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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
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    1

    Default Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

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

    Over the last week I was dealing with personal issues at home and needed some time off work to get these things done. My manager states that because I took days off I "HAVE TO" make them up on the weekend. By law, can my manager force to me work if I took a day off during the week? If so, under what circumstance can he FORCE me to work? I am just highly frustrated with the animosity that exists in this job. I do not think it is fair that I am being forced to work on my days off when I had a valid reason for taking it off. My manager does not ask me if I can make it up over the weekend; all he does is say because you were off this day, then you're going to work the weekend.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    18,340

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    Your manager can fire you if you don't make up your time when he says to make up your time and there is nothing wrong or illegal about it. In fact, refusing can be construed as misconduct which might disqualify you for unemployment compensation.

    If you want to keep your job, make up your time when the boss says so.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    8,238

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    Unless your “valid” personal issues were health problems covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the similar California Family Rights Act (CFRA) your employer was not required to give you time off to deal with them in the first place. So the fact that your employer did so you should count as a blessing and suggests they are not animus towards you as perhaps you think them to be. For most jobs in most states an employer is free to schedule you to work any time the employer likes. You are never "forced" to work when scheduled, but if you do not work when the employer tells you to work the employer may fire you and find someone else for the job who is more willing to work when the employer wants him/her to work.

    Whether it is “fair” for the employer to schedule you to come in on a weekend to make up time for other days you took off for personal issues is something that people will have differing opinions. Obviously you do not like it. Apparently your employer feels it is not unfair. For what it is worth, having both been an employee and manager myself, what your employer is asking is not terribly unusual nor, in my view, all that unfair. Your employer doesn’t have to care about or accommodate your personal home life problems after all.

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

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    To be technical about it, no one can FORCE you to do anything. However, your employer may make a requirement that you come in on your days off, and with rare exceptions it will be legal, and he can fire you if you don't comply, and that will be legal too.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
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    7,056

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    Quote Quoting bigmike527
    View Post
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California.

    Over the last week I was dealing with personal issues at home and needed some time off work to get these things done. My manager states that because I took days off I "HAVE TO" make them up on the weekend. By law, can my manager force to me work if I took a day off during the week? If so, under what circumstance can he FORCE me to work? I am just highly frustrated with the animosity that exists in this job. I do not think it is fair that I am being forced to work on my days off when I had a valid reason for taking it off. My manager does not ask me if I can make it up over the weekend; all he does is say because you were off this day, then you're going to work the weekend.
    Do you get any vacation or personal days off annually? Did you clear the days off with your manager before you took the days off or did you just not show up for work?

    Are you a salaried or hourly employee?

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

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    ^^^

    Just so you know, none of the above matters.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    1,179

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    agree with cbg. Employers have the right to make schedules. Employers have the right to control PTO or un-PTO. Doesn't matter what type of PTO you have, whether you are hourly or exempt or why and how the original days were taken off. (I have a job where if I take off regular working hours, the work still has to get done by me so I often have to 'makeup' PTO time)

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    7,056

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    So if an employee has vacation time or PTO and says to the manager, "I need two days off for a personal time, it can be PTO or vacation." The manager approves it and then requires the employee to make up the time? Of course it matters. When someone goes on vacation, do they have to make up the time? If they did, it wouldn't be vacation time would it?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    It doesn't matter legally. The employer is free to approve, deny or rescind vacation time as business needs require. In no state does any employee, regardless of how they are scheduled or paid, have the legal right to take vacation time whenever they like, or at all. In all 50 states any employee can be required to make up missed time, regardless of the reason they took the time.

    Bud, you've shown on several occasions that your grasp on employment law is weak, at best. Perhaps you might want to consider not responding to employment law questions.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: Can My Manager Force Me to Work if I Asked for Days Off

    Quote Quoting budwad
    View Post
    So if an employee has vacation time or PTO and says to the manager, "I need two days off for a personal time, it can be PTO or vacation." The manager approves it and then requires the employee to make up the time? Of course it matters. When someone goes on vacation, do they have to make up the time? If they did, it wouldn't be vacation time would it?
    Legally it doesn’t matter, at least for private employers. If it's paid time off/paid vacation then the employee gets paid even though he or she is not working. When the employee makes up the time later, as in the OP’s case, the employer pays the employee for that too. So yes, even though the employee has to make it up, it is still vacation/PTO because the employee got paid for time spent not working. The bottom line is that taking vacation/PTO does not somehow restrict the days/hours the employee may be scheduled to work when the employee returns. Thus, the questions you asked are not really relevant because no matter the answer to them it will still be the case that the employer may schedule the OP to work those weekend days.

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