Mandate of Hours to an Exempt Employee

Cindy Davis

This employee is in a managerial position and is exempt salaried. This employee was recently issued a memo that states they are to be at work from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. With no mention of lunch or breaks. I believe the handbood states the customary work week is 40 hours monday through friday. People in this company work that are salaried work varied outs (i.e., 9-6; 8-5; some evening meeting work), but typically it is a M-F 8-5 job.

Question: Can they issue a memo saying when this employees hours our and exceed the customary 40 hour work week as a salaried exempt employee?

NaeNae55

Yes they can, but not without employees like you leaving in droves. Hope they figure that out before it's too late. If I were you, I would start my job search today.

Hatchetman

Since the employee is salaried, with the identification of the hours of work --6 a.m. to 7 p.m. -- 11 hours a day-- 5 days a week (I assume) the employer has now identified on what basis the salary is calculated (55 hours per week is what the salary is intended to cover). In comparison to other employers that's probably not that unusual in the way of work expectations that an exempt employee has placed on him or her by the employer.

Don D

The only times I have seen this happen were with salaried employees who insisted on charting their own course, coming in and leaving when they wanted to, and monkeying with the patience of management while hiding behind a shield of exemption. I have written such a memo myself. Sometimes extreme control measures are needed to get people's attention.

Rockie

I never mandate the number of hours an exempt employee works. On their letter of hire, I simply put "exempt" where it states number of hours. On ALL Letters of Hire, I specify the hours of work as 8AM - 5PM or as specified by supervisor. We have staggered and varied hours being a medical facility Some start at 6:30, some at 7:00; some at 8:00 and so on. There is no guarantee when you come in, what time you will leave, be you an hourly or a salaried person. Only difference is the hourly people get overtime. Most of the time, work times are pretty consistent, but, unlike working with widgets, you cannot leave patients at 5PM and walk out the door.

moneyman

Good post, we have similar situations. We have "office hours" and there are some jobs that require that you be here during all operating hours. There are other jobs that can be performed at other hours. We have flexible beginning times, however, the supervisors sets these for their departments. When you get hired, you are told what the expectations of your department are, and the supervisors usually know which time slot that they need to fill.

We have not had trouble with the exempts in "telling" them when they must be here. They also realize that it may entail time other than the regular hours.

Rockie

I think most exempt people expect to put in more than 40 hours/week most weeks. I know I couldn't get my job done in just 40 hours - be it coming in early or taking work home or whatever it takes to get the job done. Sometimes I work 45 - 50 hours a week; a lot of times it may be 40 and I have worked a couple of 16 hour days before. Usually, I get out of my job what effort I put into it. I am lucky enough to work for an organization that compensates fairly and gives a great deal of flexibility in schedules, conference time, educational opportunites, etc. I wouldn't stay in a position if I didn't feel appreciated.

Usually, salaried individuals get compensated at a higher rate and/or have enhanced benefits, flexibility in work schedules, "perks" or whatever to "make up" for not getting overtime.

moneyman

We try to keep our administrative salary people down to 40 hours, but we all know that is impossible. It is so easy to cut your lunch by 1/2 hour and stay a 1/2 hour longer, it doesn't seem like much, but when you calculate that out over a years time, that is a lot.

We do enjoy the little perks like not worrying about a lunch "hour", if one day it become 15 minutes extra, it is not a worry. For the most part, our lunch hour begins 11:30 and 1:30. People are coming and going during that time so if an exempt is a little late during that time, then it isn't really noticed. We are still small enough so that it is noticed if that situation is happening all of the time, and in the matter of employee morale, the issue would be addressed. However, people do realize that different jobs have different rules and that no matter how much you try to treat people equally, there will be some differences.

Like Rockie mentioned, if you have patients in the building at 5:00, your nurses or front office staff cannot just pick up and leave, however, your mail clerk or accounts receivable staff could.