying attention at the same time. You pick the moments at which you pay attention to email. But many people leave their email client running continuously. This is the biggest baddest reason why email hurts your productivity. If you leave your email client running, it means anyone anytime can interrupt what you're doing. Essentially they pick the moments at which you pay attention. (Even somerandom spammer who is sending you a crappy ad for a get-rich scheme.) This is bad.

There are three stages to this badness. Stage one is configuring your email client to present alerts when you receive an email. Don't do this. Stage two is configuring your email client to make noise when you receive an email. Don't do this. Stage three is running your email client all the time. Don't do this, either. To be effective, you must pick the moments at which you're going to receive email. I know this goes against common wisdom. Just about everyone I know runs their client all the time, has it configured to make noise, and may even have it present alerts when an email is received. Don't do it.

Spam is the best kind of email to get, because you look at it quickly, see that it's spam, and delete it. Then you get back to work. Personal email is the second best kind of email to get, because you either respond quickly("Hi Jane, great hearing from you. See you at the club tonight.") or set it aside for later. Task-oriented work email is the worst kind of email to get. It often requires thought, and because it is work there is some immediacy to it. But as soon as you take the time to respond, you've interrupted yourself. You've shifted back to "left brain mode", and you've lost the thread of your concentration.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't respond to emails promptly. Check email whenever you're interrupted anyway - before you start work, after a meeting, after lunch, before you go home, etc. Set aside time to do this. Just don't let others dictate the timing.

Has this ever happened to you?

[ In the hallway at work... ]
O: "Hi R, how's it going?"
R: "Great, how are you?"
O: "Good. Hey, did you see my email about the framitz?"
R: "No, I haven't checked my email yet today, sorry."
O: "WHAT!"

It has happened to me. Sometimes I can't believe it - I sent the email at 9:30, and here it is 11:30, and they haven't checked their email? What are they doing? They're being efficient, that's what. They're picking their moment to be interrupted, and that's a good thing. We'll revisit this theme again below in the Three Hour Rule. For now, here's the takeaway:

• Turn your email client off. You should pick the moment at which you'll be interrupted.

Okay, now let's look at the second productivity-sapping attribute of email, that it misleads you into inefficient problem solving. Email is a communication medium. You send messages to others, you receive messages from others. Some of these messages are mere data transmission - FYIs so you know what's going on. Some are "noise" - 'thank you's, 'I got it's, jokes, etc. And some - many - are problem solving. You hear about a problem, and you respond with a possible solution, or a possible approach, or more questions. Nothing wrong so far - email is a good medium for problem solving. And it is so easy - you get an email, you think (sometimes), and you respond. Poof, you're done.

Except when you're not. Because there are some kinds of problems which don't get solved in email, ever. And as soon as you have that kind of problem, you have to stop, immediately, before you make the problem worse.

First, never, ever, criticize someone in email. For reasons which I have never fully grasped, any negative emotion is always amplified by communication through email. Sometimes you intend to be critical - someone has done something dumb, or said something silly, or emailed something ridiculous. Resist the urge to reply. Sometimes you don't mean to be critical - you're just making an observation, or engaging in technical debate, or adding facts to a discussion. But as soon as you sense that the recipient has taken your email as criticism, you must immediately switch media - a face-to-face meeting is best, but a 'phone call is also okay.

Second, don't get into prolonged technical debates in email. I've seen threads lasting weeks with a whole series of kibitzers, with everyone restating their points of view and nothing getting settled. Often email has the effect of polarizing the debate, and the combatants end up further apart in their views then when the debate began. As soon as you sense this happening, you must immediately switch media. A meeting with the core people involved in best, but a conference call is also okay.

Both of these kinds of problems which don't get solved in email are exacerbated by copying others. The bigger the audience, the worse things get. As bad as it is to be critical in email, it is far worse if ten colleagues are copied. Often the presence of an email audience is what makes for the polarization of technical debates - if the core people were the only onesinvolved, they would be less virulent and more willing to acknowledge other points of view and seek compromise. Okay, so here's the takeaway:

• Never criticize anyone in email, and avoid technical debates. Use face-to-face meetings or 'phone calls instead.

Before I go on to talking about productivity in general, let me share someother thoughts about email. First, be judicious in who you send email to, and who you copy on emails. Every email recipient is going to lose a little time reading each email you send. Simple emails which say "thanks" or "got it" or "see you at the meeting" are polite and part of normal human communication. But there is a limit, no need to reply "you're welcome", or "glad you got it", or "great, I'll see you, too". In my career I've run large teams, and sometimes people in those teams copied me on virtually every email they sent. Maybe they wanted me to know what was going on, or maybe they were letting me know what a great job they were doing. Either way, they were taking my time with stuff I didn't need to spend time on. I have a high capacity for skimming email, but there is always the feeling that they didn't get it; like "why did they copy me on this?" There should be a purpose to every addressee on each email. It is okay to drop recipients from a reply - in fact, it is good; less people are involved, and [to reiterate the point] the bigger the audience, the more any implied criticism or debate will be exacerbated.

{
I have to digress for a pet peeve. I send an email to S, and S replies, copying eight other people. I reply back to S alone. S replies, again copying eight other people. This is bad. If I'm smart I will abandon email and continue the conversation with Sface-to-face or over the 'phone. If I'm not smart I'll flame S so badly his hair catches fire, copying everyone, and regret it later.
}

Second, email is a very relaxed medium, but observing some formality is important. Use an email client which spell checks. Use normal capitalization. Use correct grammar - complete sentences make email easier to read just like everything else. Don't use weird background colors and strange fonts. Don't append pictures of your dog. You get the picture... I've received emails from senior people which bordered on illiterate, with incorrect capitalization, grammar, incomplete sentences, etc. The impression is not positive.

Third, email can be immediate, but don't hesitate to review and revise important emails. In many companies email has all but replaced paper memos. In many business situations email has replaced letters. When writing an email which has a wide distribution, or which affects a negotiation, or possible deal, or potential sale, take the time to write a draft, and reread it later. You can almost always improve the wording, make a point more concisely, or other otherwise improve the communication.

Finally, remember that email is a public and permanent record. Email is plain text and goes out over public networks, and is often stored on servers for a long time and may be backed up for a longer time. It might feel "throwaway" at the time, but it will not be thrown away, as senior executives at Microsoft, Enron, Worldcom, and others have discovered. If you have something to say which won't bear the public light of day, it shouldn't be said in email. And if you are sending something confidential or sensitive, consider sending it as an encrypted and/or password-protected attachment.

Okay, enough about email. Here's the six rules for avoiding email tyranny :

1. Turn your email client off. Pick the moment at which you'll be interrupted.
2. Never criticize anyone in email, and avoid technical debates. Use face-to-face meetings or 'phone calls instead.
3. Be judicious in who you send email to, and who you copy on emails.
4. Observing some formality is important.
5. Don't hesitate to review and revise important emails.
6. Remember that email is a public and permanent record.

Got it? Cool. Thinking about email productivity led me to make some comments about productivity in general...

The Three Hour Rule

Programming is a right-brain activity. It is very conceptual and spatial and [gasp!] artistic. Effective programming requires that you transition from your body's normal "left brain" mode into a "right brain" zone. As I mentioned above, programming cannot be done in less than three-hour windows. Really. And in talking to friends in other fields, I'm convinced this applies to many other lines of work.

When you're in a three-hour zone, you've spun up to speed, gathered your concentration, shifted into "right brain mode", and are focusing on a problem. You're being productive. There are four things which can interrupt you, and you have to watch out for all of them:

1. Receiving email or 'phone calls.
2. Personal contact with colleagues.
3. Meetings.
4. Warp-offs.

Let's talk about each of these... First, emails or 'phone calls. Email we've talked about, this one is easy - just turn your email client off. Done. Mostpeople receive far less 'phone calls than emails, so calls aren't nearly as much of a problem. The solution is the same - put your phone in "do not disturb" mode. Nowadays most everyone has a cell 'phone, leave that on, and if there is a genuine emergency your significant other or doctor or whomever will reach you there. Most calls to your desk are colleagues or customers; these are important, but as with email, you should pick the time to take them.

Second, there is personal contact with colleagues. Most companies these days can't afford for everyone to have a private office, so it is pretty easy to get interrupted. (If you have an office, close the door!) Distractions include ambient noise, questions ("Hey, do you know how to invoke a framitz?"), and other interruptions ("Hey, you want to play foosball?"). These are really important (especially foosball), but they are interruptions, and they will mess up your three-hour window. Basically you want to isolate yourself from your colleagues, just like with email and 'phone calls. To deal with ambient noise, get yourself some really good headphones and play music. Cordless, if you want. For $100 you will have the best-sounding music you can imagine, and a sure-fire way to eliminate background noise.

{
The "office vs. cubicle" debaterages and has not been settled. Some companies give every engineer their own office, and claim the productivity improvement is worth the cost. Others feel the atmosphere is better in a cubicle farm, and the interaction between engineers leads to better problem solving. Without taking a stand in this debate, the fact is that most engineers work in cubicles, and have little control over this. So it is what it is - you have to make the best of it.

In 2000 I joined PayPal, a dot-com with an egalitarian work environment where everyone had a cubicle, even the CEO. After many years of enjoying a private office, I was back in a cube. I quickly found two things to be essential, first, I positioned my desk and computer so I was not distracted by traffic (away from the cube opening), and second, I bought a great pair of cordless headphones. With these adaptations I was able to work just as productively as I had in an office. (Of course I used conference rooms for meetings.)
}

Dealing with questions and interruptions from colleagues is more difficult. The give-and-take between engineers in a team is important; often one person will have the answer to another's dilemma. There is also the social aspect, it is enjoyable to interact with your colleagues. However, you need to have those three-hour windows. I recommend a simple sign you can hang on your cube: "I'm in a zone", "Do not disturb", etc. (This is a chance to be creative...) Essentially you want your colleagues to know you're zoning. If they have a technical question which can wait, they can put it in email, or wait until you emerge. If they need immediate attention ("hey, you want to play foosball?") at least they know you were in a zone, and that they're interrupting you.

Third, meetings... Ah yes. An entire book can be written about meetings, and many have. Let me make a few comments about meetings and then leave it. Meetings interrupt everyone who attends, obviously, so they
(I will post the rest when I can..)