VIDEO HERE (13:21 minutes)
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I was both employees. When I first started working at the ammo plant in my early 20s, I took all the OT I could get and was glad to get it. I had shit I wanted to buy.
Later on down the line, we landed a contract that we had the capabilities to make our monthly quota on a 40 hour week if absolutely nothing went wrong upstream from us (which seldom if ever happened) or to my machinery so I went on an 87 hour work week, working 7 days a week. After going to the grenade line, I never worked a single 45 hour week which would've been normal given my job as a set-up man, getting my machines ready to run production an hour before the rest of my crew clocks in.
After I got laid off from there, I went to work for Safeway at a new warehouse they opened up in Tracy. At that point, after working all those hours at the ammo plant, I could give a fuck less if I ever saw another minute of overtime. I still had to work a little daily overtime, but only when I absolutely had to. I didn't work on my days off at all unless I was mandatoried in.
I didn't even want the half hour - hour daily overtime considering I had an hour drive to and from work.
What I really hated though was the week before any holiday and especially from late October through January - the dreaded Thanksgiving/Christmas season. We'd work 12 hour or more hours every damned day.
Tim likes working public holidays because the pay is good like time and a half or double time or in rare cases double time and half, driving buses didn't involve much overtime not like when he was a canvas machinist then there was a lot of overtime from October to the end of January
ReplyDeleteBack when I was hourly, I took all the OT I could get !!!!
ReplyDeleteMoney is good but you only get so much time...
ReplyDeleteThis. Combined with 4 days after you die, no one at work is likely to miss you. On the plus side, if you ruin your family relationships because you prioritize work over family, 4 days after you die your family won't miss you either.
DeleteNot until the bills come due...
DeleteYou should have gone into IT network administration. I have worked every holiday from Christmas 1993 to Thanksgiving 2002, when I left that job, and every holiday from July 4th 2009 through today, when I got back into IT. And IT is an exempt job classification, I don't get paid overtime, supposedly I get time off in leui, but that's hard to get when you work more than 110 hours/week.
ReplyDelete"We'd work 12 hour or more hours every damned day." Thanks to the FEMA loophole, where at the end of 8 or 10 hours they would drop off their blue sheet and walk out the door. You also forgot to mention when the 49'ers or Raiders were playing the blue sheets went in at lunch break.
ReplyDeleteFMLA, not FEMA, bro. And yeah you're right but I was trying to keep my rant down to a reasonable level.
DeleteI started to write about how I seldom worked a bit of overtime, until I got divorced and had to pay child support, which was over half of my income. For somewhere around 7 years, I worked 60-70 hours a week, often for weeks on end, with no weekends off.
DeleteAs far as FMLA, I had that to protect myself from the company due to legitimate medical reasons. It was only during the last several years or so that I needed it, and then it was due to kidney stones or chronic daily migraines. We were a non union shop, so we were at will employees.
The thing about FMLA is, even with over 35 years at the place, the company hated when I used the FMLA. They looked to get rid of me for at least a year and a half. Finally they sent me down for a random drug test. I was on opioids due to pain from both medical conditions, and had that in my system. But the companies clinic doctor had me bring in my prescriptions for the drugs, and reported that I was ok. The company then fired me for having alcohol in my system. They would not prove it to me, and they did not fight my getting unemployment. They knew that they would lose that one, since they could not show anything that they claimed.
I ended up working at a couple of different places after that, one an aluminum die cast place as a melter, and then as a trailer park maintenance man. I was only able to work part time by then, due to my medical issues, so I filed for disability. I now am getting SSD due to my medical conditions, which include a back that I broke in 1980, that now hurts me every day. One of the requirements for SSD is that you must requalify at least every 5 years. But for the older workers, it became easier to get disability then before, due to the changing political climate. The phrase "learn to code" made so stupidly during the campaign for president, at a rally with many coal miners present, was first made by Joe Biden, but has become a mantra of sorts, when liberals lose their jobs. Huffpost was the best that comes to mind, when journalists lost their jobs. For older workers, telling them to learn to code is an insult. It would be like telling the politicians in D.C. to learn to run the nation on a budget.
Like my wife would say who grew up dirt poor without electricity. "Quit your bitchin and be happy you got a job". That slows me down then.
ReplyDeleteLike I tell the new hires, this thing comes in seasons. Sometimes it's 12 for everybody, sometimes they charge you for 1 minute of OT. Stack it while you can and enjoy it when you can't. The key is to not be the guy that NEEDS all 12's or the bank takes his truck back.
ReplyDeletePretty funny. But very true. Some people have issues with cause and effect.
ReplyDeleteMost of my life I've worked on commission. Goals dictated hours worked. Takes discipline and a different mindset.
ReplyDeleteGet a union job.
ReplyDeleteYup, started young in the woods working daylight til dark, seven days a week. I later became a journeyman and worked everytime ot was available. Last twenty years before retirement averaged a sixty hour work week. Never thought much about it. I liked to work. I still do. I remember as a kid working summer jobs and doing everything I could to get out of work. One day it hit me, you gotta do this for the rest of your life. Find something you like.
ReplyDeleteOvertime and double time absolutely dick me. I take home ~ $500 a day for the first four tens (8 regular 2 OT,) about $430 for the fifth ten (8 regular 2 OT, then about $350 for the sixth 10 (all OT) and if I work Sunday (all DT) I only bring home another $300.
ReplyDeleteTaxes are gay.
How big a refund do you get on Tax Day? Welcome to the joys of low-bid payroll software that doesn't properly account for things and progressive tax rates.
DeleteSalaried job, one point 3 months of 120 hour weeks (7 days). Got all kinds of growly at mention of OT for a while afterwards.
ReplyDeleteSteve S6
Like Anon 5:06, I was IT and salaried. I was married and my "children" were my wife's from a previous marriage, so I did not have a family. Plus, I was a male asshole that never really complained; but, I had the tenacity of a bulldog and would fix anything they set me to.
ReplyDeleteI did contract work for a while and had a relatively high hourly rate. One of my bosses sheepishly said: I need you do something that really is not pleasant. I looked at him and replied: If you are ready, willing, and able to pay me my regular fee, I will walk outside and wash your damned car. He laughed and he never balked again.
I went I to the oilfields when I first got out of school, 14 12 hour days on then 14 off work. It worked out great for many years.. I'd get home and have 2 40 hour checks and 2 44 hour overtime checks waiting for me...
ReplyDeleteJD