[pasbesoin]

I've held a number of "exempt" positions (salary, no overtime pay) where the workload is typically high but there are the occasional slow periods or an abnormal personal schedule demand.

When they want you to work extra hours, there's no argument. There's the project and the deadline.

Come a slow day or two, though, or the need to take an hour or three for a personal task (see the doctor, for example), and there's no automatic, corresponding flexibility from them.

Oh, your manager may grant you the time, but it's always at their discretion and a "favor" in return for your "good behavior."

Gee, thanks. :-/

By the way, the positions are "exempt", but there's no hour-by-hour management of associates that requires constant attention. The whole definition of "exempt" is skewed to fix labor costs rather than provide (and pay, at a higher fixed level) for real "management of employees". Hell, often I'm not even directly interfacing with anyone who is non-exempt.

Butts in seats. In my mind, it goes along with the "open space" paradigm. It's not actually about being "efficient"; it's about appearances, and control.

Like the one petty tyrant manager who wouldn't let us upgrade woefully outdated and overly expensive process, because he might lose some headcount. His status and "security" were, in his mind -- and perhaps even correctly -- tied to that headcount.

And... I suppose low cube walls helped to "show it off."

P.S. I actually got along pretty well, including with my management. Perhaps too easy-going.

As I've had time to reflect back upon all this, my resentment has grown and hardened. A LOT of wasted time and energy.

If/when you start feeling this way, look around not just at the ostensible work you have to complete, but at the system and environment in which you are expected to complete it.

Which are the real problems?