SE's at one-man sports desks

[Stitch]

For those working at smaller shops that have SE titles, is the title just a way to get around paying overtime?

 

[forever_town]

That would be my guess. Then again, I'm a ME. I haven't seen overtime since the Stoned Age.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Based on previous experience, yes.

 

[SportsDude]

I was an SE and they paid overtime, but it was this weird "fluctuating rate" which was pathetically small. It came to about $4 an hour then shrank the more hours you worked. And they still complained if you worked overtime.

 

[Birdscribe]

Yes.

I did this in New Mexico. Making it worse was the fact the ME used to be the SE and he gravy-trained nearly all the choice assignments, leaving me in the office to put out the paper -- which he knew I detested.

 

[dieditor]

Birdscribe,

I've been there. Change "New Mexico" to "California" and that was my first gig. I guess the title looks good on a resume though.

Of course, I'm an ME now also, so the word overtime means to me what the word recycling means to Montgomery Burns...

 

[FuturaBold]

I'm the SE for a one-man show - three times a week paper - and I'm hourly. They cringe at OT, however. Same with my last gig before this one. I was the SE working on an hourly rate. OT was paid but strongly discouraged

 

[FuturaBold]

I should add that one of the reasons one of my bosses discouraged OT was because it might bump me into a higher tax bracket. He doesn't seem to be doing too poorly in one of those brackets, however (driving his nice truck, RV, etc.)

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I was a one-man army SE at my last stop and I was salaried. But then damn near everyone was salaried in our little shop, including the one non-editor reporter. That couldn't have been legal, but I guess it was.

Funny thing: our editorial assistant was pissed because everyone else editorial was salaried and she was hourly, which meant she had to punch a timeclock. Now I can understand not wanting to have the freedom to set your own hours, though by necessity the EA has to have regular office hours, but I kept trying to tell her that at least she's insulated against unpaid overtime. If they wanted her to work more than 40 hours, she got paid more than 40 hours. As a salaried employee, you worked until the job was done, even if it took 60 hours or more. She never quite understood that, and eventually she moved on.

 

[Birdscribe]

I should add that one of the reasons one of my bosses discouraged OT was because it might bump me into a higher tax bracket. He doesn't seem to be doing too poorly in one of those brackets, however (driving his nice truck, RV, etc.)

Funny how that works, FB. :

Actually, it isn't.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Technically, I believe under federal law, you are considered salaried if you supervise two or more people. I say technically, because it doesn't always get enforced

I was a one-man staff at a previous paper and I got OT, although they hated to pay me it. I told them that if I was going to work extra, then I should get paid for it. Otherwise, I would find a second job that would pay me for those hours.

 

[times38]

I was a one-man show at two different papers. I got overtime, but man they raised hell every two weeks about it.

 

[Wendell Gee]

I was a one-man department at my first stop. I got OT the first year; they made me salary when I got my first raise (a bad tradeoff for me). After a few years, my ME called me in and said they wanted to make me hourly in the summer, salaried the rest of the year. I drew the line there.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I was a one-man department at my first stop. I got OT the first year; they made me salary when I got my first raise (a bad tradeoff for me). After a few years, my ME called me in and said they wanted to make me hourly in the summer, salaried the rest of the year. I drew the line there.

That's legal? If you put that up to a labor board or something, they'd almost have to come right out and say "well, we want him to work free overtime when we need it, but we don't want to pay him a cent more than we have to in the summer when it's less busy." Which is the unstated goal of most businesses -- don't pay more than you have to -- but this is pretty blatant and I can't imagine a palatable explaination that would hold water should you have made a legal stink over it.

 

[Wendell Gee]

No doubt it wasn't legal. And I should have made more of it. You live, you learn, I guess.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

I've been told, at least in my state, for you to be labeled "salary," you have to have at least two people working under you.

There obviously are ways to get around that. When I was SE of a two-man staff, they "made" one of the photogs "under me" so they could give me the tag.

Now at a one-man gig, it really doesn't matter -- they just cut out all overtime and all comp pay. So we get paid 40 hours a week regardless of what we work.

That's the way the ASE and No. 3 guy were set up at my last gig. SE was salary, the rest just get paid for 40 hours, period.