Questions about being on salary.

The thing is in most states, absent a law that says you can’t do something you can do it.

For instance in Illinois, there is no law that says an employer has to pay an employee for being “on call.” Therefore an employer can hook you up to a beeper 24/7/365

Private work agreements are not usually enforceable as most work is “at will” and can be changed. It may give you some negotiation room if you quit and seek unemployment. You can collect unemployment if you quit for good cause.

For instance, in one company we moved our bookkeeping from a 9-5 shift to the overnight shift. We figured instead of hiring an overnight person to sit around, we’d have the overnight guy do bookkeeping as well. Basically combine the two jobs.

We offered the bookkeeper who was working 9a-5p the overnight job. She refused. She quit and filed for unemployment. Our company fought it claiming she was given another job at a higher shift wage differential. We lost. The unemployment arbitrator said, the working conditions of overnight are substantial enough to be “just cause” for quitting.

In every place I’ve worked where we did payroll what people failed to realize is salary people never worked 9-5 Monday through Friday, even if they actually did.

We put them in the payroll system NOT as working 9am - 5pm / Monday through Friday, but as 5.471 hours per day EVERY day of the week, Sunday through Saturday. So technically salary people worked every day, even though the reality was different.

The problem the OP faces is massive unemployment. You quit there are only far too many people, probably more qualified ready to take your position. You have little room for negotiation. If you try to get “pushy” and make them stick to the letter of your first employment agreement be prepared for backlash. They may well give you those 8 hours but then they will make darn well sure YOU live up to the agreement in every other way.

Just wait till the first day you’re in at 9:01am instead of 9am. As Greg Brady found exact words are hard to live up to. :slight_smile:

As long as employers act in a way that is not legally discriminatory, they are pretty much in the drivers seat. They can change anything to YOU provided they don’t do it for a discrimintory reason. They can change your hours worked if they want to bring you into line with other workers but not 'cause you’re Chinese or Black.

If you’re unhappy I suggest you update your resume and start looking for work. Three things will happen. You’ll get a new job. Or you’ll find out there isn’t much out there and learn to accept your new lot or you’ll quit and learn to take less but be happy that you proved your point to the company and quit.

If you are exempt they can. You can complain and refuse because it is not acording to your offer letter. If you refuse then they probably can terminate you.

If you are not exempt and working in the USA then FLSA will apply to you and they are required to pay you for all hours over 40 per week and in some states 8 in a day.

Most supervisors with hire-fire and can give disipline are exempt. The question you need to get is are you exempt.

OK, since a lot of people say you are screwed…

You aren’t. It’s nonsense. You might have to work the time, you might not.

Everything is a negotiation, even outside the legal rules. If you want the time back badly enough, you can probably make a deal. If you want extra money for it, then regardless of what the law says, talk to your boss. Take a long lunch with him and discuss the situation. Even in a down economy, you can get a raise or options. Be respectful and understanding. Explain your situation and make sure he knows you understand his.

A lot of you guys must have really shitty jobs.

And smiling bandit above me is exactly right.

If you find yourself working 12+ hour days for no reason other than your boss is a dick - quit.
If you find yourself working 12+ hour days because the workload is insane - negotiate, quit if that fails.
If you find yourself working 12+ hour days because you’re in over your head and you’re thankful your boss hasn’t figured that out - keep your head down.

Holy crap, really? I would fire whomever sent me this email. If, instead, the question was “So I was up all Sunday night with the server migration, but everything looks solid now. Do you mind if I sleep until Wednesday?” I would say yes, and consider the employee highly when bonus time comes around.

People are hired on salary with the expectation that they will work off hours when needed. There is no such thing as extra work. The business has no concept of extra work. If it needs to be done and you’re the one to do it, you’d better fucking hurry up. If you can handle everything within office hours, great. If you can handle it between 10-3, even better. But if you need to work until 9 tonight to get this done before the morning, guess what I expect you to do?

Does not matter that there is no law about paying for being on call in Illinois. The NLRB has ruled that an employee must be justly compensate for all hours they are required to be on call.

This is precisely the attitude at my firm.
**There is no such thing as extra work. **

If you’re lucky, it all balances out. I’ve worked for places where the work load got horrendous when a new release was due. But, when things quieted down, you could come in late, leave early, take long lunches, or blow off days without using vacation time. I worked at one place that had no set vacation. If they weren’t busy, you could take off. This normally worked way in my favor. When the work needed to be done, however, you did what ever it took to get it done.