{"id":33594,"date":"2016-12-12T18:34:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T23:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=33594"},"modified":"2016-12-12T18:34:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T23:34:29","slug":"will-overtime-four-years-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2016\/12\/12\/will-overtime-four-years-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Will we have overtime four years from now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It will happen this way, slowly and quietly at first, then faster and louder, and then it will be done.<\/p>\n

It will appear\u00a0uncoordinated. It will be very carefully orchestrated to appear uncoordinated, and from the perspective of any individual worker in any one location that\u2019s how it will seem. But it will happen everywhere.<\/p>\n

Just a bit of cutting back on overtime hours. Then a bit more. Up the workload a bit while requiring that it still all gets done by the end of the shift. No working late, you see.<\/p>\n

But the bosses will explain that it\u2019s not their fault.<\/p>\n

We wish it didn\u2019t have to be this way, but if you have to stay late to finish today, you\u2019ll have to cut time tomorrow so as not to incur any overtime. In fact, we\u2019re now scheduling everybody for just 39 hours so that we don\u2019t run afoul of any of those intrusive Big Government overtime regulations.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid there\u2019s just no choice, we have to do this. The government is making us do this<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"UmmmmYeah\"<\/p>\n

It is terrible. And you\u2019re right \u2014 it\u2019s not fair. We would love<\/em> it if you could stay late, but all these job-killing regulations and red-tape pushed by those lazy unions with their union mentality and shoved down our throats by ACORN \u2026 it just makes it impossible. Prohibitively expensive, you understand.<\/p>\n

And, frankly, it\u2019s just not fair to you<\/em> \u2014 the working man. After all, you\u2019re more than willing to put in some extra hours, but we\u2019re not able to let you do it because of all these regulations. If it weren\u2019t for all these crazy rules about time-and-a-half, we\u2019d let you work an extra hour tonight<\/em>. We\u2019d love that. You\u2019d love that. And all that\u2019s standing in our way is this stupid Big Labor Law.<\/p>\n

If you think about it, that law is taking money out of your pocket. It\u2019s taking food off your table and clothes off the backs of your children. All those extra hours you could be working if it weren\u2019t for those time-and-a-half regulations? Think of all the extra money you\u2019d be earning. You should resent the laws that take that money away from you.<\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s just terribly, terribly unfair to you. All this red-tape and regulation doesn\u2019t hurt, you know, those people.<\/em> They\u2019ll just keep collecting their welfare checks and Obamaphones and free healthcare and all the other great stuff that\u2019s never there for hard-working people like you.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just wrong.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re the backbone of this company. You\u2019re the backbone of this country<\/em>. We need you. We want to give you all those extra hours so you could be earning all that extra money, but the government won\u2019t let us. That\u2019s all you\u2019ve ever wanted, isn\u2019t it? Just a chance to work a little harder so you could earn a little more for your family?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re with you. We say it\u2019s time to change the rules to stop punishing hardworking people like you. We say it\u2019s time to \u2026<\/p>\n

And then it will be over.<\/p>\n