Something has been bothering me, something that I need to get off my chest.

Since I put up this blog, I've had several people contact me because they found my resume via a search engine. In talks with these folks, they of course ask me what I'm looking for in a job, and why I might leave my current position, etc. Many times, I have had a phone or personal conversation that goes something like the following:

Someone called me again today, and I had this conversation with them. Before I make my point, let me reiterate:

• Doing work outside the company is forbidden
• I am expected to work overtime constantly, as part of my job
• No addtional compensation is available, even though the work is of vast benenfit to the company

Are we becoming a nation of white-collar slaves? Are we so averse to risk we'll let somone own every hour of our lives as long as they promise a regular paycheck? Don't get me wrong, I understand that from time to time at any company there will be a need to put in more time. When something big hits, its "All hands on deck", and you hope your efforts are remembered later. But, this all to common conversation is insane. You will require me to work overtime, so much so that I can't even go work at Blockbuster for free movies if that's what I wanted to do. You won't pay me for overtime, and on top of that you won't even throw me a bone if my efforts bring great success to the company.

Why anyone would knowingly enter into this is beyond me. If you have technical skills as well as the ability to not make an fool of your company in a sales meeting, you're probably not going to have too much time finding employment. Furthermore, if you are actually successful in being a sales person and delivering work, why would you want to do so for free so that someone else can reap the benefits of your skills and your hard work? On top of that, if I turn out to be no good at this task, you'll likely fire me and replace me with someone who is good at that task. If I turn out to be good at the dual life of delivering good work and doing sales, I might start to think I should be working for myself, or having other people work for me.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Now, I am not advocating getting paid if you happen to think about work at home, and as I already said, I think employers asking a little extra during a crunch is perfectly acceptable. However, asking someone for their talents, and giving them an up front guarantee that you will in no way pay them for their time nor will you let them supplement their income is ridiculous. Saying that you'll "take care" of someone, implying that they might get a slightly bigger raise next year if they work 500 hours of overtime, is also completely ridiculous. We all know that the time we could trust Corporate America to be fair ended long before we had horrible examples like Enron to show us that "We'll take care of you" is a crock. If you intended to pay me for my time, pay me for my time.  If you try to paint a scenario in which you want me to think you are going to pay me for my time but the only vehicle for this is a yearly review, I'm going to be very suspicious of your intentions of goodwill and fairness. 

I'm not advocating a strict "What's in it for me?" policy either, although you are the only person looking out for you, usually. I am happy to say that I have also talked to two or three business owners lately who sing a much different tune. These conversations include things like:

• If you bring us a sale because of your relationships, reputation, or time spent, we'll cut you in
• If we ask you to work off hours on sales work, we'll throw you a bone for your time if the sale does not pan out
• We won't pay you hourly for your time on sales work, but if you do help us get sales we will give you a small %
• Share the work, share the reward