Working later than the boss

[Gene Kim-Eng]

It seems to me there are several potential issues all wrapped 
up into one post.  

First, "Anonymous" has developed a sense of entitlement over 
flextime, which is a working arrangement that is supposed to 
be for the mutual convenience of worker and employer and
is therefore always subject to change or discontinuation when
conditions in the business change.

Second, "Anonymous" says he/she is the manager's "backup,"
which in any organization I have managed involves some
level of decision-making and signoff authority in the manager's
absence, but does not have a senior title "yet."  If these duties
were taken on with the understanding that they would lead to
or come with advancement to a senior position, this might be 
an issue because the manager is "hinting" that one of the "senior" 
people should be giving up flextime hours to be in the office 
until COB and "Anonymous" does not feel that he/she is a
"senior" person in the group.  Carrying senior level 
responsibilities without the commensurate position and 
compensation is not a situation that a manager should allow
to continue for more than a few months.

Finally, there is that "hinting" thing on the part of the manager.
Dropping "hints" with the expectation that someone in the
group will catch on and feel pressured to just stay without
coming out and saying something like "We need a senior
group member here until COB" and then asking for someone
to volunteer or working out some kind of rotation schedule
to divide what appears to be an undesirable duty is the
managerial equivalent of "If you don't get it, I'm not going
to explain it to you."

Gene Kim-Eng




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Barrow" <vrfour at verizon.net>

> I resisted reading the answers to your post so that others' answers wouldn't
> influence my response.  Seeing how confused I am at the moment, I probably
> should have.  I really don't see what the problem is here.  If I understand
> correctly, your manager is leaving an hour early every day, and she is
> looking to you to 'hold down the fort' for an hour.  If you're not doing her
> job for that hour, then I don't see what labor law is being violated here.
> If she's asking you to make decisions for her for that hour and/or asking
> you to work overtime, then that's a different story.