Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm in an interesting situation where I am in management in my (fairly large) company, but was promoted from a tech support type level. My problem is that we recently had a few people get promoted (or, more appropriately, "poached") from our team, and one quit - which means the remainder of my team is hurting pretty bad with regards to their workload. We are in the process of hiring additional members, but factoring in a 6-8 week buildup period for new people to train and get accustomed to the customer environments, I worry about the current team getting fed up.
Since I used to do this job, I would have no problem jumping in to help outside of my salaried hours. But is this even a realistic thing in the corporate world? If the option was available to work an extra four hour shift as a tech, I think I'd be able to get them caught up a bit and everyone would be happier. I just don't know how that would work given I am currently salaried/exempt. I surely don't want to work an extra four hours a day for free.
Anyone have any insight here before I bring this forward with upper management, so I can be more informed when/if I do?
I don't know. I think you'd simply have to approach them and sell them on the idea. When I was younger I had friends who worked at banks in salaried positions in HR, IT, etc., but they picked up retail teller shifts on the weekends (I think that was/is fairly common in banking). I don't know how the pay worked, but it's definitely a precedent for working two entirely different functions for one employer.
Yeah, I didn't even know if this was a thing people did at all, so it's nice to know that at least it exists.
It benefits me as well, so I definitely want to approach it. I've had many part time jobs or side business type things, and I just figure why bother doing something totally different if the opportunity and need is there already at my current job, you know? It seems mutually beneficial. The company gets someone with immediate experience, no training costs, and no benefits to subsidize, and I don't have to spend money creating and promoting a business of my own.
Management is different than being a regular worker. Some places are adamant that the line does not get blurred. Managers are discouraged and sometimes "forbidden" from doing the day to day line work. Management theory would say that the line employees will have to pick up the slack on their own as long as the company is willing to pay the overtime hours.
We are a fairly specialized industry that unfortunately, due to security regulations, cannot make use of temp employees.
Many of our employees are utilizing OT currently. My thoughts were that management would appreciate the reduction in cost (since my time would not be OT) and employees would get a bit of a break. While a few of them are requesting OT for a bigger paycheck, it is evident from my position and from employee meetings that some are just doing it to help them keep up with their workload and would otherwise not volunteer for solely monetary reasons.
Be careful what you wish for. When I left my old department, they REALLY needed help until they could find a replacement. I offered to do it on a freelance basis. Instead, the VP of my area contacted my new department's SVP to ask if I could continue doing the work on a temporary basis with no increase in salary for the duration. Yeah, no. Luckily my SVP went to bat for me and I only continue to maintain one social media channel (out of dozens) because it was easy enough to do. It's been 5 months and it looks like they took the idea of replacing me off the table and I still am stuck managing that one part of my old job indefinitely.
Are you talking about filling in as a non-exempt worker on the same team that you manage as an exempt worker? There is no way your employer should allow that, they would be opening up the possibility of serious problems.
For you personally that may not be a wise move either. It's hard to say for sure not knowing the specifics of your company, team, or positions involved but your supervisors may not take kindly to a suggestion that you get paid extra for any additional work you do to get your team to meet its expectations. Being on salary doesn't just mean you don't get OT. It also means you might be expected to get a job done no matter how many hours it takes.
What problems would it possibly be opening up from an employer perspective? Genuinely curious on your statement.
Upper management is doing everything they can to get more manpower in place. Losing so many at once was the factor in this. This seemed like a decent suggestion of a temporary fix. I do agree that it may bring up a discussion on other ways that can get the team meeting expectations working within our currently salary; that doesn't seem to be much of a risk though because I fail to see how the answer would ever be "yes, do that, but for free". Maybe I'm too optimistic about that.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
