[azalea]

Not sure where to post this... my relationship with my boyfriend is great. But I'm REALLY upset about his working conditions, and I need to vent/ask for help about it. His employment is extremely stressful to him, and he frequently comes home in a complete mess. He's been forced to work 80 hours a week with no overtime pay, for MONTHS. I really miss him... even though I live with him. All of our hobbies and things that we loved doing together are gone now, because he spends so much time at work.

My boyfriend works at a software development company that's working on a major title (let's call it Project A) that's going to be published later this year. He is a salaried employee, and is supposed to work a standard 40 hour work week. He was working on another project at the company, working normal 40 hour weeks. Project A has been in development for 5 years, has been terrible mismanaged, and they've been forcing their workers to put in unpaid overtime for the past 9 months. About 5 months ago, they pulled my boyfriend off of his project and threw him onto Project A, and he's been working 80 hours a week with no paid overtime. It's sick, because the company tries to keep their overtime under the radar. The employees aren't allowed to publicly announce that they work there... if someone is caught posting "I work at this company" on the internet, they're forced to remove the post. My boyfriend told me yesterday that the team had a meeting where management told them, "Great news guys! We MIGHT let you take next weekend off!"

I'm really sickened that a "weekend off" is an exception to the rule. Working 80 hours a week with no paid overtime is like working TWO full-time jobs, where one of the jobs doesn't pay you a single penny. This is really sickening to me. The employees on the project can't leave, because Project A takes it VERY personally when someone leaves, and it would be career suicide. A friend of mine left the same project almost 2 years ago, and they accused him of "abandoning the project when they desperately needed him".

I desperately want to complain about this, but I used to work at this same company, and it would be equally detrimental for me to my career too. I'm looking at the wage and hour laws of my state, and I don't see anything claiming that software development is exempt from compensating their employees for overtime.

Has anybody else complained about employment situations on behalf of their spouses/significant-others? Is it possible to do that anonymously? I really wish that the working conditions at this company could be investigated. Thank you in advance for your advice!

[Hugo-B]

I've been treated badly at work before, but never quite that badly, i.e, forced to work unpaid overtime. The only time I would work an 80 hour week is if I were working for myself since I am now self employed, since it would be directly necessary and beneficial for me to do so.

It sounds like this company have no problem using moral blackmail to literally double their staffs hours. 80 hours a week is a lot of work - and I've done plenty of 80 hour weeks working for myself before the recession, so I do know - even if you're getting paid for every hour.

Does your BF have shares in the company? This could possibly explain his allegiance and dedication and means the success of these projects would have direct financial benefits to him. It sounds like he is good at his job, too, so if he left he could surely find another job.

I'm in the UK, and I'm pretty sure forced OT, let alone unpaid OT is illegal. Ultimately, many businesses now will exploit their staff to the limits of their tolerance knowing that jobs in many sectors are scare. If this job really is that bad, I really see no benefit to him staying, ultimately though, it is up to him whether he chooses to stay or go.

I see the following options:

1) Stay, and carry on as he is;

2) leave and find another job;

3) stay, and demand he be treated fairly and within the restrictions of the Law, he needs to be prepared to take legal action to back up his threats if they laugh at him, a consult with a 'no win, no fee' Lawyer may be good start before you make a move.

[Little]

He's salary ... the point of salaried employees is to get as many hours of overtime as you can out of them. No, it's not fair. But it's the point of giving somebody a salary.

But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a recourse. Essentially, depending on the terms of his contract (or job description, whatever points to the terms he agreed to when he got the job) he can sue for payment of overtime. He will only get what he can prove is coming to him - so if he's worked 80 hours for 3 weeks, he'll only get 3 weeks' pay from a lawsuit, and only if he has a copy of his time punches and his job description showing he was only contracted to work 40 hrs/week for his money. To sue his employer, he'll probably have to quit and forever forsake getting a job at that company again. Maybe forsake getting a job in the whole industry. Long story short ... it's probably not worth it.

Is it a pretty big company? Do they have an HR department? Preferably an HR department that employs people WAY above the level of his supervisors. If so, he can also try talking to someone who can lean on the supervisor to hire more people or lower the number of hours the whole department is working. This works best if he's an employee who has little to no supervisory responsibility. He should go in with the attitude that maybe his supervisor isn't aware of HR laws and he doesn't want to be doing anything that might be illegal. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar and all that.

Both those options aside, he should remember that Project A won't be giving him an 80-hour workweek after it's published, but if he sticks with it, the company will still be employing him. Sorry I can't give a sunnier prospect, and I wish that employers all followed the law and were fair to their employees across the board, but I can promise you that it's the same in just about every industry in the US. Sad times.

[Claret]

I don't know where you live, but I believe there are labour laws in effect for most countries. They will state the maximum number of working hours for a regular job, after which overtime is to kick in. They also will detail working conditions and other employment standards.

This all depends upon his contract. What were the terms of his employment? What hours of work have they set out for the job?

Fast forward to today. . .there are so many unemployed persons out there, willing to work for less $ for the chance of a full-time job, willing to put in overtime unpaid if necessary, for that same job. Is it legal? Perhaps not and the labour boards or employment standards board will do something about it, should the people submitt a formal complaint.

My husband works in a professional capacity, where the overtime is not asked of him, but he is expected to manage his projects in a timely fashion, and if he puts things off during the day, then he will be obligated to make up for it at some point on his own time.

You will not be able to form a complaint, unless when you worked for them they did the same thing to you. Is your boyfriend complaining? or is it just you complaining you don't have the same amount of time with him right now?

[jns]

Complaining as a third party will not be appreciated by your bf or his company.

Whether a person's work is salaried or not is regulated by law in California. It is also regulated in a similar fashion in Washington State, the only other state I am familiar with. Other states and other countries and subdivisions of countries will have different laws. A lot of it depends on job title and if the person has the background for that title. Does your bf have a college background with degrees for software development? Does he have certifications that require competitive testing? Does he have an ownership stake in the company that is not publicly traded stock based? Is he in management? These are some of the questions that determine if he can be salaried.

If he can legally be a salaried worker, the company employing him can work him 24/7 if they want to AFAIK.

When I was doing interviews in college I interviewed with a company called Shlumberger International (if I remember correctly it was over 30 years ago). The company provided oil well services to major oil drilling companies and they were recruiting newly minted engineers to work in Africa. The salaried job description included working at times up to 36 hours straight. As an engineer analyzing the what was going on in a well, the integrity of a multimillion dollar well and a payroll in the thousands of dollars an hour was at stake and it couldn't be put off by 8 hour work days. Normally, when a job wasn't being undertaken, shop time was on 8 hour days. The company was very generous on time off on their schedule, flying you home and back or to Europe and back on their dime for 2 weeks every 2 months. But the job was 7 days a week when you were on the job. I think I indicated a few days after the interview that I was not interested, so I didn't take the job. They gave possible recruits a few days to decide before continuing the interview process further, because the job description was very different than most.

Your bf can quit if he wants to. He cannot be held there against his wanting to leave. He probably will not get a good job reference from them. The software development field is very wide. If he is good, he could get hired elsewhere although the job market is slow now.

[azalea]

Complaining as a third party will not be appreciated by your bf or his company.

This is true... several years ago there was a lawsuit against a similar software publisher set in motion of the employee's spouses, that pushed the company to reclassify positions that were eligible for overtime pay, and the employees were compensated for outrageous overtime.

Realistically, there's nothing that can be done other than him toughing it out until the project is over and leaving. It's just frustrating to feel like there's nothing I can do to help him, and it's just sickening to see the way the company keeps asking for more and more. My boyfriend tells me about how the families of his co-workers come to the office on the weekends to visit them. It breaks my heart that people's families have to come visit them at the office.

[BabyGirl]

He made a Commitment to the Company, he needs to fulfill it and then possibly move on.

Imagine the Military Woman, Men, Spouses.

He can be AWOL, Dishonorably Discharged or leave Honorably when his Contract/ Enlistment is up.
Keep yourself busy, give him rest and peace and the least stress you can, when he comes home or even when you go see him .

Whether it is a Video Game or Movie Production, Alaskan Fishing or National Security , Military or Government " Deployment/ Project". He will be better off to do his Job, do it well and then chose to stay or leave when the time is up and commitment is fulfilled.

It breaks my heart that people's families have to come visit them at the office.

They at least can visit him and hopefully you can also.
Also think of all the People in Prison, that wish they could be in his kind of " Incarceration " and get paid for it . Or People in the War Zone, that get no Visits for 1-3 years ?

Buck Up Girlfriend, It's not Forever and there is a Light at the end of the Tunnel .

[Little]

JNS brings up a good point - there are legal limits to who can be classified as salary. You have to have hiring/firing control over a certain number of employees, if I have heard right. So there may be some recourse that I didn't know about, which is good news!

[Strabeary]

Interesting enough, my boyfriend is in a similar situation. He works at his brother's coffee shop and he gets treated like **** AND doesn't even get paid. I feel horrible for him because he's stuck: if he stops working there, his parents will kick him out and because he doesn't get paid, he can't rent an apt so he has to stay there. And because he's there practically 6 days a week, 12 + hours, he doesn't have time to look for another job. He's brother lets him cash in a check once in a blue moon for only $400 :/ All the employees there know what he's brother is doing but they can't do anything. My boyfriend has every right to sue his brother for labor law violations, but I know he's not going to do it because it's his brother, and it's also going to hurt his entire family.

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

[Strabeary]

Sorry, double post.