Employers refusing to pay for Vista startup time

[tickler]

I can see this hitting the Mac commercials.

Firms charge employees for Vista boot-up times
TIGHT ARSED employers are refusing to pay employees for the 20 or so minutes it takes for their computers to boot-up or shut down.

Apparently it has become an issue since the introduction of Windows Vista where boot up and log out times are a lot longer. Several outfits – including AT &T, United Health Group and Cigna – have refused to stump up for time that their employees are idle waiting for their computers to get in the mood to do some work. It could only happen in America and since the companies are in the Land of the Free they are also now being hit by some serious class actions.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...mployees-vista

[ladydesigner]

This is funny because I just got a new computer two days ago that has Vista. While initially not a huge fan of Vista, I can tell you that my new machine fires up in less than 30 seconds (same with shut down). To me that's pretty damn impressive seeing as how my old putter took around 5 minutes (Windows XP).

[Cleo]

Why do they shut the computers down?

[Useless]

The comments below the published article are pretty good. Found this one which explains the 20 minute boot-up period that I assumed was hogwash:

I guess the comentators don't understand. And maybe the author is missing one key element too.

We are not talking here about "how crap Vista is". Of course is boots faster than XP. In tens of seconds.

But not from a server-based image over the network. And that's what these companies often use.

You see, Vista boot-image is quite a bit larger than XP's. And I do have a friend who works for a large US pharma company and her computer takes 30+ minutes to boot.

This is aggravating and it represents a not unsubstantial portion of the 8 hour workday.

And if their disorganized sysadmin occassionaly tells them in the middle of the day to reboot, they do have to stay overtime because of that. It's over an hour of just sitting there on such day.

This is neither Vista bashing, nor we are talking about 1.5 minutes here.

No matter the reason, employees shouldn't be docked due to a company's crappy IT infrastructure.

[Toby]

If you're required to be there in order to boot it up, then you should be paid. The simple solution is to have something else to do for that 30 minutes or have one person arrive 30 minutes early and boot up all the PC's.

[Maj. Stress]

Originally Posted by Toby

If you're required to be there in order to boot it up, then you should be paid. The simple solution is to have something else to do for that 30 minutes or have one person arrive 30 minutes early and boot up all the PC's.

That makes to much sense. The corporate world would never catch onto such a concept.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Maj. Stress

That makes to much sense. The corporate world would never catch onto such a concept.

What can I say, I'm oLd sKooL

[tickler]

Here's one of the lawsuits.

Mark Thierman, a solo legal practitioner based in Reno, Nevada, told The Reg employees are losing up to two hours of pay a week thanks to Windows Vista.

Thierman calculated damages could run into millions of dollars over a three-year period. He's representing employees of Cigna health insurance, with cases also pending against AT&T Inc and UnitedHealth Group covering thousands of employees.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11...ista_overtime/

BTW: One of my clients takes +30 min. to log me on, but that's to about 15 assorted networks/VPMs/virtual machines, etc.