[Ursus Maior]

Universal happiness. Brave new world.

[Senko]

Another thing to consider in regards to this are extra work hours both . . .

1) Unworked time (unlikely in this world) and
2) Unpaid time (quite likely).

I see examples of both in my work. Unworked time is time you get paid for but as the name say's don't actually work specifically if you get called out to a problem you have a minimum of 4 hours you get paid for. It doesn't matter if the job takes 20 minutes you are paid for the full four hours and at the higher levels there may well be those who get that benefit. I also recall reading somewhere that sleeping at your desk was popular for a while in Japan (and pretending to sleep at your desk) because it showed the boss you'd been working so hard you'd never gone home. Since in this world Japanacorps have such a big influence and AR is prevelant its entirely possible a few hours are not actually being worked so much as "worked" espeically on night shifts or the like. Add in high stress jobs where you want the staff to have some downtime to avoid them snapping and steering two planes into one another and ones where they're on call e.g. fire departments 24/7 but spend a lot of time sitting around and it can skew the results a bit.

The more likely one is hours that are included in your work "week" and expected but not something that you actually get paid for. I've seen quite a few people on "flexitime" and contracts where they can work any hours they wish but only get a flat wage and are in the office hours after their official finish time taking care of all the work they're expected too. Honestly in the shadowrun world I can see a lot of people on the 40 hour, 4k earning schedule actually putting in 50/60 hour weeks either by working weekends or doing 10-14 hours shifts just to keep their jobs. Afterall if your putting in 40 hours a week and everyone else in the office is putting in 60 your going to be the first to go in the cuts so no one is going to want to work less than their colleagues.

Neither of which considers the computer expert who gets calls at 3am and needs to instruct the floor staff on how to fix a problem before going back to bed for a mighty 15 yen more an hour (adds up to a nice 600 yen or so a week).

[gyrobot]

Aryeonos
I don't think your depiction of working hours is entirely on the mark. Yes, the setting is an oppressive dystopia, and yes, the term wageslave exists for a reason, but a key part of the setting is the control over the population the megacorporations have.

So, while a wageslave might work a long week (and I'm not entirely sure every wageslave does work 80 hour weeks), the corp wants them happy enough so they don't just up and kill themselves. This concept is further reinforced by the fact that wageslaves are paid in corporate scrip, which can be used at corporate stores for their full value, to buy all the things the corporations sell, creating a sort of incestuous economy.

There are posts on the forums describing why this doesn't work on a theoretical level, but it is very much a setting staple so I just go with it. The megacorps obviously blast everyone with as much ad as possible, because everyone isn't just scraping by with the bare minimum or there wouldn't be a marketplace for all the things the corporations manufacture. As a point of example, a 40 hour/week Day Job nets you 5k a month, enough for a low lifestyle (2k/month) and various sundries not covered by lifestyle (like car payments, nice meals out with the significant other, etc). A middle lifestyle (5k/month) would need two jobs or two people working 40 hours to maintain, more if you're living in Manhattan.

In other words, I don't think "everyone is scraping to get by", and I don't think everyone spends "80% of the time at work". But that's just my view of the setting.

On the corp scrip, the only scrip that pays higher is SK (120% more nuyen in the exchange) and Tangire Ryal at 110% exchange. But you gotta be insane to work as a wageslave for a dragon.

[Reaver]

Don't confuse SK and Lowfyr.

While Lowfyr owns and runs SK, that doesn't mean that "Sally the Janitor" works for and is directly under the unblinking eye of the Wyrm.

And, don't forget, a lot of people actually worship dragons!

[DeathStrobe]

Don't confuse SK and Lowfyr.

While Lowfyr owns and runs SK, that doesn't mean that "Sally the Janitor" works for and is directly under the unblinking eye of the Wyrm.

And, don't forget, a lot of people actually worship dragons!

I believe that some 70% of the employees of SK have actually had a face to face meet with old Gold Snout. I'd say there is a good possibility that Sally the Janitor had had a talk with Lowfyr, just so he can make sure everyone knows who's horde they belong to.

[Reaver]

Don't confuse SK and Lowfyr.

While Lowfyr owns and runs SK, that doesn't mean that "Sally the Janitor" works for and is directly under the unblinking eye of the Wyrm.

And, don't forget, a lot of people actually worship dragons!

I believe that some 70% of the employees of SK have actually had a face to face meet with old Gold Snout. I'd say there is a good possibility that Sally the Janitor had had a talk with Lowfyr, just so he can make sure everyone knows who's horde they belong to.

I highly doubt that a company that spans the globe, and counts 10s of millions as "on the payroll". Even at a simple 60sec "hey, i'm your boss. Don't fuck up" conversation would take YEARS to complete if that was the SOLE thing he did with his time. All day, everyday, 24 hours a day. (525,600 minutes in a year)

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I'd want textev on that one, DeathStrobe.

[DeathStrobe]

Guess I got it mixed up. Looking at Corporate Shadowfiles it says he just micro manages the execs in to burning out.