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How would you feel/handle this - Salary and time worked / time off

Engineer

Engineer

Elite Member
Preface: I'm salary and receive no overtime pay.

Story: Worked probably 500 hours or so of extra time last year (above and beyond 40 to get jobs done). In November, asked boss for the 2 days off between Christmas and New Year's days off with pay (so could have full week off with pay and not use vacation). Boss stated that because I had just worked quite a bit of time (16 hours in one day alone), that would "probably" be OK.

Fast forward to early December and I came down with Pneumonia and was off work 3 days (we don't have sick days). Nothing was said of it and I was paid for the 3 days. Christmas came and went and I was again paid for the extra two days off and nothing was said.

Fast forward to Friday when I asked my boss for a few hours off on Monday to have a filling put back in and also asked off for a few hours off to take my daughter on a college visit. Told him I would make up the 5 to 6 hours total. He responded that would be fine but reminded me that I had to make up the 3 sicks days from December and the 2 extra days off for Christmas also in December. Since then, I have already worked at least two full days of extra time (more than 16 hours). This pissed me off to no end considering the number of extra hours I have spent there (and at home in the evenings) to get the jobs done.

I thought about going in on Monday and just telling them to dock me for the entire week (5 days) just to get it behind me but since I have worked extra hours SINCE then, doesn't quite seem fair. Also, seems to me that the salary laws are being bent to his favor in that he can ask me (or tell me) to work as many hours and necessary to get the job done yet cannot give an inch if I don't work a full 40 during a week. From what I understand, this is against the law but I'm not sure that I want to go there as to avoid problems.

What do you guys/gals think of this situation? What would you do? I've had a rough time (pissed off most of the weekend) because of this and just don't know how to approach it. I really want to blow up but, at the same time, know it might be best to not to.
 
I know the feeling..not really sure what way to help ya, just seems it's best to put it behind you. But salary these days seems to just be an excuse for corps to work you to the bone in small increments. I'm hybrid salary, and because most contract businesses don't want to pay for overtime, but yet you can't reboot and maintenance their servers in shift time, I get to sit here on my sunday and do server maintenance pms...without pay.
 
Why didn't you bring up your previous conversation with him? Why didn't you bring up the 500 hours of OT that you worked last year? What's your relationship with your boss?
 
White salary slavery is the norm, and you can't do anything about it except for looking for another employer that is better at treating their employees.

PS. You have more ammo vs. HR/boss if you have a work/time diary.
 
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Capt Caveman said:
Why didn't you bring up your previous conversation with him? Why didn't you bring up the 500 hours of OT that you worked last year? What's your relationship with your boss?
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He sent me an e-mail from his cruise ship (I had sent an e-mail earlier in the day). I have not met with him face to face. I did send another e-mail telling him that I thought the two days were covered via the previous conversation and asked should I be recording all of the extra time at home (above and beyond the extra time at work). He did not respond.

Relationship is generally pretty good but I have noticed when it comes to that kind of stuff, he gets "touchy". Note that he paid his son for the 2 days off during Christmas and he worked nowhere near the number of hours that I had worked during the year. He did work part of the weekend 2 weeks before Christmas vacation week. Of course, I know that somehow family always gets the benefit.

Note: My boss is the owner of the company in case anyone thinks I should go above his head, lol. On top of that, I have had probably 100 hours of non-paid overtime that the company was paid for as time and material (i.e. company was paid and I was not) at 1.5 times normal rate ($150 per hour).

to IGas...yes, I thought about keeping a time log but never thought that I would seriously need it. I may have a report run by the office manager to see how many she has me down for. I have many, many more hours that aren't documented working at home on a VM of my work laptop and then e-mailing the resulting work to the office to work on while I'm there.
 
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Capt Caveman said:
Why didn't you bring up your previous conversation with him? Why didn't you bring up the 500 hours of OT that you worked last year? What's your relationship with your boss?
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Sorry had to reboot before I could finish my post but very much this. My relationship with my boss is very good. While I am working today, I get alot of extras. On Wednesday I got sick about 10AM, just 102 fever, vomiting, the works, and he transferred my work to himself and told me to go home and not worry about anything for the day. No sick day usage, no pay docking, just good HUMAN relationship between employer and employee. Yeah overall I probably put in more overtime than I get paid for or get freeness out of, but still it works well.
 
How would I feel? That's BS. Put in 500 hours of OT and get pinged for 40 hours.
How would I handle it? Probably suck it up and take it for the time being and look for something better.
 
My company is looking for a few good mech eng (marine/shipbuilding specialization is an asset).
 
Don't confront him, that will only end badly.

I'd bring up a dialog of the 500 hrs OT and how/when you are going to use it or get compensated for it. Considering that you have already done it there's not much you can do about it (should handle it beforehand).

I'm pretty sure once you go over 48 hrs they are required to pay OT in most fields except farming. That may vary by state?
 
If you already have made up the hours like you said, and he still asked...just keep doing what your doing and don't worry about "making up" those hours. He doesn't seem to be paying attention to your work time anyway. When he confronts you, just submit what you did as part of your "makeup" and be done with it.
 
I'd probably take it on the chin and get it in writing going forward.

my boss is usually pretty good about it, but when I work excessively late (or get called at home for stuff that takes longer than 10-15 minutes), I usually just send my boss an email letting him know that I worked X extra hours and will be coming in late/leaving early to make up for it in the near future.

when the date comes that I need to leave, I just reply back to the earlier email that I sent him to let him know.
 
iGas said:
My company is looking for a few good mech eng (marine/shipbuilding specialization is an asset).
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I hope you can find them. I am an EE specializing in Industrial Controls and Automation. There is quite a bit of demand for my position right now as new grads don't really want to go into industrial positions as they seem to be taboo (offshoring of manufacturing). Have several headhunters call per month but most of what they offer is too far away.

I generally enjoy the job and the co-workers but don't think that the boss is fair when it comes to this. I'm not wanting 100% comp. time, just a little understanding when things come up.
 
I am a salaried engineer as well but blessed that my employer actually pays OT as straight time. If I were in your position I would document EVERYTHING, every minute, every hour, everything that you do over-and-above what you are paid to do. This way you can pull your records when/if this happens again.
 
Engineer said:
Worked probably 500 hours or so of extra time last year (above and beyond 40 to get jobs done).
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The flaw in your logic is that it only took 40 hours per week to get the job done. By your own admission it took ~50 hours per week to get the job done. Hate to break it to you but most people don't work banker hours.

Some bosses are also dicks. It happens.
 
While you definitely have a shitty situation and I would definitely speak up if that happened to me, you are an exempt employee, thus exempt from the 40-hour workweek rules non-exempt folks live by. There's no bending of the rules.
 
Patranus said:
The flaw in your logic is that it only took 40 hours per week to get the job done. By your own admission it took ~50 hours per week to get the job done.

Hate to break it to you but most people don't work banker hours.
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That's not counting the hundreds of hours spent at home and not on record to get job done. Yes, smartass, I know that it generally takes more time. On the flip side, I also know salary laws state that whether I work 1 minute or 80 hours, I get paid the same amount with no docking of time on my check.

I've worked more time in several years (at one point) than most people will every even think about so don't give me the banker hour shit.

By the way, since I got ALL jobs done while taking that time off, then I did enough hours to get the job done and it should not matter whether I worked 20, 30, 40, 80 or 100, as long as I got the job done. Since, by your logic, it's about getting the job done and I did, then I should get paid right along then.
 
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CPA said:
While you definitely have a shitty situation and I would definitely speak up if that happened to me, you are an exempt employee, thus exempt from the 40-hour workweek rules non-exempt folks live by. There's no bending of the rules.
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Like I said above, I'm exempt from the rules EXCEPT that I must be paid the same each week whether I work 1 minute or 80 hours. No docking.

I'm not bending the rules and wanting more than what I'm getting paid for, I see the company as bending the rules by possibly docking me if I don't work even more hours to make up the weekly hours that I missed during those weeks.

How about the treatment of the son getting paid for those two days off with no making up of those days?
 
Gillbot said:
welcome to the world of being a salaried employee. unfortunately this seems to be the norm.
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I've been salaried for years but this is the first boss/employer that bent the rules in his favor and actually tries (or says he will) dock my pay for not working 40 hours in one particular week.
 
You have 3 choices:
1. Remain silent and be grumpy
2. See if boss can do anything about it
3. Get a job that fits your liking

All salaried workers are like this, you shouldn't be counting 40 hours as some sort of benchmark. If you don't like the situation, do something about it. If a raise is going to make you stomach this a little better, ask for one. If less hours will make you happier, then get a new job if the current job won't be able to offer that.
 
I think all of us who have been salaried have seen this happen - just not this extreme.

Contracts are probably the way to go. They'll try to hose you otherwise just because they can.
 
Imdmn04 said:
You have 3 choices:
1. Remain silent and be grumpy
2. See if boss can do anything about it
3. Get a job that fits your liking

All salaried workers are like this, you shouldn't be counting 40 hours as some sort of benchmark. If you don't like the situation, do something about it. If a raise is going to make you stomach this a little better, ask for one. If less hours will make you happier, then get a new job if the current job won't be able to offer that.
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If my boss is threatening to dock me for working less than 40 hours in one week (or not making it up), why should I not be counting that as a benchmark?
 
Salaried people here cannot be required to work any hours per weeek. I know someone who checks their email from when away and thus doesn't have to use a vacation day when. When you work for the government it is great to be salary. 30 to 35 hour work week on average for salary government workers.
 
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