Come in to work early (accidentally) - leave early? Thoughts

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

So here is my story.

I used to work at an hourly job that was customer service.

When we opened late because of weather, I would sometimes end up at work early because I carpooled with my husband. A couple of times, I was asked to answer some phone calls, because customers were still calling in, bad weather or not. And those of times I was there early, I did it.

Once, I mentioned that it would be nice to leave a little early. My manager shut me down quick. Nope. No one leaves early if they want paid for the whole day. Okay.

Next time we opened late, but I was early, I wouldn't answer calls. I told her I would rather sit outside in the cold and snow, than to answer calls for her.

It didn't take long for her to realize that she brought it on herself.

 

[Aliceacc]

Here's the problem with your staff's request:

You say that 3 out of the 4 people in the office got to work early because of the bad weather, and want to leave early as a result.

So at the end of the day, there will be just one person working in an office that is typically staffed by 4 people. Your office has regular office hours-- I imagine they're posted on the door, on the website, and are generally known by the people who rely on your department. Yet, for the last hour or so of the working day, only 25% of your staff will be working.

That's not fair to the person who worked the hours to which she was assigned. And it's not fair to all those who rely on your office to be open and fully functioning during the hours you claim to be open.

Asking to leave early because of a sick child or parent, or illness, or some other important reason is one thing. But asking to make your own hours with no prior notice is something else.

 

[mmouse37]

I have worked in a few offices..one small office and two very large corporate offices. At any place I worked, if it was a snow delay or just really bad weather I would leave extra early just to make sure I got to work at the scheduled opening time. I never asked to leave early because of it. I just knew if I left for work at regular time during bad weather I would be late.

There were a few times where I got there on time but the office was delayed opening (left home before the call came in) and it would just be chalked up to "things that happen, oh well". I would/could not leave early so would just sit at my desk until opening.

MJ

 

[kdonnel]

Have them stay and work.

And pay them overtime for the extra hours.

 

[tvguy]

And pay them overtime for the extra hours.

Well, you raise a point I was going to ask about. If they are hourly, yes, pay them. But if they are salaried, they are hired to perform a task, not be there for a set amount of time. That means in many states and employer can't demand you to stay a set amount of hours. The flip side is, if completing a task takes more than say 8 hours, you are not entitled to any more pay. And I would be surprised if staff at in a Community College was anything but salaried. But the best answer is there has to be give and take. There are times the employer is going to have to give in a little, and there are times that the employees are gong to have to give in.

 

[kdonnel]

Well, you raise a point I was going to ask about. If they are hourly, yes, pay them. But if they are salaried, they are hired to perform a task, not be there for a set amount of time. That means in many states and employer can't demand you to stay a set amount of hours. The flip side is, if completing a task takes more than say 8 hours, you are not entitled to any more pay. And I would be surprised if staff at in a Community College was anything but salaried. But the best answer is there has to be give and take. There are times the employer is going to have to give in a little, and there are times that the employees are gong to have to give in.

I was assuming they were hourly.

But you are correct that there is a certain amount of give and take required. Managers/Companies that only take are the worst places to work and generally the customers know as well because the customer facing employees are not happy and it is obvious.

 

[tvguy]

I was assuming they were hourly.

But you are correct that there is a certain amount of give and take required. Managers/Companies that only take are the worst places to work and generally the customers know as well because the customer facing employees are not happy and it is obvious.

Other issue is, what is the mind set of your company and your community about "Snow Days". We don't have snow days, but some of the outlying school districts in the foothills do. With the wild weather we had in January, we were had as many as 5 school districts taking snow days, one district took 6 consecutive school days off due to snow. I re-post our website alerts on my Facebook page, and got a few comments from my cousins in Canada. To sum up, there are no snow in the communities they live in, you know what the weather is, you just leave early enough to get to work or school on time!

 

[runwad]

The company I work for will often allow staff to leave 2 hours early the day before a holiday, but will pay them for a full 8 hour day. If we have a vacation day on an early release day, we still have to take 8 hours of vacation. They won't permit us to use only 6 hours of vacation, even though everyone who is present that day is only working 6 hours. So to me in your scenario, they should be expected to work until their normal end time. If they got there early and knew they were early, the could have run errands or got a coffee or something to kill time until 11am, if they only wanted to work 6 hours.

I work till 4 at my job, most everyone else works till 5. Sometimes, day before a holiday, they let people leave an hour early at 4. My old boss used to let me leave at 3 so I got an hour off too. Now that he's gone, I'm expected to always work till 4, I don't get that extra hour off like the other people do. We are all salary in case anyone asks.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I work till 4 at my job, most everyone else works till 5. Sometimes, day before a holiday, they let people leave an hour early at 4. My old boss used to let me leave at 3 so I got an hour off too. Now that he's gone, I'm expected to always work till 4, I don't get that extra hour off like the other people do. We are all salary in case anyone asks.

That happened at a company that my husband worked for.

The guys started coming in an hour later the day before the holiday. That way, they, like everyone else, got an hour off.

 

[Gracie09]

Well, you raise a point I was going to ask about. If they are hourly, yes, pay them. But if they are salaried, they are hired to perform a task, not be there for a set amount of time. That means in many states and employer can't demand you to stay a set amount of hours. The flip side is, if completing a task takes more than say 8 hours, you are not entitled to any more pay. And I would be surprised if staff at in a Community College was anything but salaried. But the best answer is there has to be give and take. There are times the employer is going to have to give in a little, and there are times that the employees are gong to have to give in.

I would be surprised if staff were salaried at any college. The non-managerial/professional staff at all the universities I have worked at have been hourly and union. So your admins, clerks, general support staff. Once you got to Assistant Director level maybe Manager you would be considered professional. So an assistant director of advising - professional. A coordinator for financial aid - staff. As a manager I had to know the union rules forward and backward.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I would be surprised if staff were salaried at any college. The non-managerial/professional staff at all the universities I have worked at have been hourly and union. So your admins, clerks, general support staff. Once you got to Assistant Director level maybe Manager you would be considered professional. So an assistant director of advising - professional. A coordinator for financial aid - staff. As a manager I had to know the union rules forward and backward.

They were salaried at Johns Hopkins. And they definitely weren't union. At least the engineers weren't.

 

[tvguy]

I would be surprised if staff were salaried at any college. The non-managerial/professional staff at all the universities I have worked at have been hourly and union. So your admins, clerks, general support staff. Once you got to Assistant Director level maybe Manager you would be considered professional. So an assistant director of advising - professional. A coordinator for financial aid - staff. As a manager I had to know the union rules forward and backward.

Just quickly searching the Los Rios Community College District jobs website, it appears only the groundskeepers are hourly.

 

[mummabear]

So here is my story.

I used to work at an hourly job that was customer service.

When we opened late because of weather, I would sometimes end up at work early because I carpooled with my husband. A couple of times, I was asked to answer some phone calls, because customers were still calling in, bad weather or not. And those of times I was there early, I did it.

Once, I mentioned that it would be nice to leave a little early. My manager shut me down quick. Nope. No one leaves early if they want paid for the whole day. Okay.

Next time we opened late, but I was early, I wouldn't answer calls. I told her I would rather sit outside in the cold and snow, than to answer calls for her.

It didn't take long for her to realize that she brought it on herself.

Exactly, it's give and take. Most workplaces wouldn't do well if everyone "worked to rule"

And pay them overtime for the extra hours.

But if the employer had told them the work was from 11-5 that day, showing up at 10 and starting work doesn't entitle them to get paid over time or cut out an hour early, no one but them decided to work from 10-11

I work till 4 at my job, most everyone else works till 5. Sometimes, day before a holiday, they let people leave an hour early at 4. My old boss used to let me leave at 3 so I got an hour off too. Now that he's gone, I'm expected to always work till 4, I don't get that extra hour off like the other people do. We are all salary in case anyone asks.

That's crap and an "employer of choice" wouldn't do that

 

[Gracie09]

They were salaried at Johns Hopkins. And they definitely weren't union. At least the engineers weren't.

that would be professional staff - non-union, likely salary
The admins, clerks etc - union and salary.

 

[Gracie09]

Just quickly searching the Los Rios Community College District jobs website, it appears only the groundskeepers are hourly.

I looked there too -there are over 20 classified jobs. By definition those jobs are hourly and it appears they have a union.

http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/14986/what-is-classified-employment

https://jobs.losrios.edu/postings/s...anizational_tier_3_id=any&1500=&commit=Search

 

[Christine]

I work till 4 at my job, most everyone else works till 5. Sometimes, day before a holiday, they let people leave an hour early at 4. My old boss used to let me leave at 3 so I got an hour off too. Now that he's gone, I'm expected to always work till 4, I don't get that extra hour off like the other people do. We are all salary in case anyone asks.

This happens where I work. Individual managers are authorized to give their employees something called "59 minutes." In my division, we have 15 managers. Most everyone gives it at some point or another but not necessarily on the same day. So I might not give it for one holiday and another does and my group will watch 30 other employees leave an hour early. Now, it's not really obvious because all of our start and end times vary so it's not like you see this massive exodus at 3:00.

Unfortunately, the employees have now begun complaining because this one gets that and we didn't get this (even though they might get this when others don't). It's to the point that the BIG boss wants to stop it and only give the 59 minutes out for superior performance and use it as a reward for a job well done type of thing. She said it's a shame that a good thing that's given, starts to be a point of contention. Everyone seems to require everything to be 100% fair all the time, to the point that rewards/awards get ruined.

 

[sam_gordon]

And pay them overtime for the extra hours.

Nope. If they're hourly and show up for work early, they shouldn't clock in. They don't get to change their schedule without prior approval. I have some (hourly) employees that have to work through the end of the shift and some that could leave early with no issues. Those that have to work through the end of the shift would have to sit and wait to clock in (and I wouldn't expect/want them to do any work). Those who aren't "time constrained" need to check with me before clocking in early. Depending on the work load/staffing of the day I might let them change their shift. Fair? Probably not. But anyone is allowed to apply for a job opening. Some jobs come with more perks than others.

 

[tvguy]

I looked there too -there are over 20 classified jobs. By definition those jobs are hourly and it appears they have a union.

http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/14986/what-is-classified-employment

https://jobs.losrios.edu/postings/search?utf8=✓&query=&query_v0_posted_at_date=&225=&435=&1411=2&query_organizational_tier_3_id=any&1500=&commit=Search

If you look a bit more carefully you will notice that most of those classified jobs list a monthly salary, not an hourly wage. You can be union and salaried.

 

[Allison]

There is a difference between being salaried and being an exempt employee. Many of the jobs mentioned could be paid a salary but would still need to be paid overtime because they don't qualify as exempt. Most clerical jobs are not going to clear the hurdle of requirements to be considered exempt positions.

Just working at a college doesn't make anyone exempt. That is based on job duties, not where you work.

 

[kdonnel]

Nope. If they're hourly and show up for work early, they shouldn't clock in. They don't get to change their schedule without prior approval. I have some (hourly) employees that have to work through the end of the shift and some that could leave early with no issues. Those that have to work through the end of the shift would have to sit and wait to clock in (and I wouldn't expect/want them to do any work). Those who aren't "time constrained" need to check with me before clocking in early. Depending on the work load/staffing of the day I might let them change their shift. Fair? Probably not. But anyone is allowed to apply for a job opening. Some jobs come with more perks than others.

I guess I have always worked salaried jobs with the flexibility to work from home when needed.

If I was an hourly employee and I made an extra effort to get into work due to inclement conditions and then got chastised for making the effort, I would not make that effort again in the future.