RE: Tech Writer Lawsuit

["Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>]

Seems like a somewhat harsh rant for this case.  Hoenemier did not seek
employment at Sun.  She worked for a company that was bought-out by Sun and
she protested working overtime.  It looks like Sun was coercing Hoenemier
into working overtime when they "ordered her to improve her performance
after she complained about overtime."  They ordered her to improve *after*
she complained.  So when she was working long hours without proper
compensation and she wasn't complaining, her performance was fine?

Personally, I think that any company that requires its employees to work
more than 40 hours per week and fails to compensate for the occasional
overtime with time-off or additional pay has issues.  A lawsuit like this
can be a good wake-up call to companies that misuse their employees by
coercing them to work long hours.  I don't know if Sun is *not* giving
comp-time, since "many of the writers don't want to be hourly workers and
have declined to cooperate with the lawsuit."  Perhaps there are some
overtime benefits to employees that are not stated.

I have worked with dysfunctional companies that required people to work
overtime and failed to provide overtime compensation as pay or time-off.
The employee morale was horrible and people had little time left for their
own lives.  I've also been interviewed by companies that were very upfront
about their need to have somebody who will work overtime.  Working overtime
without additional compensation is becoming a requirement for jobs at many
companies.

Lauren


> From: Jodie Gilmore

> <rant on>
> Well, pardon me for sounding like a right-wing radical (I 
> can't help it),
> but I think such a class-action suit it stupid. No one FORCED 
> these people
> to work overtime

..........

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