About the Salaried Thing
My entire life, I’ve heard that what you want is to become a salaried employee. In theory, this means you get the schmancy job title and any prestige that comes with it, a higher salary, and better benefits. Corporate types always say, “you get paid the same no matter what it takes to get the job done.” Sounds like a great deal, right?
Slow down. That’s only in theory. What it really means is they don’t want to pay you overtime for all the overtime hours they plan on having you work. Some folks say, “The OT you would’ve gotten is factored into the salary total.” Well, in theory, that’s probably true.
The reality is something else altogether. And many companies abuse the status of “salaried” and use it to pay less for more work.
And what about the opposite? I am a highly efficient worker. I think fast, move fast, work fast. I am always ahead of schedule and I’ve only ever had one boss who could keep me busy eight hours a day. Well, most of the time. Sometimes I even turned in her ridiculous amounts of assigned work early and they had to go find more for me to do. So let’s say I fulfill the duties of the job I have been hired for, on average, in 30-35 hours a week. Let’s pretend I have a counterpart who takes fifty five hours to do the same work. Now, we are both paid similarly and are salaried employees. But having fulfilled my responsibilities and turned in my deliverables, shouldn’t I be able to go home and still get paid the same? If it doesn’t take me forty hours or more, shouldn’t they be happy? And why should I have to hang around the office or do even more extra than I already do to fill in a forty hour time card?
Again, that stated purpose of salary is like the company saying “we will pay you a flat rate to complete this work.” Well, I completed it, so what’s with the evil eye when I leave on time, even though I really should be able to bail any time I want under this arrangement? I can guarantee you I won’t be paid OT for working over forty hours, but I will most certainly be docked if I put in 32 and don’t use PTO, regardless of whether my work is finished or I’m way ahead of schedule on my assigned tasks.
I really don’t honestly get this, other than appearances or something. But I think “salaried” should work in the same way for people like me who don’t need forty hours to get it done, and get it done right, as it does for someone who has to spend longer than forty hours to do the same thing. Everyone is different. Just because it’s easier for me, I don’t think I should be penalized.
My hope is one day I will find a place that is happy I’m knocking the work assigned out of the park and who doesn’t care when I’m there, because I’m killing it and getting them what they need early or, at worst, right on time for when they need it.
Right now all I get is people staring at a clock and celebrating folks who do less in more time because they stayed at the office from sun up to way past sun down. Sure, they are missing their deadlines and turning in subpar work. But they put in 13 hours yesterday. By the way, we’re going to need you to pick up the work they aren’t getting done and fix what they did do, because it’s wrong. Also, can you coach them up to your level?
Oy vey.
What I see is an inefficient worker who needs training or someone who works in an understaffed department. But what do I know? Everywhere I go, that’s what’s happening and I end up with yet another “super job.” No raises or bonuses or anything, just taking the load off others and providing training. And still crushing it in under forty hours, leaving on time, and people gawking and not understanding how that’s possible even with the results sitting right in front of them.
Management reaction is usually this: let’s not reward this guy or let him do his thing and leave early because he’s always ahead of schedule. Never, ever pay him a compliment. Who cares if we reviewed it and had to grudgingly admit that it’s really stellar work and people are thrilled it’s happening so fast that it has far exceeded their expectations on time to deliver? It’s not like he’s putting in fourteen hours a day. Only thing that matters is how much time you spend In the office, how much sleep you lose working, and how much danger your personal relationships are in.
That’s commitment. That’s sacrifice for the company. Doing a great job in forty hours or less means you are lazy and don’t work hard enough. You should be doing more, even though you ask for more to fill up the time and we can’t come up with anything else to assign you. So here, run these meetings we scheduled to start well past your usual quitting time. Don’t even think about coming in later to keep it to eight hours. We will have you in the office fifty hours a week yet! Ha ha!
Seriously, that’s actually happened to me. Many times. So here’s hoping that reasonable company with good management who rewards this kind of thing is somewhere out there.
In the mean time, I’m not holding my breath. It seems a reasonable expectation, but I’ve seen little at work to suggest that “reasonable” and “work” go together in this world today. Or at least, here in the good old U S of A.