ufcrusher
06-14-2005, 01:19 AM
Due to my where my wife works we have in the past few years taken multiple trips to Vegas (and other destinations) to attend seminars. As these were for her work, they paid for them, our transportation (plane ticket for her or gas/rental car), hotel, and of course a per diem for food and other incidentials. This was always great because whenever it was in Las Vegas, we would drive so that I could go too. Generally, we would actually make money on the trip as a result of discounted hotel rates given to club members.
Unfortunately, my wife's company merged/was acquired by another large company in the not so distant past. As part of the initial agreement, it was a hands off policy or the first year that the two companies joined, which meant we saw no differences. She still had the same benefits, same trips, same rules, etc. At the beginning of this past year (2005) the hands off agreement ended and all hell started breaking loose.
They changed the benefits (much worse), changed the structure (much more convoluted), changed the travel rules, and implemented a whole bunch of other backwards rules. One of these annoying rules was no outside seminars. This means that all seminars, lectures, and continuing education is to be provided in house. Ostensibly meaning the end of our vegas and other trips as the company wont pay for them.
However, due to a promotion that the seminar company had last year, my wife's group had 2 remaining seminar vouchers that they needed to use. These went to my wife and her boss. At first we were thinking, Yeah! One last trip. Then came the harsh reality.
Although this seminar deals EXACTLY with issues that my wife deals with in her job, the company due to its no outside seminar rule, does not recognize this as a work trip. They are not paying for our hotel, our travel, or our food. If thats not bad enough, she cannot even count the time in the seminar as work! This means she is ostenisbly taking off 3 unpaid days to attend a work conference! To make it even more unfair, they didnt tell us that it was unpaid until at most two weeks prior to the trip. Thinking that we had the per diem hotel amounts, we didnt worry about booking the room prior to that date. (We had been waiting on seeing what deals I was sent from the different properties.) Which left us with the choice of staying at an unfamiliar property or paying through the nose.
As I see it.....working when you are not getting paid, while theoretically getting docked pay for not working is SUPER SUCKAGE!! Having to make up this time on the weekend is even more SUCKAGE. (Its either that or take paid vacation)
Add onto that paying out of pocket for travel and hotel for a work related trip is also SUPER SUCKAGE! I figure food is a non issue since we would have eaten at home, although not paid for it.
The only thing that makes is not suckage is the fact that we will be in Vegas for a few days. Part of me really thinks this isnt worth it. I asked my wife how much she really wanted to attend this seminar and she was gung-ho about it. I figured if we were going to pay for a trip, it might as well have been truly a fun trip, not an unpaid work one.
Unfortunately, my wife's company merged/was acquired by another large company in the not so distant past. As part of the initial agreement, it was a hands off policy or the first year that the two companies joined, which meant we saw no differences. She still had the same benefits, same trips, same rules, etc. At the beginning of this past year (2005) the hands off agreement ended and all hell started breaking loose.
They changed the benefits (much worse), changed the structure (much more convoluted), changed the travel rules, and implemented a whole bunch of other backwards rules. One of these annoying rules was no outside seminars. This means that all seminars, lectures, and continuing education is to be provided in house. Ostensibly meaning the end of our vegas and other trips as the company wont pay for them.
However, due to a promotion that the seminar company had last year, my wife's group had 2 remaining seminar vouchers that they needed to use. These went to my wife and her boss. At first we were thinking, Yeah! One last trip. Then came the harsh reality.
Although this seminar deals EXACTLY with issues that my wife deals with in her job, the company due to its no outside seminar rule, does not recognize this as a work trip. They are not paying for our hotel, our travel, or our food. If thats not bad enough, she cannot even count the time in the seminar as work! This means she is ostenisbly taking off 3 unpaid days to attend a work conference! To make it even more unfair, they didnt tell us that it was unpaid until at most two weeks prior to the trip. Thinking that we had the per diem hotel amounts, we didnt worry about booking the room prior to that date. (We had been waiting on seeing what deals I was sent from the different properties.) Which left us with the choice of staying at an unfamiliar property or paying through the nose.
As I see it.....working when you are not getting paid, while theoretically getting docked pay for not working is SUPER SUCKAGE!! Having to make up this time on the weekend is even more SUCKAGE. (Its either that or take paid vacation)
Add onto that paying out of pocket for travel and hotel for a work related trip is also SUPER SUCKAGE! I figure food is a non issue since we would have eaten at home, although not paid for it.
The only thing that makes is not suckage is the fact that we will be in Vegas for a few days. Part of me really thinks this isnt worth it. I asked my wife how much she really wanted to attend this seminar and she was gung-ho about it. I figured if we were going to pay for a trip, it might as well have been truly a fun trip, not an unpaid work one.