Across industries and incomes, more employees are being tracked, recorded and ranked. What is gained, companies say, is efficiency and accountability. What is lost?
A few years ago, Carol Kraemer, a longtime finance executive, took a new job. Her title, senior vice president, was impressive. The compensation was excellent: $200 an hour.
But her first paychecks seemed low. Her new employer, which used extensive monitoring software on its all-remote workers, paid them only for the minutes when the system detected active work. Worse, Ms. Kraemer noticed that the software did not come close to capturing her labor. Offline work — doing math problems on paper, reading printouts, thinking — didn’t register and required approval as “manual time.”
Absolutely! We need to discourage “thinking.”
As a “job creator” using this system, I’d be worrid my employees were “thinking” of unionization.
Carol Kraemer, a longtime finance executive, took a new job. Her title, senior vice president, was impressive. The compensation was excellent: $200 an hour.
Strikes me as weird, an executive, a senior VP, being paid hourly. It is an exempt-type position, so I’m not sure what kind of employment contract she signed that would be legal.
Ayup. There was a documentary on TV some years ago about product quality. One of the people interviewed was a production worker at Firestone (before the company was taken over by Bridgestone). He said, whenever he had an idea that could improve quality or productivity, he would take it to management. Management told him “Some are paid to think. Some are paid to work. You are paid to work”. I had an idea at the pump seal company that improved parts interchangeability, and reduced inventory. Took my idea to the sales manager. He brushed me off, “no advantage” he said. A year later, that same sales manager announced “a great new innovation in the pre-engineered seal line”, which was exactly what I had proposed a year earlier, but now the idea was presented over his signature.
Strikes me as weird, an executive, a senior VP, being paid hourly. It is an exempt-type position, so I’m not sure what kind of employment contract she signed that would be legal.
Welcome to the world of “at will employment”. If the “JC” says you will be paid piecework, you get paid piecework. If he promises a high hourly rate, but does not disclose that it’s piecework, you get paid piecework. How many bazillions of employment adverts have you seen that say “write your own paycheck”, “income unlimited”? The “JC” knows what your likely production will be, before you even start. Promises of infinite loot in your pocket are nothing but air.
Strikes me as weird, an executive, a senior VP, being paid hourly. It is an exempt-type position, so I’m not sure what kind of employment contract she signed that would be legal.
She probably signed a contract as a “consultant” rather than a full-time employee.
Strikes me as weird, an executive, a senior VP, being paid hourly. It is an exempt-type position, so I’m not sure what kind of employment contract she signed that would be legal. — She probably signed a contract as a “consultant”…
Likely the case, but who classifies a consultant as a ‘senior VP’?