Hey folks, just to follow up, I finally got the owner of the construciton company I work for alone and approached him about the salaried employee who takes the godawful long lunches (it hasn’t ceased in the slightest since I last griped to y’all about it) leaving me in the lurch from 7:30 AM until 1:30, 2 PM or later. I had a journal, keeping track for the last 60 days. I couched it in the terms of “how shall I approach asking her to consider my time?”, not at all demanding that HE do something about it.
Here’s what he said:
“She’s on salary. She can do with her time whatever she wants, whenever she wants. I’m more worried about the fact that she is going to have some serious downtime some day soon due to her excessive weight, and then what will we do? The place will have to close!”
I guess that means, drop the lunch hour complaint and drop it now!
It also means that he doesn’t have the slightest clue as to what this girl knows or does as all three of the other women here, myself included, could cover for her if an emergency came up. The only thing that “would go undone” in the event of extended sick time would be the errands she runs daily for office supplies. I think, although I might be wrong here, that we could remain open for business, albeit without paperclips or staples.
I give up. I’ll eat at my desk while she is out on her forever-lunches, and take my lunch late without complaint. And I will leave the company, as I have planned to, this Spring., without looking back.
Whoah. I read the thread you’re refering to all the way through, I don’t remember if I responded at all. That’s pretty lame, I wish you could make your boss understand that all you really want to know is what time your lunch will be every day. I feel for ya!
It doesn’t seem like you have much other choice. If the boss complains about you eating at your desk on those days when you can’t wait, I’d mention that it’s more important for you to eat at a regular time as long as it disturbs no one, as they’re not willing to correct salaried employee’s timekeeping issues.
I have been on salary many times in my life, and that has never been true. Why bother coming to work? There has not been a day in my working life when I would not have rather been somewhere else.
Tshaaa. I’m salaried, and while I’m not tied to a certain lunchtime, I am expected to adhere to core hours of business. And trust me, my boss is aware of the time I spend at work vs. running around somewhere. You get a certain amount of flexibility as a salaried person, but the trade-off is that you are available whenever you’re needed, regardless of the hours.
I agree with TroubleAgain. Sometimes when I’ve had salaried jobs, I had the freedom to set my own hours, but it was usually to set them longer and longer!
But, you know, Kentucky has a labor law that requires that hourly employees be granted a lunch period within a two hour window in the middle of their shift. For example, if you work 9 to 5, you must be allowed your lunch break between the hours of 12 and 2 pm. You can’t be required to take lunch at 11 am or after 2 pm. Maybe your state has something along those lines.
I had exactly this problem in my previous job - a colleague who went out to lunch until all hours knowing I couldn’t go for my own lunch until she came back. My bosses also couldn’t have cared less.
It sounds like you’ve done all you can to bring the problem to your employers’ attention, and if they’re not going to deal with it then leaving is the right thing to do. I wish you a speedy departure and success in finding a better job.
I realize she’s probably not spending all that time eating, but still, “Long lunch hours are not a problem, but soon-to-be clinical obesity is!” is a total PHB statement.
I have worked set hours (including a fixed lunch break), flexihours (you kept track of when you worked) and even had a job where the boss told me my targets and left it to me to set my own hours.
However I have talent and qualifications and your colleague seems to have little of either. Therefore your complaint is fully justified, and if nothing is done, leave for a good job.
Your coworker must have pictures of him diddling little boys or something. Yeah, good thing you’re quitting, because you’re getting nowhere in a toxic situation like that.
I concur. Long Lunch Loser Lady is no longer your problem; you tried to follow proper procedure and bring a legitimate workplace issue to your boss, and were rebuffed. It’s time to go elsewhere.
Thanks for all your support. I have learned that MT has no set laws regarding lunch or breaks, that it is entirely up to the employer to “do the right thing”, so I’ve not even got a legal leg to fall back upon, not that I have considered pushing this issue at all further.
And yes, in essence this woman does have “photos of the boss abusing young children”, or the emotional equivalent: he went thru a painful, protracted divorce a few years ago and she basically took over his day-to-day life for him while he sunk into depression for a while, including washing his laundry, cleaning his place, buying food and preparing it for him, caring for his children on the weekends, etc. She was a surrogate wife for a time, except for sex (and I only have her word on that part, but she is a very prudish person, overly self-conscious of her weight, won’t even get an annual female checkup due to not wanting to be touched by a medical professional, etc.). Thus, she has been allowed to exert a stranglehold on Boss-man which apparently isn’t going to let up anytime soon, to the detriment of future employees and the business as a whole. But not up to ME to point this out to anyone, even if I could!
I do like a small-office environment, but the throwback to the Dark Ages of employee treatment is not suitable—if I’ve gained nothing else, I have learned to watch for this in the future, something I’d never considered before, even in my worst employment experience.
Thats a bad situation. I can’t believe he just hung you out to dry like that. He either has no clue what you do or zero appreciation for it or both. It’s resume time in a major-league way (they need to go out like you’re unemployed and the rent is due).
I look forward to reading the thread about your new job, as I know it will be a better one.
(A Better job, not a better thread. I like your threads; keep posting!)
BTW, for all of you who are salaried and do not take advantage of your work hours in the way this woman does, I applaud you…this is the first time I have been hourly since I was very young myself and I never worked anywhere that might have tolerated this behavior on the part of myself or other salaried employees. The young lady in question had best hope the business never goes belly-up, lest she have to experience a “real job”, far from the comforting bosom of this company.
