over worked and under paid

Magnethead

Magnethead

Admin & Resident Techie
Staff member
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
11,387
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783
Location
Ft Worth Tx
The fuse finally popped today.

For those not familiar with the administrative side of a school system, it's basically slave labor. There's very little regulation from the gov't, at least here in Texas. They are all but completely immune from the workforce commission.

I spent 1.5 years in Technology before being pushed out and moved to another dept for lack of productivity [metrics].

I am on a 215 day contract with a take-home salary of 26K and health insurance that doesn't kick in until you've met the $5,000 annual deductible, so basically for emergency use only.

The state allocates so many paid days off, and the local district also allocates so many paid days off. Us hourly employees are not paid in overtime, but instead receive compensatory time.

Right now, I am sitting on 14.5 PTO days from the state and 8.5 PTO days from the district - 23 paid days off that I have never used in my 2.5 years at the district. In the technology dept, we also got 5 flex days - the only dept that gets them. Between those and my Comp Time, I never had to use the PTO for racing.

Where I am now, I accrued 14 days 7 hours and 7 minutes of compensatory time in the fall semester alone. We are now 2.5 months into the Spring semester, and I am already at 13 days 5 hours 9 minutes - for a total of 28 days 4 hours 46 minutes this school year. That's almost $6,000 worth of overtime, if it was paid out.

Oh, and it's use or lose.

But now that I'm trying to use it, my super says "You need to be here, you can't be taking off because it disrupts our system"....

I just sent our HR director a pleasant, factual, note explaining that I do not plan to return next school year.
 
Magnethead said:
The fuse finally popped today.

For those not familiar with the administrative side of a school system, it's basically slave labor. There's very little regulation from the gov't, at least here in Texas. They are all but completely immune from the workforce commission.

I spent 1.5 years in Technology before being pushed out and moved to another dept for lack of productivity [metrics].

I am on a 215 day contract with a take-home salary of 26K and health insurance that doesn't kick in until you've met the $5,000 annual deductible, so basically for emergency use only.

The state allocates so many paid days off, and the local district also allocates so many paid days off. Us hourly employees are not paid in overtime, but instead receive compensatory time.

Right now, I am sitting on 14.5 PTO days from the state and 8.5 PTO days from the district - 23 paid days off that I have never used in my 2.5 years at the district. In the technology dept, we also got 5 flex days - the only dept that gets them. Between those and my Comp Time, I never had to use the PTO for racing.

Where I am now, I accrued 14 days 7 hours and 7 minutes of compensatory time in the fall semester alone. We are now 2.5 months into the Spring semester, and I am already at 13 days 5 hours 9 minutes - for a total of 28 days 4 hours 46 minutes this school year. That's almost $6,000 worth of overtime, if it was paid out.

Oh, and it's use or lose.

But now that I'm trying to use it, my super says "You need to be here, you can't be taking off because it disrupts our system"....

I just sent our HR director a pleasant, factual, note explaining that I do not plan to return next school year.
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Tell them to kiss your butt and get information on a Mac, Snap-on, or Matco tool truck. You can be your on boss and sell tools. You sound like a tool guy in my opinion.
 
Magnethead said:
The fuse finally popped today.

For those not familiar with the administrative side of a school system, it's basically slave labor. There's very little regulation from the gov't, at least here in Texas. They are all but completely immune from the workforce commission.

I spent 1.5 years in Technology before being pushed out and moved to another dept for lack of productivity [metrics].

I am on a 215 day contract with a take-home salary of 26K and health insurance that doesn't kick in until you've met the $5,000 annual deductible, so basically for emergency use only.

The state allocates so many paid days off, and the local district also allocates so many paid days off. Us hourly employees are not paid in overtime, but instead receive compensatory time.

Right now, I am sitting on 14.5 PTO days from the state and 8.5 PTO days from the district - 23 paid days off that I have never used in my 2.5 years at the district. In the technology dept, we also got 5 flex days - the only dept that gets them. Between those and my Comp Time, I never had to use the PTO for racing.

Where I am now, I accrued 14 days 7 hours and 7 minutes of compensatory time in the fall semester alone. We are now 2.5 months into the Spring semester, and I am already at 13 days 5 hours 9 minutes - for a total of 28 days 4 hours 46 minutes this school year. That's almost $6,000 worth of overtime, if it was paid out.

Oh, and it's use or lose.

But now that I'm trying to use it, my super says "You need to be here, you can't be taking off because it disrupts our system"....

I just sent our HR director a pleasant, factual, note explaining that I do not plan to return next school year.
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I hear something similar from my wife at least once a week. She absolutely loves working with and helping troubled/mentally challenged 6th graders. But the low pay, long hours and crap she has to take from administration and parents that use the system as a babysitting service drives her nuts.
 
My Jennifer is a social worker. She Is a drug and alcohol therapist AND mental health therapist.

She has so much paperwork in her job and I know that is where a great deal of her stress comes from.
 
Ilovedthe90s said:
Tell them to kiss your butt and get information on a Mac, Snap-on, or Matco tool truck. You can be your on boss and sell tools. You sound like a tool guy in my opinion.
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One of my friends is a cornwell trucker. I couldn't stand that kind of a job. 80 hour weeks. He's up at 5AM, first stop at 5:45, last stop is 7:00 PM most days. Also has a 4:30 stop once a week for a midnight crew.
 
Magnethead said:
The fuse finally popped today.

For those not familiar with the administrative side of a school system, it's basically slave labor. There's very little regulation from the gov't, at least here in Texas. They are all but completely immune from the workforce commission.

I spent 1.5 years in Technology before being pushed out and moved to another dept for lack of productivity [metrics].

I am on a 215 day contract with a take-home salary of 26K and health insurance that doesn't kick in until you've met the $5,000 annual deductible, so basically for emergency use only.

The state allocates so many paid days off, and the local district also allocates so many paid days off. Us hourly employees are not paid in overtime, but instead receive compensatory time.

Right now, I am sitting on 14.5 PTO days from the state and 8.5 PTO days from the district - 23 paid days off that I have never used in my 2.5 years at the district. In the technology dept, we also got 5 flex days - the only dept that gets them. Between those and my Comp Time, I never had to use the PTO for racing.

Where I am now, I accrued 14 days 7 hours and 7 minutes of compensatory time in the fall semester alone. We are now 2.5 months into the Spring semester, and I am already at 13 days 5 hours 9 minutes - for a total of 28 days 4 hours 46 minutes this school year. That's almost $6,000 worth of overtime, if it was paid out.

Oh, and it's use or lose.

But now that I'm trying to use it, my super says "You need to be here, you can't be taking off because it disrupts our system"....

I just sent our HR director a pleasant, factual, note explaining that I do not plan to return next school year.
Click to expand...

Absolutely unacceptable and your supervisor is lucky someone hasn’t physically assaulted him.
 
Magnethead said:
The fuse finally popped today.

For those not familiar with the administrative side of a school system, it's basically slave labor. There's very little regulation from the gov't, at least here in Texas. They are all but completely immune from the workforce commission.

I spent 1.5 years in Technology before being pushed out and moved to another dept for lack of productivity [metrics].

I am on a 215 day contract with a take-home salary of 26K and health insurance that doesn't kick in until you've met the $5,000 annual deductible, so basically for emergency use only.

The state allocates so many paid days off, and the local district also allocates so many paid days off. Us hourly employees are not paid in overtime, but instead receive compensatory time.

Right now, I am sitting on 14.5 PTO days from the state and 8.5 PTO days from the district - 23 paid days off that I have never used in my 2.5 years at the district. In the technology dept, we also got 5 flex days - the only dept that gets them. Between those and my Comp Time, I never had to use the PTO for racing.

Where I am now, I accrued 14 days 7 hours and 7 minutes of compensatory time in the fall semester alone. We are now 2.5 months into the Spring semester, and I am already at 13 days 5 hours 9 minutes - for a total of 28 days 4 hours 46 minutes this school year. That's almost $6,000 worth of overtime, if it was paid out.

Oh, and it's use or lose.

But now that I'm trying to use it, my super says "You need to be here, you can't be taking off because it disrupts our system"....

I just sent our HR director a pleasant, factual, note explaining that I do not plan to return next school year.
Click to expand...
If you have all of your ducks in a row it could turn out different. I had a new supervisor that ordered me to do a process that was too dangerous to do with the tool he wanted me to do it with instead of the way we were doing it. I refused and I was fired. I went to the wage and hour board and to make a long story short I got my job back and all of the back pay. The company got rid of the supervisor. Ya got to hit them in their pocket book before you get their attention sometimes.
 
Well, I am still alive.

I told my boss I don't plan to come back for the fall semester. I caught her off guard and predisposed so I don't think it completely hit her. She didn't blow up like HR and I predicted, but I think that's because of how I caught her.

We have tomorrow off, so Monday will be the telltale.
 
Magnethead said:
Well, I am still alive.

I told my boss I don't plan to come back for the fall semester. I caught her off guard and predisposed so I don't think it completely hit her. She didn't blow up like HR and I predicted, but I think that's because of how I caught her.

We have tomorrow off, so Monday will be the telltale.
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I hope everything works out for you
 
Everything is crazy where I work now and the hours are killing me.
A third party was hired that is nothing but an accounting cut throat outfit. They have cut some jobs but we have lost more people that have quit or stressed out over their other cuts.
My tech job is essentially gone I am the floor 90 % of the time.

I have been professional and still provide tech support. I have put my passion into it for the last 15 years. I wrote the troubleshooting procedures we use. I have the knowledge and we are getting the numbers while l am running the lines on my playbook l wrote for them.

But I am running out professionalism or give a damn. I gave everything l had to earn and keep the tech job. I will not continue to give them the same passion to them by running a line, or just being a common status employee.
If I don't get my Tech job by 2020, l will find something else to do.
 
StandOnIt said:
Don't quit one until you find another would be my advice.
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The problem with education is that you get stuck on 12 month contracts that are hard to get out of. In my case, I filed a breach of contract that was issued in my favor, so i'm now at-will, unless I sign a contract for July to June, which then i can't get out of without filing another breach or getting heavily penalized.
 
Worked a school event yesterday. 14:45 on the clock and 7:30 holiday pay makes for a 22+ hour time sheet for one day.

I get a call at 6AM from my boss telling me not to come in today and yelling at me for how things went yesterday (there were several issues, but the overall event was a success).

I'm as done as an overcooked turkey.
 
Not going to count any unhatched eggs (of which the nest currently has 3), but I had a really good phone call this morning.

Like, right after I finished my exit paperwork, this morning.

I told very few people of my sudden increased intent to leave. Escaped with 1 letter of rec in hand and waiting on 2 more.

I put in my 2 weeks notice, then used my 10 days of comp overtime and a couple paid days off to finish out my contract. Thus, I still get my full June paycheck and benefits until June 30.
 
A work platform failed at work on Monday. I have four broke ribs.
 
Wow Greg, take care of yourself. That place can do without you for a while while you recover a bit. You want them to heal right.
 
sdj said:
I have had broken ribs 5 times in my life, all hurt like hell for a while. You pray you do not cough or sneeze.

You have any other injuries? Glad you are still with us.
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Very sore from shoulders to abs but no liver or lung punctures per CScan and two other set of xrays. They are solid breaks so they didn't snap back like a cracked rib would. They will heal by stacking, or bridge together.
 
That sounds horrible, @Greg . I'm sure OSHA will be all over that...any idea what failed?

In other news on my situation...the state has tentatively approved unemployment, and I'll get my last paycheck next month. Meanwhile, I'm plugging away at some various options....
 
Magnethead said:
That sounds horrible, @Greg . I'm sure OSHA will be all over that...any idea what failed?

In other news on my situation...the state has tentatively approved unemployment, and I'll get my last paycheck next month. Meanwhile, I'm plugging away at some various options....
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The portable platform has to be properly set, a person on the previous shift did not install it correctly (That's all l need to say on a public forum).
 
Just put the app in for the job i've been pursuing. It's taken a couple months for them to push the requisition through, they pretty much created it for me but they still have to let other people apply legally. But i'm technically perfectly if not slightly overqualified for it, and a fellow racer is the regional manager that got the ball rolling.

Also, grapevine has told me that my former place of employment has become a dumpster fire, and I jumped off the ship at a good time.
 
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Magnethead said:
Just put the app in for the job i've been pursuing. It's taken a couple months for them to push the requisition through, they pretty much created it for me but they still have to let other people apply legally. But i'm technically perfectly if not slightly overqualified for it, and a fellow racer is the regional manager that got the ball rolling.
Also, grapevine has told me that my former place of employment has become a dumpster fire, and I jumped off the ship at a good time.
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We're pulling for ya, Mag!! Hope you get the job you want.
 
Magnethead said:
Got the call for the interview next Tuesday. Since the regional manager would be a conflict of interest, he's going to have the co-manager do the interview. But they're pretty much 100% set.
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Good luck bud.
 
So the in-person interview was scheduled for 10AM a couple Tuesdays ago, at HQ 2 hours away from home. So i left the house all dressed up at 8AM. Around 9:15 AM, probably 15-20 miles from HQ, I get a phone call. "We got called out of the office, so we're making this a phone interview".

All wasn't lost, I had lunch with a friend that lived in the area.

So today, I went for a ride-along with a programmer. It was.... eye-opening. There are some positives and some not-so-positives. There were a few times that I was thinking "WTF". I speak with the manager tomorrow to summarize the ride-along, and I suddenly feel like I have more questions than answers.

It legit felt like being on Undercover Boss.
 
Saga continues. Manager did not call me by Noon. I called him at Noon. He did not answer, texted "Can I call you later?". I said Sure. Have not heard from him since.

Maybe tomorrow.
 
Magnethead said:
Saga continues. Manager did not call me by Noon. I called him at Noon. He did not answer, texted "Can I call you later?". I said Sure. Have not heard from him since.

Maybe tomorrow.
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Odd. I wish you luck Mag.
 
Got called for an interview on Tuesday up in the medical district of Fort Worth. Dialysis center.

Also heard from the manager on the ride-along. There was a reason he was waiting to call me on personal time...there's alot of politics going on. The business was bought out in April, and they just completed the Q2 analysis. The old owner is no longer loyal and everybody between the old owner and the ground techs are eligible for elimination. He said that he may lose his job at the end of Q3 along with others if the reports don't clean up. He doesn't want to bring me into the middle of the clustermess, so he told me to keep looking, but if he still has a job in 90 days after it gets sorted out, he'll bring me on.
 
On the other hand, I have a $220 invoice hanging out there pending payment for some work last week, And I have another few hours of work to do for the same client and another couple hundred worth of open estimate. Who knows when I will get paid though.
 
Went to the interview yesterday. Interesting little outfit. The IT manager seemed to like me, but he had a few more interviews this morning that he needed to evaluate.

Around 2:00 I got a call from them letting me know that they are sending me an offer letter. So I asked a pile of questions.

I received the offer letter, asked some more questions, and received the benefits packet.

I like the employment scope and the actual role itself. As a bonus, it's a relatively small company that is still privately held.

As a bonus, they offered a very aggressive salary and even more aggressive benefits package.

I still need to look over it some more (and let dad look at it), but I would be flat stupid to turn it down.
 
Magnethead said:
Went to the interview yesterday. Interesting little outfit. The IT manager seemed to like me, but he had a few more interviews this morning that he needed to evaluate.

Around 2:00 I got a call from them letting me know that they are sending me an offer letter. So I asked a pile of questions.

I received the offer letter, asked some more questions, and received the benefits packet.

I like the employment scope and the actual role itself. As a bonus, it's a relatively small company that is still privately held.

As a bonus, they offered a very aggressive salary and even more aggressive benefits package.

I still need to look over it some more (and let dad look at it), but I would be flat stupid to turn it down.
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Awesome! Congrats Mag.
 
Something I did voluntarily that probably helped: When I presented my physical resume in person, I had my cover letter, my resume (3 pages), 2 letters of reference, and a partially censored copy of my driving record.

By providing a copy of the DPS type 2 form, it showed that I was eligible to drive a vehicle for business use (I took a 50/50 gamble that such would be the case for this position, and i gambled correctly), in addition to having worked for the VA, proving I could pass a military background check.

He also liked my extremely broad range of knowledge and my expressed willingness to learn new things.

He did mention I was the second school district tech to interview for the position. So I gave him (at his prodding) a politically correct debrief on what we going on in the education sector, and he admitted knowing some of the things I intentionally skipped over.
 
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