Buying time

[question everything]

Buying time

Many employees would love to cut a less-work-for-less-money deal with their bosses

By Linda Stern
REUTERS

March 20, 2005

Ask American workers if they'd rather have time or money. The answer, invariably, is time – and that trend is growing.

Almost one in five workers would happily give up $5,000 in salary for more time with their families. That's up 20 percent from the number who were willing to make that trade three years ago, according to Salary.com, a Web-based compensation consulting company.

A recent national poll also found that nearly half of men (46 percent) would be willing to take a pay cut if they could leave work by 5 p.m. And the vast majority (84 percent) ranked family time as essential to a balanced life, the survey commissioned by Best Life magazine said.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050320/news_mz1b20time.html

[acmejack]

1. Too bad the average family can't spare the $5K!

Very few budgets I know of can take the loss of that much income.

[Jamison]

2. Corporate America won't have that.

When you work for corporate America, they expect 80 hours a week from you. Wait, lemme re-phrase that...actually they expect your soul and would like to own you like a slave because time is money.

[blogbear]

3. Ah, Yes..Time Is Money..Your Time..Their Money!

[question everything]

4. And they "give" you cell phone

so that you are accessible 24/7

[Nay]

5. Unfortunately, in most workplaces, you will be considered suspect

if you actually say you want to spend less time at work. Workplaces consider this to be 'disloyal.' Note that they don't have to be loyal to YOU, but YOU have to be loyal to THEM. Once they decide you aren't worth much to them, you'll be lucky to have enough time to clear off your desk before they walk you out the door.

Secondly, huge numbers of regular jobs don't have regular 'hours' anymore, due to *'s overtime overhaul. They can work you what they want to, and if you don't like the hours, you can quit.

thirdly, most companies are so cut to the bone that they have no one to take up the slack for sick people, people on vacation, etc. Thus the comment in the article by the manager about the business having trouble covering for vacation time. WTF??? So that's now the employees' problem?? Well, businesses think so. At my place of work it is considered an indulgence to take two weeks' vacation -- they PREFER you to take the two weeks as one-week vacations. Needless to say, lots of idiots, not wanting to appear disloyal, do this. It's absolutely ridiculous. Their cheapness and lack of planning does not constitute an emergency that the employees should have to run around and fix.
As long as people put up with it, it will keep happening.