[TAG] The Public Domain: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

[mso@oz.net]

Jimmy O'Regan wrote:
> That example is terrible, as it underlines exactly why people seek to
> sell things that could be leased, and I fail to see how leasing
> something could ever cost *less* than buying it outright.

Some things you need only for a few months, others you use only
occasionally.  Those would be the easiest ones.

(I didn't realize your original message was from a Slashdot story about
the public domain, which I came across later.  Hence the change of
subject.)

> Heh. My raise was supposed to come through this week, but the idiots who
> do the payroll didn't have the manager around to hold their hands, so I
> only got paid the old rate (they should've been able to tell I should've
> been paid at a higher rate because I was paid a related bonus). But at
> least I got paid *something*, which is more than can be said for a few
> people. (Oh, and my raise is ~100 euros :)

Better than my friend got.  He was hired for a warehouse job at $10/hour
but trusted them too much and didn't get the rate in writing.  For several
weeks he thought his paycheck was low but figured it was all the
deductions.  He couldn't check his past timesheets because they refused to
give them to you.  Finally he added it up and realized he was getting
$8/hour.  He called the payroll department (at some headquarters in a land
far, far away) and they said everyone with that job was paid $8 and it
couldn't be changed.  Finally he forced his manager to remember he had
agreed to $10 in the interview, which two other interviewers had
witnesses.  Then it was another several weeks to get the payroll
department to adjust the rate.  Then *another* several weeks of stalling
to get his back pay, which I don't know if he ever did get before he quit.
 Then the manager threatened to hold his last check for.. I don't
remember, not give notice probably, but that's highly illegal so he was
able to talk them into giving him it pretty easily.  Then he met a Labor
and Industries rep who said he could look into the case, but he sent him
the info and the guy said there wasn't enough evidence to make a case.


-- 
-- Mike Orr <mso at oz.net>