August 28, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Who's Responsible?
August 29, 2017 at 4:07 am
I've never been charged a lot but I have been refused reimbursement for a dev site before. I was trying to make a point that a Server couldn't handle the load and was set up incorrectly and cheap cloud hosting would perform better. So I stayed an apps and database with my own credit card. I was right but was not reimbursed. The company spent a lot of money on new hardware and I left the company. I didn't accept that my code was to blame. Seeing that the money spent on my skills was more expensive than hardware and all it needed better hosting not some miracle coding technique. So me leaving freed up even more budget, until of course they needed to replace me with 3 or 4 devs. I still haven't seen that expense check.
August 29, 2017 at 5:30 am
Personally, I would never create a site with my own card. I'll buy things and submit an expense report for one-time purchases, but nothing I wouldn't be willing to buy on my own. If the company wants to spin up a site or enter into a hosting agreement, then we'd be using the corporate card.
August 29, 2017 at 5:39 am
HR refused to cover phone calls home that were longer than 3 minutes. When I pointed out that my other charges were very modest and well under limit -- I don't think it made an impression. But when they got to the part in my response that said cover the expense or my road trips are over, reason seemed to take hold. Cell phones, of course, have eliminated this as an issue.
It bothers me that we would ever have to resort to threats to get our employers to live up to their responsibilities. Fortunately, I have had to resort to threats only twice in forty years (once early in my career and once just two years ago).
I suspect contract workers have some horror stories behind their compensations and re-imbursements.
August 29, 2017 at 6:33 am
Ed Wagner - Tuesday, August 29, 2017 5:30 AMPersonally, I would never create a site with my own card. I'll buy things and submit an expense report for one-time purchases, but nothing I wouldn't be willing to buy on my own. If the company wants to spin up a site or enter into a hosting agreement, then we'd be using the corporate card.
I couldn't agree more.
August 29, 2017 at 6:55 am
I think generally the cost of finding and hiring good technology workers gives us a lot of protection. Of course, that means you have to willing to threaten to quit if it comes to that, but if your in that situation you should find a better company to work for in my opinion.
Some of my co-workers bought their own SSD's to upgrade their company issued work computers before they were a standard part of the setup. This was long after SSD's were mainstream, I think my company didn't issue them to developers until 2015. I always thought they were crazy for doing it though, and when they told me I should do it to I explained that I didn't feel I was so over payed that I should refund part of my salary to the company! That said, I do bring my own keyboard and mouse because that's more a matter of taste and personal comfort.
August 29, 2017 at 7:12 am
ken.romero - Tuesday, August 29, 2017 6:55 AMThat said, I do bring my own keyboard and mouse because that's more a matter of taste and personal comfort.
I do the same thing. I have my own keyboard, which I brought with me on my first day of work. It's a simple matter of comfort.
Years ago, I also bought software - UltraEdit. I couldn't stand using what the company provided, so I researched it and requested it. The request was denied so we agreed that I would buy it myself, but I would take it with me when I left. When I left about 10 years later, I did just that. I brought it with me to my next employer and we made the same agreement. That's now void because when other people saw me using it, they wanted it and the company bought me a newer version. To me, it was worth it because I was willing to buy it myself to improve the quality of my working environment and productivity.
August 29, 2017 at 8:14 am
I always get sign-off on significant expenditures from my supervisor and use his credit card. Neither of us has access to a corporate credit card. Fortunately my boss is a very reasonable person and if I have good reason to ask for expenditures he usually agrees.
August 29, 2017 at 8:15 am
I've been hesitant to purchase items outside of food for companies, since it's easy for some bosses to just decline the expense.
We once lost an admin password on a Windows box and the manager wanted me to purchase some software that could reset it for US$300. I declined, and asked him to go ahead and use his own CC.
August 29, 2017 at 8:25 am
ken.romero - Tuesday, August 29, 2017 6:55 AMSome of my co-workers bought their own SSD's to upgrade their company issued work computers before they were a standard part of the setup.
I put an SSD in a company laptop once and it was frowned at. The company didn't even give me a clean hard drive without other profiles and installs on it. I didn't trust it and preferred the SSD performance. The IT manager wanted me to leave in the SSD when I left, I said sure if he paid me for it.
I just brought my own laptop to the last few places. It was saving me hours per day over the guys that didn't have SSD's. My time was more valuable to me than my employer, and that is probably still true today.
August 29, 2017 at 8:42 am
I would not pay for anything, if the company wants me to try something then they can pay for it. If I was asked to pay for a mistake I made, there would be a lawsuit.
You also mentioned having to deal with "questionable practices from management". At my last company they used/are still using "questionable practices". The new CIO came in and first started having the managers put in each employees reviews a lot of bad 'BS' about performance, and 'bad' feedback from other employees and other managers. I call this 'BS' because I know it was all made up. I had some of this in my last review, I knew that based on the comments it could only come from one particular manager. Shortly after I was let go from that job this manager approached a former coworker and mentioned how much they missed working with me. This coworker and I had discussed the comments in my review after I had left the company. This coworker used this meeting to confront the manager about the comments, the manager said it was all lies, that he had never said those things. A few days later I had lunch with my former manager at this company, she had also been terminated. She admitted that all of that had came from the new CIO. She said the same type of 'BS' was in her last review. So this new CIO was using these bad reviews and no raises to try and get people to quit. One person did quit, then a week or so later a bunch of us were 'transitioned out'. I'm still in contact with many people that are still working at my former company, these same practices are still going on. They are being forced to work 60+ hours a week to meet unrealistic deadlines.
I say this as someone who is EXTREMELY happy I no longer work there. I've been at my new company for a year and I work with great people.
My question to others is this: Is this common practice? Make up 'BS' that they don't have to back up with facts. Just to get people to quit or so they can use the 'bad' review to terminate your services.
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we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us
Don't fear failure, fear regret.
August 29, 2017 at 9:16 am
Ultimately, if you choose to spend your own money - you are responsible for that choice.
Having worked in accounting for 20+ years before making the leap to tech though, I know better than to assume reimbursement.
I get expenses approved before I lay out the money, use a company credit card, or arrange for direct invoicing.
Nope, you can't install that software on my personal phone either. If I need a phone to do my job, issue me a company phone or reimburse me for the use of my personal phone.
If the company deducts money out of my check that I didn't consent to when I was hired, then yep, they get a complaint filed at the Dept.of Labor.
That will usually trigger an audit - which is much worse than a lawsuit, lol.
It is common to agree to have certain deductions if you lose or damage company issued property, etc.
Tech workers are somewhat protected simply because we don't rely on cash tips.
There is not much opportunity to manipulate our pay, outside of denying a reimbursement.
August 29, 2017 at 9:25 am
below86 - Tuesday, August 29, 2017 8:42 AMMy question to others is this: Is this common practice? Make up 'BS' that they don't have to back up with facts. Just to get people to quit or so they can use the 'bad' review to terminate your services.
Very common.
One company I worked for was fond of claiming that the developer cost them money or that a client was threatening to sue over a contract breach.
This was used as justification to withhold the bonuses that made up for the lower salaries.
When you cut someone's pay in half, they will normally quit.
Firing people can be expensive. If you get them to quit, it is MUCH cheaper.
August 29, 2017 at 9:51 am
I would not put up my personal money for anything outside of maybe incidental costs like food, anything like hotels, plane tickets, software trials etc..... should be put on a company card.
Now expecting tech workers to be held personally liable for any bugs in their code seems like an incredibly slippery slope. First it's not like a waiter dropping a stack of plates which has a very clear cause and a very fixed cost, a lot of technical issues have a much harder to quantify a dollar impact(and would likely bankrupt the average worker if one person was held accountable for it). Second most of us work in some kind of collaborative environment so who gets the blame whoever came up with the requirements, the QA team that didn't test properly, the manager who ignored the results from QA, the developer who put a decimal in the wrong place?
August 29, 2017 at 10:33 am
ZZartin - Tuesday, August 29, 2017 9:51 AMI would not put up my personal money for anything outside of maybe incidental costs like food, anything like hotels, plane tickets, software trials etc..... should be put on a company card.Now expecting tech workers to be held personally liable for any bugs in their code seems like an incredibly slippery slope. First it's not like a waiter dropping a stack of plates which has a very clear cause and a very fixed cost, a lot of technical issues have a much harder to quantify a dollar impact(and would likely bankrupt the average worker if one person was held accountable for it). Second most of us work in some kind of collaborative environment so who gets the blame whoever came up with the requirements, the QA team that didn't test properly, the manager who ignored the results from QA, the developer who put a decimal in the wrong place?
For the first, the majority of companie's I've worked for wouldn't issue a company card to an individual. They do provide an easy process to get a card, but the bill always has come to me personally and often hotel, plane, etc. is something I charge and submit an expense report for.
For software, I agree. It would be hard to charge a person, though not hard to charge a group for something. I'd hope this is unlikely, but I wonder. Many companies will approve expenses and employees get used to charging. However, that policy can change, and has at some companies I've worked for.
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