September 29, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Craig Farrell (9/29/2010)
...I hate those interviews. I tend to swap companies a lot so interview a lot, so I've gotten a list of questions that I always ask the employer. One of the top 3 is "What's your average employee's work schedule like, including work from home, afterhours?"
Anything over 45 I thank them for their time and move on. I'm fine with the occassional emergency. If every week is an emergency, it's not an emergency, it's a staffing problem.
I agree. I tend to ask, or let them know if asked, that I expect to work 40 hours +- 5 a week. If there's an emergency or deadline, I'll go more, but not for weeks. If they expect 60 a week, find someone else.
October 1, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Change the title, please! 🙂 Luckily (or maybe unluckily), my husband and I are in this field together. ...so we both feed off of the work topics that we bring home. ...we talk about work at home a lot, and help each other solve problems. For 10 years we actually both worked for the same software company and I was convinced that our lunches and dinners should have been paid for by our employer. 🙂 The good news is that our brains are always (ok - "usually") working.
October 2, 2010 at 2:48 am
Craig Farrell (9/29/2010)
... I've gotten a list of questions that I always ask the employer. One of the top 3 is "What's your average employee's work schedule like, including work from home, afterhours?"Anything over 45 I thank them for their time and move on. I'm fine with the occassional emergency. If every week is an emergency, it's not an emergency, it's a staffing problem.
Excellent question: I've added it to the list that I ask.
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
October 4, 2010 at 9:59 am
Ya, I'm always sure to ask for average hours in an interview, even though I've read that is not what you are suppose to ask. My wife almost took a job 2 minutes from our home, but then we found a friend of ours who quit there because IT is expected to work over 60 hours a week and the pay was only average. The way I see it, if they don't want me to ask it, I most likely don't want to work there. I 'd hope employers would hire people for their skills and abilities(either gifts from God or from time put in education/work experience), not how many hours I plan to work each week.
If you look around enough, at some point you will find the green grass. Took me years to realize this.
October 4, 2010 at 11:05 am
I think in the past that it was viewed that the employer was doing you a favor by giving you a job, and that the workers brought less thought and intelligence to the workplace. That's changed, so I think it's fair to ask about hours, and it shouldn't be a big deal.
If everyone asks, maybe we'll start getting this listed in job descriptions as well.
October 4, 2010 at 11:24 am
WayneS (10/2/2010)
Craig Farrell (9/29/2010)
... I've gotten a list of questions that I always ask the employer. One of the top 3 is "What's your average employee's work schedule like, including work from home, afterhours?"Anything over 45 I thank them for their time and move on. I'm fine with the occassional emergency. If every week is an emergency, it's not an emergency, it's a staffing problem.
Excellent question: I've added it to the list that I ask.
I've never written a tech article before, and to be honest, I'm not sure I feel confident enough tossing one up into the aether amongst the folks round here, but would there be interest in an article on this topic? More along the lines of general items to remember to ask the interviewer, etc? I've never ran into one that I actually felt made sense, specifically for IT.
I read the process and I'm more just curious if there would even be interest in an article of that nature here.
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October 4, 2010 at 11:24 am
That would be interesting (to have the hours listed in the job posting). The closest I've ever seen is "must be willing to work after-hours and weekends as needed as well as participate in on-call rotation".
To me, that opens the door for the question of how much those hours amount to. I've asked at the last 2 interviews and both times received an answer (and both of the firms offered me a job, so I don't think it turned them off at all). If you raise the question tactfully, I don't think there should be any negative reaction.
October 4, 2010 at 11:44 am
Craig Farrell (10/4/2010)
WayneS (10/2/2010)
Craig Farrell (9/29/2010)
... I've gotten a list of questions that I always ask the employer. One of the top 3 is "What's your average employee's work schedule like, including work from home, afterhours?"Anything over 45 I thank them for their time and move on. I'm fine with the occassional emergency. If every week is an emergency, it's not an emergency, it's a staffing problem.
Excellent question: I've added it to the list that I ask.
I've never written a tech article before, and to be honest, I'm not sure I feel confident enough tossing one up into the aether amongst the folks round here, but would there be interest in an article on this topic? More along the lines of general items to remember to ask the interviewer, etc? I've never ran into one that I actually felt made sense, specifically for IT.
I read the process and I'm more just curious if there would even be interest in an article of that nature here.
Craig, I do believe that there would be interest in this. Plus, I'm sure you'll find Steve more than encouraging of you to write and submit one. Plus, I'd be willing to share the questions that ask.
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
October 4, 2010 at 1:00 pm
First of all let me say that I enjoy my work and at times consider it one of those "and you mean that they will pay me to do that too. GREAT!" type of jobs.
When I went from my own company back to employment with a company, the company had a course for it's employees about balancing the job and life. One thing that I learned was "it's a job, it's not your life!"
Is the job working for an abusive/incompetent management team more important than your spouse or children? Are you even going to be with this company next year? You might not be with your spouse if you constantly ignore them and their needs.
Jobs are easy to find, a good spouse that will put up with me is a whole different story 😀
John.
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