Son Of Boss, and Salary hijinks....

These guys kill me....I am starting to hate small family owned
business...heres the lowdown:

I work for a small company for a set salary of $xxxxx.xx. No overtime
is paid for working over 40 hours.

Normal time off/vacation is this: 2 weeks vacation, and 4 days
personal/sick time.

I have missed 8 days this year so far...3 for when my mother was in
the hospital having major surgery, and 5 for my dads funeral, 1500
miles away. I took one other day cause I was pretty sick.

I didnt think anything about it, till today. Son of Boss walks into my
office, with a sheet in hand...says if I miss anymore time, it will be
without pay. HE says they are "giving" me the 4 days I went over
(personal days). I was shocked, to be blunt.

so, now if I miss a day, for whatever reason, Im no longer making the
agreed upon salary for a year....this seems wrong to me...


I am a good employee, work at least 1/2 hour over each day, sometimes
longer...I am on the road running errands and getting supplies/talking
with vendors, and dont charge for gas or anything like that...I give
my all and then some for the company (SOB even said he was happy with
what I was doing).


So, am I wrong to feel slighted??...is it out of line to expect a few
extra days with no penalty to bury your father??..What do you
think??...

 

I agree.

Hirings are increasing it is time to find a new job. Working here in the
U.S. is turning into turn of the century work again!!

Me

 

So, am I wrong to feel slighted??...is it out of line to expect a few

The whole point to being on salary is so the company doesn't have to pay you
the overtime for all the extra stuff you do. Basically they get more work
out of your for less pay. Of course, normally this means that you don't
have to clock in/out for lunch, are afforded a little leeway when it comes
to being in your seat at 8am sharp, things like this.

If they are going to nit-pick your hours now, then give them the solid 40hr
work week they are paying you for and stop doing all the extra little
things. It's hard to say to deny them things (like not charging for milage)
due to them being a small company though... so perhaps the best thing to do
is to move on to greener pastures.

I think you are perfectly normal for feeling slighted. Extra days for a
death in the family should be a given at any company that cares for their
employees.

 

ah, yes, yet another example of clueless regressive management. It will
never go away.

I think the other guy is right, though: bereavement time is typically
separate from sick time (and typically 3 days allowed). Unless your
companies Personnel Policies are so out of date that they treat you the way
they did.

It's hard not to take it personnally (it's clear that you did), but maybe
this is an opportunity to educate that idiot about how to motivate and
retain his employees. Assuming you ARE the perfect model employee that you
say you are, and if you think he's approachable, then perhaps you can
eliminate all of your emotion from this situation and then go to him and
have a man-to-man. Explain how you've done a good job, have the performance
reviews and references to prove it, and how this latest episode disappointed
you because of the company's failure to be as flexible with you as you have
been with them. You've had some difficult personal times in the last year
and blah blah blah. Try to get him to empathize, and then try to get him to
see that in his effort to enforce the letter of the law he's killed your
morale and motivation. Talk. Discuss. Seek common ground. You're both
mature professional adults, it doesn't have to be a p*ssing contest.

Poor B*stard probably doesn't have any idea what a truly stupid thing he's
done. And the company suffers for it. He can't take the blame, after all
because he's the boss' son...so they must blame the employees, right? Or
he's trying to impress his Daddy the Dinosaur by being tough on employees?
Who knows what motivates Neandertals like that?

If you can make him open his eyes, then maybe you can address the issue of
their Byzantine time-off policy and be the hero of all the other employees.

If you try to bully, threaten, or make it personal, you've lost. Don't even
go there.

Working for a company is like marriage...it ALL depends on "The Big
C"...Communication. Who knows? You may create something amazing with the
attempt to reconcile one-on-one (it's worked amazingly well for me in the
past). But if nothing comes of it, then by all means move on as fast as you
can...it's not a company for whom you want to work. But above all else be
gentlemanly about it.

Moe&TheBoys, but I'm_Curly_Today

 

What's wrong with this picture? I do the math, and you haven't even
used up all of your vacation time yet!

Was "Son of Boss" only referring to your personal/sick time, or is
your vacation time rescinded? You need to get clarification on that
point. If it's not w.r.t. vacation time, they are actually being fair
on this point. Perhaps you weren't clear when you took your time off
whether you wanted to take vacation days for that time.

I'm facing some ailing parent issues that will require me to take time
off. I went to our HR guy (we have one here) to get details about
company policy, etc. HR's answer was simple boilerplate: in the U.S.,
there is the "Family and Medical Leave act of 1993" which details
employer and employee rights and responsibilities when family health
issues require leave from work. There are even standard forms to be
endorsed by doctors if necessary. Whenever you need to leave work for
a family emergency, get the forms and get them endorsed, even if your
employer doesn't require them.

Your employer is not required to grant paid leave. They must grant
unpaid leave within reason. If you got 4 days free (not counting
against vacation) you are getting a fair deal.

 

Tick is right if they gave 4 extra days of paid personal time, and you still
have your 2 wks vacation left that is a fair deal. You had better be sure
that you still have your agreed upon vacation time before you get too hot
about the issue. For a death in the family you are allowed unpaid leave by
law and it seems your employer gave you extra paid leave for the occation.
That would mean that they have gone over and above the contract already.

Corey

 

I think you guys are missing the point here.

The fact that his employer actually brought it up just shows they didn't
want to pay him while he was burying his father, but couldn't find a tactful
way of getting out of it.

If he's putting in an extra 30 minutes per day regardless of whether it is
needed then
he's logging an extra 15.5 work days over the course of a year - unpaid. Yet
the first
time he runs into a personal sitiuation they nickel and dime him on it.

This is pretty much the family business mantra, if you aren't part of the
family, you
are nothing but a machine.

Since they have shown that they will not support a good employee during
trying times, I would
drop down to 40 hours per week and find another gig ASAP.

 

"The nice thing about being in a company you don't like is that it
encourages you to leave."

"Staying anywhere more than 2 years is foolish- move up or move out."

my personal mottos

Laz

 

I agree the "Son of Boss" used absolutely no tact in this matter but the
fact is they are not giving him the shaft they just don't have propper
skills in approaching employees. I had a boss once that was giving us some
nice profit sharing checks. Then he had the audasity to mention that he was
only doing it because the accountant said he would save in taxes by doing
it, when he could have left it to our imagination, and boosted morale.
Instead he looked like the penny pinching idiot that he is.

Corey

 

What if the third year you get more vacation?

 

Is this what the American workforce has to put up with?

No matter what the sums are, the boss's son sounds like a right arse!
Move on and let them find another mug to do the job.

Maybe it's our British temperament, but we would never stand for that
behaviour from my bosses and they know it!

Just an example, an British/Indian worker at our company, lost his father in
India and this worker was given 3 weeks leave with full pay and a lift to
the airport.( and picked up too, lol)
Ps:- this is a small family run business too.

 

Corey,

Son of Boss could have approached this by asking how he was doing and
commenting on what
a trying year the employee was having. If the boss had some sort of concern
that he was being
taken advantage of he could of offered some words of encouragement and
support to the
poor guy. If anything the employee would feel indebted to the company for
standing by him
when he needed it. I think these bozos are giving the employee the shaft by
making the guy feel
guilty for tending to his family.

The jackass boss tells the guy he can't pay him for any further time off
including sick days, what he
is really doing is penalizing his employee for events that he had no control
over.

Even if the guy isn't the greatest employee, which doesn't appear to be the
case here, treatment like that
is shameful.

I say cut back to 40 hours, find another gig and don't give them any notice
when you quit, maybe then they'll learn how to treat people properly.

 

CDignition,
I think I can speak for us all in saying that we are sorry about
your loss. Your "Son of Boss" is being a prick and you don't have to take
it.

If you feel you are being wronged by all means find a way out. I worked for
a penny pinching, no tact, unappreciative, selfish, idiotic, boss with no
concept of real time, and the day I quit was the most freeing, liberating,
happy day of my life (aside from the day I married my wife and the day my
daughter was born). So if you are unappreciated go somewhere you will be
appreciated.

Corey

 

An extra half-hour a day is not the kind of extra effort that merits
this level of self-righteous indignation. An hour or two daily, maybe
then you can cry.

 

Just an example, an British/Indian worker at our company, lost his father
in

Some small businesses are simply more understanding than others. Sounds
like you found one of the good ones.

 

Being where I want to be.... usually I say that when I'm in a rut, you
get used to doing the same thing day in day out- yes, it is
comfortable, but is it challenging ? no. are you learning anything new
? are you expanding and developing your capabilities ? if you are not,
then you are wasting your time...
think like Zarathrustra, hate where you are, fight for better

 

No, actually, the attitudes and laws regarding work and workers differ
significantly in Europe from here in the US. In Europe the well-being
of people are (properly) much more likely to be regarded as the reason
why companies and work exist. Here, companies and profit are regarded
as the end, not the means. Especially by Republicans.

'Sporky'

 

Of course you filled out the paperwork for family and medical leave for
these two family related matters? And you cleared all this with them ahead
of time?

 

Mike Grant:

We really ought to talk. Contact me, if you wish. Just change the
"3" to a "4" in my email address.

I left my dad's business some years ago. It took an enlistment in the
U.S. Navy to get me firmly out of reach. The enlistment led to
opportunity, and ultimately a degree.

I am not trying to recruit you into the armed forces. I do recommend
getting the FiretrUCK outta there, if only for a while. It will be
good for everyone: you, your dad, his business.

I must say, the culture at my dad's business is quite different than
this. He treats his employees quite well. Likewise, they are quite
loyal to him. I had gone back to work for him from time to time, when
I was in school or between jobs. Being the boss's kid, you have to
work twice as hard to look half as good, even in the best of
situations.

 

He's given the guy 15.5 FREE days a year, he deserved better treatment
during a family crisis.

Furthermore, if you're putting 30-45 unpaid days a year into someone else's
business
but your own then you're a fucking moron and a sucker.