Does your workplace offer....

[DWGal210]

comp days when you work a required weekend event?

What is the policy for this at your workplace?

Back story: Last weekend, went to a convention for work (required, we had a booth I had to work with my boss) and worked the convention all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. Then drove home 4 1/2 hours and worked Monday-Friday this week.

I am taking a vacation day in a few weeks and so I asked my boss if we received any comp time and she said no, the company does not it.

Now, I am on salary - and I know being on salary means your work hours aren't always 9-5. But I am honestly kind of surprised that I would have to work an event all weekend, out of town, and then not be compensated for it somehow. (For full disclosure, I was reimbursed for food expenses and mileage so it wasn't as if it came out of my pocket).

For those of you that travel for work, and have to work weekends - what is the policy at your company? Or I am all wet here, thinking that it might be nice to get a comp day?

TIA!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

When my husband is obligated for actual "work" on a weekend, he gets paid for it. The company has the option to give him OT (straight time only) or to comp him. We really do not care one way or the other. (edited b/c I mistyped)

His line of work is billable and the field doesn't tolerate "abuse" of the--you make so much salary, we'll work you like a dog if we want.

For his line of work, travel time is only reimbursed as salary if it is done during the standard work day. If he has to fly home after the day is over or on a weekend and otherwise not doing any actual work--the transit time is not paid or comped.

So if he did what you did, his booth time would have been charged, but his time to and from the event--regardless of lenght of time--would not have been if it wasn't done during the traditional work day/work week.

He is in engineering and for his now three employers, that has been customary. He would not work for a company that in no way compensated for additional time over the weekend regardless of reason.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My DH is salary and has had to work many weekend days, and never recieves anything extra for it. Its just part of his job I guess. He also has to go out of town a lot, and works well over 40 hours per week. He is paid only for mileage and meals.

 

[DrCavin]

No compensation for salary from our company, our mileage re-embursement is even below the federal amount.

 

[bicker]

It's varied over the course of my career, depending on the company. For some employers, if you're salaried, you're salaried -- you work as you have to to get your job done and you must be in the office M-F 9-5 as well. On the other extreme is an employer who said that we had to work "about" 40 hours a week, whenever was best for the job.

 

[Pakey]

I'm a salaried employee who works at least 80 hours per week, along with all of the other salaried employees at my company. There is a lot of travel, never heard of being comped for that time either.

 

[manning]

Salaried means your on the clock 24/7/365 minus vacation time.

 

[suejai]

When I worked in a municipal office we were always compensated for extra time. I even got extra pay to work meetings, and I was on salary. If we worked on the weekend we got a day in lieu. I guess they assumed the salary was for regular time and that anything more is above and beyond.

 

[manning]

It's varied over the course of my career, depending on the company. For some employers, if you're salaried, you're salaried -- you work as you have to to get your job done and you must be in the office M-F 9-5 as well. On the other extreme is an employer who said that we had to work "about" 40 hours a week, whenever was best for the job.

I didn't take the time to look up the law, but there may be more to it than that. Many years ago I had to take a half day off once a week for chemo. We had to work x number of days in a row to get our health benefits back to full. I was salaried. The boss kept docking me the half days and it prevented me from restoring my benefits. One day I happened to mention this to an HR friend. He said hold on you're salaried, all you have to do is show up for work if only to stick your head in to say hi and you are considered to be at work all day. Needless to say my full benefits were restored immediately.

 

[bicker]

It would depend on state law, of course, but that sounds like your company made certain promises regarding how it would treat its employees when they're sick that those promises they made, applied to your situation, meant that they had to do as you described. Generally, however, all an employer would need to do to avoid that is just not make those promises, and put you on short-term disability, when your state law permits that.

 

[puffkin]

In my profession (accounting) while it wouldn't be considered comp time, most of my former employers probably would have given some consideration to that weekend, especially considering it seems out of the norm for your job. I know in the past I have left early on a Friday or was late due to bad weather and the managers have been fine with it since I put in extra hours elsewhere. I also try to schedule most appointments first thing in the morning or late afternoon to minimize missed work....but I also don't make up that time that week (ie if I come in an hour late i don't stay an hour late....unless something has to be done that day). I figure it all evens out in the end.

I had one situation during a month end close cycle where i put in 16 hour days for 4 days straight. Our close was over Thursday. Friday was just a normal day and I had a toddler at the time who I hadn't seen since Sunday evening when he went to bed. They had a party for something at his daycare at 3pm and I wanted to leave 2 hours early to attend it and my supervisor said I needed to use a 1/2 vacation day. I told her there was absolutely no way I was doing that after putting in 70 hours that week. I left at 3 regardless (not my finest hour) and nothing was said about it again, but that was a big reason why I left that job a few months later. I understand the demands of a salaried position, but there should be SOME reasonable accomodations made to employees in cases like that!

 

[pilesoflaundry]

My dh is on salary and in this particular position there is no weekend work. On rare occassion if it is necessary they offer comp time. It's not the norm at all in his line of work and this duty station is a special circumstance.

 

[DWGal210]

Thanks for the input, everyone - it's interesting to see the different variations out there, depending on the type of work you do.

On the one hand, I very much agree that when you are salary, you don't necessarily work 9-5. On the other hand, it's not as if travel is a large component of my job; we'll maybe go to another 2-3 of these conventions this year. It wasn't explained to me when I started, but I guess I never asked, either. Oh well, lesson learned!

 

[KandD]

Our unwritten rule is if you volunteer for a Sunday/Saturday work event then you get a free day (to be used whenever you want).

If it is a mandatory event then we get to flex our time during the week.

 

[ead79]

I am a ministry assistant for a church, and this involves working at events that occur outside normal working hours. I am salaried, but the church does do comp time. It's important to them that we have time to spend with our families, so we get hour for hour comp time for events worked outside the scope of normal working hours. The fact that they encourage us to be with our families is one of the things I love most about my job.

 

[Arielle22]

Legally, an exempt employee (which is what most salaried people are categorized as) is entitled to receive their full salary for a work week as long as they work part of the week. However the company is allowed to require you to work as many or as few hours as needed.

The law is silent on whether paid time off can be used for days you leave early. So you could work 4 ten hours day then on the 5th day leave at 3pm. Your employer could legally apply 2 vacation (or sick or personal) hours to the 5th day.

There are exceptions for reducing salary made for employees who are taking Family Medical Leave and those who have used up their paid time off. Also salary may be reduced for an exempt employee on their first and last weeks.

Comp time is a concept that is legal only for public employees. It refers to time off in lieu of overtime.

Docking of exempt salary is covered under federal law. State law may offer more coverage for the employee but not less than federal law.

Back to the original question, my company does not offer time off in appreciation for extra hours. If you take more than 2 hours a day off then you must use paid time off.

 

[Allison]

No comp time for salaried employees

 

[bicker]

The law is silent on whether paid time off can be docked for days you leave early.

However, it is clear that not doing the work assigned (even if that means working more than 40 hours, i.e., working during times outside or normal business hours) is sound justification for termination of employment, so generally folks prefer to go along with whatever docking of pay that they're subjected to rather than get fired for cause.

 

[SC Minnie]

We don't have comp time as a company policy but we can usually work something out with our manager. I sometimes have to travel on the weekends and usually work past 5. I am salary. Most of the time I don't say anything about it but then when I need to leave at 2pm for a Drs appt or a meeting at the school for DD or have to take a long lunch for whatever reason I don't get dinged for it. The company always comes out ahead but that's OK. I am thankful to have a job that pays well and gives me the flexibilty I need sometimes.

 

[Feralpeg]

When I worked, I was a salaried employee for an IT company. I worked many weekends, evenings, middle of the night stints. I never got any comp time. During certain projects, I'd work 50 to 60 hour weeks. It was expected of a salaried employee.