Read a bit lower, and there are promises of perks galore: competitive compensation, free meals, free gym membership, free health and dental care and so on. But then comes the catch.
Each job ad contains a warning: “Please don’t join if you’re not excited about… working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.”
The website belongs to Rilla, a New York-based tech business which sells AI-based systems that allow employers to monitor sales representatives when they are out and about, interacting with clients.
The company has become something of a poster child for a fast-paced workplace culture known as 996, also sometimes referred to as hustle culture or grindcore.
In simple terms, it puts a premium on long working hours, typically 9am to 9pm, six days a week (hence “996”).
The “correct” word for salary is usually “exempt employee”, as in exempt for overtime pay.
This isn’t always a bad thing. Some jobs need exempt employees because they run on call rotations and so forth, and if your employer isn’t a dickhead it can genuinely be done fairly with highly flexible hours and pay to match.
Of course, dickhead employers are a dime a dozen…
I disagree. You work X hours, you get paid for X hours. Would the company do any work for free for its costumers? I’m sure every hour of work will be billed.
I’m an exempt employee. I wouldn’t trade back.
As with all things, needs are subjective. Sometimes I have to work at 2am because something breaks, and that sucks.
But not needing to worry about how many hours I’m going to be at my desk this week because any change might tank my paycheck is extremely valuable to me. I can take my kids to the doctor without missing pay, or to one of their school events, or take an afternoon off to do something fun, or just get the flu and be out for two weeks without worrying about the mortgage.
Sorry you have had shit experiences, but the world doesn’t exist only at the polar extremes.
Being on call with highly flexible hours absolutely is not sufficient to make you federally exempt. There are only three things:
And, as with most things, your state may have stricter rules. You may also have an employment agreement that grants overtime even if you would be otherwise exempt. But as with the rest of the minimum wage, the federal rule sets a floor that your employer can’t go under without risking you suing them for stolen wages.
Not everyone lives where you do and labor laws are complex and varied. Which is why I didn’t go into specifics.
Have fun with that pedantry though.
If we ignore setting and presume an international audience, then it makes sense to also ignore the minimums in laws and reduce it to base principles. Which makes grind culture even worse.
If you regularly work more than 40 hours a week you are being exploited. Regardless of your profession, wage, ownership stake, or what claims your local laws would let you pursue.
This extends very nicely to monthly and annual labor statistics. 72 hour weeks for certain irregular situations like “bringing in the harvest” may not be exploitive, so long as the ratio of hours worked to hours elapsed drops beneath 24%. (5/7/3).
If you’re going to move the goalpost can you at least move it past my “dickhead employers are a dime a dozen…” initial statement?