sumi, in NYC. I knew about the repeat. I just missed it tonight. Last night I consciously chose to watch CSI instead.

---

Ugh, Kalshane--that does suck, and seems unfair to boot (and if legal, certainly not a way to employee retention).

Lee, that's...can't you break the rules? Is it too late? I mean, it's never too late to ignore medical advice.

And on that tip, before I go take the rest of my meds and wallow in self pity:

Where is it written that I can have either migraines or facial expressions? Now, I have no idea if the botox will a) freeze my face or b) kill the migraines, but I don't want to have to choose--I don't want to need to have my face refrozen five times a year. I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning without the ability to look quizzical, downcast, or angry. I want to be able to squint.

Grrrrrr.

---

Yeah, I don't know if it's legal or not. Technically, they're paying me the exact same now as they were before, but I have to work 45 hours a week to maintain it, where as previously I only had to work 40 and if I happened to go over, oh well.

And I have no idea how the hell it's supposed to work with sick time or holiday pay or vacation or any of the things that I get paid for, but don't count towards the 40 hours necessary to get qualify for overtime pay for the remaining hours. We're supposed to have a meeting with my team mates, my boss, the CIO and HR next week to discuss this. But I don't have a clue how it's actually supposed a work outside of manually manipulating things with comp hours and retro pay and other assorted hinkiness that sounds less than legal.

My boss sent an e-mail asking for questions that we would like answers to in a meeting and I brought up all of this, as well as quoting parts of the employee handbook for the office I work out of. (There's apparently no handbook for our corporate office, and apparently all of IT counts as corporate employees now, so I couldn't quote anything that directly applies.)

I heard some mutterings that our department doesn't have enough budget to afford paying us overtime at our previous salary translated into an hourly pay rate. To which I say, "Boo hoo, check the fucking budget before you make changes that may affect it. Morons." That and today was the first I heard about the CIO wanting everyone to work 45 hours a week BS. Just because he feels it necessary to work 60 hours a week doesn't mean the rest of us should be obligated to do more than 40 without some form of compensation.

---

I'm glad everyone is safe from the tornadoes. I hope it stays that way.

Kalshane, that is truly sucky, and I would be surprised if it were legal. You should check with your state employee rights agency.

Grr, ita. I hope at least the botox is helping.

I would ignore the medical advice, but the timing is too screwed up.

---

What the fuck is Silent Witness on BBCAmerica, and why do I have a season pass and four episodes of it on my TiVo?

Great show. Coroners solving the death-y mysteries. Are there new ones on? I caught a rerun the other day, so maybe your Tivo just wanted to see the last season again?

IOW, it's a BBC drama, watch and smile.

---

Sweetie, I hate hate hate that you are still in pain everyday and it sucks beyond all things.

The botox is just one of the many things that might be the answer. And it sucks that the thing that might be the solution might take something else away. SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.

I hope sleep helps at least tonight.

---

If you're salaried, then you don't get overtime--but you also get more flexibility with regard to your hours and personal time. That's the theory, anyway. But I honestly don't think they can move you from salaried to hourly without informing you, and there are definitely rules about what you can be obligated to do as an hourly employee.

Kalshane, I strongly suggest that you hit up the state department that handles labor issues--there should be a state commission or something--and see what it says about all this. You shouldn't go into that meeting uninformed, because it really sounds like the company is just trying to shaft you all.

Or, errr, cross-post with Lee.

---

Kalshane -- I can't believe that your employer sucks so much and I also cannot believe that they can randomly change your rate of pay like that without informing you. Sounds very unlikely.

ita -- botox for migraines? I didn't know about that.

---

Kalshane- make some phone calls - something sounds hinky

I'm thinking it is the not informing you might be where the problem is... if they had done it above board it might have worked

---

I would ignore the medical advice, but the timing is too screwed up.

Hmm. Grrr.

Yeah, botox is supposed to deaden relevant nerve endings when it does its paralysis thing.

I think I have lost motion in the top 1/2 inch of my forehead.

But I still have a bitch of a migraine.

---