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Workplace BlackBerry Use May Spur Lawsuits
An anonymous reader writes "From an article on cnbc.com: 'As employers hand out electronic devices to their employees at a greater pace, there are growing concerns that workers eligible for overtime pay, known as non-exempt employees, could begin suing their employers for overtime hours earned while tapping on their devices during after-work hours. As a result, lawyers are advising their corporate clients to update their policies and handbooks related to BlackBerry use and reconsider who gets a device.'"
...I wished I wasn't overtime exempt.
"I never did give anybody hell; I just told them the truth, and they thought it was hell." - Harry S. Truman
It clearly separates you from the sheeple and establish your dominance over the herd. It establishes that you're a go-getter, instead of one of those hippies with an iphone.
And everyone knows, blackberries make assholes more versatile.
In 2003-2004 at my previous employer the company rolled out Blackberries to management and "key" personnel. Being responsible for a relatively large part of the infrastructure at this joint, I also got one.
One day I arrived at work and found the messaging group folks had delivered the BBs to some of the people in my area, and there was a box in my desk as well, with a little booklet (the must have cost a fortune to print, it was that well done) with usage policy (of course), instructions and steps for setting it up. The younger kids were besides themselves and already setting up the sync cradles and sending messages to each other. I picked up the phone and called the project manager, who was a friend of mine. I asked him to send one of his people to pick the box up.
"But everyone's getting one."
"I don't care, I don't want it."
"You are on Tier 1 and you're supposed to be on call..."
"I am. I have a cell phone, and if the IPC melts down at 3 AM, someone can call me."
"But this lets you check your email!"
"That's exactly why I don't want it"
A few days of back and forth politik ensued, and eventually my boss relented and let me be. Note that this was the time when the devices could not make phone calls - I hear they can now. Oh joy.
I figured that once I had that thing I'd never be able to get away from it, even on vacation. And that's exactly what happened to everyone else. People won't think twice about sending you an email for stupid little things at 10:00 PM, because they're working and figure everyone else should be as well. But making a phone call is very different, and most people won't do it unless it's something really important. People think it's no big deal because it's just a message. Bullshit.
If the data center is on fire, sure I want to know, no matter what time it is. But I don't want to hear little pings and murmurs from a PDA next to my bed because some VP couldn't find a file for tomorrow's presentation, or a fscking file server is down and Julie in accounting can't get to it. All that can wait until the morning.
If I had taken the thing and ended up in that 24/7/365 situation I don't think I'd sue my employer, but I would have probably ended up leaving a lot sooner than I did. Probably even if I were eligible for overtime. A case of "they ain't paying me enough for this crap" if I ever saw one.
The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.
After I put my 8 or 10 hours in I get home and shut off the cellphone/pager/pda or any other gadget connected to work, I need some me time to eat & take a shower and put my feet up & relax, there is nothing that can not wait until tomorrow.
If they fire me I will tell the boss, "I was looking for a job when I found this one".
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Surely the NSA could verify that it was all non-work related "tapping"? And isn't "tapping" slang for "laying some pipe" which is slang for "rooting" which is slang for...
Blackberries are imho meant for those people who for whatever reason can't stop working. Business owners, sales people working on commission only, that idea. And of course that are exactly the people for whom working hours don't count. I'm one of them, even though I don't have nor want a blackberry. If people need to reach me so urgently they can use the phone.
This also makes me wonder, what is a blackberry doing in the hands of employees with fixed working hours? Why are they given one by the company in the first place? This are generally the lower ranked people (now I don't know US labour laws very much) - they have fixed working hours obviously, and are supposed to do (and finish) their work within those hours. I can't think of any reason why they would possibly need one such devices. They are at work, then work, and then will have a computer at hand. If it is the kind of employee that is supposed to run around all the time, e-mail won't be of much interest for them either.
No matter what I think this is mostly a story about the inappropriate use of a technology. The enormous urge of being "ahead of the pack" when it comes to adapting new tech. It is high tech, it is new, "everybody" uses it, etc. That kind of thinking. It sounds like a disconnect between the ideas of the top management and the actual tasks of the workers.
Add to that the idea that all employees want to be important, and having a blackberry these days is for sure equivalent to being important (until recently it were only the high-fliers that would have a need for it and could afford one), so everybody will happily accept a blackberry without thinking about whether they really need one. And then those lower ranked employees also get addicted, forget that they have working hours, start working overtime, and poof, lawsuit!
I truly hope the employees lose in this case, as I consider it unasked for overtime. Completely voluntary overtime. Unless the employers gave the blackberry with the message "now you are reachable at all times", in which case the employer deserves to lose - if only for sheer stupidity.
Exactly how many employees who are required to carry a blackberry and perform work on it are also "non-exempt"?
What?
From TFA:
And since I spend NO time after work sending any work emails ... someone out there is spending an awful lot of time to make up for my slacking.
I disagree with that. I'd say that "work" would be anything you'd be paid to do (and not fired for doing) in the office. If you do it after hours, it's still work.
I frequently do things after hours that benefit the company I work for. Such as reading.
They've been issued for far longer than Blackberries and haven't spurned lawsuits so far.
Basically, it's not a question of the technology: if you have hourly employees working unreported time, you're asking for trouble. The labor laws are fairly clear in this matter. Whether it's on a Blackberry, laptop, or otherwise is beside the point.
But let's not forget that employers can simply reclassify their hourly employees as salaried and get as much unpaid overtime as they want. And that's perfectly legal, Blackberry or not. This question is more a matter of your employer's semantic classification of your job than whether or not you get paid for your overtime.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
... setting personal boundaries and expectations with your employer and co-workers? Just because you have a Blackberry does not make you an indentured servant.
On a side note, I had a previous employer offer me a Blackberry as an enticement to stay when I gave my notice to leave. Needless to say my decision remained the same.
I own a Blackberry (my own, I'm self employed and also an ISV of a Blackberry app) and the biggest complaint I have about them is many companies hand them out as status symbols and not to the people who could really make good use of them.
I Heart Sorting Networks
b*sturds
I've got a friend who have been given one. In my opinion it's both good and bad. The good side is that if you must send an E-mail, you can, and you don't have to stop your leisure and go home or go to workplace. The bad side is that more people expect you to reply quickly. But if you don't start replying quickly, few get such expectation. So my friend end up not attending to that new gadget when peaceful moments are more desired (which is most of the time).
At the end of the day, it's just a tool. They give it to you, it's their right. You might watch for message in it every second you're not sleeping, or you might just turn it off unless somebody makes you a phone call and you decide it is urgent enough, it's your choice. They can fire you, but they can always do so anyway.
Just turn it off at 5pm, it will wake up automatically in the AM if you set the time correctly.
You have to pay for people to work. What a novel concept.
I actually tell my employees specifically that - if they're not on call - they should not answer blackberries for work use when off.
:P
Now, I do think it provides some leeway - I have some employees who I allow somewhat flexible hours and for that they trade some amount of availiblity.
Others, I just like to irritate by sending emails a 4:30AM.
Oh, wait, my master is buzzing...
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Back when I had to be on call, I got a pager and was paid an on-call premium. If someone called the pager, I automatically got for hours overtime if I had to respond (plus any extra time past that).
Not being able to draw a line between work time and personal time probably has an adverse health consequence. (according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Marmot ) By making work intrusions on personal time an employer expense, the employer is deterred from making frivolous demands.
It's really not that hard to ignore them. I've had one for about a year (the 8830). I tune out the blinking red light when I'm not working, or if it is annoying me I turn the phone upside down so I cannot see it.
I find it very useful when I'm on site and I can keep up a bit more, whereas otherwise I'd be a day or two behind on emails.
I'm currently a IT professional that is actually paid overtime for > 40 hours of work per week. Guess what - I don't have a blackberry.
If I want to earn more money, the next pay grade is exempt and (shocking) includes a blackberry.
It's like looking at crackpipe and trying to talk yourself into it. :\
Here's the rule:
If the on-call phone rings, answer it. Take care of the problem. We'll pay you. Overtime if necessary.
If the request comes in over your other phone or email, it can wait until normal business hours.
Everyone knows insert my job title here doesn't work after-hours unless it's an emergency and everyone who needs to know knows how to make the on-call phone ring.
Dude you can't say that around here! People will think you're talking about software and therefore EEEEEEEVIIIIILLLLL! :(
Hey man, my time off of work is my time. I mute my company issued cell phone's ringer. Then I call back when I'm awake which is when they are usually sleeping. :-) They have learned since to call someone else.
Don't use it after business hours. Make it clear that if there is an emergency (a real emergency, as in money lost by the second kind of emergency)you should be called.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Sometimes the reason you are given a phone is because your boss wants to work during *his* vacation by getting information from you (during your regular working hours) and sometimes even to keep you informed. It all depends on your boss really. There is no reason to use a stupid phone these days while you have the smartphones. Smartphones are absolutely one of the best things to have, especially when the company pays for it. My boss never ever calls me during non-working hours except to wish holiday greetings. I use the company phone completely to my convenience and to answer only the emergency calls. I consider it a perk as I am supposed to be reachable through emergency calls through home phone any way.
Grow some balls and be responsible for your self and your own work. It is just a tool - no one is standing over you with a gun to use it - and if they are you have a much bigger problem than a crappy PDA.
As an employer I would expect my employees to do their job. If a tool like a blackberry is useful to someone, more power to them, if they don't want it, I couldn't care less. Does not get you off the hook for doing your job though. Now, your job either includes off-hour support or it does not. No PDA will change your contract. If it includes it, stop whining and do your job or quit. If it does not, stop whining and just turn the fucking thing off or at least ignore it. That's what I do as an employee.
People are just whining because they have no guts to stand up for themselves and have no self control. The PDA is the least of their problems. If you can't take responsibility for yourself, I have no sympathy for you.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
If something is down, you've got 140 characters or so to tell me about it. If it takes more than that, it's either not serious enough to make me care about, or it's serious enough for you to call me about.
Either way I'm fine with my LG 10000 Voyager, and personal laptop to remote in when travelling if needed beyond that.
They day I have a blackberry is they day I've sold my soul (and/or am making more ... heh).
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
If it is really important thay will send the police.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Having just got off the phone to get a password from someone on vacation... I couldn't agree more. If you don't think it's important enough to wake someone up in New York when you're in California, then it can wait.
OTOTH: When I was supporting a system that was supposed to be 24/7/365 we did have BBs that the Monitoring System would send alerts for down time... if it exceeded X minutes and didn't automagically come back up.... but PEOPLE didn't have the address for the thing. That was fine too. But I would never have wanted my boss to know how to send an email to it.
The problem is not the device - there's a lot of chatter in this thread about the pros and cons of such portable devices, but the core issue is employers who have no regard for employees' personal time and who routinely break wage and hour laws.
Improper handling of "exempt" employee status is probably the most frequently screwed up HR liability in the corporate world because half of managers "heard somewhere" at one point that if you're on salary you're exempt. Wrong. The same people fabricated "flex time" which has no basis in law in the state of California (maybe in other places).
The level of ignorance in upper management with regard to employees rights is mind-numbing.
I have been telling my clients this for years. Wisconsin law clearly says that if a manager knowingly allows an hourly employee to do work at home then they must be compensated for their time. So, all my designs include the ability to and documentation on how to disable mobile access, remote email access, etc. for hourly and other non-exempt employees. If the employee saves all their email they can export all the email sent by them after hours, compile the data, and then prove a pattern of working in the evenings. If they were a 30 - hour employee they can sue for the remaining hours and benefits. This is a lot of risk for employers.
that companies would actually give, let alone expect non-exempt employees to be in contact after hours. There are very few nob-exempt positions at the company I work for and they're relatively simple tasks. If you're actually someone who needs to be in contact with others on a regular basis, like myself, who gets calls at 10pm or 2am for "emergencies" then you're an exempt aka salaried position, which also means I get to leave when I want when it's dead...of course I have worked 14 days straight near deadlines.
But ya, if I was hourly and you called me at 10pm or 2am I'd put in for overtime, bill you or expect some type of compensation - if not I can see why this would be grounds for a big shit storm.
Ave Molech Setting
If meetings where more interesting and actually valuable, people would not be so inclined to >i>playing solitaire during them.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Just hope they don't learn to pay someone else too!
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
I remember reading an etiquette guide where the rule of thumb was 'proximity'.
So if you are talking to someone face to face and you get a phone call/pager/email/IM, then you ignore those and focus on the face to face conversation because that person is closer.
Or if you are on phone call, and you get a pager/email/IM, then the caller is 'closer' to you (since you are engaged in a real-time voice conversation) and you would ignore the others including the IM (which is real-time, but less 'close' since it's not voice).
Basically it comes down to common sense and respect for the other person. Ever since I read that, I've been following that rule of thumb to the point where people I'm having conversations with are shocked when I let a phone call go to voicemail rather than interrupt my chat with them.
Mind you, the shocked look is often replaced with one of admiration that I consider them important/interesting enough that I am giving them my undivided attention. To me, that's proof that the rule of thumb is worth following.
Its not often I rule in favor of the corporations, but this is one of them.
If you're supposed to work, work.
If you're supposed to be off duty, don't work.
I'm one to speak, I regularly stay overtime to get things done, but I'm aware that its my choice, my responsibility, and not any form of corporate command whatsoever;
I do it to get things done. Not blackmail my company!!!
If people from work try to contact me (regarding work)when I'm off duty sufficiently that it does become a problem I just make it clear at that point that I'm off duty and if they continue to bother me so unnecessarily I may demand overtime pay (if they can offer it) or I'll just ignore them. I've had to do so twice thus far (one a computer gig, one a part-time teacher), both times the individual said "sure, if it's not important it can wait" and I haven't had any problems since.
There's times I do wish it wouldn't ring, though. Like at movie theaters. They should put a movie-theater mode that you could just leave on when you don't want to be bothered by it.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
And pay them less money because they are offshore.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
Personally...I'll never work for free ever again. Salaried pay is a rip-off.
That depends entirely on the salary. In many cases you are quite correct but not always. Once you climb up towards management, hourly pay generally is no longer an option. Plus in some professions (ex. doctors or investment bankers) hourly pay is simply not going to be an option on the table. Fortunately the pay and bonuses (should) make up for it so long as you don't mind the hours. Whether the hours vs. pay trade-off is worth it is an exercise left for the reader.
If the Blackberry helps you do your job (it's also given to you by the company) then when you finish your daily duties you should be able to turn it off. You can still be reached by phone for those meltdowns or any other emergencies.
I have a friend that I started to take an example from: when he doesn't want to talk to others or is just really busy he won't even answer the phone or door. Everybody acts like if the phone is ringing the world will collapse if they don't answer. If you stop and think about it, almost anything can wait until the next day.
Of course, in your case you probably would need 2 phones for that. It was just an example though.
ics
If you make that argument, you have already lost. It means you have given your boss the authority to rearrange your life for greater productivity; you're just giving advice on the best way to do it. To establish boundaries, you should let them make the first move. Just don't respond to emails or calls outside of working hours. If they want you to be available for work during certain hours, they need to negotiate those hours and convince you -- preferably with arguments you can take to the bank.
People rarely work more than 6 hours per day. 5 days * 6 hours = 30 hours. 35 hours is a more realistic compromise because people will have some downtime at work.
But don't use the French system either. Don't let people save the time or move it. Ask people to work 7 hours per day but give them 6 hours of work per day.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Yepp, that's something I've been watching with a mix of horror and fascination ever since the dot-com boom. The lines between work and the rest of your life are blurry at best these days. Companies love it, as long as it means you put in additional work that they don't have to pay for.
The ugly fact is that most of the laws and other rules regulating work and employment were written in a time when "work" meant going to the factory at 7 am, working until 6 pm and going home. There was a very strong seperation between "being at work" and your private life. In both directions.
The blur is a difficult animal. While I do enjoy it at times - browsing /. is a good example, a sort of break where other people would go smoking or get a coffee and a chat in the kitchen or whatever - it's also dangerous in ways. Both ways - if your private life haunts you at work, you get double stress, and if you can't leave work at work, quite the same.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
From the article, "Although experts said that they are not aware of any current lawsuits, they said it's inevitable."
The lawyers are stirring the pot. Nothing else to see, move along. These are not the lawsuits you are looking for.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
I truly hope the employees lose in this case, as I consider it unasked for overtime. Completely voluntary overtime. Unless the employers gave the blackberry with the message "now you are reachable at all times", in which case the employer deserves to lose - if only for sheer stupidity.
the Wage and Overtime laws require you to be paid for any 'time' you work. It's actually against the law knowingly not pay $$ when they work. Include work deal like; work tonight and take off a day next week or any other methods you can think of where you work more than 40 hours.
I'd like to know. My employer barely hands out money and healthcare and hasn't seen fit to give increases in 5 or 6 years.
In the shop I work in, all desktop support techs are non-exempt. They do not get blackberries, supposedly because of costs. In fact there are many _consultants_ working on a SAP implementation who were given new blackberries. Because if you think logically who should have a blackberry, tech-support employees or consultants, of course you would pick the consultants. I find it laughable that businesses are now crafting rules restricting blackberry usage to exempt employees/managers, especially in an IT shop. What you're basically doing is restricting the communications abilities of an essential group in your organization, becuase, shock!, you might have to pay them more.
This Sig does not Exist.
These gadgets are to be used when you are on call and need to read email to evaluate the situation before loging in remotely, or worst, getting your ass back to the office. Why should you be browsing your email if you are not working?
If I had one of those it will get home to a drawer, or close by if I was on call and it doubled as a phone (even that is dubious, being on cal the company would have my home number as well).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If there are no arrangements to pay appropriate compensation for working overtime, unsocial hours or sudden assignments then I will not do any work. I do not care if the next morning 500 people can't work the next morning.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
When you are playing hero you are masking inefficiencies in a company that sooner or later will come back to bite everybody in the worst possible way.
Masking inefficiencies in a company is most unprofessional, managers demanding this insanity and technicians accepting to do it are a risk to any company.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Responsibility does not equal accepting abuse of your time.
That is not responsibility, that is dumbness.
I will not brag about my compensation in previous companies, lets say that I have worked for several in the top 20 in the Fortune list.
I simply will say that under no circumstances have ever accepted to work without knowing with all detail how I would be compensated in the eventuality of an emergency.
I have worked through many emergencies saving my employers millions of dollars but I have never ever worked more than 35 hours a week.
Anybody doing something else simply lacks self esteem and basic negotiation skills.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'll be the first to tell you that I hate my cell phone. When I got to undergrad, everyone was getting one. We knew it would be a part of life. I resisted until my 4th year and still made sure that it was a bare-bones phone-- a brick by modern standards. No internet, no special ringtones, nothing that would potentially add additional cost to my life.
When I entered the work force after graduation, everyone wanted to give their cell numbers to their various supervisors. I didn't. When asked by my supervisor why I didn't, I told him:
1) You don't pay for my minutes
2) You don't pay me for taking calls and doing work before 8am nor after 5pm
3) I don't like phones, let alone cell phones.
He and I had a very humorous conversation until I asked him why *he* gave his cell number to *his* supervisor. "It just streamlines everything. It's less work," he responded.
"Less work" I retort. "Tell me, without a cell phone, how much work would you do in the car on the way to and from work? How much work would you do at lunch? How much work would you do traveling from point-A and point-B on the job?"
"I wouldn't get any work done. That's the problem," he insisted.
"No, you're missing something... you said cell phones help you do less work. However, you do work in all that time where, prior to cell phones, you did no work. The drive to work was relaxing. On the drive home, you could think about home, not the office. You could relax at lunch. You're commuting from one meeting to another during the day so you're already working for the company/school -- so how are you doing less work when you're working when you shouldn't?"
He paused, opened his mouth, closed it again, and breathed.
I start again, "... and do you pay for your phone and minutes? Or does the company/school?"
"Well it's my phone. I pay for it," he says.
"And who uses it more: you for your life or the company/school through you as its employee?"
He smiles as if empowered. "You're right. If I'm working off the clock, the very least the company/school could do is pay for this phone or another and the minutes."
"Now you're talking. Of course, you could even record the minutes you work in your off time and claim them as time put in. Remember, the company/school only works in 15-minute increments so, round up where necessary," I say with a grin.
Afterward: A month later, the company/school ended its policy of requesting (requiring) employees give up their cell numbers. If they needed you to be on call, they'd buy you a cell phone and subscription. The people didn't get paid for their time on the phone, but it was a start.
After-Afterward: I still don't give my cell number out to anyone but Human Resources. Those guys are rabid bulldogs about privacy and will only call me in an emergency or if there's something wrong with my paycheck.
I am hourly and on the lower end of the totem pole at my IT job, but I have got a BB and I loooove it. It has made me way more efficient because I don't have to go back to my desk to check my e-mail or my helpdesk tickets. Also, it allows for me to spend more time away from the office doing fun things (in cell data range) because I can do a lot of my job from my BB. And I firmly believe that you have to spend money(time) to make money. I fully intend to climb the ladder and if I am always the first to respond and fix a problem, I will be the first person thought of when promotion time comes around.
Thou shalt not use tools thou does not understand, lest they rise up and smite thee
a one man 7x24 oncall rotation is stupid - it won't be maintained indefinitely. Either you'll start resenting it and move on, or you'll fuck up and burn a server because you didn't have enough sleep. Just breaking the 6 figure barrier is hardly compensation for that life.
There are better employers out there - where you get paid for OT for oncall duties, where the load is shared, and you still have the hour flexibilty.