This is a throwaway account, TLDR at end.
For a bit of background, I work for a non-profit that is pretty small. In the main office there are five of us, each with different roles. Then there are some folks who do ranch hand work in exchange for housing. There are three of them.
The ranch hands work 12 hours in exchange for a room in a house that is poorly maintained. The others in the main office, including me, are salaried. We have been constantly told from day one that we work 9-5 five days a week to get 40 hours. We were also told when hired that we are in charge of our own hours and that if we get overtime, that it’s our fault. Unfortunately, there are some obligations outside of those hours such as events or clinics that the company holds. In those cases, the person who worked at one of those things would just take the next day off or something to balance it out. They work it out with the other employees to balance it out to ensure coverage.
Since I have started, I’ve been very adamant about working only my 40 hours. Which put some of my other coworkers in a tight spot at first because they were picking up the extra work. Admittedly, when I first started, we didn’t get along because of this. I just have worked for other places where they took advantage of my willingness to put in the time and I got burnt out. Like mental breakdown that almost left me in the hospital and multiple therapy visits a week burnt out. I refused to do that again. We started getting along when I asked my coworkers how much they were getting paid and we all found out that I was hired at a higher rate of pay than them. With that coming to light and my encouragement for them to seek appropriate compensation, the two people that had been there the longest for raises. It’s bittersweet because one of them got their pay matched to what I was making, the other a slight increase but still under what I am making despite effectively being on call for any emergencies. They deserve more.
The problem is, the folks in the main office frequently put in overtime. Admittedly, I don’t know how much overtime the new set of ranch hands accrue because the staffing there is constantly revolving and I’ve only talked to the new ones a handful of times. Recently, the new hires in the main office (one has now quit) brought up the word “comp time” and that has really catapulted everything into motion. One of my coworkers(the longest standing employee thus far and has been here for a year almost) asked about the usage since the new employees have been bringing it up when they either leave early to balance out their 40 hours or if they work a half day. This is the first time any of the other employees heard of comp time. The other longest standing employee and them have repeatedly in the past put in MANY hours of overtime. When one of them first started, they frequently put in 60-80 hours a week because there were only two of them in the office. Upon hearing that the new hires were balancing things out like this, one of the old employees asked the boss about “comp time”. They could provide proof of hours worked and the boss only added 20 hours to their next paycheck. This is a slap in the face to the many hours that they have given this non-profit.
Our boss is pissed. She says that every single employee has taken advantage of being in charge of their own hours by either leaving early, taking a half day for a doctor’s appointment, or taking a 3 day weekend when burnt out(we don’t take 3 day weekends). She said that the distribution and approval of the use of our overtime is not the culture the office needs and that it is moving us closer to being “hourly” rather than salaried. She’s actually rewriting the policy to include that she will ONLY compensate 8 hours of overtime. We don’t know if it will be by extra pay or by additional time off. If we get over 8 hours she will refuse to compensate it. Now, comp time will also have to be approved by her. So even if we go into overtime, there’s a chance where we still might not get compensated appropriately even if we keep it under eight hours. We also cannot use this with our PTO. She also has written in a text that the way everyone has been managing their hours is not sustainable despite the fact that she has always told us that we were in charge of our own hours and if we get overtime, too bad so sad. The best part (sarcasm) she has this all written in a text to another employee.
We’re sure she only has us as salaried so she wouldn’t have to appropriately compensate us.
The new policy she’s putting in place violates labor laws in our state. My coworkers and I have been keeping track of our hours and we’re trying to see if we can get her to put that policy in writing so we can actually report her.
Another side note: since the non-profit is so small she doesn’t have her business signed up for FMLA or short term disability. She just fucked over an employee who just had surgery. She told that employee that everything would be fine when they interviews but nothing was in writing. Always get important stuff in writing folks.
Another red flag of the company: she makes $100,000 a year. Depending on which employee salaries you add up, she makes the salary of 3-6 of her employees combined.
TLDR: Boss has sketchy business practices when it comes to employee overtime. Coworkers and I may be close to having enough proof of this to report her. Company has hella red flags.