response 100 of 252:

Jan 17 02:48 UTC 2019

That sounds really awful.  Are you interested in switching at
this time?

response 102 of 252:

Jan 20 00:13 UTC 2019

Unpaid overtime is totally legal if the employee is classified as
"salary exempt." I fall into this classification. Unlimited free
overtime.  Salary exempt is to overtime what the solar panel is to
"clean energy".

Design engineers (my case) are "learned professionals" who are QUALIFIED
as exempt. I'm so lucky.

Please see section 541.400 "computer employees" below:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/regulations.pdf

541.400    General rule for computer 
employees. 
(a) 
Computer systems analysts, 
computer programmers, software 
engineers or other similarly skilled 
workers in the computer field are 
eligible for exemption as professionals 
under section 13(a)(1) of the Act and 
under section 13(a)(17) of the Act. 
Because job titles vary widely and 
change quickly in the computer 
industry, job titles are not determinative 
of the applicability of this exemption. 
(b) 
The section 13(a)(1) exemption 
applies to any computer employee 
compensated on a salary or fee basis at 
a rate of not less than $455 per week (or 
$380 per week, if employed in 
American Samoa by employers other 
than the Federal Government), exclusive 
of board, lodging or other facilities, and 
the section 13(a)(17) exemption applies 
to any computer employee compensated 
on an hourly basis at a rate not less than 
$27.63 an hour. In addition, under 
either section 13(a)(1) or section 
13(a)(17) of the Act, the exemptions 
apply only to computer employees 
whose primary duty consists of: 
(1) 
The application of systems 
analysis techniques and procedures, 
including consulting with users, to 
determine hardware, software or system 
functional specifications; 
(2) 
The design, development, 
documentation, analysis, creation, 
testing or modification of computer 
systems or programs, including 
prototypes, based on and related to user 
or system design specifications; 
(3) 
The design, documentation, 
testing, creation or modification of 
computer programs related to machine 
operating systems; or 
(4) 
A combination of the 
aforementioned duties, the performance 
of which requires the same level of 
skills. 

response 104 of 252:

Jan 21 05:38 UTC 2019

We get a new boss in a little over a week, so we'll see how that goes.
The main driver of all this nonsense is the project I'm on which had
its timeline shortened, is overly complex, with a client who changes
the requirements all the time and has a shortage of people when we need
them (due to competing projects).  On top of this the client changed the
system we use, so that has been a learning curve for everyone. Most
of the team is new people.

With any luck I can get through the next couple weeks in good shape and
then get back to management tasks.  However, yes, I'm salaried and don't
get any overtime.  On top of this, I have a contract situation in the
job which I need to fulfill before I can reasonably move to some other
position without paying a penalty.  That runs out in Sept. this year.

My previous employer's recruiter called me last week, so we got
connected on Linked-In. That's an alternative for at least discussion.
That company paid straight-time overtime and generally I didn't
work much overtime at all.  But the money was less and I wasn't on
salary. There was not much hope for advancement or raises, either.  This
current job has opportunities for advancement and we usually get some
increase in salary each year as well as some kind of bonus.

It is somewhat the nature of the job that there are occasional times
when extra work is required, but not all the time, usually, like it
has been for many months now.  It is a regulated industry subject to
(unannounced) federal agency audits so not following SOPs is not a
good thing, no matter what the boss says.  I could, perhaps, switch to
another industry.  My goals for employment don't stretch much past 3
years at this point, though that could change.

response 106 of 252:

Feb 9 12:24 UTC 2019

The lesson I learned by observing the media and the "man on the street"
reactions to job cuts, unpaid overtime, etc is this:
If you make a decent living and don't work for a union or work in some
god-awful coalmine no one gives a shit what you go through. 

That said, I was spared being cut. My department was given the all clear
by the president of the company. Next week all departments are going to
be reorganized. The fun never ends and if you complain, "you should be
grateful for having a job." It's far too early in the economic cycle for
this greed and exploitation. 

The media excitement over "the gig economy" where you deliver groceries
or taxi people with no benefits while an app company makes billions is
the future. If you sell everything, invest in a lucrative investment
fund and live in a van, you could do gigs and collect food stamps. It's
the future for millenials. Sign up for the new green deal. Be a hero. My
advice to generation z: learn a trade. Fix furnaces or replace plumbing.
Corporate America is a race to the bottom unless you are a management
type who can live with firing single moms with 3 kids. 

response 108 of 252:

Mar 14 00:26 UTC 2019

Okay, IBB, this place drives me nuts.  I got put on another study and
nothing much is getting done.  People say they're programming but I
don't see the results.  So I asked for a few more programmers, got 3
contractors.  Then 2 of them got pulled back to their previous work so
I put the other guy to work and he got a few things working.  However,
today we found out we've got to change a lot of things and do even more
work, so I asked for a few more programmers and all I got was "I gave
you 3 the other day."  Of course, 3 became 1 so that didn't help as
much as 3 so that's what I told this so-called boss (same level as I
am).  So, I think it's time she started running this project and see
what happens to her.  Supposedly this is the most important project
around, but not when some other project needs people then it's the
most important project.  I keep having to work weekends and things at
home are falling apart even more than before.  So, I'm not all that
happy right now.  Our client likes to dump more work on us that we have
people to do it and then they say 'hire more people.'  But, as I noted,
people are leaving every month.  And replacements take time to come up
to speed. So, that isn't working.  I'm mostly tired all the time and
unmotivated.  I'd like to work for a company that treats people with
respect and work in environment that isn't about blame but about fixing
things if they aren't working. Thankfully, the lead programmer that was
out sick for a month came back today, so he can start dealing with the
nonsense I've been dealing with.  On the plus side, I fixed a couple
Unix issues today for people and that was okay.  Just that it came at
the expense of other work I'm supposed to be doing.

response 110 of 252:

Mar 16 01:19 UTC 2019

Thanks.  Waiting for the end of days here. It's two days later and
very little got done.  I know people are waiting for the end of the
study so they can jump in cause problems but we don't have time
for new validation program development. Today I got word that 4
of the people helping just became potential programmers for other
projects on a moment's notice, so now we are going into the final
phase without the people we need to do the work, and we only
have 5 days to do everthing.  So far they've been working on it
for 9 days and aren't done yet.  So that doesn't bode well.  

response 112 of 252:

Mar 17 14:32 UTC 2019

It's clinical study reports and data.  Several different statistical
procedures and models are used.  We'll determine if a drug is
significantly better than its alternative.

Yes, resources are tracked by management above me. We meet regularly to
see how things are going and so far it is "not well."  

response 114 of 252:

Mar 19 03:05 UTC 2019

Thanks, Tod.  So far we are making some progress.  Lots of changes
at the last minute, lots of comments to fix, etc.  But, we've got
people working on things even though they aren't doing very well with
their programming (we move some things to others who have more time or
experience so that things might get done on time).  Many hands make
light work out the impossible sometimes.  We'll see.  Why in the world
can't people be more about problem-solving than blaming, I don't know.
One of the best jobs I ever had was had a culture of problem-solving and
trying to make sure things got fixed and didn't happen again, rather
than trying to find blame.  Oh well.  The idea is if we can get our
validation programs working now, they might work, without much change,
when we get to the end of this thing.  It is a Byzantine system and set
up we have to work in and that confuses people a lot. I'll be working on
training for it in month so we can get people off to a better start and
provide more guidance when they hit snags.  Unfortunately the system is
one that can take years to learn the details of (long learning curve).
I've been working in it for a total of 10 years now.

response 116 of 252:

Mar 26 18:09 UTC 2019

I'll look into this for you.  Thansk for bringing it up.
I have no idea where those email addresses are forwarding to.

response 118 of 252:

Mar 30 20:15 UTC 2019

If the payment came to PayPal, that account used to email some people,
including me.  If I knew about things like this I'd usually fix them 
up right away.  But I don't get the e-mails any more and it's harder
for me to find out what is going on, and work has been a hellish mess,
so I haven't dug into things further.  The people that get e-mails
when there's a status change in PayPal is an option on the account, I
think.  At the very least, treasurer@grex.org should be in the list.

response 120 of 252:

Apr 9 13:23 UTC 2019

Grex seems to be having network problems, which makes me :(
I'm not sure what's going on, which makes me more :(

response 124 of 252:

Jul 18 01:33 UTC 2019

"doesn't like unix" ... "refused ... to make it easier". My guess is that
person is either just frustrated or hates to accept something they griped
about is just different not bad. A gentle nudge may be in order.