Was it made clear to you, when you got the job, who you are supposed to report to? When you say that she “watches over” you, does this mean that part of her job is to supervise you?
If she is your immediate superior, you should go to her first. Then, if that doesn’t work, go to the big boss. But don’t alienate her unnecessarily by going over her head before you give her a chance to make things right.
Yes, going to the CEO instead of your direct supervisor will piss off both of them. Go to your direct supervisor and work out your schedule. And make sure that your absences are planned in advance.
It wasn’t made clear at all.
Shes the one that yelled at me for the lunch break. She is the one that I call when I am sick. She is the one I let know when I step away from my desk
I emailed my friend, the only person I’d be comfortable to ask in the office.
She said “I have 2 breaks cause I smoke. If you take 2 breaks you get a 30min.
lunch.”
I don’t even want the breaks just equal treatment.
That all equals supervisor to me. I’d start with her.
After you read your contract so that you know what you are and are not entitled to.
Alright.
When she yelled at me for the breaks I did say I was confused and why and she said she would talk to the CEO but hasn’t mentioned anything about it. Its been a while.
I will approach her again after knowing the four hour rule and how to say it.
Real-life threads about legal and medical matters are best started in IMHO, rather than General Questions. There you can receive all the opinions you need. Moved.
samclem, Moderator
Thanks!
FYI, here is the FAQ from the California Department of Industrial Relations on the subject of rest breaks.
ohh thank you Dewey!
I think the solution is obvious; you need to start smoking if you want some breaks. 
(I wish this wasn’t the way it actually works at a lot of companies.)
I worked at one company where a couple of us took “fresh air breaks.” Anyhow, the OP was very unwise to take a long lunch break without first clearing that with the supervisor. And given that she’s now pissed off the supervisor, I’d recommend that she not rock the boat by being too aggressive about demanding her breaks (although she is entitled to them).
I have to agree, especially since she says she doesn’t care if she gets the breaks or not, that she just wants equal treatment. Citing the law to a supervisor is a sure way for a new* employee to get placed on The List (which she might already be on since she says this supervisor doesn’t like her).
*I’m guessing about the “new” part, since she assumed she could take a 50 minute lunch break, even though everyone else took 30 minutes.
But I do think she should get those 10 minute breaks. I worked reception once, and if the OP’s desk is as busy as mine was, she needs the breaks.
mskatied, you say the woman who fills in for you is the one who suggested you get equal treatment. How about asking her if she’d cover your breaks? If she agrees, let your supervisor know that arrangements have made for your breaks to be covered. Just don’t raise a stink if you don’t get those breaks every day. In my experience, good receptionists are extremely valuable – they’re the face of the company – but management doesn’t always recognize this.
She is your “real” boss, regardless of what you might think about it.
If you’re friends with the CEO I wouldn’t advertise it, especially to your supervisor – that implies that she’s not the boss of you. This is the kind of attitude that will create problems for you and make your stay at that company a short one.
I got to ask, is this your first job ever?
You need to be much more concerned about doing a good job and making sure your position is covered than to be worrying that they’re cheating you out of ten minutes.
Don’t start smoking, that’s stupid. Don’t insist on a “fresh air” break, either.
It’s reasonable that you take a break during the day – I would think you can arrange for this with the woman who covers for you. Your supervisor and the CEO need not be involved. The important thing is that your situation is covered when you’re there and in the ten minutes or half an hour that you’re not there, show you’re an adult who can be reasonable and doesn’t need to be supervised about breaks.
Even if you feel that all you owe them is your scheduled time and not a nanosecond more, to act in that fashion and not show willingness to work and give and take and etc., that brands you as a clockwatcher, a troublemaker. Those negative kinds of signs are doubled if you quote employment law at supervisors. If you don’t want to advance in that company or get raises or make friends or have any consideration for any other job that might open up to you, that’s the way to go.
Showing willingness to do what is necessary to get the job done – even if a minute or two here or there is given “extra” – that greases the wheels and will make your everyday life and your immediate future at that workplace more better.
It’s not fun to be on the bottom of the food chain. There’s zero status and you’re expected to work long hard hours taking care of everybody else’s stuff. But if you’re just starting out, that’s where you start. You work up from there. Hope it works out for you.
Actually, it sounds like everyone else does on occasion take a 50-minute lunch, or at least has the option to do so, by skipping their regular breaks and tacking them onto their lunch period. It’s not unreasonable for the OP to presume that she has that same option.
If it were just 10 minutes, I’d agree with you. But it’s not. It’s twenty minutes, every single workday. Assuming the OP works 5 days a week and gets two weeks vacation, that’s 5000 minutes a year–more than 83 hours. Two full work weeks they will have illegally cheated her out of in a year’s time. If she were bilking them out of two weeks’ pay a year, they’d consider that a hell of a big deal, so they can’t claim that it’s somehow not a big deal when they steal two weeks of labor from her.
I’m with this. If you report to the person, etc…, she’s your boss. Yes, I know…it sounds to me like you are not fully grounded in what’s going on. You don’t know what being ‘covered’ means, and you get snippy about who your ‘real’ boss is. “The person who watches over me”??? WTF kind of description is that? Is she a bodyguard? A trustee for your trust, and the banker wants to make sure that you are at the office to fulfill the terms of the estate? Or, is it the person that tells you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and has authority over you/your job. Hmmmmm…“the person who watches over me…” This is unreal.
Something tells me that you won’t need to worry about your breaks being only 30 minutes, beginning very soon.
Best wishes.
CA employment lawyer checking in. This is not legal advice. Just legal information. I did not check the links that others provided, but I assume they have some of the following information. You are absolutely entitled to your ten-minute breaks every four hours. They are required to make those breaks available to you. It has nothing to do with your contract or anything you have signed. The California labor laws are essentially a minefield, and the most conscientious employer runs afoul of them without trying. But this is silly – they are breaking one of the most basic and well-known employment laws in California. It’s not “rocking the boat” whatsoever to insist on those breaks. I second the suggestion to do your job and do it well. I also agree that you should not have taken a 50-minute lunch without asking. If you decide you want to assert your rights regarding this issue, you don’t have to do it in any combative manner. Just firmly and pleasantly. If you have not done so already, I would probably apologize for the 50-minute lunch. “I want to apologize for taking a long lunch the other day. I mistakenly believed I could add my ten-minute breaks to my lunch. I will not do that again. However, I do need my morning and afternoon ten-minute breaks. I want to be sure that reception is covered so I would like to make sure we have a plan in place before I take my break today. Can {person who normally covers for you} cover me for my ten-minute breaks, or do we need to find someone else?”
Oh and by the way, it is also illegal for them to allow employees to add their ten-minute breaks to their lunch. Well, they can do that, but that does not excuse their obligation to give the ten-minute breaks every four hours. The timing of the breaks matter. An employer cannot consolidate them or let the employee leave 20 minutes early instead of giving the breaks.
Fyi - 1) currently they owe you one hour of pay for every day in which they have not given you your ten-minute break. Statute of limitations is 3 years. This is a penalty that people can sue for, but many employers know about this law and simply pay this penalty to employees on occasion if something goes awry during the day (say an emergency situation) and people couldn’t get their breaks. They just pay it on the next paycheck, which eliminates their liability for that particular missed break. You are entitled to one hour of pay for one or two missed rest breaks and one hour of pay for a missed meal break. (Two hours of pay if you missed one or both rest breaks and your meal break.) I am not suggesting you should sue them or even tell them about this, as quoting employment law to employers is not the way to climb the corporate ladder. However, they are not permitted to retaliate against you for requesting your breaks, such as by firing you or giving you a bad review because of your request. If they do that, they are liable for not only the wage and hour violations but also retaliation.
Of course, if your employer is unwise enough to deny you your ten-minute breaks, they may be unwise enough to terminate you for requesting your breaks, and even if you have a potential claim against them, losing your job is, of course, a lot of trouble, as is suing your employer. But there are other options besides getting a lawyer and suing. The California Labor Board can help with small wage and hour claims.
I could go on, but anyway, it is ridiculous that they would consider not having someone cover your for your ten-minute breaks. Everybody knows they have to give you your tens. I think probably monkeys in California know it.
This is strictly out of curiousity, but: When you say “ten-minute breaks every four hours,” my first thought is, if you work four hours in the morning, break for lunch, and then work four hours in the afternoon, that sounds like you wouldn’t need any additional breaks.
Does “ten-minute breaks every four hours” mean that you’re not allowed to go any longer than four hours without a ten-minute break, or that you’re required to have a ten-minute break sometime during any four-hour period of otherwise-uninterrupted work?
When I worked in a busy restaraunt, there were no “official” breaks. If it was busy you got none. If it got busy, you put your lunch aside and get back to work. You can’t necessarily tell customers “your server will be with you in 15 minutes because she’s having her lunch” bad for business. It was a lot of eating quickly on the run.
Plenty of good advice already, but I figured I’d chime in as well.
The way to get breaks without any resentment is to rock at your job. At a new job, work your butt off, and when you’ve finished with all your tasks, cheerfully tell your supervisor and ask if there’s anything else you can work on. If the supervisor has nothing, say, “Okay, well, if you have anything, let me know!” You might even check with co-workers to see if they have anything you can do. You want to to build up a reputation, ASAP, as a very hard worker. In my experience, it’s okay to be even a tiny bit annoying about it (don’t overdo it, but if your supervisor ends up feeling a tiny bit inadequate for not having enough work for you, that can work in your favor).
At that point, your supervisor will be grateful to you when you ask, very politely, “Is there any way I could take a break now?” Don’t tell the supervisor you’re going to take a break: the supervisor knows the law (almost certainly), and won’t appreciate your telling them their job. Just ask if now would be an okay time, and if you’ve been working like crazy, they’ll feel great about giving you a break.