Re: Exempt status for Tech Writers

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

The law is a little fuzzy on this, but my own view is yes,
if hours in-office is a substantial portion of the criteria
on which an employee's performance is judged then
that employee has a pretty good claim that he or she
is in fact hourly and entitled to OT pay, because the
compensating considerations that are characteristic
of "exempt professional" employment are not being
received.  OTOH, if time not spent in-office during
normal business hours results in work-related short-
comings, such as missing important meetings or
team members not being able to find the employee
when needed, being in the office more and at certain
specific times could legitimately be made part of an
employee improvement plan.

In both of the instances you describe, if the salaried
employees filed OT claims based on their being
treated as hourly workers despite their official hire
classification, I think the employers should be toast
under either FLSA or most state employment laws.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Hansen" <KRH -at- weiland-wfg -dot- com>
> Gene, does this mean that exempt employees cannot (under the law) be
> judged by how many hours they work? Or required to work an exact 
> number
> of hours?
>
> I've heard stories where employees were on salary, but they were then
> treated like hourly employees (e.g., manager stands with stopwatch
> trying to clock and direct every minute).
>
> This also brings to mind a manager I encountered a long time (and
> several jobs) ago. He declared, "You are salaried employees. That 
> means
> you have to work as many hours as I tell you, but I don't have to pay
> you a dime past 40 hours." He then declared what an honor it was for
> employees to be on salary. Given that honor, they wouldn't care how 
> long
> they worked (or how much they got paid)! He thought he'd come up with 
> a
> clever way to get two jobs for the price of one...

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