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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?"
Next thing's to work on finding an employer that isn't run by such cheap bastards.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
In my experience, it's been assumed that IT pros would have home Internet access because, well, what IT pro wouldn't have at least a consumer dial-up account if not broadband.
Paying for those things is a company's way of passing the employee some cash-value compensation without it being considered taxable income. So, add 20%-30% (depending on your personal tax rate) to the cost and consider that as have been subtracted from your pay package... consider yourself insulted.
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.
My opinion and stance has always been "if you want me to have it, then you (the company) will pay for it." I've told employers that if they want me to have a cellphone then they had better pay for it themselves, 'cuz I won't have one if it's my choice.
If it's something you spend any time doing work with, the company should fund that fairly it seems to me. The job market sucks now but asking you to pay for broadband service (or at least the portion you really do use for work) is akin to making you buy your workstation to bring in to work. In the worst-case scenario at least you can deduct it from your taxes though. Your CEO sounds like a real turd for making a comment like that though.
You DON'T want a pager anyway. In my experience, when they give you one, you are expected to respond if it beeps.
I have a "Zero Policy" tolerance.
*/
If you're stuck paying for your own broadband, can you write it off on your taxes like auto milage?
I consistently insisted that my cell phone not be listed in the company employee directory. I threatened to change the number when once it was listed. If someone needed me over a weekend, they could call my home, and if I didn't answer, then tough. If the company wanted to pay for my cell phone service, THEN they could reach me after hours.
Don't give in on this issue. Do you really want your employer to have you at their beck and call 24/7 on your dime?
Yes, my company does pay for my home broadband access..and they are remarkably liberal about it. They don't care what servers I run or how I use the bandwidth (3 Mb/1Mb), just so long as I can still effectively do my job. Of course, I work from home full time, so the situation is a bit different than that of many in our profession. Josh.
How many roads must a man walk down? 42.
If your employer wants to be that strict about TOOLS to do you job, they care nothing of you as a person. I would suggest running when they want you to pay for pagers, cell phones, and broadband at home (if its part of your job function). Next they will expect you to work for free!
Nobody really needs to carry a blackbery, a cell phone, and a pager in this day and age. The three devices are so close tech they all fit in one shell with your choice of form factors ranging from the T-Mobile Sidekick to the standard Nokia models.
Business calls should only be a few minutes a month anyway, nothing you should lose money over. If you're being called regularly on the weekends, then the business has more serious issues about staffing...
In my experience, a dialup connection works just as good for a plain text/shell connection - IMHO ISDN lines were overkill (ofcourse this depends on the actual environment context).
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
They're going to pay for it.
Of course, if it's their resource, then they can dictate how it's to be used (ie; running Kazaa? Yer fired!)
I had this discussion with my bosses. For me to VPN under Comcasts EULA, I need the commercial edition for twice what I pay. If they want me to have it, I'll wind up with two cablemodems, one mine, one theirs.
They don't pay for the broadband - there's been no need to, but they do pay for the cellphone which I promptly turn off as soon as I leave the office. (Hey, they only had me promise to carry it with me, not answer it)
End of story.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
My company doesn't expect me to pay for broadband at home, but my job doesn't really require me to have it. If I choose to do some after hours stuff from home, and I would rather do it via a broadband connection, then that's on my checkbook as far as they're concerned.
Curiously enough, I can remember when companies furnished cell phones to the appropriate personnel and actually picked up the tab. These days, we're expected to have a cell, but we have to pay for it on our own. Go figure. *shrug*
When you're not looking, this sig is in Latin.
I have DSL at home ($50/month), a pager ($20/month), a cell phone (+/- $80/month), and cellular internet ($80/month). My company pays for my pager, my cellular internet (gets internet access via PCMCIA anywhere I get a cell signal), half my DSL, and half my cell bill. I'm also a 1-man IT shop supporting 30+ users and 20+ servers including clusters, so even on vacation, I have to be available and reachable. Of course, we're not hurting for money either.
Yes you should be happy to do it, if you were a happy employee. Simply outline that while they want you to innovate, to give your all for the company, to make them better than their competitors, then they should be willing to do the same for you.
Tell them that if they treat you 'competitively' to what other companies are doing, then you will either work as hard as other employees or find a company that treats you better than they do.
We are going through the same thing here, and there is nothing worse than cutting back on employee benefits, pay, and perks and justifying it by saying 'we are doing what everyone else is doing'.
Typically, if a company really needs me to be available 24x7 (or even just the occasional after-hours job), they have paid for my internet access, as well as either a pager or cellphone. Some have been employer-provided, some have been the "buy and expense" variety. Either is acceptable IMHO.
I think it would be reasonable as a cost-cutting measure to provide a monthly internet connection allowance suitable for dial-up (if that's all you really need to be connected), and allow you to apply that to whatever connection you choose.
But if your CIO really thinks you should "do what it takes" to be a good little corporobot, I'd suggest that (s)he is an asshat, and you'd probably do best in the long run finding another place to work.
It'd probably help if everyone did it, but if they won't pay for it I don't use it for business. Not that I'd ever get rid of my broadband at home but that's another matter.
My employer will pay for broadband, cell phone but not pager (what's the point? text messages cover paging) for employees it considers mobile which is almost everyone outside of our main sites. Some areas even get better broadband rates because of deals negotiated due to the amount of employees we have.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Your CIO sounds like an asshole. "Dedicated" means dedicated to the work, not dedicated to spending money for your own company. (Hint to CIO: People work to get paid money. Not to spend money for their employers.) If the company needs you to have internet access to do your job, they should pay for it.
Any company which demands you restructure your own personal finances in order to be able to afford an internet connection that they require you to have had their head up their ass. Your personal finances are none of their fucking business. I realize it's much easier said than done, but if I were in your position and had such demands placed on me, I'd quit.
Put this arrogant prick in his place. All of you should collectively refuse to pay for broadband yourselves, and let him see how "productive" you are without his help. It is not your reponsiblity to spend your own money for "the good of the company."
What a crock of shit.
IANAL but years ago worked in a non-tech field (social services) in CA and as an employer we were required to pay for certain things for employees that were requirements for the job. For example each employee who worked in direct contact with our clients (in this case troubled teens) was required to have CPR certification and a TB test. While the employee was required to provide these (and cover the cost) at initial hire, because we required it as a condition of employment (i.e., it was necessary for them to do their job) we the company had to pay for renewals of CPR training/certification and TB tests (every 2 years if memory serves).
I would think that if something is clearly defined in your job description as a requirement, that it would be your employers responsibility to cover the costs/provide the needed equipment.
"She said, ooh eee ahh ahh..." -Lux Interior
What next, you have to buy your own desktop to use at their location, or you have to pay for the electricity used to power the servers? If you are using something because they _require_ it to do your job then they should be paying for it. If they insist in not paying, drop back to dialup for a while. The only reason to do what they're doing is to save money, a grand or two per year per person probably, and this thing if you having to be a dedicated employee is a coverup.
Personally, I'd suggest polishing up your resume.
Damien
The place you're working for is a sinking ship ... they've run out of cash, and they're trying to download the costs of doing business on to their employees. Having lived through the dot.com bomb, I've seen this thing a half dozen times. If you don't play ball, you'll get bad reviews, and you'll eventually be dismissed for your "poor attitude".
Better start looking for a new gig.
S
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.
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 your new CIO is not telling you is that your department budget has been cut back and they are no longer able to pay for your broadband. If they won't let you itemize your broadband connection, ask if you can itemize dialup connection and phone costs for every call you have to make for business reasons.
If you have to be on-call, then they should at least reimburse you for cell phone/pagers costs. I'm not sure about blackberries, tho.
My company pays for my broadband and whenever I'm on-call, they pay for my cell phone costs and they provide the pagers. They also pay overtime for on-call related work, but my personal policy is, if I don't have to leave my house, I don't charge them. Also, they usually understand that if I stay up half the night soving a problem (from home or at the office), I'll probably be late for work in the morning and tend to look the other way.
How is your company's overall situation? Are finances suffering? Read between the lines on what your boss told you and figure out wether it's safe to protest or you should simply start thinking about employment elsewhere.
Disclaimer: IANAL, YMMV, caveat emptor, boni anima teuri amen, and all that.
No sig
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.
*AHEM* Not that I'm saying your ISDN line wasn't a good tool to "respond quickly to issues after hours" but...
In reality, your fellow administrators and your used to have a company-provided ISDN line in our home, pretending to need it to respond quickly to issues after hours, so you could get free internet in reality. Trouble is, your company wisened up to the fact that you shafted them, and decided that a a regular dial-up account, an automated phone call, SMS or Blackberry messages work just as well to "solve issues after hours".
Been there, done that. The bubble is finished, get over it...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Essentially institute a "safe auto" contact policy. You have an answering machine on your home phone number that they can call when they need you. You have, as far as they are concerend, no cellphone, pager, blackberry, or non corporate internet. If they send you an email you will get it when you are at work. I can not think of a single profession where there is a similar situation. Do construction works have a BYOB policy (Bring your own Backhoe)? No then why should 24/7 IT guys (which is what your company wants) have a BYOB (Bring your own broadband) expectation?
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Blackberry device and pagers should definitely be company paid. You should have a phone yourself, and some internet access, so they would normally be personal expenses. All connectvity software (VPN, etc.) that the company would require for remote connection should also be the corporate $. If a CIO was trying to wring this amount of savings it would signal to me that the end was near, and I would look to jump ship.
I personally find non-reimbursement incredibly insulting, but let's not forget that the employer must be aware that these are deductible business expenses. At the very least, they should be willing to accept that they are getting the money back from your business expenses. There's nothing worse than an employer telling you to get certified or to fly to see client xyz but refusing to pay for the flight or training. I have had to contend with that on a number of occasions, and it's only with small companies. Any fortune .5k company will not only reimburse you, but force you to use the process. They don't want any audit screwing up their investors' opinions!
stuff |
My. Company. Doesn't. Pay. For. Shit.
Never have.
Never will.
Boss: "Help! Our App just crashed!"
Me: "Will you bill my toilet paper usage?"
Boss: "Umm... no... why?"
Me: "Because seeing as how I'M ON THE SHITTER AND YOU DON'T HAVE A DR PLAN, I can't help
you at the moment"
Boss: "...But..."
Me: [Click]
ZERO
Where I work (a university) the attitude is that if it's work related then work should pay for it. That applies immediately to pagers and cell phones that are distributed to staff. If you already have a cell phone and don't want to carry around another phone, the university will pay for any overage charges that are work related (downside: you probably had work calls in there that brought you over the limit, but you still pay for personal calls in your overage - alternative is to carry a second phone that work pays for.)
This was also extended to in-home broadband access to those who could justify it. For example, if you are a systems administrator and you need to be able to respond to down systems during off-hours (i.e. you carry a pager or cell phone) or if you are a DBA who needs to respond to database problems, work will pay for broadband access. People like the financial support staff, most of the developers, and the web designers are not able to justify home internet access, since they don't need to respond to system problems. (Note I said "most of the developers".)
You have to re-apply every year, and your supervisor and the CIO need to sign off on it. You need to submit your bills monthly, and it only covers broadband internet. For example, if you have cable TV + internet, you only get reimbursed for the internet service. It's a fair system.
Last time i checked the IRS 1040 forms had a section specifically to un reimbursed work related expenses.
Sure, its only a tax break but what the hey. Electronic leases suck anyway. Sounds like your employeer is a real dweeb anyhow
The broadband piece may be because most people don't just use it for work, but for their own use as well, and there is no reason work should pay for that.
Having an on-call pager or cell phone is not an unreasonable way to go. I have used worked that out with my staffs in the past and it works pretty well. If you aren't on-call you never get the call because some manager HAS to use the printer right outside his/her cube, and not the one 10 feet further down the hall.
Ride it out, but make it clear (if this is really the case) that you don't have room in your personal budget for high speed internet access, and that if you get the call it will take you X minutes to get into work.
Personally I don't take work calls on my personal cell (sometimes my wife takes it, or my kids) so it's not a reliable way to contact me. I do have a company provided pager.
YMMV
Eschew Obfuscation
You mean $800 a year, right? I'm going to give the company the benefit of the doubt and say you're in a 7% state and 25% federal bracket. You pay ~7.5% in FICA. 1/(1-.395)*$480=$794. Woe be unto you if you and your spouse are in higher tax bracket(s).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
But getting to my Subject Line - Throw this at the VP (or whomever)... How can you ever expect to have an accurate Income / Expense sheet when you are shifting business costs to the workers? You're actually doing a disservice to the shareholders, because they're going to look at the bottom line. They will see smaller (or marginally decreasing) expenses related to reoccurring expenses, and think management is getting more effcient. This works great until the expenses get uncovered somehow (people quit, get a union involved, contact congressional representatives who then ask questions, etc).
To be very frank, bosses like this bury a company. It shows leadership is willing to be unethical to increase margins. As a MBA with 10+ years of network & telecom and military leadership training, I'd say the ship is sinking and it's time for you to get out.
If work does not pay for it, and I do (i.e. it isn't a free service), then work does not get to benefit from it for vital job-related functions. Incidentals, such as driving to/from work or calling in sick with my phone, don't apply to this rule.
You don't get to call my cell phone for regular work-related business unless you pay for it. You don't get to use my car unless you pay for it. You don't get to host dinner parties in my house unless you pay for it. And you don't get to benefit from me having broadband access unless you pay for it.
The only other option is that work documents that they require me to have such-and-such (broadband, cell phone, whatever) and then I write it off on taxes. I will also look at these work expenses I have been asked to pick up, and be thinking of those when salary negotiations come up the following year.
Jim
If you are required to use it for work, it's a business expense that should be paid by your employer. If they won't pay, you may be able to deduct some of these expenses as unreimbursed business expenses at tax time. IANAL. IANATA. YMMV.
In my previous job, I finally started refusing to pay for things that the company required me to have to do my job. You want me to have a pager, provide it. You want me to have a cell phone, provide it. You want me to have a home computer, provide it. You want me to have an Internet connection, provide it. My boss had a breakdown, and his boss was livid, but Human Resources came to my rescue and told them bluntly they had to pay for what I needed to do my job, and that I couldn't be disciplined for refusing to subsidize my employer.
If you love your job, talk to your personnel department and see if someone can talk sense into your bosses. Otherwise, I'd look for a job where they treat you fairly.
http://drteknikal.blogspot.com/
You might want to double check on liability issues. Depending on the exact nature of the business involved, there could be legal issues.
(I.e. if the work involves things like medical or other private information, working on/transmitting those over 'personal' equipment or an ad-hoc telecommuting arrangement may be a legal no-no.)
Your attitude is awful. I will never work for someone who thinks the way you do. Even if someone is posting from work right now, it doesn't neccessarily make them less productive. Breaks are neccessary here and there to clear your head and allow you to be productive. You cannot require someone to have internet access (or in particular, fast internet access) in order to be able to work additional hours. How does it show distain for the company if they don't have internet access or a cell phone? Having a life outside your job is not distain for the company, it's healthy.
There is a collective struggle between workers and owners (and their proxies, bosses). This series of events shows the subjective weakening power of the workers side here. They want you to pay for the privilege of being a 24/7 on-call wage slave. There's not much you can do as an individual, although if your company gets worse than industry average you can split.
What you can do is band together with other IT workers and educate and organize. You may remember recently there was a desire to retract the FLSA laws from even moe people. Most IT people legally have no right to overtime anyhow, despite the 19th century battles for an eight hour day. In fact, your time is now around-the-clock, and at your expense. Communicating and organizing with organizations like TechsUnite, the Programmers Guild, Washtech and whatnot will keep you appraised of these things. The ITAA, the IT owners lobbying group, has been lobbying in Washington DC for years, and was flooding newspapers with stories of IT labor shortages in the late 1990s. This has been a common industry tactic - industries used to flood newspapers with stories of labor shortages in the early 20th century, which newspapers like the Industrial Worker used to mock.
The two big factors in the struggle are hours worked and pay per hour. Employers always are trying to expand hours worked, workers if they have any power are trying to reduce the number of required hours. In terms of pay per hour, the fight is over how much of the wealth you create, and workers create all the wealth, goes to you in wages, and what percentage goes to the owner in profit.
Something people say is companies are getting tighter due to the economy, as if political economy was something completely alien from people like the weather. On the contrary, employers felt their expected rate of profit was falling in 2000 so they stopped capital spending, thereby creating unemployment, which drives down wages. They do this until their expected profit rate comes into their expectation range again.
Is the company in dire trouble now (that being the reason for the cutbacks), or are they going to be in dire trouble soon because of such cutbacks?
It's almost certainly one or the other. If the company is hurting, an dthis is a part of across-the-board, temporary cost-cutting measures, they should say so, and you can decide how to react.
Otherwise, there's a clueless twit loose, and s/he needs to be dealt with, or your group (if not the company) is dead, dead, dead unless something changes.
As for the details in the meantime, I agree with the "Easy one" poster. It woiuld be one thing if you'd hired in under those terms. But just yanking them because the new guy has his own definition of reality? Maybe you should explain that a real CIO provides his people with the best tools for their job.
Plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, or pretty much any tradesman, are expected to have their own tools.
Hell, McDonalds' employees pay for their uniforms.
Is it really that unreasonable to expect computer professionals to have a computer and internet access?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Wow, are you a member of management or what? If a Cell Phone/Pager is being used for company communication, then it should be covered by the company. If the internet connection is used for company purposes some of the time, then it should be paid for in part by the company, maybe not all of it, but if you have to use it for more than 5 hours a week for company purposes, then it should at lease be half covered by the company, however those are just me 2 cents.
You wouldn't happen to have a mullet, would you?
~Philly
Work paid for my cell phone for years.
Then they decide to stop paying for cell phones. I bitch about it being a short sighted penny-wise pound-foolish policy. Said bitching falls on deaf ears and they cut funding anyways.
Fine. My out of office message now specifies contacting my boss, not calling my cell phone. If work calls outside of my "free" hours timeslots, they pay for that portion of my monthly bill. If I use 300 minutes of the 500 plan minutes in a month, and 30 of those are for work use, then work pays for 1/10th of my bill.
If its the weekend and work calls my cell phone I do not feel an urgent need to pick up. If they leave a voice mail I feel just fine not responding until I'm in the office on Monday.
To put it short, if my employer feels that it is not important for them to be able to reach me when I am not in the building, then I'm going to act like it's not important for them to be able to reach me when I am not in the building.
And you can take your team-player should-be-willing-to-pitch-in speech and stick it where the sun don't shine. You're taking advantage of an expensive resource that I'm paying for out of pocket, if you're not willing to help mitigate that cost then I'm not willing to let you use that resource.
Saying that I should be willing to use my broadband, which incurs a usage fee, for work just because I already pay for it is like saying I should be willing to drive people around in my car just because I already pay for it.
There's a law against forcing someone to use their private vehicle for work related tasks without compensating for fuel and wear and tear... I see no reason that same principle shouldn't apply to any resource.
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
There are some questions that need to be answered:
If the answer to any or all of the above questions is "yes" -- especially the last one -- then the company should pay for it since it is the principal beneficiary of the work that these devices and services enable. It is up to the employer to provide the facilities, materials and tools required to do the job (unless it is explicitly stated otherwise in your employment contract).
If the company is willing to accept lower customer satisfaction ratings or interruptions in business continuity by not paying for these items, then it should be optional for the employee to pay for or use these items in their work. If it's not important enough for the company to pay for these things then it certainly isn't important enough for the employee to do so.
Whatever the case the employees should not be put in a position where they are forced to fund business operations to do their jobs -- which is very much what this sounds like.
The bottom line is that you do what you have to do to keep a job that you want.
I like to foster the believe that I'm a psychotic. People give you wide berth if they think you're going to go postal. This works even better if you know where your boss spends his recreational time.
There is a limit to what an employer can reasonably expect from you. When you get hired let the employer know, that you'll give 100% for the entire time that the job description demands, but nothing more will be given without compensation.
I've lost two jobs over the years because I was NOT willing to put in extra hours for free. Once I was scheduled for 48 hours per week on salary. I gave them 48-50 hours per week. Nothing more. When I was let go the boss actually said this to me "You get here when we open, and you go home when we close. We need someone who will give more."
You know what happened? I got a new job less than two hours later. The guy who fired me ended up losing his wife to an employee who was willing to put in the extra hours, but apparently they were paying him with something other than cash.
I still can't wait until the next time I see him, I'm going to ask him if he still thinks he fired the right guy.
NTITE
You don't work from home, you don't carry a pager, and you don't give them your cell phone number.
Instead, your replacement will take care of all those pesky "issues" like decorating your cube and picking up your paycheck. If you really are an integral part of keeping a company running 24x7, then your salary probably already reflects it. Let's be honest: most folks have 1+Mb Internet connections and cell phones anyways. It's not like the co. is asking you to maintain a DS3 into your basement.
It's easy to sound-off on /. posts, but you're facing a reality of today's business world. Try negotiating an in-between solution. Discuss with management that you recognize most folks have Internet connections and cell phones anyways. (Now, they'll recognize you live in the real world with them.) Then explain you are committed to the company, cite examples, etc... (Yea, basically kiss-up a little). Then explain that you'd like to expense a portion of your business-related expenses. If 50% of your cell calls are work related and a fourth of your Internet time is resolving work issues, then you'd like to expense those percentages of those bills. Explain how this arrangement would help you adjust your budget during this transition period that the co. is going through.
After a while, you can push those numbers up a little since no-one will actually look at every in/out-bound number on your cell phone bill. ;-) And as for the so-called transition period, how many "temporary fixes" are still in place years later? ;-) Don't take any big stands on this issue. Don't bring it up in the weekly staff meeting. Let this negotiation occur quietly between you and whoever approves your expenses. It's the real world, population: us.
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
I work for a major telco, and our management currently pays for broadband for people who are required to provide 7x24 support, people who work from home, and senior management.
In a relentless drive to lower costs, this policy is under review, but we haven't heard the results yet.
Most of my co-workers have laptops (I don't) and they expense their broadband bills monthly. I could expense my broadband, but in order to do my job remotely, I would have to install additional software on my personal computer. Given that there is no place for personal software on corporate assets, I believe that there is also no place for corporate software on my personal assets, so I manage with a 56k dial connection when I do 24x7 support.
I see no need to try to expense my phone bill, because I would have that regardless and there is unlimited local calling anyways.
A previous manager once asked me for my personal cell phone number so that he could have it printed on my new business cards. I asked if I could expense the bill for my cell phone if I agreed, only to be told that the company does not pay for personal use items. That being the case, I decided that my personal cell phone would remain for personal use only.
I don't view this as not being a team player. I work a lot of unpaid overtime, and when there are fires to be put out, I stay for the duration until things are under control.
I do not see it as being part of my job description to subsidize a multi-billion dollar corporation. If they want me to be available outside of the office, they can provide me with a cell-phone and/or pager. I will not use my own assets to help them do their job
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
CIO's wouldn't be able to pull this kind of shit if we were a union trade. We could demand better pay for having to subsidize company architcture or they would have to pay for it themselves. Otherwise we walk while the windows worm of the week burrows unopposed.
If half the CIO's of the fortune 500 were giving evil eyes to your CIO because of a sympathy strike on your behalf, this would be an entirely different story. Such a CIO could be endangering their carreer if they turn the screws too tight on their staff.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
If they demand broadband, then they pay for it. However, they reserve the right to demand that it only be used for their purposes. Same for cell phones, etc - if they want it, they pay. However if they pay, they can (and probably should) dictate how it's used. ...which is pretty much what we do here.
For general users, I provide them with a machine, and we pay for the cablemodem. The caveat is that the machine will be used *exactly* for work, and nothing else. They're free to connect a personal machine to that cablemodem, but the stuff I provide had better not ever touch anything other than here.
At home, I pay for the cablemodem since it's a legacy anyway. I do have, however, a machine that is dedicated for work - simply because I've told my employer that I will *not* pollute my personal property with their required software, nor will I compromise my machines' usability with their software's requirements... unless they wish to take responsibility / liability for the impact of their software on my machines - if their crap bones it, they pay. Obviously, they got me a dedicated box for the task.
So, fair's fair. If they want you to be accountable for providing equipment, then you have complete authority over how it gets used. Likewise, if they want authority over how it's used, then they are accountable for providing it.
Sounds like your CIO wants the authority, while sticking you with the accountability. Use that exact expression when you discuss this topic, and you'll discover that your CIO must change his verbiage one way or the other, very quickly.
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
That was YOUR choice. You volunteered to do those things, and at a startup, it was recognized and appreciated. This guy's boss is just cheap. It's more of the same old mentality: Let's squeeze as much profit and productivity from these people as we can without spending any money on them. And if they balk, hint at layoffs.
He may not have any choice, but his piece of mind will be greatly increased if he can find another job with reasonable superiors. The ones he has now are making unreasonable demands at his fiscal expense.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
A few years ago the company I worked for used to supply a few of us with ISDN lines (this was before cable/DSL was readily available) so we could work from home. They paid for the connection and footed the bill for rental and calls. At the time, though, ISDN was still metered by the minute in the UK and so you paid for the duration of your call - what's more, if you bonded the two channels into one 128Kb connection then you paid for each channel (ie. it was effectively two separate phone calls). Off peak this could be as much as 5p per minute per channel. In otherwords it wasn't cheap :)
Well, all was fine until the sorry day when I downloaded the Unreal Tournament demo to try out. Suddenly I found that being one of the l337 few with a 'low ping' connection I was really good and so I bought the full game when it was released. Next thing I knew I joined a clan and was playing all the time. Then - you guessed it - the bills started arriving....
You try explaining to your boss how you've managed to wrack up a bill for over 100 ($185) a month by 'working from home'. Not easy, especially when the server logs seem to indicate you'd never actually telneted to the server more than a couple of times to read your mail... Bah!
I pay for my own cell phone ... I pay for my own broadband ... heck I have even paid for software components out of my own pocket when I thought the management were too illiterate to understand why I needed it in our software ... I answer tech support emails at all hours of the day ... I make international calls from home to reach customers ... ... and yes I am happy they pay me to do what I would be doing anyway ...
... we're struggling ... we're spending more money than we make ... but I have faith that if we make it over the financial hump that I will be rewarded ... three cheers for small companies!
Like alot of IS related companies mine is not doing so hot right now
Before I got moved to development I was a Security Admin for a fortune 500 company, but they still would let me bill for business expenses, like cell phone calls and they provided me with a pager. So I don't think it's a question of working for a privately held company vs. a publicly traded one as some posters said it was.
("you" is in refrence to the submitter)
I think this is a personal dilemma. Here are some points you should consider.
What % of the broadband usage is for business and what % is personal.
How important is this to you, by that I mean are you willing to leave the job over it?
At my job I wouldn't be afraid to tell my manger that an issue might get me to look for a new job if it wasn't changed or a reasonable explanation wasn't given, I wouldn't worry about him letting me go for something trivial. You might not have the relationship with your manager if you don't I would get a job lined up then talk.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
Yup, you sure do.
You get the "freedom" to come in on the 4th of July to work on someone else's server.
You get the "freedom" to spend your money on work related Internet.
You get the "freedom" to spend your money on work related cell phone minutes.
And for what? To be treated like a professional? Wouldn't you rather be compensated like a professional?
Where I work, we have what's called "leave days", and when we need to take leave, we do, it's why they give them to us. When we are sick, we take "sick days", we don't have to ask, that's what they give them to us for. If work requires us to be on a pager, they supply it, common sense says it's their responsibility.
I'm very sure your boss "loves" you. But as for me, I don't own the company, I require compensation for my work. And, because I work for professionals, they treat me as a professional, without asking me to shell out a lot of cash for the privilege.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
For example, if you live in California, Calif. Labor Code Sec. 2802(a) states:
An employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer, even though unlawful, unless the employee, at the time of obeying the directions, believed them to be unlawful.
Of course, if you don't want to make an issue of it now, just keep track of all your expenses, document why they are necessary, and when you leave the company sue them for the expenses during the statute of limitations period.
---
The preceding is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute any form or offer of representation. You should seek the advice of a compentent legal professional licensed in your jurisdiction prior to taking any action.
Everytime they call you on your personally financed cell phone, respond with "I'm on a job interview right now with [Insert biggest competitor here] and I can't talk".
NTITE
-You can cry, but you'll still die. There'll be no tears in the end.
For what I know Japanese are _really_ good at 'selling their soul' to the company.
Working 10 hours a day is 'normal' (for what i heared).
Privacy is terrorism.
As long as I'm not firing you for issues relating to race, creed, color, sex, place of national origin, or sexual orientation (and, possibly one or two more), you're toast.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
IANAAccountant, but I do my own taxes and forget it.
Employee business expenses have a 2% AGI floor on Schedule A. What that means is if your income is about $60K a year, you don't get to deduct ANY of those expenses until they are more than $1200. If you have $1500 in expenses you get to deduct $300. (If you make more than $140K it's even further limited.) Whoop de frickin do.
Absolutely!
At the company I run, not only are my employees dedicated enough that they're willing to go the extra mile to ensure availability in the off hours, but they do the same during workdays as well. They work in a cubicle that they rent, with a desktop PC that they purchase from the company (at a more than reasonable rate, due to the volume discount that we get and generously pass on to them), use office supplies that they provide, and even pitch in for their share of the electric bill.
Some would call it "wage slavery". I call it "smart business".
Of course, this is only theoretical, since I haven't actually hired anyone yet. In fact, no one has even sent me a resume. I'm sure it's because everyone's such loyal and dedicated employees that they just don't want to leave the companies they're already working for.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
if you pay for it then you have 100% freedom to turn it off at any time for any reason. that goes for bandwidth or wireless leashes, doesn't matter.
Where I work (West Virginia) as sysadmin for a network services company, I'm offered a mere $10 a month in compensation for my cell phone.
I turned it down, so I have the priviledge of turning it off, and ignoring it when it's the boss calling, otherwise I'd probably rack up more than $10 worth of my minutes used by the company.
In the case of the story author, I'd refuse to get a cell phone or broadband for company use. I'd not give them the number if I had a cell phone, and I'd tell them I'd cancelled my broadband that I use for work they now won't pay for, and won't get it back unless they reinstate it. If they want you to work, then you should show up for work and be on the clock.
While it's not 1999 anymore, it's not 2001-2002 either. If you are good, companies that pull that kind of shit won't be able to retain you (or their clients) for long by nickle-and-diming.
A broadband connection costs the company what, $40-50 a month? Which is money IT can write off their taxes.
Corporatism != Free Market
If the company provides you a benefit (company car, home broadband, computer, blackberry) that you can use for personal use, they are supposed to report that personal use ($/%) to the IRS as imputed income, which Uncle Sugar uses to soak you on 4/15.
Yeah, right.
Just remind your employer that as their policy states, any data that runs on their network is their property because it is on their network. This means that if you pay for your own Broadband, it is your network, and thus any data on it belongs to you. Of course this would be more convincing if the broadband connection in your home were in someone elses name, such as your spouse.
its a little more then that.
.mp3
We, the technology workers of the country, have let ourselves be screwed over.
How?
As a whole, many of us don't pay attention to politics.
As a whole, many of us have a screwed up idea that says we shouldn't ge orginaized.
So now, according to federal law, we arn't paid overtime if we make more then about 28 bucks an hour. roughly 56K a year. Could you imagine that ever happening if we had a organization to work for us in the government? you know, lobbiests.
State laws have changed radically of the years as to what legally qualifies us for excempt status. Exempt status has always been a lot more narrowly defined then corporations have let on. There still jsut as narrow, but most have exceptions for 'computer professionals'.
We could be the most powerfull union(yes, I said the dirty word) in the world. Large corporations no that, the government knows that.
We are so large, that if we had reasonable solidarity, we could change the laws of the US easily. We could be so large, that we could hire enough lobbiest to change the stupid DMCA laws. We could stop the insane copyright abuse going on.
Think about that next time sone person gets fined there life saving becasue they created a search engine that searchs for a compressed programs that happen to end in
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I've been around the corporate racetrack a few times; long enough to know that when your boss starts counting pennies, it means that she don't consider your services crucial to the bottom line.
Corporate executives frequently get all kinds of benefits and bonuses, anything from hard cash, interest-free loans, company cars, company-financed homes, dry cleaning, free lunches, maid service, etc. all because there is a perception that these individuals are difficult to replace and are critical to successful implementation of the company's long-term strategy. I've rarely heard anyone in a boardroom argue over the merits of any company-financed perk, except in cases where management was looking for an excuse to get rid of someone and wanted to encourage that person to get rid of themselves. The message is clear - if your company is tightening the ropes on this type of spending, than there's a good chance that someone has determined that you are:
Don't fool yourself into thinking that flexible hours or last week's heroics in fixing the email server mean anything to the people at the top of the corporate food chain. The problem with IT is that every system failure is often seen as an indication that you're not doing your job properly, and even when nothing fails, it's a red flag to your boss that she can probably get someone less qualified and less expensive to do the same job that you're doing. It's a no-win situation. Unless you're dealing some moneymaking aspect of the company (i.e., that the company generates cash via IT services) than chances are good that you're about to be sidelined and replaced. Cash and compensation is always the bottom line for respect in any business endeavor; if you're not seeing dollars or perks, you have no respect coming down from upper-management.
I worked for a company for five years. They used us to do onsite work using our cars. I had to leave in the end because I used my car so much in that time (only getting fuel paid for), and now I owe $12000 on a car only worth $4000. Upon my leaving, others hinted they would leave too. They now pay maintenance costs too. You have to be reasonable on costs, but you really need to see how much !everything! costs. Then see. Is Broadband something you may be able to live without being paid for?
We stupid American money chasers... We forget that our ideals, morals, and families are all that really matters. We're slaves to the almighty Buck, and those of us who manage to see clearly enough to realize that this is ludicrous, are branded as either stupid, or hopelessly idealistic.
I say those who are willing to give up their ideals and lives for the sake of a corporation don't deserve them in the first place. Kind of like what Ben Franklin said regarding security vs. freedom.
1. I don't want my employer's policies applying to my home. Think pr0n and/or p2p.
2. If I'm working on a non-work related project at my house, I want EVERYTHING associated with it to be done on my dime. Don't want them to have any hooks into things done on my time.
They have a tremendous selection of fresh juices
It's a simple rule to keep track of... never ever let the employer spend your money for you. In its purest form, it means no expensing anything, no up-front cash of any sort for your employer, even if it's to be reimbursed later. (which often times works out to much later)
The only "exception" I make to this simple rule is that of convenience. I bring my laptop to work because when I go on a service call, it's convenient for me to have my laptop as a resource. I could do my job just as efficiently, although more unpleasantly, without my laptop though.
A smart employer will realize it's unwise to pressure employees into using personal assets and resources for company business. One manager I used to have always kept the "what if he gets hit by a bus tomorrow?" concept on his mind. If getting day-to-day business done at work depended on my bringing my laptop, how much forward-thinking does it take to realize this is BAD if you quit, get fired, get injured, etc? If the manager truly cares about the business, they won't try to get employees to donate to the company - in fact, quite the opposite will be true, to prevent the creation of a failure point. At my last job, I actually had to put together a case for why it was useful to the company for me to bring my laptop in for them to allow it.
As for the more specific issue of the company wanting you to spend money for them... well, there are a few professions where this is supported to an extent. Mechanics sometimes are required to provide their own tools, although they often are reimbursed for costs of purchasing replacements, and I think this is partly done because the mechanics are picky about what sort of tools they prefer to use.
Spending cash monthly for your workplace is insane. Never forget that you have a business relationship with the company, nothing more. "Company loyalty" is an illusion created by businesses to increase proffit margins - a place where they try to get something for nothing. This comes in many forms... working OT without clocking it (or pushing hours over to next week etc), being on call (or carrying a pager) without compensation, use of personal equipment (especially transportation) without compensation, these things are all ways for your employer to get something for nothing from you.
In your case, if the company refuses to pay for the line to home, they have no business expecting you to pay for it for them. Also, ask yourself how much of your paycheck is to compensate you for being on-call while at home? If you are an independent contractor, you are paid a flat fee for the expenses you incur, and it's your job to evaluate whether you are being compensated for all your expenses plus your time and effort. As an employee of a company, you should have a clear understanding of what your paycheck is compensating you for. For most people this means the work they do for the company while on the clock, and that's it. Period. If they start asking you for more, then you start asking THEM for more. Nice and simple.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I also was 24x7 support girl, so i had a 56k lease line to my house because dialup was not an option (very rural, very bad phone lines). Then, my line went away because our corporate parent didn't see merit in my connectivity. So, now, it takes me 35 minutes at a minimum to get to work and fix things. By the way, that's 35 minutes I never get paid for. Nice, huh?
The interesting thing is that as IT people, we think we're integral to the business, and we think that people will protest when we aren't allowed to do our jobs. We think that our end users will somehow spring to our rescue and upper management will see reason and we will retain our ability to provide good service. The truth is that we all work with sheep and although they'll complain, they won't do anything for anyone but themselves. Over the last 6 years, I've watched our service levels go to Hell because our corporate ueberparent has increasingly dictated our every move. Our users just sit there and take it, whining to each other all the while but doing essentially nothing to change the situation.
If I were you, I would start looking into a new job. Your choices are sit there and take it, or get out. I'm choosing B at the end of this month. Good luck to you.
maybe one day i'll be smart enough to come up with a cool sig, too.
I, and many others, used to have our cellular phone bills paid completely. Then, oh maybe a year ago, the rule was changed so only a set amount of our bill was paid. Recently it has been changed so that we have to pay our entire bill on our own.
Did I complain at first? Sure, going from paying $0 to paying $80 every month was lame, but I stopped complaining pretty quick when I thought about it rationally. The proportion of minutes that people spent doing work verse the minutes people spent using the phone for personal use definitely showed most people were just using their phone on their own (or minutes were going unused). We also get the corporate rate on our plans, which is cool and adds up fast. I'm sure there are some people that use it solely for work, and I'm sure that the company will work with them appropriately, but for the general employee that isn't the case.
Back when my cell phone was bought & paid for by the company I had no problem with my number being listed in the directory - it wasn't really "my private phone", it was "the company's phone that I could use". I also expected other people to have their cell number in the directory, and when I needed to reach them after hours & it wasn't there I bitched at them.
Now that it is "my phone" and "my phone plan", you know what? It is my personal number and does not need to be listed. The people that need to be able to reach me know how to reach me. Random people that 'think' they need to call me after work... can send me email or leave voice mail on my office line. I don't expect everyone else to have their numbers in the directory anymore either.
That does kinda suck though, when we really need to get ahold of someone but can't...
Is it a cut to my benefits? Sure.
Does it suck that I have to pay for something I didn't used to? Sure.
Does it make sense that if I use my phone for personal use -way- more than business use, that I should be responsible? Sure.
Do I understand how this affects the corporate bottom line? Yep, I'm glad we're doing this too. The less expenses we pay the more money we have for other things (or the more money the company keeps, which plays in to stock prices, budgets, blah blah blah)
NOT A LIFE.
*** I suffer from a colorful array of psychological problems
I'd say fine.
But no off hours stuff. If they ask why? Well, I don't have internet access/cellphone/whatever anymore.
A company shouldn't be burning your personal assets (cell phone minutes, bandwidth etc.).
So if they need you to do work, they should be providing the means to do so (that's why companies have offices).
I'd play hardball. Want me to do work? Provide the means.
Want me to be accessible via my cell phone? Reimburse me for the minutes you use.
Simple as that.
Shouldn't have to pay a company to do work for them.
Bah!
:)
Now, for the more verbose answer:
Option 1: What's needed here is to play hardball without looking like you're playing hardball. Agree that, as a 'dedicated employee', you'll be available nights and weekends. Agree that you can connect from home to solve problems. Proceed to get the crappiest cell phone in history, with the most restrictive plan, and the least amount of minutes. Then, sign up for AOHell dialup, and be sure to dial the slowest server you can find. Drop your modem speed to 9600 or so. See how much they ask of you when you can only talk in 30-second increments, and it takes you hours to upload a text file.
Option 2: Argue that your company calls you more than they think, and weasel your way into an agreement wherein you contact your boss whenever you have to do work outside of hours. Be sure to put in lots of 3AM coding sessions.
Option 3: Stand up. Be a geek. Point out glaring inconsistancies in logic, including "So, if an employee dedicated to their company puts their own money out to support the company, then what does that make a company that won't put out it's money to support an employee?", and "I'm sorry, I must have missed a meeting. Are you on-call? Because that'll be great for my 11PM brainstorms.". One that's actually worked for me: "You want me to be able to connect from home? Yes. You want me to pay for it myself? Check. You want me to be able to do all my job functions from home? Yep. Alright, I'll do it! And I'll be happy to telecommute wherever possible! How's 3 days a week sound?"
Really, truthfully, this is just some schmuck hoping to squeeze a few more dollars out, and find someone who's too scared to say no. When it boils down to it, you were hired at a rate of pay, and the agreement there was that you'd do some services in exchange for that pay. If they're now changing that agreement, then they need to either revamp your services, or revamp your pay.
What's next? "Yeah, we want you guys to work 10 hour days... to be, yanno, productive, because you love MEGACORP". Or "We've decided that, in order to finance the executive bonus, we'll need to implement 10% pay cuts for everyone".
*sigh* They are right to start or stop services as they see fit. It's their money. They are NOT right to expect you to pick up the slack. Really, previous posts are right... they want YOU to pay for the ability to connect on YOUR TIME to do THEIR WORK. If you aren't receiving other bonuses (bonii?), then it just doesn't even out.
And getting an extra 5 minutes at lunch is NOT a bonus, people! You think that you have "flexible hours" because "no-one checks to see if I'm there"? Try coming in at 10 for a week straight.
Real bonuses? I get a day off every 2 weeks. Free and clear, and it's even my choice of days. As long as I don't skip an appointment, every other week I have real flex time. I need to stay till 8PM to do some after hours work? I come in at noon. I need to leave halfway through the day? I do. I decide to fuck off and take a 3 hour lunch? Done. Server breaks and I'm there an extra 4 hours? I take it off the next day. Need to work a weekend to do something? Scheduled, it's paid OT.
The price I pay for that flexibility is 9 hour days, no lunch (no time!), and unscheduled overtime isn't paid. I don't get much extra $ for travel, and the project I busted my ass on for a year which will save/make the company tens of thousands... I don't get a dime for. When it was review time earlier this year, I got (after tax), a whopping $20 CDN a paycheck. But, my time is more valuable to me than $. $ I can make anywhere. Time is gone as soon as it comes.
Besides, I do some side work that nets me the $ I need.
Cerv
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
I think there are two sides to this. The CIO is getting pressure from the CFO/CEO to reduce overhead yet maintain the services that the organization has grown accustom to- Do more with less. The CIO is in the middle and unfortunately, isn't creative enough to develop his internal soluion without shafting his employees nor articulate enough to elicit the resources from the CFO/CEO to support such programs. At some point, management, including the CIO, needs to realize that you are only paid for 40 hours, so anything above and beyond that requires appropriate compensation or benefits - leave early, come in late, comp time, team building, etc. Most importantly, the CIO should not ask his employees to do anything that he isn't willing to do himself. Yes, the duties of my IS department are the responsibiltiy of my team - I take call too.
Since I was told I had to buy my own clothes, I just go to work naked. But I don't really go because that means I have to pay rent. I just live in the office.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
Because they can.
Because the employees let them.
I live 10 time-zones away from the current client I'm supporting, which means their working hours are 6pm till 2am my time.
So, I have a full development environment at home, including legal copies of all the software I need, broadband access, etc. All paid for by my employer (actually, the PC belongs to me).
When the phone rings (never after 10pm) the meter starts running, every call, every email, every 'log on at 9 and check everythings ok' is billed for.
Why does my employer pay for all of this?
Because they want the work done, and I don't work for free.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
A decade or so ago, one of my friends had the recommendation that you should always have your own email, independent of your employers, so you've got continuity and people can reach you even if your job situation changes - especially so you've got an email account for your resume. It was good advice, as I found out six months later when I got laid off :-) These days, of course, the idea of not having independent connectivity and half a dozen email accounts seems old-fashioned, but back then it was important. I haven't done that with my cellphone (I suck at doing regular paperwork, and I've had the company-provided phone number for almost 10 years, and we're a quasi-stable company though we do keep laying people off.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Hmmm. I would have mod'd +1 Interesting, but I couldn't restrain myself from posting. But it is interesting, because it shows a different (and, apparently, unpopular) point-of-view.
I am also an employer, and I also do not pay for employee's broadband access. I view this as a personal luxury, not a business requirement. I run an IT services company and have one tech and two engineers on the payroll. I provide each of them with a toolkit, cell phone, a laptop with company-paid dial-up ISP, and a credit-card. Dial-up is sufficient for 90% of the work we are called to do outside of normal business hours. Yes, it might take a bit longer than broadband, but overtime is paid (and billed) based on actual time-on-task. But as I said, 90% of the time the speed of the connection has nothing to do with their ability to solve a problem.I do not require employees to have any Internet access. I do require them to have a POTS line at home so they can dial-up the ISP. There are policies limiting the non-business use of the laptop, credit card and cell. But I would only take action if there was significant abuse (which, thankfully, I've not yet encountered).
The number of times an employee needs to connect remotely from home does not justify the cost and effort of me requiring and paying for broadband Internet. Nevertheless, all three employees have their own broadband Internet accounts, but that is their choice.It is more important for me to provide dial-up than broadband. Dial-up can be used anywhere: a customer site, home, hotel room, etc. SSH, VNC and Windows Remote Desktop are workable over dial-up. I use it enough to know. In fact, I'm using it now from a Holiday Inn Express that doesn't have high-speed Internet.
On the other hand, if I had employees that were regular telecommuters, or lengthy after-hours calls occurred more frequently, I would reconsider this issue. Most probably, I would just give everyone a small raise to cover the average cost of broadband, rather than setting-up company-billed accounts (which, in my area, means paying significantly higher fees for commercial broadband) or having employees go through the trouble of expensing their costs. And I would explain it that way to new hires (i.e., "Your annual salary is X, plus an additional $60/month allowance to offset the cost of broadband Internet).--- A man with a briefcase can steal more money, than any man with a gun. [Don Henley]