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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Can a Salaried Employer Be Required to Take PTO for Absences from Work

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California.


    Having spent most of my career in tech, I am used to a very free flowing workplace with hours kind of set as you please and accountability for work being results driven.
    I am a now salaried employee for a luxury goods company in California.
    Let me preface by sayingI am the kind of employee who spends nights and weekends from home working on projects because that's when I am most comfortable and in the zone.
    My manager appreciates it, but frequently insists that I shouldn't do it. He has never told me I can't though and never asked me to stop.

    My manager also spends a lot of time accounting for minutes and time spent in the office.
    Just getting him to agree to let me work 8 to 5 because it works better for my commute was a pain.
    When I want to leave early, he insists on me coming in earlier. Same goes for when I come late.

    Now today the CEO sent this email to everyone in the company:

    Please take PTO in no less than half-day (4-hour) increments (for hourly employees, increments as small as 2 hours are okay)
    Please remember that our company does not have a work-from-home policy
    On occasions when you need to arrive late to/or leave early from the office, please try to stay late/or arrive early to make up those hours

    Now my manager has asked me to book 3 hours of PTO because I planned to leave early on Thursday to catch a flight.
    Also, he said that I should book an hour of PTO for leaving an hour early last friday.

    As an salaried exempt employee, I was not aware that I could be required to take PTO for taking a few hours off early.
    -- Am I wrong?

    -- Are they allowed to ask me to book PTO retroactively like this?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: Salaried Employees - Pto Guidelines and Retroactive Booking of Time Off

    Are you actually an exempt employee?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    1,142

    Default Re: Salaried Employees - Pto Guidelines and Retroactive Booking of Time Off

    There is such a thing as a salaried non exempt employee. Just because you're on salary does not mean you are exempt. And even if you are exempt, the employer still has the right to set your hours and ask you to work the hours and take the leave as they want you to.

    And what your employer is doing sounds exactly like the best way to handle hours for a non exempt employee. You do NOT let employees work overtime or volunteer their time or work at home or work through lunch, or leave early because I came in early, or just come in early and work through till quitting time. Because they are working unapproved overtime, or approved overtime, or whatever, and you are not paying them for that time, you are in violation of federal overtime laws. You could ultimately have to pay the employee for all these hours you allowed them to be at work, even though you didn't want them to be or they did it without your knowledge.

    You may say, "Oh I would never do that to my employer!" but then, you're not mad at them yet.

    In the place where I worked, doing 'unauthorized overtime' could get you warned, written up and ultimately fired. This happened to be a very big deal because we had an employee who got angry when reprimanded by her employer, and when terminated, sued the employer for hundreds of hours of unapproved and unrequested overtime that the employer actually knew she was working, had warned her NOT to work, and yet she was ultimately paid overtime for those hours though she was there without the employer's consent.

    Get over it. The employer has the right to set your work hours. You may be the greatest employee in the world and you may have formerly had a wonderful job where you were able to set your own hours and work when you were at your most productive, but that job is gone. Now that you are working for this employer, work the hours they set for you, follow their guidelines about getting the work done while they are paying you and want you to work, and don't volunteer your time. If there is too much work to get done in the time allotted for it, that's not your problem, it's the employer's problem, and they need to take some action to change this.

    And if you don't like this, you may need to be finding another job where you can be more free spirited. I have seen a great many people fired for failing to cooperate with the hours that the employer wants them to work, even when they were working more hours than they were supposed to instead of less.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Salaried Employees - Pto Guidelines and Retroactive Booking of Time Off

    As an salaried exempt employee, I was not aware that I could be required to take PTO for taking a few hours off early.
    -- Am I wrong?
    Yes, you are wrong. Assuming that you are actually exempt, the only thing you're exempt from is being paid for overtime. Exempt employees have no legal expectation of being able to set their own hours or to leave early or to violate employer-mandated floor time. Exempt employees can be required to work a set schedule and they cab be required to take PTO for any time missed. You have a very incorrect idea as to what being exempt means.

    -- Are they allowed to ask me to book PTO retroactively like this? Yes.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Salaried Employees - Pto Guidelines and Retroactive Booking of Time Off

    Thank you CBG and comment/ator. I appreciated your thoughtful responses regarding my issue.
    Yes, I am classified as Salaried - EXEMPT.

    In regards to all your comments, I am working the hours they ask me and doing so with a smile on my face.
    I was merely curious as to what the rules in California were regarding things like this.

    The main reason that I brought all of this up is that my direct manager is a stickler for these things down to minutes.
    Arriving at 805am, means I can't leave till 505pm. If my lunch goes over 10 minutes, she expects me to stay 10 minutes later after work and won't hesitate to remind me and everyone on our team about it. She's constantly typing things like *Name* came in at 905 today, will be staying till 605pm. *Name*'s lunch date went over 10 minutes, she's gonna stay 10 minutes extra to makeup.

    Obviously working under a manager like this is not ideal, especially for someone as free spirited as me.
    All of the tasks and job duties I have tend to be projects or goals that are accomplished over several weeks, if not months.
    The only leeway she ever gives is when we aren't feeling good, where she will allow an employee to take off because they are unable to complete their work.
    In the past she had not required to book this as sick-time (Why not? good question).

    My only remaining concern is the retroactively asking me to book PTO for time that I left an hour early due to not feeling well, since the email from the CEO 10+days ago.
    She has requested that I book PTO because of this perceived policy change - which in reality was more of a re-enforcement of policies that have been in place for many years.


    The only concern I still have is that my boss approved me leaving an hour early and made no mention of me needing to take PTO

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Salaried Employees - Pto Guidelines and Retroactive Booking of Time Off

    Nothing you have posted violates any labor or employment or wage and hour laws anywhere in the US.

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