Working off the clock...

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http://employeeissues.com/mandatory_overtime.htm

Worked in retail/c-stores. Never again. Especially C-stores after midnight.

And I never, ever, worked off the clock. Even got into arguements with retail management. Which was pointless on their part as my company leased space in their store. and I didn't work for them.
 
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Making a non-exempt employee work off the clock without appropriate compensation is illegal. This can be grounds for the manager requiring it to be made redundant.

That does not mean that employers do not do that. It will not be an explicit executive decision but can be something endorsed by the higher ups because it is the lower level managers who will get into trouble.

And because people want to keep their job (both management and the employees), they go along with that.
 
Originally Posted By: 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.


That is the best case scenario when the management and the union understand each other's value and cooperate. Sometimes you have dysfunctional situations like the unhealthy attitude of Walmart towards the unions or the conflict between UAW and auto-makers.

You need to hear some of the stuff some high level managers say about unions and the employees. It will make you wonder how they would treat their employees if they could not get some level of protection from the unions.
 
Unfortunately, being one of those "exempt" employees most of my working life, I have no "clock". Most places I've worked have been decent regarding comp-time for OT worked. You never really got all of the time back, but at least you got something.

My current employer, though, likes to remind us that as an exempt employee, "occasional" OT is expected and comp time is rare. So I do my best to make sure that the "occasional" OT is truly the exception, and I get that time back somehow anyway.
wink.gif


I did walk out on a manager once (*sigh*, I miss the days when I/T was booming and I didn't have a mortgage
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) We were working on a project and management demanded 60-hour weeks from us, and it got to the point where I was one of the few actually doing that. I had just gotten off the phone after making diner plans with a friend after my 12-hour day and my supervisor wanders over kind of sheepishly and says something along the lines of he really hated to have to ask me this, but I was going to have to cancel my plans because there was some sort of problem with the latest test run, the details of which were available at 9AM that day, but the user didn't bother looking at it until after 5PM and it was suddenly an emergency, so the data would have to be corrected and the test redone -- and the test runs weren't even my responsibility. The person who did the test runs left after his 8-hours were up. So I looked at the supervisor and told him "I've done my 12-hours for the day, maybe you should call the people who are barely doing 8 hours, especially the people whose responsibility is is to DO the test runs and have them finish their job!" and walked out.

Turns out I was still employed the next morning and he actually called the other guy back in.

During my time working for Menard's, I was never asked to work off the clock.
 
There are correct and proper ways to handle this. One simple way is to leave exactly at the time you clock out.

Since you seem to be staying and doing volunteer work, keep in mind that you are probably not covered by company insurance if disaster occurs during volunteer time. Workers comp will be a difficult thing to collect when you say to the judge "I had to stay longer, the floor was dirty".

That's your call and you'll be the one who pays the price.

But, as you know, if you are directly asked to stay, you need overtime pay.
 
If you're in an at-will state, and refuse to work extra hours, they'll fire you. It's a form of intimidation, in my opinion, and it's ridiculous.
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
If you're in an at-will state, and refuse to work extra hours, they'll fire you. It's a form of intimidation, in my opinion, and it's ridiculous.

And this is happening even more, sometimes not even in just the at will states. We had a local WM threatening their PT employees with major cuts in hours if they didn't do what they were told...
 
I remember back in 1990 the store manager had me work 72 hours the week before Christmas. He worked it too.

But he was salary, I wasn't. He wasn't happy that I got 32 hours OT and he got nothing.

Good times.....
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: dparm
If you're in an at-will state, and refuse to work extra hours, they'll fire you. It's a form of intimidation, in my opinion, and it's ridiculous.


And this is happening even more, sometimes not even in just the at will states. We had a local WM threatening their PT employees with major cuts in hours if they didn't do what they were told...


Yeah like only 5 hours per week if they didn't work the necessary hours that Walmart needed them to work. Lots of companies today will simply tell their employees that if you don't work the schedule we needed you to work..... we simply don't need you at all.
 
Well its been almost a week and a half since my post I quit working of the clock and I haven't gotten fired yet. Should have done this along time ago..
 
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