Exempt From Reality

If you have not seen the boss card in my previous post, link over to it. It made my day yersterday. A manager who works for me asked me if I had seen the card and when I said no, he ran to his office and shot it over to me. I was almost on the floor, laughing so hard. One of the things this Hallmark e-card touches on is one of the perils of being an exempt employee.

Are you an exempt or nonexempt employee? Do you know? If not, you should. A nonexempt employee is entitled to the benefits and protections of the FLSA or “Fair Labor Standards Act.”

If you are salaried, you are typically exempt from FLSA and your employer is not required to meet minimum wages or pay overtime. If you are exempt you must have a salary above a certain level.

Where this gets tricky is when you are “expected” to work more than 40 hours a week as an exempt, salaried employee. It is generally accepted that a salaried person that is full time should work a minimum of 40 hours. Many companies have a corporate culture where there is an unspoken rule that you work 50 or 55 hours a week. Employees often think if they do not work more than 40 hours a week that they will not get promoted or will suffer during their performance evaluations.

Your HR department should define how many hours you are expected to work. Understand the facts. Don’t get sucked into the culture that may create a false perception.

If you are salaried, it is generally accepted that you may work more than 40 hours a week sometimes depending on projects or business goals. If you work for a company that requires what I call spikes in work effort it is okay. I see nothing wrong with putting in extra effort to help make a deadline or help the business earn more money.

If you are working 80 hour weeks, week after week as an exempt employee, something is wrong. Your ultimate destination is “burn-out.” There are times as a manager I have to tell people to go home. Some employees are so driven, they do not know how to balance their workload.

Years ago, I worked for a company and routinely put in 14-16 hour days for almost 18 months. I was exempt and salaried. I was not getting paid overtime. I was lured by management that a significant bonus was waiting at the end of the project.

At the end of this 18 month harangue, I receive an engraved rock with the project name and my name on it and a $500 gift certificate for local restaurants and hotels. As I opened this up with my wife by my side I looked at her and said something I will not repeat here.

I was livid. I was stupid. I let myself be taken advantage of.

I learned a lesson. Never again.

After the project ended, my boss’s boss took me to lunch and told me what a great job I had done with the project and now that it was over, the sales force was ready for more and…”

I stopped him cold. “Mark” (not his real name) - I said, “If you expect me to keep going at this pace, please tell me now. Because if you do, I will hand you my resignation right now.”

Mark looked worried. “I am not prepared to ever repeat what I did for you or this company over the past 18 months ever again in my career. So if this is what is required, I will tell you straight up that I am not going to be a part of it.”

Mark immediately tried to back away from what it was he was really going to say and quickly started to placate to me. I really liked Mark, he was a heck of a nice guy. I knew he was under pressure, but I was no longer willing to share in his pain.

The conversation turned to another topic and Mark left the company soon after that conversation. I stayed with the company for seven more years and enjoyed the mentoring of my new boss, who has taught me most of what I know about management.

Be good to your company, but be good to yourself. You are worth far less to your company if you are working yourself to death.

Balance…