Employees sue employers for charging Vista boot-up times
Written on 21st November 2008
5 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
This morning, my Mac needed around four minutes to boot-up. No problem, I can wait that long. Had another zip from my coffee, scanned the frontpage of The Himalayan and chatted with the waiter. For a lot of people though, this morning ritual can have a serious impact on their daily lives.
Ok, these folks use Vista on a corporate pc, so it takes them approximately twenty minutes to boot-up their working devices. In the meantime, they have a smoke, catch up with colleagues, or “engage in other non-work activities”.
Those last words come from Richard Rosenblatt, a lawyer hired by US corporate giants like AT&T, United Health Group and Cigna. These stuck-up employers want to cut some costs by not paying their employees for this 20 minutes boot-up and log-off time.
Say that the average employee works 245 days a year. That means the plan of Rosenblatt will cost them around 82 hours (4900 minutes) in salary. No wonder the employees have hired lawyer Mark Thierman to ridicule and destroy this plan. US employees, stand up for your boot-up right!
[Via The Inquirer] [Photo credit: the great Thomas Hawk]
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By John Hawkins on Nov 21, 2008
That is right out of the “What the Hell Were You Thinking?” column. The funny part is, they’d probably save somewhere close to the same amount of money by firing the consulting company that came up with that /brilliant/ idea.
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By notafish on Nov 21, 2008
It is also a mistake to think that the time spent around the coffee machine, having a coffee et al. is _lost_ time. Actually, it’s time where the brain probably funtions differently, helping to prepare for the day. Brain booting time of sorts :)
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By Rui on Nov 21, 2008
Shouldn’t they just make a lawsuit on Microsoft because of the Vista problem?? Eheheh
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By Jerry` on Nov 21, 2008
20 minutes?? Goddamn, that’s long, even for Vista on a corporate, walled device ;)
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By Steven van Vessum on Nov 24, 2008
Oh yes, reducing the employees’ salaries like that is going to make the management really popular….Very foolish and arrogant.
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