I was hired on as a full time, 40 hour per week, wage employee. By about the second month, I was working on average only 30 hours per week. Towards the end of the day, or end of the week, my boss would come into my office and say “if you’re not billable, go home.” All the salary employees would rejoice, however the wage employees are punished because of cutting hours. I don’t control how many projects we get. But I can control how long I take on the project. If I suspect I’m going to be done early, I can procrastinate and take my time, to stay billable (and therefore paid). Most of the time, my procrastination efforts prove helpful, but ultimately unsuccessful. I’m still averaging a little over 30 hours a week, and therefore, I’m not eligible for insurance. Any time I try to stay, my boss will make me go home, claiming “there’s no more billable work today.” My bills have suffered, and not having insurance is a huge financial risk in the USA. I’m one accident away from being in crippling debt.
Do you think the company knows what they’re doing? Keeping the wage employees at under 36 hours, making us go home if we get close to that? Do I have any options for recourse, or should I be looking for a new job?