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You must work in a very specific field. I work in the corporate headquarters of a large corporation and there are zero employees here who fit that mold. The same is true of most corporations.
I get a salary and I get the job done. I have no idea how many hours I work in a week, but if I think it through it can be anywhere from ~35 (calm week) to ~45 (busy week). Maybe a couple times a year there is a ~50 hour week, just guessing, but it's very rare.
I just don't know anyone who is salaried who has to keep track of their hours outside of the consulting/professional services fields.
I guess the big thing to look at is the difference between exempt and non-exempt salaried employees. We're exempt, so there aren't many rules that apply to us.
Might just be the difference between public and private sector; most of my experience with salaried positions has been from the public sector side, where it's expected that you'll put in lots of overtime whenever necessary, and it's considered to be "just part of the job".
I shouldn't say we keep track of our hours in the sense that they want to know what is being worked on at every moment or fill out a daily time card, but more that we have a set amount of time off, a set schedule (be in by 8, out no earlier than 5, for example), and then we need to put in however much extra time is necessary to get jobs done.
I was at the Director level in my last full-time salaried job. For the last few years, I've been consulting. I far and away prefer hourly compensation.
I think people who have never been salaried think that THEY have it good because if they work over they get paid, and time and a half, no less! They're under the misconception perhaps from tv and such that salaried people all work 80 hour weeks....totally false. Unless you're a doctor or a lawyer or an exec who CHOOSES to, it's pretty rare. And salaried positions in general are better compensated and mostly white collar. It's just a case of sour grapes for hourly workers - being salaried is great for most.
In IT, it's actually not that rare at all, as you are in the office during core business hours, plus any after hours upgrades, patching, conference calls with overseas staff, etc.
In IT, it's actually not that rare at all, as you are in the office during core business hours, plus any after hours upgrades, patching, conference calls with overseas staff, etc.
Fair enough - but that's a maintenance kind of role. I know people who have on-call hours on weekends - so that's a bit of a 24/7 role you're filling. Hopefully you're getting compensated at a higher rate than you'd expect from an hourly job though. Also, those same IT folks tend to have a fair amount of "downtime" when they aren't particularly busy so it can even out.
I'm the only hourly employee in my department, and it is a massive pain to be accountable to a time clock when no one else here is. The rest of the team can come in late or leave early if they have an appointment or errand, they can take long lunches if they want, and on holiday-eves they can leave after a half day. I can do those things, too, but it will cost me: either in lost wages or in extra time I have to stay late to put in the hours. For them it is just a perk of the job.
They do occasionally need to come in on the weekends, but they get comp time for it so they can take off a weekday within the same quarter.
My partner, on the other hand, loves being hourly. He has total freedom to structure his own days--he can work from home, from his office, or on location at any one of a dozen or so sites. He just has to enter in his hours worked once every 2 weeks. He has a very specific and necessary function to perform, so some weeks he will put in 40 hours and other weeks it can be almost double that. He is the only one who does this sort of work, so he would be doing it regardless of how his compensation was structured. It's certainly nice for him to get paid at least 30% more than his offer letter would suggest, as calculated on a 40-hour work week.
I've only ever been salaried in my professional career.
In my first experience, it was with a start up company. There, I was expected to work significantly longer than 40 hours per week. Many a times, I had to stay late at night (6-7 PM), come in on weekends and holidays. For that, I did not enjoy being salaried because it led to burnout.
In my current experience, its not as strict on working "longer". You show up and do your work. If you must stay longer to get it done, that's fine. Management does not want everyone staying over every day because of possible burnout. Thus, in this position, I adhere to more of the set schedule. However, being that I am extremely hardworking, I generally stay close to an hour longer every day because I want to get the work done or position myself favorably for the next day.
Nobody gets paid $200K to work for 40 hours. If you earn over $100K, you are going to be working more than 40 hrs a week. It comes with the territory.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OmegaSparks
And why?
Which one is best if you like working a strict schedule like 9 to 5?
I love to see the poll of what people prefer either being a Salaried Employee or Paid Hourly?
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