Doper opinions on time spent in the workplace.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I need some Doper opinions on how to approach a situation in my workplace.

Here’s the background:
I’ve been at my current workplace for about a month and a half. I’m salaried, so I’m not an hourly employee. Although I’m a product manager, I’m surrounded by people who work on an hourly basis as call center reps. I understand that they have very rigid, structured hours and am, myself, required to put in a minimum number of hours per week (40) to earn my keep. I have no problem with that - that’s just part and parcel to having a job and being an adult.

When I started, I was given to understand that all employees had flex time - as long as I put in 8 hours a day sometime between the hours of 7 and 6, I could leave early or late.

Here’s my current situation:
I am about an hour away from work. Because it takes me so long to get here, generally get in around 8:30 if not earlier, work through lunch and somehow manage to put in about 45-50 hours. On certain days I drop off my son at daycare, I come in a little later, but always before 9, and stay until 6; on days I don’t drop off my son, I come in earlier, usually at 8:15 and work until 4:45 to get to daycare on time to pick him up to avoid traffic because it takes me an hour to get there.

My problem:
One of the hourly employees who happens to be a call center supervisor supporting our team complained to my boss this week that I was leaving early. My boss addressed it with me and seemed to be doing so because he felt obligated because the woman is very vocal if she feels people are flaunting the rules. I explained my situation, indicated that I understood why she might be upset; however, also explained that I was putting in a full 40 hours if not more. I apologized that it was causing an issue. My boss responded that our hours are between 9 and 5 (news to me) and indicated I should try to keep those hours to avoid pissing off other employees. I indicated I would stay until 5 on the dot if necessary, but if I couldn’t pick up my son on time, we would need to address the issue further.

Since I’ve started this job, I feel like certain benefits that attracted me in the first place have been misrepresented. I was told by HR I could operate on flex time; my boss has now appeared to tell me otherwise. I was told by the recruiter and HR that I could telecommute. My boss refuses - doesn’t think that’s a good idea. I’m going to follow up with an e-mail summarizing our discussion and including a spreadsheet of my time (I kept tabs to make sure they were getting their money’s worth) and will also ask for a follow-up meeting because I don’t want to take off in a huff over something stupid and small. However, if they’re going to quibble with me on 15 minutes, a 15 minutes that could prevent me from picking up my son on time, and I’m putting all the hours required of me and then some, I’m not sure I want to be there. Add to that a busybody who has, in addition to reporting what she feels is a huge issue but is only a question of 15 minutes, also reports it to my boss if I forget to turn off my computer at night. So the idea of staying is becoming less and less appealing.

So, what are your thoughts, Dopers?

Am I in the wrong here with respect to time? Should I just suck it up and put in my hours as if I were hourly? Doing so would mean I’d have to rearrange my son’s and my husband’s schedules and I really don’t want to.

If it were you, would you start looking? Would you be willing to work with a nosey busybody who reports your every move to your boss? I hate tattlers. They drive me nuts and in this case I feel she’s stepped over the line. Agree or disagree?

2

You’re putting in extra hours and they’re quibbling when you leave 15 minutes early? I’d start looking. Especially since you were misled about flex time and telecommuting.

3

I would start looking personally. I am salaried and I still get overtime, too. I’ll be dogged if I am going to consistently work 45 to 50 hours a week and not get paid for it. Unless my base salary is significantly higher than what I currently make.

4

It sounds like you need to sit down with your boss and HR and work out exactly what the rules are. Explain to them why you took the job, and explain that if those reasons were misrepresented, that it’s just not as good a fit as you thought it was.

5

From a technical perspective, flex-time and telecommuting are virtually always at the discretion of the manager. It’s too bad your manager doesn’t get it, but that’s the truth. Legally, it is also OK to mandate your salaried workers keep office hours.

Whether you should stay or go really depends on what your options are. If you’re doing a great job for the company, you may have luck negotiating.

6

You do have a written contract of employment, don’t you? What does it say?

7

I think that unless you have a written agreement you’re pretty much stuck with whatever schedule that they want you to work, but I’d discuss the 15 minute issue with them one more time. I would have never even considered saying no to a good employee that worked for me because it’s such a trivial and reasonable accommodation. I would think they would at least consider it given the difficulty of having to manage child care and work schedules. If not, I would start looking for a more flexible employer.

8

I don’t think the flex-time issue is as dire as you portray it. According to the OP, your boss confirmed that the business hours are 9-5 and you should try to be there during that time. That’s not bad advice, particularly when you are working with hourly folks who may need access to you between 9 and 5 (their required hours). He didn’t say you had to work those hours, just that those are best.

If you want to save the job, you might consider finding a way to let the tattler know that you are leaving early to be able to pick up your son. Yes, you owe her no explanation. But, if you can get her to quit being resentful, it will make your life easier.

The telecommuting issue is another story. As is his right, your boss has said you can’t do that. If that flexibility is important to you, I would start looking for another job.

9

Your experience may be different, but I wouldn’t recommend this tactic. Hourly call-center folks have to bend their schedules to hell and back to accommodate their own childcare needs. The fact that the OP gets to leave early to make her family life easier could well be at the root of the resentment. If the OP wants to get this woman to be more understanding of the situation, the tack to take is that as a salaried person you work the hours needed to get the job done, and if that means overtime it is unpaid.

10

I agree that my suggestion is not a guaranteed fix and, in fact, could backfire. It really depends on the personalities involved.

It appears that the boss isn’t going to step in and deal with the tattler. So, if overlyverbose wants to stay in the job and be happy, she’s going to have to find some way to deal with the tattler, either directly or indirectly. Of course, there’s always the possibility that there is no dealing with this person and she’s going to make everyone miserable regardless of what they do. With the info we have, it’s hard to tell.

11

Thanks for all the opinions so far. Upon further reflection, I think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. However, this is the second or third time the busybody has stricken. Last time, as noted in my original post, she reported to my boss that I had not completely shut down my computer. Her problem was that I had not turned off the monitor. Everything else was off. So, she sat me down for a “serious” talk about it and left me a post-it and had my boss have a sit-down with me, too. It was the most absurd overreaction I’ve ever experienced. The post-it alone would have sufficed. I don’t do any work at all that requires a security clearance of any sort - they don’t even require us to swipe into the building in the morning.

I think I’ll just sit down with my boss and talk about it. I’ll suck it up and get there at 7:45 if necessary to make up the “precious” 15 minutes - before my busybody neighbor.

With respect to the written contract, I work in an at-will state, so no contract. The flex time is a company policy and one that virtually all employees - my boss and busybody included - take advantage of. In fact, my boss frequently telecommutes because he has to.

12

If the Complainer is not your supervisor, you should complain to your supervisor and HR about the behavior. It is simply not her place to complain about you if you are not interfering with her Reports.

13

I don’t have much useful advice for you other than whatever’s been said, but I did want to pop on and say I don’t think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. If I took a job with the understanding that it had flextime and I could telecommute occasionally, and then they said “oh sorry! we’re not gonna do that!” I’d be royally pissed, and would definitely be discussing the situation with HR.

14

I’d clarify with your boss, and leave it alone with the busybody. You only gratify her by responding to the provocation–you can be as gentle and direct as you want and she’ll go straight to HR about your “hostility.” Instead, let her either amp up her behavior or switch to a different target. Either way, this will be visible to others and her karma will take care of itself.

15

You got a serious sit-down talk because you left a monitor on? :eek:

Look for a another job. NOW. Because unemployment rates are rising, thus it is only going to get harder to find a real job as time goes on.

And whatever you do, don’t go explaining yourself to the busybody. She’s not your boss, she’s not even your peer. It’s none of her damn business.

16

No kidding. When he sat me down, all I could think was, “Are you freaking kidding me?!?” At first I thought he was joking. Then I thought I was stuck in the movie Office Space and had forgotten to put that cover sheet on my TPS report.

The thing that sucks is any communication I have with him over the next week will necessarily be via e-mail because he’s telecommuting. I’d like to take care of this ASAP because there are other employees around me; at the same time, I feel like I’d have a better shot at reason if I do it face to face. I guess I’ll just suffer through the week, doing my best not to freak out, and set up a meeting to discuss the issue with him a week from Monday.

I never thought this could ever be an issue - it seems so petty and stupid. If I were call center, that’d be one thing. I’d have to stop being a princess and just do my job. But I’m not call center and I don’t have set hours when I absolutely must be accessible. The even bigger joke is that, although I was given to understand when I started that my hours were 8 to 5, when I had the discussion, he said they were 9 to 5, a full hour less per day than what I was working to begin with!

At my previous company, you left when you had to because we all had laptops and were accessible anyway. But if I’m not allowed the option to have a laptop and I’m not permitted to take advantage of company flex time, I don’t see how this can work at all.

Compounding the whole issue was that when we had this discussion, I had just found out the night before that a very close relative had died. I didn’t break down, but I had one of those moments when I felt almost like I was hallucinating and couldn’t say a whole lot other than, “Uh, yeah, but I have been working more than 40 hours a week.”

17

A verbal contract is still a contract - at least here in the U.K.

18

OK, now it’s really not so hard to tell; your coworker is crazy. That alone wouldn’t be enough for me to leave a good job. However, if your boss indulges her craziness (like giving you a “serious talk” about leaving on your monitor), that is enough reason to start looking. Either he’s crazy too or he’s too much of a pushover to stand up to her. Either way, it’s going to make for a miserable place to work.

But I wouldn’t quit without something better lined up, of course.

19

Yeah, my first move would be sitting down with my boss and hammering out my hours and telecommuting (it’s fine for him to say you can’t, but since you were told you could, that needs to be straightened out, too). I have a feeling his response to all of it will be, “Well, I’m sorry you were told that, but here’s how it actually is” in which case you do need to decide if it’s worth quitting over. I’d also straighten out the busybody co-worker issue - what relation is she to you, that your boss is listening to all her silliness? Sometimes a boss’ job is to be a buffer between his worker and other staff - maybe you need to find out if your boss actually knows that.

20

People who talk about this as a matter of your legal rights miss the point.

When you were hired, you were told that employees got flex-time and could telecommute. This was a misrepresentation, and it has led you to be unhappy in your place of employment and to consider looking for a new job. Also, you have a busybody who is trying to boss you around despite not being your boss.

While your boss and HR are not legally obligated to live up to their promises (probably), they should be interested in the information that this misrepresentation has made you very dissatisfied in your job. Most bosses recognize that there are significant costs involved if an employee leaves a company. Not only do they lose all the value of the training you received, but they have to find someone new to hire and train them. Assuming your boss is rational, a candid talk about your concerns and dissatisfaction might lead him/her to decide it would be more prudent to deliver on the original promises with you. Also, you should absolutely address with them the issue of the hourly worker who is trying to supervise you.

I had to deal with these issues myself last year at my workplace. I found that a polite, firm talk with my boss (no ultimatums, just an airing of my grievances) took care of the situation. In your case, I would insist on an in-person meeting with boss and HR because HR was the department that made the misrepresentations with you when you were hired. I wouldn’t say “I’m quitting” or “I’m thinking of leaving.” I would just clearly state, “I’m not satisfied by this situation. It makes my working life very unpleasant.”

There are many reasons for employers to satisfy their employees. Legal obligation is not the only one.

ETA: If you want more details on how I handled the situation at my own job, I am happy to provide.