When Does Folklore Begin 4175

You know, this explains a *lot*. I hadn't looked at it that way.

(There's a similar argument about why commercial software is priced at under $3000 or over $50,000, with nothing in between -- that's where the pricing approval structure tends to break down. A middle-level manager can put $3K on the corporate credit card if it's justifiable, but more than that requires paperwork and approvals from half the company. So people selling $50,000 software bypbutt the middle-level managers altogether and take the people who can give that approval to lunch.)

There is *in theory* a difference between salaried and hourly. The way things work now, at least in the professional world, is that professional salaried people are expected to routinely work upwards of 50 hours a week, and in off times they are simply laid off.

My own preference is a salary that pays for the first 40 hours a week, with overtime paying extra when I need to work extra. This is not because I am a money-grubber, but because if the person managing me and the person paying my salary do not see any extra cost involved in me routinely working over 40 hours a week, I will be expected to do so. The bottom line is the only language some people understand, and if I do not look out for myself nobody will.

I am not in this profession (Web software developer and occasional fireman-sysadmin) because I love it; I am in this profession because it pays the bills. Yup, I'm mercenary; 'twas the corporate world that made me so.

Charlton