Did you read the same OP that I did? He is getting free training, training that he wants, that is a one time thing for a one week duration. For christ’s sake, that isn’t really that much to ask and he is benefitting from it. If most people think that that is an egregious imposition, then I weep for our future. This sense of entitlement thing is way out of hand. How on Earth is this asking him to “do more than necessary?”
As far as the hijack goes, I can’t stand long commutes and I would never do one as part of my every day life. I live eight minutes from my job. If I had to drive a bit for one week of training every couple of years, I would be fine with it.
Technically, it’s an insult. Not much of one, but that’s the way it’s intended. I’d say it’s normally good form to support your insults with a reason for giving them, but it’s too much to hope for.
And to answer the curious: yeah, my job is satisfying. I choose to do it after all, no one forces me. I put in a few hours over the weekend, so Mika’s daily average is an over estimate, though some days it does feel like 75. I also want to restate that in addition to choosing to do this particular job, I also choose to work more time than would be necessary at a minimum. I guess I’m just not happy doing the minimum, or getting the results that yields.
I’m not asking anyone to do what I do, or saying it’s practical or appropriate for anyone else, but a few hours commute for free training? Hell yeah, I think that anyone upset over such a thing might want to think again.
I’ve rarely had anyone jump on me to underachieve a bit more. I feel like I’m a character in Clerks.
They should at least be reimbursing you for your travel expenses, i.e., the mileage on your car. Whether it’s worth trying to get them to do it is another question.
Yeah, look into this, Candid Gamera. Whenever I have to go off-site, I don’t get paid for the extra driving time, but I do get mileage. 30-something cents a mile.
Hey, look, I’m sure when the boss asks for a blowjob, you go the extra mile and lick his balls without him even asking, cause that’s just the kind of guy you are, but some of us do have a shred of what is commonly known as “dignity.” You feel free to look that up on dictionary.com. But hey, keep doing what you’re doing. Pretty soon you’ll have a 1% raise, a shiny new set of kneepads, and a promotion to Executive Vice President in Charge of Oral Gratification.
As I said upthread, it probably isn’t considered a “travel” expense. It’s a “commute.” Commutes and travel are two different things.
To give a strange example, my company pays for the plane tickets for our salespeople to fly all over the country. But we can’t pay for the car being driven to the airport.
We can’t pay for an employee to get from his home to his place of business. That’s a commute. If the employee comes to work, then gets sent someplace else for the day, that’s travel.
Essentially, the IRS wants you to move if your commute is too long. If the commute is temporary, the employee can often deduct the expense. If the
commute isn’t temporary, no one can deduct the expense.
The current mileage rate is 44.5 cents, so it’s worth it to keep track of the miles.
The travel expenses are reimbursed under certain conditions. Basically, they have a small fleet of vehicles - If I want reimbursement, I have to request one of them - if one is available, they’re covering the gas and wear and tear; if not, I can use my own vehicle and be reimbursed. It’s a fair policy, but I have such a strong preference for my own vehicle, I may forego the mileage money.
As for the hotel idea - It’s possible. I’ve sent an email requesting clarification on the reasoning behind the denial of the request; depending on the response I may check into the possibility of a hotel. Of course, that would elevate the matter quite a bit - then they’d be paying perdiem and such, I’d expect. And if the training were in, say, Philly rather than Pittsburgh, that would be what happens - and I’d get to count the driving time to get there in the first place as time worked, to boot! That’s how it worked when I took some training on Baltimore two years back.
And honestly, I don’t mind an occasional, exceptional burden on my personal time. I just refuse to let them ease into the mindset that allows them to think ‘we can use this guy for 25% more time than we’re paying him for, and he won’t make a peep!’. Most of the time, this sort of thing doesn’t happen. It just happens to be happening now, which kinda sucks. But Waverly’s the expert on that.
You’ve jumped to conclusions. It is not training that I want. I view all training as a positive input, but to say that I want this particular training is dead wrong. It is training they want me to have. They arranged the details.
I was mostly thinking about **Waverly ** when I phrased that comment. I still *feel * for the OP, having to drive that far out of the way is hard, but as others have said, it’s free training, right?
Waverly, I wasn’t really jumping on you, just expressing surprise that you would choose to do such a thing. It’s your life, of course, and none of my business, but I don’t put my work on such a high priority. Simply different standards.
So are you going to lay down the law with your boss or not? You puff your chest out about standing up for yourself, but are you really doing it?
Despite what you think of me, if I felt strongly about something, anything, I wouldn’t hesitate to march into my boss’s office and insist on it. Not whine; get it done. I think it’s one right that my efforts earn me.
No worries. It was a mistake to bring up my own work habits, and in retrospect it looks rather pompous.
However, I really do stand by the advice that complaining about things of this nature is not rugged individualism, it is just whining, and is symptomatic of a less than stellar work ethic. Far from being diminished, CG would get more out of the job (NOT just financially), and go farther in it, if (s)he realized this.
OK. Fair enough but you told him that he was wrong. Which is why I thought you were talking about Candid’s situation rather than is own personal one.
I’m closer to Waverly than you when it comes to work so I can understand. Some of us are fortunate enough to get paid to do things that we love to do. Now there is nothing that I love to do enough for a three hour commute every day but I don’t mind putting in extra hours at my job because I have a fun job. I get to work with very cool technology that literally helps to save lives and make people safer and I get paid well for it. How cool is that? Make no mistake, I know that my real purpose is to make money for the corporation but I don’t mind because most days I really enjoy what I do. Imagine getting paid for one of your favorite hobbies. Would you mind spending a few extra hours some weeks doing it?
FE was gracious enough to put me up in a nearby hotel for the first 2 weeks. After that, I was on my own.
::shudder::
I eventually received compensation for the mileage when I was transferred back toward Boston. It took three months of tangling with the benefits office, an envelope full of gas receipts, and clearing up a misunderstanding that I was only to be there for those 2 months.
There were a ton of people from RI who worked for FE at the time. Some had just as long a commute to other stores (not the Cape – FE wasn’t that clueless), and compensation was never part of the equation for them. They took their transfers/assignments with the understanding that a 1+ hour commute one way was part of the job. Except for Hyannis, I was lucky to always be assigned close to home whew
