Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with overtime

Should I put in time for when I check my blackberry?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:57:07 -0800

Is it ethical to submit an extra 15 minutes of work per day because I got a blackberry? I work for a large corporation and for about 5 years, I've gotten away with not having a blackberry. When I'm needed during off hours, my boss called me on my cell phone and it's been fine.

Recently, I missed an e-mail sent on a Sunday night asking to come in early Monday. (We have the ability to access e-mail through a website but we have to go through about 4 pages of security logins so it's a bit of a pain. Additionally, I am not online much on the weekends.) I came in my usual time and when I logged in, I saw the e-mail and felt awful. I spoke with my boss and applied for a blackberry.

Now, every morning and evening, I spend a few minutes checking it and replying to messages, etc. I get paid hourly and consider checking the blackberry work. Therefore, I have been adding an extra 15 minutes each day to my time sheet.

Is this ethical? Is this something that could get me into trouble?

(I am in my late 20s and this is my first real job. Within the past 6 months, there has been a lot of "restructuring" within the company. Other people with my title do not have a blackberry, but I work for a small, specialized unit and do a lot more than what I was initially hired for.)

Lots of Overtime = How Much Free Time?

Strumpf Marionette — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:07:46 -0800

What should I do about my accrued overtime? In the country where I'm working, and under the employment contract that I have, my employer is legally required to allow me to balance my overtime with time off from work.

I was not aware of this fact until recently, when my new boss brought the topic of my accrued overtime up. As far as I can recall, my old boss did not discuss the topic with me before he left the company.

Now I'm in a difficult position. I would have to take off almost 3 months from work in order to balance out the overtime I've accrued over the last 3 years.

Of course my employer is not too happy about that number, a fact that I can somewhat understand. He would like to reach a compromise on the number of hours I will take free.

On the one hand, I don't want to stick it to my employer, and I'm pretty happy with my job. On the other hand, I did work those hours, most of them were billed to my customers, and I didn't accrue that many overtime hours "on purpose" (with the intent of getting loads of time off).

What's a reasonable compromise? I've asked my employer to make an initial proposal, but would like to get some guidance on how to decide what kind of compromise is correct in this situation.

"Comp time" isn't much of an incentive.

nickerbocker — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:49:35 -0800

Is "comp time" (aka "Banker's Hours") legal in the state of New Mexico? Is my company breaking the law when they give me an hour of vacation leave for an hour of overtime instead of time-and-a-half? I've always thought that the comp time policy was a bit of a sham at the place I work. I saw a post here about a week ago asking about it and some of the replies suggested that this practice was illegal in California as well as other states. Where do I go to find out if it legal in my state, New Mexico?

If it is illegal, what actions should I take without becoming "unpopular" to my supervisors?

can overtime be paid with vacation instead of wages?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:16:15 -0800

My employer gives me extra vacation hours instead of actual pay for overtime. Is this legal in California? I am an hourly wage employee, and I don't fall under the "exempt" category of CA overtime laws as far as I can tell (I am a low-skill assistant for medical research with no degree or training beyond a bachelors). Therefore, the law says I get paid 1.5 times my normal wage for overtime. However, my boss does something a little shadier; we get 1.5 times the overtime worked as extra paid vacation hours. That means if I work 2 hours overtime, I mark my time sheet with the normal hours, add 3 hours to an under-the-table vacation tally, and then when I take that vacation, mark that I actually worked those three hours on my timesheet. Yes, I do essentially get paid in the end, but it reduces my total earnings potential and if I end up with any of this secret paid vacation left at the end, I never earn anything because HR doesn't know about this so it can't get paid out in a final paycheck like normal unused vacation. I won't report this now if it is illegal, because I'd rather keep my job, but at the end of my employment I would consider blowing the whistle if I get robbed of compensation and it is a valid claim. So is it legal or not? There was a suggestion in a previous thread that "comp time" in lieu of overtime pay is illegal, but that was in AZ. What about CA?

What to do, if anything, if I suspect management is messing with us?

slyboots421 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:30:22 -0800

Do I have any rights as an employee who sees other employees being treated unfairly? I live and work in Michigan at a bar/restaurant, but have worked in HR and payroll, and am astonished at the things I see and hear. I work for a small, mom-and-pop type Irish pub in a Detroit suburb. There are only about 15 employees, between cooks, waitresses and bartenders, and we're a pretty tight group, mostly banding together over how much our jobs suck.

I'm a server and occasionally bartend, and found out that the bartenders get paid $2.65 an hour, which is server minimum wage. I have never worked in a bar where the bartenders get paid the same amount as the servers, but I digress. I'm mostly concerned about the cooks. They work off a 10-page menu, get paid $7/hour, and most them have never gotten a raise despite working there for roughly 2 years. We all have terrible jobs, it's a disgusting place and we constantly are being grossed out by the things we have to do (not health department violation gross, just in general). We all get bullied by management and it's family-owned and operated, so us non-relatives are treated like we are completely unnecessary and replaceable, which, while the latter is true, seems a little over-the-top. They don't do anything for us but expect us to go leaps and bounds for them, when we obviously don't matter to them.

So the cooks already get paid shit, work long shifts (10 hours) and since they have a hard time finding people to work for peanuts, it's just a few of them who rotate all the shifts. The cooks inevitably get overtime hours, although the owners/managers make the employee who caused the other employee to get overtime, to pay it. (Hopefully that makes sense.) If Cook X needed Cook Y to stay over and help him close up that night, Cook X would have to pay Cook Y's overtime.

My belief is that this is illegal. It also seems illegal for them to be doctoring the cook's timesheets so that they're punching in for say, 45.67 hours and getting checks for 38.00 hours. The odds of getting an exact hour amount are pretty low, especially a few times in a row that I've heard of it happening.

I don't want to rock any boats and I don't need to lose my job, but I'm pretty sure we're all getting bent over by some extremely poor management. I also found out today that my $18 paycheck BOUNCED.

Can I contact the Wage and Labor Division through the state of MI about this? Have you ever done anything like this? Or should I just shut my mouth and be happy to have a job?

How can I stop fearing the new hire?

jacobjacobs — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:14:31 -0800

I'm working +60 hour weeks, but I'm resistant to my employer hiring someone to help b/c I'm afraid they'll usurp my value within the company. How can I get over this fear? I realize this may be classic fear of failure conundrum. I have too much work to do, but I'm afraid a new kid on the block will come and "steal my thunder" within the company. That my lack of communication skills will come to front, that 6 months from now, this guy will be my boss and I will be a tool.

I am an UI designer and damn good by most accounts. I suppose my confidence is not where it needs to be. I try to perfectly do everything for everyone to perhaps gain that confidence. My verbal communication skills are just not there and I'm afraid a more extroverted version of myself will demote my impactin the company. Or perhaps they'll just be all around better and I'll come out looking like a schmuck.

How can I snap out of this self-defeating outlook, and perhaps help recruit an employee and make my life better?

I'm sure there's an easy solution (yes, jk).

Can my employer paid everyone else overtime but me?

boognish — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:11:03 -0800

Everyone in my department at work (desktop publishing) is paid overtime except me (I'm salaried) and we all have the same job title and responsibilities. Is this legal? I used to be hourly but then was promoted to a salaried position about a year ago. Then around the beginning of 2008, my position was eliminated and I was placed back into my old department and given the same position as everyone else but I was never switched back to hourly. Then we got busy and I worked a lot of "overtime" that I never got paid for. Do I have to be paid hourly like everyone else since we all have the same position, and if so, am I entitled to the overtime money I should have received?

52 * 25 * $50 * 1.5 = Windfall?

brandnew — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:17:47 -0800

I'm a software developer in Pennsylvania. Am I eligible for overtime? I haven't lived in Pennsylvania (PA) all that long. At past jobs, the state law on overtime always followed the federal law. That is, computer workers are not eligible for overtime.

Recently a friend of mine forwarded me to a page that describes the law in Pennsylvania:

http://www.dli.state.pa.us/landi/cwp/view.asp?A=142&Q=214574

The language is somewhat obscure and ambiguous. At the top it states:

"However, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Act do not require overtime pay for “any employee engaged in a bona-fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” who is paid on a salaried basis instead of an hourly wage. (29 U.S.C. § 213a(1), 43 P.S. § 333.105a(5))."

But, then in a lower section it states:

"Pennsylvania employers must be aware that the federal or Pennsylvania overtime provision that provides for the greater benefit to the employee is the standard that will be enforced. An employer must pay overtime if the new Federal rules or Pennsylvania law requires overtime payment.

For example, the Federal rules do not require overtime for computer employees. However, Pennsylvania law currently requires overtime for computer employees. accordingly, overtime must be paid to computer employees if there are no other Pennsylvania laws excluding these employees from overtime."

Anyone have any ideas? It's ambiguous to me, because I'm salary. But, I'm also a computer worker, and I'm not a professional. But, then again no salaried computer worker working in PA that I know gets overtime. But, it's also a big deal, because it could be worth over $90k to me.

What exactly does "exempt" mean?

foxinthesnow — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:28:29 -0800

So, I am an exempt, salaried employee. The agreement I signed before taking my job was that I would work 40 hours per week. But, of course, my employer is now scheduling me for 42-45 hours per week. As an exempt employee, am I just expected to work these extra hours? I have been exempt at other jobs, but those employers never scheduled me for more than 40 hours, and if I was there for more than 40 hours, they would, say, let me take a few hours off to make up for it. Was I just lucky back then? Does "exempt" actually mean, "you will work as many hours as we want you to work?" I looked at the fair labor standards act web page, and it seems to just say that exempt employees are exempt from overtime laws. So is that it? Am I screwed?

I'm being screwed over for overtime. How do I stop this from happening in future?

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:25:17 -0800

When/how should I argue about the overtime I've worked? My department (IT) in a large company has a policy about overtime hours that appears to be illegal in our area (British Columbia)...that is namely that overtime is expected of salary employees (we all are, right down to basic helpdesk) and that there is an unofficial, unwritten policy that lieu time is taken at half of overtime (ie. you work 10 extra hours and get 5 hours of lieu time, and no one gets overtime pay). We've bitched and argued and managed to get 1-to-1 lieu time, in most cases.

Recently I work a crapload of overtime...60 extra hours in 10 days (of the 12 straight days I worked). According to what I've read in the BC Labour Code, not only would they have to count that as 90 hours (1.5*60), it would be up to me to request lieu time (and working 12 days straight is against the rules). The final result was that they agreed to give my (and others in the same boat) 4 days (32 hours) of lieu time, and no overtime pay.

Now, all that being said, I like my job. I generally like the company and the people I work with, as well as my boss. My area is a hard one to find IT work in and I've got a family to support as the sole breadwinner. I don't want to create undue animosity. I just want to not be completely screwed over.

Do I bitch? Do I just roll over and accept it? Since my group has accepted this 4 days, how do I handle the next time (there will be plenty of next times)?

Overtime pay versus comp time

Optimus Chyme — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:16:25 -0800

What are the rules, if any, governing overtime pay versus comp time? Yesterday afternoon, my employer told all employees that there would be no more overtime pay, only comp time. Neither I nor anyone else on my team is salaried.

I live in Arizona and as far as I can tell, Arizona does not have an overtime law, so we should be covered under federal law. But I can't find any explanations of overtime pay versus comp time here.

So, my questions are pretty simple:

1) Is it legal to give employees comp time in lieu of overtime?

2) Would that comp time be accrued like overtime pay, that is, one and a half hours for every hour worked over 40?

3) If it is not legal, what are the specific laws and penalties covering it?

Thanks!

Stop the company, I want to get off.

Work to Live — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:23:57 -0800

Workplacefilter: Is it crazy in here or is it just me? I work in the interactive division of a large advertising agency. I'm in my early 40s and have many years’ experience, am good at what I do, and know this can be a demanding field. But the past year or so, the demands have really started piling up. It’s not unusual to work 50 or 60 hours a week. To eat lunch at my desk or skip it entirely. To work weekends or holidays to meet a deadline. At least, not unusual for me.

Many of my coworkers are able to lunch outside the building at least once or twice a week, and are out the door by six at the latest. I often see them playing video games in the afternoons, and judging by the amount of “cute” and/or “interesting” e-mails that get forwarded to everyone in the office, they’ve plenty of time to find cute and interesting things on the web.

I’ve mentioned my workload to my supervisor, and even though we’ve been hiring all kinds of other people the past six months, no permanent help for me has been forthcoming because "there’s no money in the budget." While it's true that I have a somewhat specialized skillset and my kind is paid better than some, I’m hardly one in a million or earning anything close to it.

I don’t mind putting in 45-50 hours a week on occasion when it’s necessary, but nothing makes me feel more unhappy or less in control of my life than constant, uncompensated overtime. I spent half of 2006 in that mode. I finally had a bit of breakdown and told my supervisor I was considering quitting just to get my personal life back. Things seemed to improve through the end of the year, but, here I am making this post in March.

My questions: Am I being a big baby, or being taken advantage of? Can I improve this situation -- or at least my reaction to it? I don’t want to deal with this emotionally – I have a bit of a problem with that in general and am working to keep it in under control. (Please no therapy recommendations; I could buy a luxury car with what I've spent to shrink my head.) What can I say or do with management to affect some positive, permanent improvements? Is it time to move on? Am I completely burned out? And finally – what do you consider a reasonable workweek?

(And yes, I realize this is long and I posted it during the workday. But I wrote it last night!)

I predict a riot

whoojemaflip — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:47:02 -0800

I've been asked to look into a predictive dialling system for a small team of outbound telesales agents who're bored of listening to the phone ring for 6 hours a day. Does anyone around here have any experience of the different systems available; implementation pitfalls, advantages and disadvantages of each? We've about 6 guys & galls on the phones in this company, and it seems like they manage to get about 1 1/2 hours of actual talk time in a given day. They're all commission based, go-get-em types and keen to spend more time actually talking to our customers.

Before I get shot down in flames here I should point out that there no cold calling involved - they're selling B2B in a vertical market - but ~80% of these guys day is spent listening to the phone ring out and thats no fun!

I've heard that some systems can end up making endless 'ghost' calls which is no good, to be avoided at all costs I'd say, as this is a small company with a decent reputation among its customer base.

Oh, and what I know about telephony could be written in board-marker on the back of a postage-stamp, as if that wasn't immediately obvious. Any stories, good or bad, regarding peoples experiences with this kinda techology are invited. I'm in the UK if this helps;

Loading 16 tons

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 14:29:50 -0800

How much power do employers have over salaried non exempt employees outside of work during normal business hours? My current job has just informed me that I can look forward to 60-70 hour weeks starting in December and running at least until Mid-May. They have expected other employees to work from home, at nights, and on weekends before - these are all salaried non-exempt hours, so it is unpaid overtime. This spring I had planned on taking classes 2 nights a week as well as getting a second job on the weekends considering our pay is about 20% under local market. Can my employer insist that I skip class, drop class, or quit my second job in order to accommodate any work needed after I have put in 40 hours? Can they threaten to terminate me if I do not comply with that since it is done outside of the 40 hour week? I checked some sites on the FLSA but only found the disheartening fact that there is no upper limit to the hours a non exempt employee can be worked.

Can my employer dictate my work hours?

Joleta — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:02:28 -0800

I'm classified as an exempt employee. Can my boss require me to arrive at work at a certain time, or even to work a certain number of hours? My understanding is that employees who are exempt from the overtime provision of the U.S. federal and state labor laws are to be paid a guaranteed wage without regard to the number of hours of work performed, but I can't find this documented on any of the federal or Illinois government sites. I put in my 40 hours a week, sometimes a bit more, but I prefer to do it from 9am to 6 pm (if I take a lunch hour). My boss has told me I need to arrive at 8am because "people have commented about your coming in so late." Can someone point me to the law that says they can't dictate the hours I work if they want to classify me as exempt. (I fully understand the perils of rocking the boat. I just want this information for my own knowledge and possible use at a later date. For the record, I don't believe my job qualifies as exempt anyway, but that's a different question.)

Employmentfilter: Mandatory overtime for a salaried position - can it be required?

mockjovial — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:08:46 -0800

Quick question for those of you with any knowledge of the subject: Is it possible (by possible I mean legal) for an employer to change the pay structure for an employee from salaried but eligible for overtime pay to a salaried but not eligible for overtime? This is a case where working overtime is required by the job. This is in Illinois. Someone I am close to has been working for a large manufacturer of edible oils for many years. He just received word that management is going to be coming through department by department and instituting changes to the pay structure of employees. Specifically, they are going to eliminate eligibility for overtime payment, but a requirement to work overtime will still exist.

If this is the case, the person would effectively lose roughly $30,000/year in wages, because in a typical week they work 20-30 hours of overtime.

Is this really possible?

Help me find a larger version of my favorite video clip

furtive — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 08:05:37 -0800

Where can I find a larger version of the surreal Muppets Over Time[QT] short? Maybe a format other than QuickTime?

No Overtime for Contractors

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:09:54 -0800

I'm working as a contractor. Recently management has decided that they will not pay overtime for contractors only. What we are to do is report the 40 hours to our respective agencies, and anything over that to our admin. Comp time is given equal to the amount you worked over 40 hours, not as time and a half. I asked if our agencies had been notified, and no one knew. Is the comp time policy legal?

How can I ask my recruiter if he has been notified and if so, should I have this added to my contract? My current contract states I get time and a half overtime for any hours over 40 a week. How do I address this without looking like a greedy malcontent?