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Does Your Company Pay For Broadband?
masq57 writes "My fellow administrators and I used to have company provided ISDN lines in our homes so that we could respond quickly to issues after hours. That was changed in the last few years to letting us expense our broadband service. Now our new CIO has elected to stop that benefit using the argument that we should be dedicated staff who desire to be responsive and should do what it takes to make that happen. The rumor now is that we should also pay for blackberries, cell phones and pagers. What sort of experiences do the rest of slashdotters have along these lines?"
Aside from that, this might be a good sign that it's time to start looking around for another job. This isn't 2002 anymore -- employers who still think they can get away with this sort of shit are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I agree. You'll find out how important it is when you don't have any of them...for work purposes anyway. Sounds like management is a little out of touch with reality.
When you're in the office, that is. Tell him you are absolutely, positively dedicated to providing your company the best possible service during working hours.
When you're at home, your time is your own, unless they're paying you extra. If your job is not like that, it's time to find a new job. "It's your job, suck it up," is not an appropriate response here; you're a human being, not a disposable resource to be used up.
Your CIO needs to show YOU that he's dedicated to having the best possible service available, and that he's willing to dedicate the resources to ensure it. If he wants 24-hour cell phone availability, he better be paying for the phone. If they're going to require you to use your own resources to perform your job, then they should at the VERY least reimburse you on a prorated schedule for the amount of time you spend using your net connection from home. Even if it's only a couple of bucks a month--hell, especially if it's only a couple of bucks a month.
As it is, all he's showing you is that you're not worth a goddamn unless they can squeeze every last drop out of you that they possibly can.
You don't work from home, you don't carry a pager, and you don't give them your cell phone number. If they don't want to pay for the means of contacting you, they can try your answering machine and hope for the best.
I pretty much have that arrangement with my employer. Fortunately, my boss and I have the same opinions about that level of 24x7 support, that if you aren't willing to provide the means to contact the employee and provide them the access to the systems at work from home, then you can't expect them to be on call all the time. Since our IT head won't even allow FTP access to our webservers, I won't be working from home any time soon.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Let me 'chime in' myself.
I work for a mid-sized medical lab that STARTED as a very small niche lab.
I bent over backwards to make myself valuable to my employer. That includes web accessable alpha paging (straight to my cell phone) and cell access. PLUS support from home/vacations. This was all at my expense.
The downside: It costs me money every month.
The upside: Tax write-off, greater asset to my employer, was able to jump on any major problems BEFORE they effected employee productivity.
Here I am 5 years later earning 4x my starting wage (which wasn't too bad to start with) and I'm the manager of my dept. Further, I may be on a 'leash', but I have incredible amounts of flexability. Twice a week over summer, I leave for a 2.5 hour lunch and spend it with my son (park, catch, arcade, whatever). Whats that worth to some people? For me it's priceless. (Of course that 7 hour drive up the coast from LA to Oakland xmas-eve sucked -- but I made it back before my kids were woke up xmas morning! (I drove to make SURE I didn't get stuck at the airport)).
It all depends on your 'situation'. Plus, working for a privately owned company vs. a heartless evil corporation is a major asset -- and humans appricate effort more than faceless 'boardrooms'. ymmv.
If you're good enough, you can tell them to provide the tools to do the job or they won't get it done. The folks who will bend to such obviously stupid management by terror tactics are not good enough to walk out and get a job. Somebody is always hiring somewhere. You may have to move, but you can find another job. Just do so before you quit.
This is going on in my company. I put in my 50 hours and that's what they get. My department has lost two techs and we've not been allowed to replace them, because the owner doesn't want to spend the money. So when he calls and wants to know why X project is not done, I explain it to him. I even use small words to be sure he understands. So far, no problem.
In a time of limited resources, the management has to set the priorities. Your personal time is not a part of the pay check and is not "Negotiable" no matter what Mr, MBA wants you to think. When they want you to pay out of your pocket, you decide what you are willing to do and then do it. Put in reasonable hours and move on.
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