A term coined by
Scott Adams, of
Dilbert fame, and used in his book
The Dilbert Principle (which, if you haven't got, get).
Virtual Hourly Compensation is the total amount you get paid when at
work, which does not just include
wages or
salary. (This is why the pay is so lousy. You have to consider all these
intangibles.)
Virtual Hourly Compensation includes such things as:
...all of which we get for free. I find Virtual Hourly Compensation is absolutely vital to the maintainance of any form of job satisfaction while the evil multi-tentacular corporate entity is busy trying to suck the life forces from your cold, overworked shell of a body. (Bitter? Me? Naaah.)
Linked to this is the Total Work Equation which states that the amount of actual work you do can decrease with a sufficient amount of looking like you're working.