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So I'm pursuing a job opportunity with a company who's made a verbal offer and who I'm supposed to visit next week to meet their team, see their facilities and hopefully talk to the hiring manager about any questions I may still have. If all goes well, I expect a written offer by the end of next week.
The job is a standard Mon-Fri 40 hour/week full time opportunity for a fixed yearly salary. The issue that causes me concern is that the hiring manager said that (if I accept the offer), I'd be provided with a company laptop and cell phone, be expected to answer calls and do work outside my regular shifts. If it takes "5 minutes" (as the hiring manager stated) to fix, I'm expected to do it for free. If the issue is complex and warrants me having to return to their office to fix it and it takes let's say 1-2 hours to fix, I can request to be paid overtime which is calculated as a 3 hour minimum (they gave me an hourly rate). The manager said he often gets calls when he's away from the office and handles urgencies on his own time. That's all fine and dandy but I bet he earns at least $60-80K/year if it's not more, while the job I'm looking at is in the $30-35K/yr range. If I worked IT, I'd understand the need to respond to distress calls about a network connection being down but I work in another field. It's still time critical at times but I don't agree with the expectation of being available outside of work hours, so "on call" without being paid for it. When I'm away from work, I expect not to be bothered.
I talked to my dad about it and he thinks I should suck it up and just accept it. I read what may have been a Forbes article about 10 ways employers cheat their employees and this is one of them - cheating them out of paying overtime by expecting you to be "on call" and expecting you to fix things for free.
When I go meet the company managers next week, what can I can ask about this on call arrangement? If it's on rotation, if it's 24/7, if it's to provide coverage on my days off, on the hours I'm away from the office after working a FT shift that same day, and so forth?
I'd request a copy of the company policy from HR. More than likely, you are SOL, but some managers do attempt to skirt around company policy, so you may have recourse there.
You are being hired for a salary position. That means your role is deliverable based, not time based. You aren't working a "shift", you are working a job; and if the job needs to get done, you need to do it. I'm actually surprised you are offered overtime for a salaried position.
Actually for the overtime (OT), the request has to be approved by the hiring manager and he gets to judge whether the on call OT of 3 hours minimum was warranted or not. He did say that usually he's called and is able to fix issues from home in 5 minutes and since it's such a short period of time, the company sees no reason to pay for that. I'd be expected to adopt the same expectations as a salaried employee. However I see this on call situation as potential trouble so I'd rather clarify the terms and conditions before signing a contract.
Isn't being on-call pretty standard with that type of IT work? Apparently your expectations aren't reasonable for the type of IT position you have applied for. Certainly get clarification on how the on-call rotation works.
Don't be afraid to ask for the specifics of every scenario regarding the on-call policy. My husband is on a rotational call without OT pay and he occasionally gets calls when he's not on rotation, but he's not penalized if he doesn't respond when not on rotation. Here are a few considerations from the top of my head based on what he has dealt with:
- If they don't want to answer specific questions or decide to take you out of the running for the position because you asked such questions (unlikely) then it's probably not the type of place you where you would want to work.
- If being on-call is not rotational, what about times that you are not able to respond (on a long drive, at a sporting event, etc) - what is their tolerance for that?
- If they answer the questions about the specifics and you're pretty much expected to be tied to your phone / laptop all the time, is the opportunity a big enough improvement from your current job or is this opportunity so great that it will be worth it? And are your options otherwise limited? If so, then it might be worth sucking it up, getting the experience and moving on to something better in a year.
Hopefully it is a shared rotation and good luck with your decision.
So I'm pursuing a job opportunity with a company who's made a verbal offer and who I'm supposed to visit next week to meet their team, see their facilities and hopefully talk to the hiring manager about any questions I may still have. If all goes well, I expect a written offer by the end of next week.
The job is a standard Mon-Fri 40 hour/week full time opportunity for a fixed yearly salary. The issue that causes me concern is that the hiring manager said that (if I accept the offer), I'd be provided with a company laptop and cell phone, be expected to answer calls and do work outside my regular shifts. If it takes "5 minutes" (as the hiring manager stated) to fix, I'm expected to do it for free. If the issue is complex and warrants me having to return to their office to fix it and it takes let's say 1-2 hours to fix, I can request to be paid overtime which is calculated as a 3 hour minimum (they gave me an hourly rate). The manager said he often gets calls when he's away from the office and handles urgencies on his own time. That's all fine and dandy but I bet he earns at least $60-80K/year if it's not more, while the job I'm looking at is in the $30-35K/yr range. If I worked IT, I'd understand the need to respond to distress calls about a network connection being down but I work in another field. It's still time critical at times but I don't agree with the expectation of being available outside of work hours, so "on call" without being paid for it. When I'm away from work, I expect not to be bothered.
I talked to my dad about it and he thinks I should suck it up and just accept it. I read what may have been a Forbes article about 10 ways employers cheat their employees and this is one of them - cheating them out of paying overtime by expecting you to be "on call" and expecting you to fix things for free.
When I go meet the company managers next week, what can I can ask about this on call arrangement? If it's on rotation, if it's 24/7, if it's to provide coverage on my days off, on the hours I'm away from the office after working a FT shift that same day, and so forth?
I would ask if its rotational. If its not I would decline as even in IT I don't think this set up is an industry standard. Rotational coverage is however an industry standard.
If you are desperate for a job or if this is your first entry level job take it and stay for 12 months then look for something better.
Isn't being on-call pretty standard with that type of IT work? Apparently your expectations aren't reasonable for the type of IT position you have applied for. Certainly get clarification on how the on-call rotation works.
Help desk and Desktop Support are typically not on call if it is, I would expect to paid to be on call.
Tell that to an employer forcing you to be an exempt but salary employee. See how well that turns out for you...
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