Salary Employee Compensation

Welcome back,

This last week at work has kept me pretty busy and left me mentally drained. My manager took his week vacation, which it seems he had great weather for most of it

I don’t mind covering extra hours, life happens and things come up… A few hours here, a few hours there, and for the most part I don’t think too much about it. But being expected to work open to close everyday for the next 6 days, ( a total of 64.5 hours ) and only getting paid for 40 hours did not sit well with me. Part of this ill feeling stems from last May when I worked 3 weeks open to close, (about 55-60 hours each week) doing the work of an Assistant Manager at the very least and only getting paid 40 hours a week… Once a new manager was found, I did get a ” Thank You” and 1 extra day off (with out pay). What a way to show your employees how much they are appreciated!

So I raised the question about getting paid for the extra time I’m putting in, and a few phone calls later it was decided that our driver (who we are trying to train) would be asked to come in later and stay to close to help lessen the load.

The plan now was for me to come in and open each day at 7am and stay until 5 pm ( I could leave at 4pm as long as business was slow ) and I was to clock out for an hour for lunch… That would have put me around 46 to 50 hours depending on what time I actually clocked out for the day. Anything between 40-45 hours, I’m not going to complain too much… But working 10+ hours more and not getting compensated isn’t right.

For the employee that is paid on an hourly basis, there would not have been such an issue.. As they would have been paid for the total of hours that they worked and anything over 40 hours would be time and a half. The rules are different when you are an employee that gets paid a salary (based on a 40-44 hour week). That’s how this cheap ass company gets around paying their employees overtime. As far as I know, The managers are all paid based on a 50 hour/week salary which seems pretty standard. After contacting our Human Resources, we were told that it was up to the General Manager, as to whether I would be compensated for the extra time I will put in. Seems there is nothing in the “Handbook” that states that I should not.

For those inquiring minds that want to know, I clocked in 51.5 hours last week ( from Thursday to Wednesday as that is our pay period ). Although I really put in close to 53 hours since my last day off. I was never able to take an hour lunch, as I didn’t have the coverage to do so… So I took 5-10 minutes to sit and eat when I could. The only day I clocked out for a 15 minute break was Monday, I was gone long enough to drive a 1/4 mile away for gas and I came back to work.

As busy as the week was, I feel it went smoothly with no major issues. It was just as we expected though, one person on vacation and it was the busiest week this year! The last 2 weeks were super slow with a few busy moments, but for the most part the shop was dead after 2pm. But not this week, Monday was the easiest since there wasn’t an order to check in. Tuesday and Wednesday were non stop busy, while Thursday and Friday I could start to see things slow down a bit and I had time to catch up on things. Saturday went by at a nice pace and it was 2pm before I knew it!

The Service Dept was great and the guys in the shop were understanding and did what they could to make things easier for me… The same goes for the ladies in the office, after the second page to Parts, they would take a message and email them to me, that was a big help too. My main focus was the guys in the shop and the customers waiting, as for the phone calls.. well I called everyone back as time permitted. As tempting as it was to hurl my computer at work right through the tech window and into the shop, it remains unharmed at my work station There is nothing worse than trying to look up and locate a part for a customer and the programs you use just lock up and freeze and you have to close them down and re boot… a few times each day!

The Service Manager asked me how many extra hours I thought I’d be putting in, I told him, at this rate it looks like 11 hours. He took it upon himself to talk to the General Manager on my behalf, letting him know that I have been busting my ass back there, and that I was doing a hell of a job and I deserve to get paid for the extra time I am putting in! The GM said he’d speak with the Office Manager (don’t ask me why she needs to get involved) and the last I heard from the Service Manager, The GM wants to talk to my manager when he gets back, and there was talk about maybe giving my some time off…. Whether it was time off with pay , I don’t know…

Personally I’d rather see the compensation in my paycheck as that is where I can use it the most! Sure time off sounds nice, but it’s not like I have a family to come home to…And I’m sure the offer will expire with in 1 month, so I can’t use the extra day off when it would work best for me. Like when James comes down next month and a 3 day weekend would be great! But knowing this company and getting screwed for the last 3 years, this is what I see happening..

A) The GM talks to my manager and his master plan is that I get to take 1 day off (with out pay).

B) The GM talks to my manager and thinks 1 day off WITH pay is generous.

C) My manager sticks up for me and requests that I get paid for the time I put in.

D) Nothing happens as they can’t come to an agreement.

In any case I’m not getting my hopes up. I appreciate that the Service Manager stepped in on my behalf… I’ll be sure to post what the outcome is from all of this.

I’d love to hear from some one that knows the laws pertaining to salary employees and if we are entitled to compensation if we work more than our contracted hours.