(lengthy post warning: it's so fricken hard to convey how insane my boss is, you guys)
We work for a small business in Michigan that has been growing and expanding super fast due to the CEO and owner (the same person quoted in the title) being an ego-maniacal crazy risk taking entrepreneur who thrives on flattery and intermittent fasting (no judgement to those who IF for the right reasons, but you know the type I'm talking about, right?). She's opening a new location out of state and taking myself and 2 other coworkers with her for four days to launch. We have an 8-9 hour drive there on the first day and the same back on the last day, and this is what she said in our group travel channel today:
“You all get to clock in for 8 hours each of the 4 days, regardless of the time the work actually occurs haha. The driving days you're obviously not working much but the other days you'll be working more. Food, snacks, beverages, coffees, etc. are all paid for in full by
Right after this message she also said that on the first day after our 8-9 hour drive, we need to drive to 3 other cities where our locations exist and do random tasks at each place like installing furniture and moving things around in storage, etc. She didn't say how long these will take but from experience I can say we'll be working for at least 3 more hours after we arrive on the first day, after the 8-9 hour drive. I can also say from experience that the two days we're there outside of the driving days, our working days will easily hit 10 hours. So I think it would be safe to say that people will be working for at least 40 hours over these 4 days and she's telling them they can only clock in for 32 hours.
I'm in upper management and salaried and am very close personally and professionally with her. I often challenge her policies and practices to her privately and for the most part she listens to me, but she's extremely rejection sensitive and paranoid/terrified of being judged and I'm one of the only people that she actually listens to and has any ability to get her to influence her movements. She truly believes she's doing the right thing by her employees (200-250 of them, maybe? but only 20ish in her direct management) with everything she does and talks about herself and her management practices as if they're something revolutionary and compassionate and people-forward, while paying barely above minimum wage and overworking them constantly. She's the worst and, being one of the only people who can change her course/stand up for the people who work for her in a meaningful way, I try to be really careful with my moves and pander to her sensitivity in the name of staying employed and staying in a position where I can help people.
Re: pandering and being effective, I'm thinking about how I can bring this up to her and get her to let them clock in for the full 40 (or however much they actually work) by appealing to her “business sense”, you know? Thinking of telling her that telling her employees that they can only clock in for 8 hours a day regardless of how many hours they work (and admitting they'll be working more than that on half the days) is A HUGE liability from a legal perspective and they can 100% screenshot that information and take it to a lawyer as proof of her overworking them and telling them not to clock in for the full time. But these things always go best for me when I bring a solution or suggested action along with my complaint/issue so she can basically accept what I'm saying and just go along with it without having to actually consider her actions, you know? And I'm not sure what to suggest to her after I bring this up? I'd like her to send another message to the channel saying something like “Oh you know what, I'm just remembering how crazy and unpredictable these trips can be, let's just have you clock in when we first meet each morning, and then clock out when we leave each location each day. For the first driving day you'll clock in when we first meet and clock out after we leave the last location, and on the last driving day you'll clock in when we first meet and clock out when you're back at your car and heading home.”
What are your thoughts? Is there anything I'm missing from a legal/HR/Fair Labor Standards Act perspective that I should say to her to scare her? Also, I can 100% GUARANTEE that she's going to say “they aren't even working while we're driving” and “they get food and drinks for free each night” as justifiable reasons why they shouldn't get to clock in for the full time they're working, so how do I argue that in a way that will scare her? Remember, I cannot use reason or basic human empathy lmao
tl;dr I'm in upper management and my boss is telling hourly workers that they can only clock in for 8 hours a day on an upcoming work trip even though she admits they'll be working more than that. I don't want to lose my position of influence with her so how do I course-correct her on this and get these people paid without triggering her and pissing her off?