I have watched more than a few of his CBC pieces. Where employees and work-life balance are concerned, the man is toxic AF.
I mean, sure; if you are looking to become obscenely wealthy his attitude makes a lot of sense. But not all of us want to become parasites sucking the lifeblood out of other hard-working, working-class Canadians. Some of us just want enough to be comfortable, because smelling the roses and enjoying life is more important than spending a lifetime grinding to accumulating “stuff” only to die without having enjoyed any of it. You can’t take those obscene levels of wealth with you when you die, and all that accumulating those “brownie points” do is impoverish those from whose labour you coerced and forcibly extracted it.
It’s a lose-lose situation when somebody sees money and assets as the end goal rather than as one of the various tools we use in trying to find a comfortable enjoyable existence.
"What crazy world do we live in where I can't eat at closed restaurants or live in houses I don't own or pay for? What's next electricians only fix my breakerbox when I pay them? What is this world coming too!?"
Nobody. Nobody dreamt it up. They are just remembering the hard reality of the early 90's and the before times.
You know, before everyone was connected and online 24/7/365. Before "online" meant anything.
When you left your 9-5 job, drove home listening to the radio, because you didn't have anything else to listen to, and got home to dinner on the table because you didn't need your spouse to work for a living to make ends meet, in your home that you were able to purchase, and food that wasn't largely artificial.
The phone would ring during dinner, and it would just keep ringing, because you're spending time eating with your family. There was no answering machine, so it would just ring and ring.
And if nobody ever answered it, they couldn't tell you to get back to the office because some emergency happened.
Maybe you went to the park, maybe you were out to dinner with the Mrs... Maybe you just didn't care enough to pick up the phone. Anything could have happened.
Unlike today, where we're bombarded by marketing and notifications constantly. All of which are demanding that you address them ASAP. Everything is an emergency, so put down your "three ingredients away from plastic" dinner, and pick up your master, and obey.
I can't imagine this old piece of shit slamming anything without breaking a bone. Why journalists insist on this word for headlines when there are so many better alternatives is beyond me.
Him and Jamie Fucking Diamond (CEO of JP Morgan-Chase) who always seems to get quoted as some sage of the economy when in reality he is seeking media attention to push a market or stock a certain way that benefits him or those like him.
Every job I've had that requires me to be on call, has paid me for being on call. If I was in an interview and they told me I was expected to pull call for no additional pay, I'd have to sue for injury after enduring the side pain from all the laughing I'd be doing in between them spewing that batshit insane expectation and me promptly walking my ass out of that room.
Put that shit in the job description and reimburse accordingly... this ain't rocket surgery.
If you are in an industry where an emergency at 2 am cannot wait until 0900 (or whenever shift starts in the morning), fucking pay a swing shift to be there. Or fairly compensate your employees for calls off the clock. Either way, stop expecting free labor from your employees. And if your business can't afford to exist without fairly compensating those who work for it, then your business should not exist.
I'm extremely lucky. I'm a condominium superintendent, and my current job I am on call, but only for emergencies. There's a security team that will handle most things but call me if it's actually an emergency, residents don't actually call me directly after hours.
I get maybe one real emergency call every other month or less and they rarely take very long to deal with.
And my compensation is that I get a free 2 bedroom condo, in which I don't pay rent, utilities, or even my tv or internet bill. And I'm part of a union.
There was a factory in NYC that locked the doors so people wouldn’t take breaks outside. A fire happened and people died because of this. Afterwards they…did it again. Regulations are written in blood and usually because anyone expecting a business to do the right thing, especially a larger one, is so bewilderingly stupid that I’m shocked that their shriveled up brain can even keep their heart beating when they go to sleep at night.
They didn't go over the edge, people had to fight and die to get us to the edge we're on now. They were actually worse in the past if you can actually believe it.
Sounds like dude doesn’t know about the concept of teams paid to be on-call 24/7.
I’m sure those are exempt. If a well-managed critical server goes down at 2am, you can be sure some employee is part of an on-call team for just such an event.
That’s not with this about. This is about bugging people to work when they are off the clock.
Why does anyone think this guy is some kind of business expert? Why is he propped up by CNBC all the time (and apparently FOX) as if his opinions are at all relevant?
He got rich by using VC money to prop up a real dog of a software company, cooked the books, then sold it to Mattel in what is regarded as one of the worst business deals of all time
Now he makes all his money like Trump did, licensing his brand to sad companies and getting appearence fees. He sells mutual funds with his name on them even though he's not licensed, because he has nothing to do with them. He ran for Conservative party leadership, then dropped out because he couldn't be bothered to (or is incapable of) learning French, even though he's from Montreal.
Business people with real wealth don't spend all their time on TV or sell Cameo videos from a fake Shark Tank set, willing to endorse any shady business for a few thousand dollars.
Kevin is bad, but I really hated it when Shark Tank brought on the Vitamin Water guy. That shit is worthless. Overpriced water containing trace amounts of vitamins that probably cost $0.02/unit. If the free market worked anything like libertarians say, it would have been laughed out of the room.
He appeared as a fake testimonial on a crypto investing learning site ad and that was point I realized dude was just a washed up reality TV celebrity and literally nothing more lol.
The secret is thyme. Low and slow of course, 225 degrees until it reaches about 198, then pull it, wrap it, and let it sit for an hour so the fat can melt right into the meat. Your guests will declare you a culinary genius.
If employees start ignoring their boss’s calls, texts, and emails outside of work hours, an after-hours emergency might have to wait until the next business day, which O’Leary finds unacceptable.
Did this fucking fascist consider hiring more staff and going 24/7? How is it the problem of salaried workers that their boss is too fucking cheap to hire enough people to get the level of support that he wants?
“What happens if you have an event in the office and it’s closed? Or you have an emergency somewhere, and you have to get a hold of them at two in the morning because it affects the job they’re working on?” he questioned.
sounds like a not my fucking problem
i haven't had a ton of jobs, but at every interview i've ever had, i made sure it was clearly understood by everyone in he room and put in writing that as far as the job is concerned, i simply don't exist between EOD and 8am.
Feel free to call me after hours. Just be aware, I charge $50 for answering the call up to 9am, $100 after that and $25 per five minutes I'm on the phone. If I'm required to log into a computer, $100 additional for the login, and again $25 per five minutes I'm on it. If you call me back before work hours, the prices double. Don't like it? Don't fucking call me. Want to fire me for it? Good luck, I'll collect unemployment and drag it out as long as humanly possible while taking a much needed break before getting a better job.
One time I got a mass email from the director's assistant telling us to send them our cell phone numbers. I was quite irritated, so I ignored it initially to calm down and think of a rational response. Anyway, the following week the director was dead, I'm sure there was no connection.
It’s called being on call. It requires an hourly wage for the duration. That said, call pay is usually garbage (like $4/hr). I would posit that call pay should be minimum wage, or more.
This is no different that being required to pay out a lunch break if and when you’re required to remain available during said lunch break, can’t leave campus, or have to carry a live walkie/radio while “on break”. Federal definition of a lunch break defines it as “uninterrupted”.
My on call works with garbage pay but if I’m called in it’s automatically OT, even if that’s my one shift that week. Ofc, I’m Union. Even so, the stand at the starting line, available pay, should be at least minimum wage.
Email me. If I deem it an emergency, I might answer. Keep in mind, my bar for emergencies is much higher than yours ever will be (unless physical harm to a human may occur, it's not an emergency). When I go to bed, my phone goes to bed (aeroplane mode).
Emergency is they key word here that will be abused by those that have an issue with this rule.
If I'm at work and receive a call that my partner/child/family member was in a car accident, that's an emergency. It is a rational and reasonable expectation that work understands I need a day or two (or more) to address this emergency.
Similarly if I'm at home and something with our widget affects a human life, that's an emergency. But it's also a one time emergency. If we produce widgets that result in emergencies then the next step is to hire/pay employees to cover widget emergencies.
As an invested employee I want the company to succeed. However if all I see is emergency after emergency. Failure to address emergencies. Or even false emergencies. Well then fuck off.
Employees have traditionally given a lot of slack in this area. Abuse by employers are what have caused these more official rulings.