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These people are seriously nuts

by Steven Hodson on November 21, 2008 · Comments

I know it’s a running gag throughout the computer world that Windows can be a pain in the arse when it comes to booting up but seriously folks - suing your employer for that supposed lost time. Have you serious lost what little is obviously left of your brain cells?

Apparently not according to a post at The National Law Journal which is reporting a rise in this new type of lawsuit; in which employees are suing over time spent booting their computers. According to Tresa Baldas a staff reporter with the NLJ over the past year several companies, including AT&T, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna Corp, have been sued by employees claiming they lost pay during the 15 to 30 minute task of booting up their computers at the beginning of the day and then logging out at the end of the day.

Now I realize that the U.S. is a lawsuit crazy country but someone please get a brain here because this has got to be the stupidest claim I have ever seen in some 20 years of being in the computer industry. However Mark Thierman a Las Vegas lawyer behind several of these idiotic lawsuits claims workers are losing some serious money

Add those minutes up over a week, and hourly employees are losing some serious pay, argues plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Thierman, a Las Vegas solo practitioner who has filed a handful of computer-booting lawsuits in recent years.

“These are hourly employees who are not making much more than minimum wage,” Thierman said. “There’s a good half-hour a day that they’re not being paid for. It adds up.”

Of course on the other side of the table we have management side lawyer Richard Resenblatt who is in the middle of defending a half-dozen company dealing with this stupidity

He believes that, in most cases, computer booting does not warrant being called work. Having spent time in call centers observing work behaviors, he said most employees boot the computer, then engage in non-work activities.

“They go have a smoke, talk to friends, get coffee — they’re not working, and all they’ve done at that point is press a button to power up their computer, or enter in a key word,” Rosenblatt said.

On top of this I would suggest that if your employees are taking up to 15 minutes to boot their computers you had better be having a serious talk with your IT department. As well I’d be doing some checking out about what exactly is on those machines, because as bad as Windows might be for booting up something else is going on here.

!5 minutes - right - sounds like an extended morning coffee break to me.

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Tagged as: lawsuits, stupid people, stupid shit

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  • I believe a lot of new time management programs are controlled through intranet or client/server apps on the PC. If you're an hourly employee and have to come in and boot your computer for 10 minutes, that's 10 minutes that you HAD to be at work that you're NOT getting paid for. I'm not sure I agree that they are nuts... the employer should be paying them from the time they click the on button. It's only fair - otherwise make them salary! My company also does automated installs and updates (unmanned), so I have actually had 15 minutes where my computer was inaccessible. (I'm salary, so it doesn't matter).

    This lawsuit doesn't touch on it, but I have to wonder how people that get paid 'piece work' on their computers cope with times for maintenance and booting.
  • My employer pays me from the time I walk in the door to the time I walk out. If they didn't we would have a serious problem. If I'm required to be there, whether it's to prepare for work or actually work, they're paying me. Otherwise they can boot my computer for me before I get there. Sorry Steve, you're wrong here.
  • alex
    so your argument is that they are lying? Because you say nothing about the merits of the issue - whether someone should be paid for the time they spend at work or not.
  • excuse me?

    People get paid from a set time whether it be using a time clock or a set start and finish time. This means that they either clock in and start their computers - in which case they are already getting paid - or they start their computers once they are "on the clock" by beginning work when that agreed upon time i.e.: 9 A.M. has started - in which case they are already being paid.

    So how are these people losing wages? They have already started working by the time they are expected to start their computers up. If not then it is a simple matter of waiting until they "officially" are on the clock and then starting their computers. DUH!

    But you also missed a point I was trying to make - since when does it take a computer 10 to 15 minutes to start up - even Windows at its worst has never taken me that long to start up. by the time I have gotten my first working coffee of the day it is up and running so if there is this kind of time problem with starting up machines I would be looking to the company IT department and finding out why and I'll bet there is more going on with machines taking this long to start up than meets the eye.
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