Monthly Archives: November 2009

Go Home On Time Day

“An organisation that cannot afford to fully pay for its production costs is
an organisation that should already be out of business.”
— Random Usenet contributor

It’s hard to believe that such a thing would be necessary, but today is Go Home On Time Day – a reaction to findings that Australians are working more unpaid hours overtime each year than they get in annual leave.

While the campaign itself seems a little condescending (the idea of a “leave pass” is ridiculous to the extreme, because it’s utterly demeaning to think that someone should have to ask permission to go home at the end of the day), the sentiment is sound. No business would ever expect any supplier to provide them with goods for free, so why should they expect this of their employees’ labour?

Naturally, the Australian Chamber of Subjugation doesn’t like it at all. They’d much rather have people sign up for slightly raised pay-packets that give the employer carte blanche to work them for as long as they like.

My advice? Become a contractor, and charge by the hour. No one ever dies wishing that they spent more time in the office.

Go on Rupert, put up that paywall.

I’m sure I can’t be the only person who wishes that Rupert Murdoch would quit banging on and on about how he’s going to put up a paywall around his websites and block off google, and just friggen do it.

Frankly, I can’t think of a better way to bring another period of enlightenment to humanity than to have Rupert’s gaggle of conservative and sensationalist rags locked up where no-one will see them.

I can’t see how it’s going to work, though. Newspapers have never made their profits from their cover price (which pretty much only covers the cost of distribution). Instead, it’s been the advertising they carry – particularly the classifieds – that pays for the journalism (I use that word loosely here). So if Rupert is planning to recover the money lost to sites like Ebay and Seek by charging internet readers, then the price is going to have to be considerably higher than what they’re asking for the dead-tree editions right now. Is anyone really going to pay through the nose for the Herald-Sun when the ABC’s news is free online?