10
lorentz
14d

I specifically asked my employer when fix time is, whether I get a work laptop, and whether WFH is optional, because

- I'm a night owl and don't function until 10am
- my personal laptop is slow as shit and I don't want to put Windows on it
- I don't have a decent chair at home yet

- client team agreed on fix time starting an hour before what's in my contract, and PM made it clear that they expect to be able to call us an hour before and two hours after (that's what fix time means unless I misunderstand)
- I got a crap backup laptop after a week of moaning, with promise of a better one two weeks from now
- I won't get an RFID card for weeks, so I effectively can't enter or leave the client offices

Comments
  • 3
    If it's not in your contract, you don't have to do it. How well you are protected in this regard depends on where you are. France has some very strong laws about this, America you can be fired for no reason so... Your milage may vary...
  • 1
    @atheist Hungarian labour law is a joke and I'm on probation anyway
  • 2
    I just woke up on company time. was efficient for me

    eeee I'd be against using my own hardware due to legal shenanigans but maybe I overblow that

    I mean in general I just wouldn't want to put spyware on my own hardware

    I guess it would be fine as long as they don't sue you for stuff you did on your personal laptop and you don't have to install spyware on it. like for example some companies literally want keystroke monitoring shit. like no way.

    woo WFH
  • 1
    Are you a consultant?

    Just asking cause you mention ”client team”

    In this case I think you should just talk to your boss and say ”hey, I got hours outside of my contracted hours” - because it is possible in a consultant company that there’s too many managers, clients and projects and they just forget which consultant can work which hours
  • 2
    Never heard of ”fix time” before. Can you explain?

    Is that the hours when they expect everyone to be working? For example at my company we assume most are working around 09:00 to 15:00 - so we say ”don’t book any meetings before or after that” even if some start at 07:00 and some work until 18:00
  • 0
    @jiraTicket yes, I don't know what it's called in English
  • 0
    @lorentz can you tell me whatever 'fix time' is in the language you were told it (Hungarian maybe?) Im curious now.

    Tbh i mightve just hacked the rfid thing depending on specific protocol... but that's also why i just have a blanket rule of not tolerating bs like that in the first place.

    Surprisingly it's actually worked out phenomenally for me, apparently I'm innately intimidating. Ive inquired about it several times and the most reiterated points are that its in a non-aggressive way and something akin to some deity-esq presence... maybe its just cuz im missing most of the ego stuff... im too oblivious and autistic to know (or care) which things i say/do would normally need sugar coating. If i use a bunch of effort i can figure out most but that's exhausting.
  • 1
    @awesomeest Törzsidő, literally trunk-time or tribe-time
  • 1
    "PM made it clear that they expect to be able to call us an hour before and two hours after"

    Expecting to be able to call an employee BEFORE they begin work in the morning sounds very unusual.

    With remote work - it's normal for people to wake up like fifteen minutes before their work day begins
  • 0
    Regarding calling you outside of work hours:

    You can probably argue this is something they need to pay extra for.

    It might seem normal and something that just "comes with the job" but you can argue it shouldn't be that way. When I joined the company I'm at today - initially they had a list of all developers phone numbers and the rule was "if the entire site somehow dies during out-of-office hours - a boss can call any dev". Since that never happened I thought it was acceptable.

    But then we got an employee knew about on labour laws who said "No - if the company wants to be able to call devs outside of office hours - we need to be paid extra" and after that things changed. We (the team) got to pick if we wanted to get extra pay for being 'on call' during certain hours or if we wanted to make sure no one called us
  • 1
    @lorentz I appreciate your literal interpretation...whether consciously or unwittingly, it aligns with the common etymologic pattern of terms like that (specifically the beginning part of Törzsidő, Törzsi/törzs).

    Basically, every language has a few dozen root terms that are often innately understood in a wide array of uses, but significantly harder to convey via translation. I innately understand the patterns with root terms like that at a really base level. I actually need to put effort into putting it into words of any language cuz to me it's kinda language agnostic... i occasionally respond to things in languages that i dont know/never studied and often am unaware of what language it was, without thinking(yea im weird, i know).

    Imo it's fascinating that terms like Törzsidő came into being, often without even the initial understanding of the vast rooted meanings. Torso, trunk, base, origin, tribe, stem...all really the same root in most languages.
  • 2
    CORE HOURS
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