Working off the clock...

[pidster]

Well hey, those CEOs, VPs, etc have to get their multi-million dollar bonuses somehow right?

I've been asked to work off clock. I always just say "Sure, I'd love the overtime pay" and they drop it.

Managers, in my company, are contracted to be paid to do the job, not work a certain number of hours. They get paid for 40 a week and if they have to do 60 they have to do it and there's no compensation.

I make more money in less hours doing my job, and a part time side job, then most managers in my company make.

Sad that things are like this, workers are getting shafted everywhere now and the top brass make more than ever.

 

[Big_Kat]

I guess that makes me the sucker for not standing up for myself. The thing is the store never closes and I am no where near the threatening them with over time hours as anything over 40 is over time and i usually work 28-32 hrs.a week. This past Friday i was averaging 32 customers an hour that about 1 transaction every two minutes. So I wouldn't get much done but the bare minimum. Once the over night guy got there who is also the Assistant Manager I started stocking and cleaning up about five minutes later he asked if I clocked out. I said no, and this is where I have been kicking myself to death. I should have told him ,"If I clock out I'm headed home." So I spend 45 minutes "helping out". Not any more, I am finally going to put my foot down

.

 

[dishdude]

What type of product do you sell?

 

[Big_Kat]

we sell gas snack food etc.... c store stuff

 

[crinkles]

I've been told by my company that because i am a professional, I am expected to work off the clock, and if I wanted to work on the clock, should have been a plumber. I told them, "Well, I'd get paid a lot more being a plumber..." The guy wasn't too impressed.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Welcome to the modern world...

The job is your responsibility, and if it can't be done in a shift, that's your responsibility too.


See, this I take issue with. I agree that you are paid to do a job regardless of how "long" it takes, but there are far too many employers that take advantage of that. They make it impossible to do any given job in 40 hours a week. Mine is


Don't get me wrong, I'm not an advocate of the system.

Baby boomers were the advocates (and beneficiaries) of demarcation, strict working hours, rigid position descriptions and duties statements, then made the world "more flexible" for those who came after.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Big_Kat
I guess that makes me the sucker for not standing up for myself. The thing is the store never closes and I am no where near the threatening them with over time hours as anything over 40 is over time and i usually work 28-32 hrs.a week. This past Friday i was averaging 32 customers an hour that about 1 transaction every two minutes. So I wouldn't get much done but the bare minimum. Once the over night guy got there who is also the Assistant Manager I started stocking and cleaning up about five minutes later he asked if I clocked out. I said no, and this is where I have been kicking myself to death. I should have told him ,"If I clock out I'm headed home." So I spend 45 minutes "helping out". Not any more, I am finally going to put my foot down

.


Do it, we're pulling for you.

That "assistant manager" probably has just enough duties to be classified as "exempt" and no OT for him either. He may or may not be on your side, or may be secretly.

When we say OT, we mean more than you're scheduled for. Surely your work has all sorts of snarky rules about getting "preapproved" for hours off your schedule.

 

[stroked93]

it is absolutely against the law to require a hourly employee to work off the clock. IF this is a chain C store you should call HR as high up as you can and hold on because some folks are getting fired. If its a Private owner call the Iowa Labor board.

 

[Shannow]

Depends what you mean by "require".

 

[Blaze]

I worked in retail years ago,,, late 70's early 80's. I remember when I was first hired the manager told me if I was caught working off the clock I would get a verbal warning then written up the second time. He did tell me it was illegal for him to have employees clocking out then resuming work. He was covering his butt I guess.

 

[hattaresguy]

You get paid by the hour, tell them to pay you for your time or your walking.

People will only take advantage of you if you let them.

BTW you may not know this but in most states that's illegal, if they balk you can turn them in, and they will get *)(^&* if you can prove it. When I was in college I worked at Lowes which hates paying overtime, which in my state CT, is mandated at time and a half for anything over 40. There was pressure to not clock the extra time if you were close, I always did. Screw them. I documented everything so they never really did anything, than left that [censored] job as fast as I could.

http://www.iowaworkforce.org/labor/
Here you go.

 

[EchoThat]

This sounds great, but if you need the job for your family, you are more than likely going to do what you are told to do. I have been in interviews and asked who was going to take care of my kids when they are out of school sick, reminded that I would then need to come in when the business was open because it was my job, even though I had other issues going on. Also, asked how old I am, how long have I been married... All of the off-limits questions.

Bottom line was that I needed a job after having been out of work for about 10 months. I had a family with kids and needed insurance. Wife's company didn't offer it to her since she was at officially part-time status, although she worked more than full-time hours consistently. I don't know who is more likely to treat you unfairly, the big companies that employ thousands or the little ones with only 5 or 6 employees.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: EchoThat
This sounds great, but if you need the job for your family, you are more than likely going to do what you are told to do. I have been in interviews and asked who was going to take care of my kids when they are out of school sick, reminded that I would then need to come in when the business was open because it was my job, even though I had other issues going on. Also, asked how old I am, how long have I been married... All of the off-limits questions.

Bottom line was that I needed a job after having been out of work for about 10 months. I had a family with kids and needed insurance. Wife's company didn't offer it to her since she was at officially part-time status, although she worked more than full-time hours consistently. I don't know who is more likely to treat you unfairly, the big companies that employ thousands or the little ones with only 5 or 6 employees.




Yep....much of this going on....even more so now. It's not unusual for managers in my company to do 100 hours easy. They are expected to do quite a bit, now with even less part time people.

A buddy of mine has been threaten by the retailer he works at. At some points he worked nearly a month straight without a day off. Top that off shifts that a few times were nearly 20 hours, and you have a man in sad shape. He think he's going to break soon, which is good in a small sense, as he really needs a long vacation, which he can afford right now...

 

[JHZR2]

Its a matter of having a stake in the corporate success. A wage slave will not besides the ability to have a job or not.

But it's a catch 22 - so long as you don't say anything, you're enabling this mindset of that you're just so lucky to have a job that you should do whatever it takes... And if you stand up to the demands of fair pay for time worked, then you're one step from a union person who drags businesses down.

To me it's only fair - you work you get paid. You work more you get paid more. Unless you're in direct ownership position where volunteering adds to net worth in time, it is just a removal of freedoms in the name of business and employment.

 

[JHZR2]

Yeah, the proprietor is free to volunteer as much as he wants - he gets the benefit of company valuation... The underling doesn't.

 

[hattaresguy]

Most of those big retail companies simply view employees as a disposable expense meant to be used up and thrown away. They will suck all they can out of you, until you break down or just get so fed up you leave.

They could stand to have a little union help.

 

[mechanicx]

Yeah if you are an hourly employee it is illegal to make you work off the clock or to not pay overtime or minimum wage. If you contact the wage and hour dept they will be all over the employee. For one thing it is flagrant violation and another they are in away cheating the gov in taxes.

 

[Cutehumor]

Quote:
One time when I was interviewing for a job, the proprietor told me he sometimes worked 60 or 70 hours a week. He felt that if he works that hard, why should his underlings work less. I told him if there's that much work, he should hire two people, and eight hours a day is enough from me. After the interview I thought that was the end of that. But he ended up hiring me, and for the most part treating me fairly. I didn't want to be hired under false expectations that I was a workaholic as he was.


You called his bluff! if you said sure I can work 60 or 70 hours a week, after he hired you, he would have made you do it too.

 

[EchoThat]

This is where I'm so torn with unions. The workers will be treated fairly, but the unions will hurt the bottom line of the company by demanding benefits that are not in keeping with the skill level and seniority of the positions.

Also, with unions, workers think that they work for the unions instead of the company. I've been all through that with tradespeople where I have been employed in the past.

 

[65cuda]

I don't know if they always hurt the bottom line. I've seen studies where a union company was able to do the job in less time and correctly over the low bid company that always had to hire for the job. Since the union workers tended to stay and got the training they needed to deal with new requirements they did better. Now I agree that unions can be a problem, but I can't say that I've seen where the employees thought they worked for the union and not the company. They did many times have a problem with a company that felt like it was OK to expect something out of them and pay cuts and reduction in benefits and then the execs would get themselves a nice bonus for their cost reductions. I've seen many times where the supervision was based more on who you knew than what you knew. Either that or you had a nice pretty diploma in liberal arts or something and gee you were supervisor material. Might not have a clue what you were doing but by golly you had the diploma.