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Jodie Gilmore wrote:
> They
> could have also tried negotiating with the boss(es) to see if, like CPAs,
> when there was a period where they worked TONS of overtime, they could
> possibly trade and get a Friday off occasionally during light periods, for
> instance.
>
I want to start by emphasizing what my sig file says:
I am *not* speaking for Sun officially. However, I've
worked at Sun as a technical editor for over 16 years.
Apparently, the person filing this lawsuit had only
worked for Sun itself for one year. Unless her manager
was out of the ordinary for the Sun technical pubs
department, while it is true that writers do have to work
long hours near product deadlines, Sun tech pubs has always
been very good about unofficial comp time, flexible hours,
flexible locations in encouraging people to work from home,
and so on.
I suspect this suit has more to do with her specific
expectations and the setup at her previous job(s) than
with class action abuses of technical writers. I don't
see this as being in the same category of hourly contractors
who are forced to work off the clock or are kept on at a
company for years at a time so the company doesn't have to
pay the same benefits as they would to a full-time employee.
On a side note, I think that this type of suit directly
contradicts the desire of most technical communicators
to be considered professionals on a level with programmers
and engineers.
-- Janice
***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address
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