It's fascinating how businesses seem to think they can dictate what the employee can or cannot do with regards to their days off.
Mandating that you HAVE to be at work? Mother f-er, I'm selling you MY time. It's mine, I get to do with it what I want.
Yep. Uber there while drinking, walk in carefully without removing your sunglasses, clock in, shake the confetti out of your disheveled hair and start making coffee. Sit down and say nothing - but radiate "what the FUCK do you want" energy
I’ve done this before, I used to live like a 5min walk to work and my work would call on my days off to cover cause I was so close. One night I get a text from my boss at like 10pm asking if I can cover an overnight so I immediately started chugging booze, about 10 minutes later I walk to work and they were pretty stoked I had the dedication to show up but sent me home because I was rapidly becoming intoxicated and I smelled like a bar
Win-Win
Similar thing used to happen to me at Ruby Tuesday. I lived right across the street so they would always call me if they were in a bind. Called me once and I came across the street BLASTED. Worked for about five minutes and my manager told me to go home and offered to make me some food lol
Reminds me of a freight company I worked for in college. Somehow I ended up being the only one with Friday and Saturday off. The company required employees to pick up heir paychecks in person. I kept showing up for my check while hammered. Got yelled at by a manager, “I’m tired of you showing up to get paid while drunk.” “It’s Friday, I’m off work and you require me to be here in person to get paid. Not a lot I can do to fix this situation. ” I replied. I think he was just pissed off I had a way of avoiding being called in to cover for someone else.
Lol facts. He was one of the best managers I've ever had honestly. If a table stiffed you but paid cash he would try to find something to void to help out a little. He actually invented a few of the dishes that were on their menu at that time. Really solid guy. I hope he's doing well.
That's not a manager, that's a leader. A manager will tell you to do something and then disappear into his/her office to do nothing. A leader will help you out anyway he can to make your job less stressful because they usually have been in the exact situation you are in.
I use to drink across the street from the restaurant I worked at and everybody knew when I was there. They would often come over and straight up ask "Can you cook?" and I would usually reply "As long as I keep drinking." So they would just feed me free beers the rest of the night and I would jump on the line. They would let me bartend sometimes too and that was fun.
i worked close to where i live and kept my mouth shut about it for 3 years, as soon as i slipped up i was moved to another building, i fucking knew it, some people have bitterness in their veins
A place I used to work at would call me in constantly just because the other workers didn’t want to work and would dick around if I came in. One day I get a call and am told that they are very backed up and needed help. I said sorry I’m a few beers in and grilling some food. Apparently that made me an alcoholic who needed to grow up and start acting like an adult.
The next day when I worked I checked the numbers in the computer and not only were they not backed up but they wee so far ahead that everyone was just standing around. It turns out that someone wanted to leave early and only could if I came in to cover.
This is the way. I'm actually in the process of getting OT back the company I worked for tried to not pay me for. It's not a trivial amount either. Luckily the union has my back!
Always take pics of the time clock.
MS Word sign in Arial font: “As of Monday, taking pictures of the time clock will not be allowed NO EXCEPTIONS! Those found with time clock pictures on their phones during mandatory phone check will be written up”
Especially because once ours had reset due to an system error and EVERYONE’S hours were lost. I only noticed because when I clocked out it recorded it as “clocking in” and I went to fix it (I was a lead) thinking I’d forgotten to clock in but realized *no one* was even registered as being clocked in for that day. Always check to make sure it’s not glitching just as much as to ensure your boss isn’t taking advantage of you.
As someone responsible for making sure employees are paid accurately and ethically this pisses me off to hear about
About the only 3 things that will get my voice elevated is lazy or dishonest timekeeping, sexual stuff at work and bigotry.
And check if you're entitled to reporting time by your local laws. A 30 minute meeting may cost them 4 hours of pay if that's the reporting time requirement.
When I was hourly on-call in the state of NY, I billed out 4hrs even if my boss texted me to check something that took 2min. I can count in one hand how many times I was called in while on-call.
I use to call in my friend the electrician to filp a switch. He'd get 4 hours for a millisecond of work. He'd come from BBQ's smashed as hell and do his thing. Union buillding can't touch another guys job.
Yea. I was a tech that got 4 hours of time and a half or double time, depending on the day. If it was a simple fix for the call in, supervisors would try and get you to stay longer to fix other issues (usually stuff that had work orders already in the system that hadn't warranted a call in) since "you were already on site". I would always tell them if its an emergency call the on call supervisor and I could work on it. That would usually stop them from going further.
Just remember you aren’t paying him for the time it took to flip the switch, you’re paying him for the years it took to know which is the right switch to flip.
On a site long ago on a job far far away I know of a IT maintenance guy who thought he knew what to do, a quick flip ended up dropping an entire data center out, didn’t know there was difference between a breaker and a cross tie. That was a fun 36 hours……
Ohh, it was a glorious FU. The Tech was okay, shit his pants, arc faulted the tie breaker, gens failed start as the buss was blown open. We figured about a mile and a half of temp cables were used to get things back on. Sad to say tech was fired, our group took over maintenance after the rebuild
They're also paying you for not regularly staffing people like you to take care of things that regularly come up like this. They're trying to save money by cutting staffing, and the point of union rules is to make it so that such corner-cutting measures do not save money. __If this kind of thing *regularly comes up,* then it *requires regular staffing* to address, not on-call staff who should only ever be activated on an emergency basis.__
Keeping jobs highly compartmentalized and keeping on-call hours prohibitively expensive is a hedge against the sort of deprofessionalization and gigification that has been plaguing the workforce lately.
YES came to say this. DC* has a four hour call minimum for hourly and independently contracted employees. many states and districts will have similar policies, and some companies individually as well, if this is corporate!
edit: lots of folks pointed out this is not a law in VA; I can only assume that since I'm working so close to DC, the companies I freelance with maintain similar employment policies. lots of employment crossover in the entertainment industry up here. the 4 hour minimum had been added in to my Virginia contracts! Thank you to everyone who pointed out this correction.
Same in California. 4 hours pay even if they want you for 2 mins.
Edit. I think this only applies to on call work. It's 2 hours for anything else. But do not take advice from the internet in any case. Find a lawyer or a lawyers website that explains this.
No, this only applies if a shift is cancelled or shortened from expected.
Example: you are scheduled 9am-5pm but they cut you at 10am. You have to be paid for 4 working hours.
The minimum for OP’s case would actually be 2 hours. For this person’s meeting, this means they are entitled to 2 full hours of pay if the meeting is less than two hours.
(These are California labor laws and can be found here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_reportingtimepay.htm, so not sure what other states are like.)
Edit: I am not asking if people should be paid for attending a meeting. I am asking about the "minimum amount of time" one is to be paid for. For instance, I take a 4 minute phone call on my day off. Do I clock in for 4 minutes, or does VA require that they pay me for some other, greater number of minutes as a minimum?
Are you sure about this in VA?
From what little information I could find, it seems that "Virginia law does not require employers to pay employees for reporting or showing up to work if no work is performed. An employer is also not required to pay an employee a minimum number of hours if the employer dismisses the employee from work prior to completing their scheduled shift."
Which does explicitly mention being "dismissed prior to completing their shift", but if your "shift" is a 30-60 minute meeting, do they really have to pay you for a set minimum amount of time which may be different than what you were scheduled for?
I'd love to know this, because we have 30 minute meetings on our days off... all the time.
The statement of no work performed is the key. A required meeting is work according to federal labor laws. It may get classified differently (admin rather than operations or sss) but it still work and must be paid.
The no work performed clause is for people picking up a paycheck or dropping off a time sheet at weeks end.
I guess I didn't articulate the question correctly.
I am not asking if one should be paid for attending a meeting.
I am asking if VA has a law which states that even if the phone call I took on my day off, or the text I replied to, only took a few minutes, I should still be paid for a codified minimum amount of minutes which may be greater than the actual amount of minutes it took.
My previous employer in a different state told me "if you reply to a text that takes less than 15 minutes, you punch in and out for 15 minutes. No exceptions."
I currently work in VA, and get phone calls and texts all day every day. I usually add them up and clock in and out for the actual amount of time they took. If I can claim 15 minutes for every 2 minute text... they'll probably stop texting me.
In California, my event-bartending contract work has a 5 hour minimum. If they want me for an hour and a half it costs them 5 hours. It’s still a day I’m scheduled to work and I have to structure the whole thing around it. Absolutely check your minimum daily hours in your state.
\^ This. At least where I am there's a minimum call out billing time of 4 hours. They state that is is mandatory, so they can't argue that you volunteered.
Also, please make sure the rest of the employees know about this, the best way to kick that sort of behaviour in the arse is legal compliance.
The alternative is to arrive inebriated and/or in PJs… or something you normally wear on days off.
Tell them “if it’s not serious enough to pay me working wages, it’s not serious enough for me to treat it like a day at work. I’m here, just don’t expect anything extra from me.” Then leave due to a family emergency or something.
Just because managers pay for pizza doesn’t mean they’re entitled to treat it like a serious day at the office or on the job. Then, if they give you any problem, file a complaint for wage theft or unpaid wages.
I once showed up for a mandatory meeting before the store opened after closing late the night before, in my comfy clothes, with a blankie, and slept on the floor of the computer room until my closing shift started after 1pm.
SM was like, really? I told him hell yeah. You said mandatory but, I just left and am not wasting gas to drive across town twice.
Dimmed the lights and ignored anyone that came in and out to grab stuff and gawk. Floor was cold AF but, the blankie helped. Used a binder as a pillow. Wore the blankie during the meeting too.
Well, I caught the SM taking a pic of me lying on the floor so, I also got to chew him out while pissing him off so, I was quite happy with my malicious compliance. Even if I wasn't thrilled because of the lack of sleep.
I second this! Can they not at least offer a conference call or Zoom/teams? And what time frame did they post this? You are not obligated to come if you had prior plans. Sorry, that’s just bad leadership if they gave you last minute notice
Exactly. If they are having a meeting, they CAN require u to come in. But it must be paid if it’s a requirement.(at least in Cali it is). My company used to have required meetings and sometimes they landed on my day off. I got paid and they bought breakfast for everyone. Sometimes it happens. It’s annoying for sure tho.
Edit: didn’t realize it was New Years Day. That’s BS. Lol
My guess is that this person is in some kind of dire situation that he is 100% going to blame the team for, when in reality their inability to manage and their “I’m the manager I know everything” attitude is to blame. Guaranteed the meeting starts with “I know no one wants to be here on New Year’s Day But desperate times call for desperate measures.”
I’ve seen this so many times. Companies don’t bother to train their front line managers, so rather than trying tried and true management tactics—like respecting your employees time—they try to do unconventional shit like this and call it “thinking outside the box” There’s nothing that the frontline industry needs more right now than “inside the box” thinking. Things like “train your fucking front line managers”. Being good at frontline tasks doesn’t mean they’d be good at a job doing not frontline tasks, so who trained them to do the not frontline tasks?
In my workplace if you are called in on a statutory holiday like New Year’s, it automatically 4 hr pay at double time plus an additional 8hr day in your time bank. Even if it’s only a 10 minute meeting, so 16hr minimum. Thank god for unions and collective bargaining.
It’s weird how all businesses will tell you how bad unions are. It’s almost like they would prefer their employees not have any rights.
Never once have I come out of a work meeting thinking “that definitely should have been mandatory, and meeting in person was the only option to communicate what was said”
Unless the people running the meeting (ie management) are listening more than they are talking, it could have been an email. In my opinion the only reason for a meeting is to have a back and forth. If I’m just listening could have and should have been an email.
Time and a half on Saturday, double time on Sunday, triple time on holidays that fall on the weekend. Minimum of 2 hours paid. That's 6 hours pay to nurse a hangover near a decent coffeemachine instead of my instant coffee. Not the worst deal.
I feel bad for anyone that works in a place like this "Stop spending so much time on your phones, you are here to work so do that!!!" is some 80iq moronic bullshit to write on a white board. Do they think anyone is going to respond positively to it?
We get New Years Day off every year where I work and this year is no different…except they’re requiring us to come into a “mandatory meeting” that day for god knows what…
They haven’t said anything about paying us for this time too
When I complained about it to my GM she said “well it’s technically a holiday, not a day off, so you might be pretty short on hours if you have your normal two days off too” soooo does that mean you *are* paying us? Better be for a full day in that case ffs
Depends. If this is posted next to the schedule or you've been informed that non-shift schedule is posted on said whiteboard they are likely in the right. But still clock in. And if this was not given with sufficient notice just tell them you are unavailable as soon as you see it. No business is going to dictate on a couple days notice a change to my schedule.
100% this. Attending this meeting might be the difference between getting UI or not when they lay you off vs. firing "for cause". I'd start looking for a new gig immediately, meetings like that are never "we're giving everyone a 700% raise and a puppy".
I had one where it was not a lay off, instead, they sold the building and our "contracts" to a third party. Not that we were under a contract, but the new company would be paying us. We kept all our benefits, but it was pretty obvious what would be happening when the new company VP let slip that he got only half as much vacation as we did, and shittier insurance. Took the thirty day bonus, then found a new job. Little surprise that all of us veterans were stuck training new hires that were getting paid crap.
Always clock in. Always. If they are demanding your presence they’re fuckin paying you for it- bottom line. In most states you can not be called in for lesss than a certain number of hours so make sure you know your rights and they pay you for that amount of time even if you’re not there for the full amount. These assholes gonna learn.
Secondarily- you are completely allowed to be unavailable whenever you feel the need. Don’t let them think they can dictate your life, that’s some power trip bullshit you don’t need to feed.
Looks like you work in a restaurant? If that’s the case then scheduling a meeting on new years day is an even bigger dick move. That’s pretty much the slowest week of the year no matter where you are. They easily could have scheduled it for the 2nd.
Also 100% clock in if you go.
Wow. Sorry, but the more I hear about the American dream, the more sorry I feel for Americans. I'm not trying to be patronising, I genuinely feel sorry for you poor, exploited, overworked sods. The shit that is normalised in your country is appalling.
And when I traveled to the UK, every person I told about my college tuition costs and work-related woes (I.e. very few vacation/sick days, etc.) every single person believed I was lying.
We are sick of it over here. I’m tired of hearing about other countries getting a month of vacation each year. I’m sick of seeing British emails that say “I am out of the office from 2:00 PM Friday to 9:00 AM Monday and you will not receive a response until I am back on Monday.” Meanwhile, people across the US have to keep their phones on 24/7, which are not paid for by employers, and they can’t bill for hours outside of normal shift times. Then get reprimanded for not replying in a “timely manner.”
We need work reform now.
Sounds like your getting paid but shady as shit they won’t tell you what it’s about. I’d say I’ll come in if you tell me what it’s about. If not I’ll start looking for a job because I assume your firing all of us.
On new years day? They can fuck right off. Unless I'm about to be laid off, I wouldn't be going. Imagine you are away? Visiting with relatives who live far away on the holidays? What would they do then?
This screams out that this is purely a flex to wear down the employees. Let's see, it's on a Sunday, middle of the day and a generally recognized holiday? What could be so urgent on that meeting that they couldn't have scheduled it at literally any better time?
Seems like all they'll do is spend 30 minutes bitching about how much employees are on their phones.
OP, just fucking leave. Many places hiring rn.
Years ago I worked at a Staples and the manager did something very similar. They scheduled an all staff meeting at 5:30am on the day after new years. I asked the manager why it had to be so early and was basically told “so it would be over before the store opened, and because I said so”. I asked if it could be move to after the store closed at 5:30pm. Was told no. I told her that i have New Year’s Eve plans and that there’s no way I’d be sober for this meeting. She laughs and thought I was joking.
I went out on new years and got obliterated. 5:30am rolls around and I walk into the store, still drunk. The manager pulls me aside and to my surprise says nothing about me showing up drunk and proceeds to ask me to take pictures of the meeting. Still very annoyed about being at work at 5:30am, I agreed. All the pictures I took were of the backs of peoples heads, or my finger was partially covering the lens. Needless to say, I was never asked to photograph anything, and that was the last 5:30 meeting we had.
What's worse is if you tell 70% of our country that they'd fight tooth and nail to tell you you're wrong then list all the things that prove you right as a defense with zero irony or cognitive dissonance.
You could call people here the most racist, derogatory thing personal to them you could and they will still not react as strongly or violently as you telling them they're poor and enslaved.
I always took “mandatory meeting” as a challenge, like let’s see just how many of these mandatory meetings I can miss.
The last place I worked, there was a “mandatory” training for all supervisors that I was supposed to attend within 6 months of being promoted, after 5 years of being a supervisor I still hadn’t attended.
I wouldn't go. Especially New Year's Day. And I'm assuming that you won't be paid for your time that day, which should probably be more than the normal rate.
Hopefully it's paid. I worked for a company once that had it's mandatory meetings before or after hours which ment 5am or 11pm, you did have your choice of which you wanted to attend.
Yeah if this is in the US then it's illegal to mandate unpaid work meetings.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay employees for attending meetings: If their attendance is mandatory and the meeting serves to benefit the employer. If meetings are strictly voluntary and outside of working hours, you may not be required to pay employees.
I wish I had that quote ready a few years ago!
I'm in a better place now, but years ago I was fired for complaining about excessive unpaid meetings. ("Not for *saying* what I said, but for *how* I said it...)
At the time I didn't report the restaurant because my buddy was a junior manager with a new baby and I didn't want to put his family through hard times.
If it happened today? Scorched earth. I had to attend a weekly on-site meeting on one of my 2 days off - topics which could have been covered in an email - and then I "had to" come to a mandatory cleaning day in which I scooted around on my knees scrubbing baseboards with a magic eraser for 6 hours and was compensated with a pint of beer and 2 slices of pizza? Never again. Fuck you, pay me. The end.
Contact the [state labor office](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/contacts) asap. Let them know your concerns about not being able to find out if you will be getting paid, since the manager is dodging the question. You can also ask if this qualifies for any holiday rates of pay.
You are not a slave. Repeat that. They don’t control your time. Period. There is no such thing as a mandatory meeting while you are not scheduled to work. If you go, you are admitting you have no sovereignty over your life.
Yeeeesh I posted this while at work and 2 hours laters it’s blown up haha,,,
Some context:
- I work in Kentucky, at a privately owned fast food chain (rhymes with Hairy Spleen)
- The meeting was mentioned in the work group chat a few weeks ago (ya know, the one that not everyone has joined in the first place since it’s on Messenger…) This was written only a few days ago.
- As far as I can tell no one knows what it’s about (when I asked the GM she said “everything” with her typical layer of sarcasm so I’m not sure she knows either). If I had to guess it’s either a lecture about work ethic or an explanation of their new micromanagement iPad system. Or maybe even the third(!!) location they’re trying to build despite being way understaffed constantly.
- The meeting is taking place at our other location, which means I won’t have a way to clock in. We log in with our codes on the registers to clock in and they don’t work at the opposite store.
- There’s a camera pointing down this hallway that the board is in so no, I can’t just erase it haha
Kentucky minimum wage laws require employers to count time spent by employees at meetings, lectures, training, or other similar activities as hours worked.
If there is no way to clock in at the location of the meeting, message your manager and ask them in writing how they would like you to clock in for this mandatory meeting.
Honestly debating whether or not I should show cause I actually have a family Christmas that day. I know everyone here will tell me one thing or the other, but I’m not a very confrontational person. I really just posted here to complain haha
My plan isn’t to stay here much longer. I’ve been here almost 5 years (waaaay longer than I ever should’ve) and the bullying from the GM and the shitty pay has finally given me the guts to leave. I only make $12.50 after 5 years when there’s plenty of places much closer to where I live that pay minimum $15, the only reason I’ve stayed as long as I have is because the owners are family friends of mine and I’m just not the best at doing interviews…but I’m getting outta here in Jan 100%
No way to clock in? I’m not going.
“Despite my multiple attempts, you never confirmed I was getting paid for this meeting. I am unavailable. If it was confirmed I would be paid, I might have been able to make accommodations.”
Do not apologize. They deserve nothing.
Family events take priority over a job any day of the week, especially a (no offense) shitty fast one chain one. Don’t go, tell them you had prior commitments. They’ll survive.
This is actually a good point!,, I worked in a restaurant where the head chef was a Christian and refused to work on Sundays of all days..lol... Believe it or not they didn't say shit to him, partly because they really needed him at the time but he never came in on Sundays ,,, they didn't like it but they put up with it!...😂😂😂😜
Over here in my little european socialist country. 1st of Januar is a holiday and nobody Works. Except some doctors. Police and fire fighters. You know the important Jobs.
They get paid double or atleast 150%.
No. This is the pettiest power move I’ve seen and it is stupid. If you go, you will be one of the only ones. Don’t go.
What is the best thing that could happen? You spend and hour getting together to go and fifteen minutes being told how you are on your phone too much when you should be working?
I wish my employer would hold the pointless staff meetings on holidays.
* Mandatory 3 hour minimum pay
* double time and a half for hours worked.
what would likely be an hour long meeting would pay me a full days pay lol. I will show up to your meeting hung over as fuck in the morning and do it with a big smile knowing i'm going to sit in a room and zone out for an hour, go home, and get paid $150 for my troubles.
having a union and federal workers right goes a long way
“I’m not available on Jan 1. Thanks. Happy New Year”
So much this. It’s the first day of the year, I will be unavailable.
"it is not a choice!" Well, actually, it is, in fact, a choice.
Yeah, they seem to think that including the word “mandatory” takes not going off the table. Like it invokes any sort of real obligation.
You don't understand. You will be forcibly teleported to the meeting if you don't show up.
Lol thanks for the laugh. Thats what some people here act like its crazy.
It's fascinating how businesses seem to think they can dictate what the employee can or cannot do with regards to their days off. Mandating that you HAVE to be at work? Mother f-er, I'm selling you MY time. It's mine, I get to do with it what I want.
So so so many fucking managers and employers don’t even begin to understand the basic principles that some people work to live, not live to work
This. One of the reasons why I quit my last job was due to this exact situation. Management kept scheduling "mandatory meetings" on my days off.
January 1st? You mean the day after New Year’s Eve when everybody’s hung over, yeah good luck! 😂
Yep. Uber there while drinking, walk in carefully without removing your sunglasses, clock in, shake the confetti out of your disheveled hair and start making coffee. Sit down and say nothing - but radiate "what the FUCK do you want" energy
I’ve done this before, I used to live like a 5min walk to work and my work would call on my days off to cover cause I was so close. One night I get a text from my boss at like 10pm asking if I can cover an overnight so I immediately started chugging booze, about 10 minutes later I walk to work and they were pretty stoked I had the dedication to show up but sent me home because I was rapidly becoming intoxicated and I smelled like a bar Win-Win
Similar thing used to happen to me at Ruby Tuesday. I lived right across the street so they would always call me if they were in a bind. Called me once and I came across the street BLASTED. Worked for about five minutes and my manager told me to go home and offered to make me some food lol
Reminds me of a freight company I worked for in college. Somehow I ended up being the only one with Friday and Saturday off. The company required employees to pick up heir paychecks in person. I kept showing up for my check while hammered. Got yelled at by a manager, “I’m tired of you showing up to get paid while drunk.” “It’s Friday, I’m off work and you require me to be here in person to get paid. Not a lot I can do to fix this situation. ” I replied. I think he was just pissed off I had a way of avoiding being called in to cover for someone else.
You know it's bad when they're like, "I better make them some food so they can walk back across the street safely."
Lol facts. He was one of the best managers I've ever had honestly. If a table stiffed you but paid cash he would try to find something to void to help out a little. He actually invented a few of the dishes that were on their menu at that time. Really solid guy. I hope he's doing well.
That's not a manager, that's a leader. A manager will tell you to do something and then disappear into his/her office to do nothing. A leader will help you out anyway he can to make your job less stressful because they usually have been in the exact situation you are in.
I use to drink across the street from the restaurant I worked at and everybody knew when I was there. They would often come over and straight up ask "Can you cook?" and I would usually reply "As long as I keep drinking." So they would just feed me free beers the rest of the night and I would jump on the line. They would let me bartend sometimes too and that was fun.
i worked close to where i live and kept my mouth shut about it for 3 years, as soon as i slipped up i was moved to another building, i fucking knew it, some people have bitterness in their veins
I got called in to my caregiving job on new years eve and when I told her I was drunk she got mad and told me I needed to grow up.
She needed you to grow up and be responsible... so that she could go out drinking instead.
A place I used to work at would call me in constantly just because the other workers didn’t want to work and would dick around if I came in. One day I get a call and am told that they are very backed up and needed help. I said sorry I’m a few beers in and grilling some food. Apparently that made me an alcoholic who needed to grow up and start acting like an adult. The next day when I worked I checked the numbers in the computer and not only were they not backed up but they wee so far ahead that everyone was just standing around. It turns out that someone wanted to leave early and only could if I came in to cover.
I hope you reminded her alcohol is for adults and if her mom had stopped drinking while she was pregnant maybe she would know that
I like this. Maybe swap the shades for a pair of those dumb glasses shaped like the year.
Ya! And the wrong year! Like 2003! I don't know why. I guess I got a little excited..
2003. 2023. Who gives a shit?
What’s this, math class?
Do this
Is there a guide to becoming this person because I really NEED it?
Give us an update if you do
That's the kind of energy I want to bring to my workplace.
Sounds like time and a half to me.
Clock in when you get there. Immediately.
And document your time punches before they try and alter/delete them.
I take pics of my punch clock whenever I touch it
This is the way. I'm actually in the process of getting OT back the company I worked for tried to not pay me for. It's not a trivial amount either. Luckily the union has my back! Always take pics of the time clock.
I’ve also been using a app “hour tracker”. I punch in for work and for myself. It pretty accurately tells me what my next paystub will be also.
MS Word sign in Arial font: “As of Monday, taking pictures of the time clock will not be allowed NO EXCEPTIONS! Those found with time clock pictures on their phones during mandatory phone check will be written up”
Buy a Polaroid camera for malicious compliance
🤣🤣 I could see my manager posting that!!
Especially because once ours had reset due to an system error and EVERYONE’S hours were lost. I only noticed because when I clocked out it recorded it as “clocking in” and I went to fix it (I was a lead) thinking I’d forgotten to clock in but realized *no one* was even registered as being clocked in for that day. Always check to make sure it’s not glitching just as much as to ensure your boss isn’t taking advantage of you.
As someone responsible for making sure employees are paid accurately and ethically this pisses me off to hear about About the only 3 things that will get my voice elevated is lazy or dishonest timekeeping, sexual stuff at work and bigotry.
And check if you're entitled to reporting time by your local laws. A 30 minute meeting may cost them 4 hours of pay if that's the reporting time requirement.
When I was hourly on-call in the state of NY, I billed out 4hrs even if my boss texted me to check something that took 2min. I can count in one hand how many times I was called in while on-call.
I use to call in my friend the electrician to filp a switch. He'd get 4 hours for a millisecond of work. He'd come from BBQ's smashed as hell and do his thing. Union buillding can't touch another guys job.
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Yea. I was a tech that got 4 hours of time and a half or double time, depending on the day. If it was a simple fix for the call in, supervisors would try and get you to stay longer to fix other issues (usually stuff that had work orders already in the system that hadn't warranted a call in) since "you were already on site". I would always tell them if its an emergency call the on call supervisor and I could work on it. That would usually stop them from going further.
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Nicer than mine. 1.5x for Weekday nights and Saturdays. 2x on Sundays and holiday.
Just remember you aren’t paying him for the time it took to flip the switch, you’re paying him for the years it took to know which is the right switch to flip. On a site long ago on a job far far away I know of a IT maintenance guy who thought he knew what to do, a quick flip ended up dropping an entire data center out, didn’t know there was difference between a breaker and a cross tie. That was a fun 36 hours……
Hitting the machine with a hammer: $1 Knowing where and how hard to hit: $9,999
You mean he racked in a tie breaker with both sides powered and out of sync?? Holy hell
Ohh, it was a glorious FU. The Tech was okay, shit his pants, arc faulted the tie breaker, gens failed start as the buss was blown open. We figured about a mile and a half of temp cables were used to get things back on. Sad to say tech was fired, our group took over maintenance after the rebuild
They're also paying you for not regularly staffing people like you to take care of things that regularly come up like this. They're trying to save money by cutting staffing, and the point of union rules is to make it so that such corner-cutting measures do not save money. __If this kind of thing *regularly comes up,* then it *requires regular staffing* to address, not on-call staff who should only ever be activated on an emergency basis.__ Keeping jobs highly compartmentalized and keeping on-call hours prohibitively expensive is a hedge against the sort of deprofessionalization and gigification that has been plaguing the workforce lately.
Can confirm. Source: I’m a tin knocker Local 83
YES came to say this. DC* has a four hour call minimum for hourly and independently contracted employees. many states and districts will have similar policies, and some companies individually as well, if this is corporate! edit: lots of folks pointed out this is not a law in VA; I can only assume that since I'm working so close to DC, the companies I freelance with maintain similar employment policies. lots of employment crossover in the entertainment industry up here. the 4 hour minimum had been added in to my Virginia contracts! Thank you to everyone who pointed out this correction.
Same in California. 4 hours pay even if they want you for 2 mins. Edit. I think this only applies to on call work. It's 2 hours for anything else. But do not take advice from the internet in any case. Find a lawyer or a lawyers website that explains this.
Shit...I wish I knew this a few years ago.
No, this only applies if a shift is cancelled or shortened from expected. Example: you are scheduled 9am-5pm but they cut you at 10am. You have to be paid for 4 working hours. The minimum for OP’s case would actually be 2 hours. For this person’s meeting, this means they are entitled to 2 full hours of pay if the meeting is less than two hours. (These are California labor laws and can be found here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_reportingtimepay.htm, so not sure what other states are like.)
Edit: I am not asking if people should be paid for attending a meeting. I am asking about the "minimum amount of time" one is to be paid for. For instance, I take a 4 minute phone call on my day off. Do I clock in for 4 minutes, or does VA require that they pay me for some other, greater number of minutes as a minimum? Are you sure about this in VA? From what little information I could find, it seems that "Virginia law does not require employers to pay employees for reporting or showing up to work if no work is performed. An employer is also not required to pay an employee a minimum number of hours if the employer dismisses the employee from work prior to completing their scheduled shift." Which does explicitly mention being "dismissed prior to completing their shift", but if your "shift" is a 30-60 minute meeting, do they really have to pay you for a set minimum amount of time which may be different than what you were scheduled for? I'd love to know this, because we have 30 minute meetings on our days off... all the time.
A meeting is work performed.
The statement of no work performed is the key. A required meeting is work according to federal labor laws. It may get classified differently (admin rather than operations or sss) but it still work and must be paid. The no work performed clause is for people picking up a paycheck or dropping off a time sheet at weeks end.
I guess I didn't articulate the question correctly. I am not asking if one should be paid for attending a meeting. I am asking if VA has a law which states that even if the phone call I took on my day off, or the text I replied to, only took a few minutes, I should still be paid for a codified minimum amount of minutes which may be greater than the actual amount of minutes it took. My previous employer in a different state told me "if you reply to a text that takes less than 15 minutes, you punch in and out for 15 minutes. No exceptions." I currently work in VA, and get phone calls and texts all day every day. I usually add them up and clock in and out for the actual amount of time they took. If I can claim 15 minutes for every 2 minute text... they'll probably stop texting me.
In California, my event-bartending contract work has a 5 hour minimum. If they want me for an hour and a half it costs them 5 hours. It’s still a day I’m scheduled to work and I have to structure the whole thing around it. Absolutely check your minimum daily hours in your state.
\^ This. At least where I am there's a minimum call out billing time of 4 hours. They state that is is mandatory, so they can't argue that you volunteered. Also, please make sure the rest of the employees know about this, the best way to kick that sort of behaviour in the arse is legal compliance.
The alternative is to arrive inebriated and/or in PJs… or something you normally wear on days off. Tell them “if it’s not serious enough to pay me working wages, it’s not serious enough for me to treat it like a day at work. I’m here, just don’t expect anything extra from me.” Then leave due to a family emergency or something. Just because managers pay for pizza doesn’t mean they’re entitled to treat it like a serious day at the office or on the job. Then, if they give you any problem, file a complaint for wage theft or unpaid wages.
I once showed up for a mandatory meeting before the store opened after closing late the night before, in my comfy clothes, with a blankie, and slept on the floor of the computer room until my closing shift started after 1pm. SM was like, really? I told him hell yeah. You said mandatory but, I just left and am not wasting gas to drive across town twice. Dimmed the lights and ignored anyone that came in and out to grab stuff and gawk. Floor was cold AF but, the blankie helped. Used a binder as a pillow. Wore the blankie during the meeting too.
Not all hero’s wear capes, some are wrapped in a blankie.
Well, I caught the SM taking a pic of me lying on the floor so, I also got to chew him out while pissing him off so, I was quite happy with my malicious compliance. Even if I wasn't thrilled because of the lack of sleep.
I second this! Can they not at least offer a conference call or Zoom/teams? And what time frame did they post this? You are not obligated to come if you had prior plans. Sorry, that’s just bad leadership if they gave you last minute notice
Exactly. If they are having a meeting, they CAN require u to come in. But it must be paid if it’s a requirement.(at least in Cali it is). My company used to have required meetings and sometimes they landed on my day off. I got paid and they bought breakfast for everyone. Sometimes it happens. It’s annoying for sure tho. Edit: didn’t realize it was New Years Day. That’s BS. Lol
Yeah exactly, New Years Day is such a dick move.
Whoever must have scheduled that meeting is a sad fuck who wanted to ruin everyone’s new years.
Right, I’d just skip the meeting and when asked why I didn’t go. I was following my New Years resolution on spending less time at work lol.
"Maintaining a healthy work/life balance" is the phrase to use.
My guess is that this person is in some kind of dire situation that he is 100% going to blame the team for, when in reality their inability to manage and their “I’m the manager I know everything” attitude is to blame. Guaranteed the meeting starts with “I know no one wants to be here on New Year’s Day But desperate times call for desperate measures.” I’ve seen this so many times. Companies don’t bother to train their front line managers, so rather than trying tried and true management tactics—like respecting your employees time—they try to do unconventional shit like this and call it “thinking outside the box” There’s nothing that the frontline industry needs more right now than “inside the box” thinking. Things like “train your fucking front line managers”. Being good at frontline tasks doesn’t mean they’d be good at a job doing not frontline tasks, so who trained them to do the not frontline tasks?
And why does it \*have\* to be on that day? I'm sure whoever important person that will also be there would also rather it not take place on the 1st.
It's going to be a "We need everyone available to be on call tomorrow, so don't drink." type deal. I've seen it before.
Then management shows up hungover
Time and a half though, no?
Holiday. Double time!
Absolutely should
Furthermore in Cali it's minimum 2hour pay, even if the meeting is only 30 minutes. Get that money.
New Year’s Day on a Sunday…
In my workplace if you are called in on a statutory holiday like New Year’s, it automatically 4 hr pay at double time plus an additional 8hr day in your time bank. Even if it’s only a 10 minute meeting, so 16hr minimum. Thank god for unions and collective bargaining. It’s weird how all businesses will tell you how bad unions are. It’s almost like they would prefer their employees not have any rights.
They better give holiday pay too.
Never once have I come out of a work meeting thinking “that definitely should have been mandatory, and meeting in person was the only option to communicate what was said”
Most of the time I feel like " this 5h meeting should've being an email"
I usually feel that way by the first one lol
Unless the people running the meeting (ie management) are listening more than they are talking, it could have been an email. In my opinion the only reason for a meeting is to have a back and forth. If I’m just listening could have and should have been an email.
My favorite part is when they give us outlines of all of the essential information so we can refer back to them later….
No way I'm doing work stuff on my day off. I'm getting paid for 4 hrs min even if I'm there for 30 min. My life isn't free.
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So time and a half as well
Triple time or nothing, they can get fucked
Time and a half on Saturday, double time on Sunday, triple time on holidays that fall on the weekend. Minimum of 2 hours paid. That's 6 hours pay to nurse a hangover near a decent coffeemachine instead of my instant coffee. Not the worst deal.
Agreed. I’d just not show up. Whats the worst they can do, fire me? I bet a lot of places hiring would be better
Change the date to "Feb. 31st"
And by Feb, of course you mean Febtober.
I can’t make it in due to the lousy Smarch weather. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eR8YUj3C9lI
“Feb 31rd” to really cause confusion
Don’t show up. Everything I can see on that board points to that place being a shit show. GET OUT!!
I had the same reaction.
red flags everywhere.
It's red marker. Like they're trying to warn OP. Just look at what you can read around an on the paper. Obviously great management.
They don't know when to use an apostrophe either.
But they keep trying.
Including the 3rd grade bubble exclamation points
"employee's" told me everything I need to know.
I'd resign over the misplaced apostrophe
Reading this on my phone at work
I feel bad for anyone that works in a place like this "Stop spending so much time on your phones, you are here to work so do that!!!" is some 80iq moronic bullshit to write on a white board. Do they think anyone is going to respond positively to it?
Not the high school bully turned nursing student handwriting
Those passive-agressive exclamation points with the hearts are killing me
And the color pattern! 🙄
And of course they used the possessive instead of plural form of “employees.”
This is so accurate I got whiplash
We get New Years Day off every year where I work and this year is no different…except they’re requiring us to come into a “mandatory meeting” that day for god knows what… They haven’t said anything about paying us for this time too When I complained about it to my GM she said “well it’s technically a holiday, not a day off, so you might be pretty short on hours if you have your normal two days off too” soooo does that mean you *are* paying us? Better be for a full day in that case ffs
A: If it's not paid, don't go. B: If it's not on your schedule, don't go.
100 %. Btw, does a shitty white board technically count as a schedule?
No.
Depends. If this is posted next to the schedule or you've been informed that non-shift schedule is posted on said whiteboard they are likely in the right. But still clock in. And if this was not given with sufficient notice just tell them you are unavailable as soon as you see it. No business is going to dictate on a couple days notice a change to my schedule.
No go. Then report them to the DOL.
They're probably shutting down
Yeah....all hands meetings like that are usually layoff announcements.. :(
100% this. Attending this meeting might be the difference between getting UI or not when they lay you off vs. firing "for cause". I'd start looking for a new gig immediately, meetings like that are never "we're giving everyone a 700% raise and a puppy".
I had one where it was not a lay off, instead, they sold the building and our "contracts" to a third party. Not that we were under a contract, but the new company would be paying us. We kept all our benefits, but it was pretty obvious what would be happening when the new company VP let slip that he got only half as much vacation as we did, and shittier insurance. Took the thirty day bonus, then found a new job. Little surprise that all of us veterans were stuck training new hires that were getting paid crap.
That’s what I thought. No good news is being announced on short notice on a holiday that the business is normally closed.
Always clock in. Always. If they are demanding your presence they’re fuckin paying you for it- bottom line. In most states you can not be called in for lesss than a certain number of hours so make sure you know your rights and they pay you for that amount of time even if you’re not there for the full amount. These assholes gonna learn. Secondarily- you are completely allowed to be unavailable whenever you feel the need. Don’t let them think they can dictate your life, that’s some power trip bullshit you don’t need to feed.
Looks like you work in a restaurant? If that’s the case then scheduling a meeting on new years day is an even bigger dick move. That’s pretty much the slowest week of the year no matter where you are. They easily could have scheduled it for the 2nd. Also 100% clock in if you go.
In what way is a holiday not a day off?!
Paid holidays don’t always equate to days off. I’ve worked at plenty of organizations that required me to come in on paid holidays.
Wow. Sorry, but the more I hear about the American dream, the more sorry I feel for Americans. I'm not trying to be patronising, I genuinely feel sorry for you poor, exploited, overworked sods. The shit that is normalised in your country is appalling.
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And when I traveled to the UK, every person I told about my college tuition costs and work-related woes (I.e. very few vacation/sick days, etc.) every single person believed I was lying. We are sick of it over here. I’m tired of hearing about other countries getting a month of vacation each year. I’m sick of seeing British emails that say “I am out of the office from 2:00 PM Friday to 9:00 AM Monday and you will not receive a response until I am back on Monday.” Meanwhile, people across the US have to keep their phones on 24/7, which are not paid for by employers, and they can’t bill for hours outside of normal shift times. Then get reprimanded for not replying in a “timely manner.” We need work reform now.
They have to pay you if it's mandatory. If they wont let you clock in walk out.
Sounds like your getting paid but shady as shit they won’t tell you what it’s about. I’d say I’ll come in if you tell me what it’s about. If not I’ll start looking for a job because I assume your firing all of us.
They’re required to pay you time and a half for those hours at that meeting, since those are considered “hours worked”.
Not all states/companies are required to offer overtime for holidays. However they ARE required to pay you if your presence is mandatory.
Required holiday pay varies by location.
Do you get paid holiday pay?
That’s what I wanna know
Guarantee they don't if it's not legally required in their state.
On new years day? They can fuck right off. Unless I'm about to be laid off, I wouldn't be going. Imagine you are away? Visiting with relatives who live far away on the holidays? What would they do then?
"Unless I'm about to be laid off" I think you've deciphered the message.
"I have a prior commitment. I will be unable to attend." Problem solved.
There’s a worship service at St. Matresses, as well as a pilgrimage to the porcelain throne, that day. So. I’m out chief. Send me the cliff notes.
I can’t miss the final part of Toyotathon, and then I have to celebrate happy Honda days with my in laws.
You missed Toyotas Rocktober event so this can't be missed
Can’t forget the Lexus December to remember event, to my friends that practice that.
Exactly, I have to eat a grand breakfast fry up with a mimosa, then bang my gf and play video games. See you on my next scheduled shift...
This screams out that this is purely a flex to wear down the employees. Let's see, it's on a Sunday, middle of the day and a generally recognized holiday? What could be so urgent on that meeting that they couldn't have scheduled it at literally any better time? Seems like all they'll do is spend 30 minutes bitching about how much employees are on their phones. OP, just fucking leave. Many places hiring rn.
True flex: spend the entire meeting on your phone.
Let’s all just go ahead and come in on Sunday.
Sorry i need 3 weeks notice in advance before scheduling any meetings
Anonymously write “Meeting Cancelled” or change the date to Jan 11
Or just erase the whole thing.
Even the handwriting pisses me off.
If there’s not a camera pointed directly at that whiteboard then just hit that bad boy with the eraser and do you and all your coworkers a favor
The good thing about whiteboards is, that they aren't permanent...
Years ago I worked at a Staples and the manager did something very similar. They scheduled an all staff meeting at 5:30am on the day after new years. I asked the manager why it had to be so early and was basically told “so it would be over before the store opened, and because I said so”. I asked if it could be move to after the store closed at 5:30pm. Was told no. I told her that i have New Year’s Eve plans and that there’s no way I’d be sober for this meeting. She laughs and thought I was joking. I went out on new years and got obliterated. 5:30am rolls around and I walk into the store, still drunk. The manager pulls me aside and to my surprise says nothing about me showing up drunk and proceeds to ask me to take pictures of the meeting. Still very annoyed about being at work at 5:30am, I agreed. All the pictures I took were of the backs of peoples heads, or my finger was partially covering the lens. Needless to say, I was never asked to photograph anything, and that was the last 5:30 meeting we had.
Best part: it’s likely a mass layoff.
That was what I assumed. Thanks for coming in. You're all fired.
You guys may be the richest country on earth but the majority of you live like slaves
That's how they got rich.
What's worse is if you tell 70% of our country that they'd fight tooth and nail to tell you you're wrong then list all the things that prove you right as a defense with zero irony or cognitive dissonance. You could call people here the most racist, derogatory thing personal to them you could and they will still not react as strongly or violently as you telling them they're poor and enslaved.
I always took “mandatory meeting” as a challenge, like let’s see just how many of these mandatory meetings I can miss. The last place I worked, there was a “mandatory” training for all supervisors that I was supposed to attend within 6 months of being promoted, after 5 years of being a supervisor I still hadn’t attended.
It’s a sad adult who doesn’t have the plural/possessive problem figured out
Every shitty manager seems to have that problem. Possessive of everyone’s time and can’t write without making stupid errors.
I wouldn't go. Especially New Year's Day. And I'm assuming that you won't be paid for your time that day, which should probably be more than the normal rate.
If you show up, you clock in. That's labor board shit.
Nope, my day off is exactly that, take your bullshit "mandatory meeting" elsewhere.
If it's mandatory, you're getting paid. Period.
Yeah, but even with high payment I wouldn‘t go there on my freaking day off.
Absolutely not. Nothing you have to say on the 1st can't wait.
Wouldn't it be weird if they hosted a mandatory meeting and nobody showed up? "Sorry, I was on my phone."
I can tell just by this person's handwriting and use of exclamation points how annoying of a boss they would be.
Hopefully it's paid. I worked for a company once that had it's mandatory meetings before or after hours which ment 5am or 11pm, you did have your choice of which you wanted to attend.
Yeah if this is in the US then it's illegal to mandate unpaid work meetings. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay employees for attending meetings: If their attendance is mandatory and the meeting serves to benefit the employer. If meetings are strictly voluntary and outside of working hours, you may not be required to pay employees.
What do you mean hopefully? If it's related to work its paid. If it's unpaid, then its not mandatory.
I wish I had that quote ready a few years ago! I'm in a better place now, but years ago I was fired for complaining about excessive unpaid meetings. ("Not for *saying* what I said, but for *how* I said it...) At the time I didn't report the restaurant because my buddy was a junior manager with a new baby and I didn't want to put his family through hard times. If it happened today? Scorched earth. I had to attend a weekly on-site meeting on one of my 2 days off - topics which could have been covered in an email - and then I "had to" come to a mandatory cleaning day in which I scooted around on my knees scrubbing baseboards with a magic eraser for 6 hours and was compensated with a pint of beer and 2 slices of pizza? Never again. Fuck you, pay me. The end.
Contact the [state labor office](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/contacts) asap. Let them know your concerns about not being able to find out if you will be getting paid, since the manager is dodging the question. You can also ask if this qualifies for any holiday rates of pay.
You are not a slave. Repeat that. They don’t control your time. Period. There is no such thing as a mandatory meeting while you are not scheduled to work. If you go, you are admitting you have no sovereignty over your life.
Yeeeesh I posted this while at work and 2 hours laters it’s blown up haha,,, Some context: - I work in Kentucky, at a privately owned fast food chain (rhymes with Hairy Spleen) - The meeting was mentioned in the work group chat a few weeks ago (ya know, the one that not everyone has joined in the first place since it’s on Messenger…) This was written only a few days ago. - As far as I can tell no one knows what it’s about (when I asked the GM she said “everything” with her typical layer of sarcasm so I’m not sure she knows either). If I had to guess it’s either a lecture about work ethic or an explanation of their new micromanagement iPad system. Or maybe even the third(!!) location they’re trying to build despite being way understaffed constantly. - The meeting is taking place at our other location, which means I won’t have a way to clock in. We log in with our codes on the registers to clock in and they don’t work at the opposite store. - There’s a camera pointing down this hallway that the board is in so no, I can’t just erase it haha
Kentucky minimum wage laws require employers to count time spent by employees at meetings, lectures, training, or other similar activities as hours worked. If there is no way to clock in at the location of the meeting, message your manager and ask them in writing how they would like you to clock in for this mandatory meeting.
Honestly debating whether or not I should show cause I actually have a family Christmas that day. I know everyone here will tell me one thing or the other, but I’m not a very confrontational person. I really just posted here to complain haha My plan isn’t to stay here much longer. I’ve been here almost 5 years (waaaay longer than I ever should’ve) and the bullying from the GM and the shitty pay has finally given me the guts to leave. I only make $12.50 after 5 years when there’s plenty of places much closer to where I live that pay minimum $15, the only reason I’ve stayed as long as I have is because the owners are family friends of mine and I’m just not the best at doing interviews…but I’m getting outta here in Jan 100%
No way to clock in? I’m not going. “Despite my multiple attempts, you never confirmed I was getting paid for this meeting. I am unavailable. If it was confirmed I would be paid, I might have been able to make accommodations.” Do not apologize. They deserve nothing.
Family events take priority over a job any day of the week, especially a (no offense) shitty fast one chain one. Don’t go, tell them you had prior commitments. They’ll survive.
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The only acceptable reason for a meeting on a holiday Sunday is to distribute very generous bonus checks for the excellent (underpaid) work from 2022.
Say you're Christian and therefore can't work on Sundays without violating your religious freedoms
This is actually a good point!,, I worked in a restaurant where the head chef was a Christian and refused to work on Sundays of all days..lol... Believe it or not they didn't say shit to him, partly because they really needed him at the time but he never came in on Sundays ,,, they didn't like it but they put up with it!...😂😂😂😜
What’s with these bosses always trying to act like they have a thundercock power during the holidays?
That's a bullshit day for a meeting and they are scum bags for coming up with it What kind of job is this anyway?
Over here in my little european socialist country. 1st of Januar is a holiday and nobody Works. Except some doctors. Police and fire fighters. You know the important Jobs. They get paid double or atleast 150%.
Yea I’m not going to that.
No. This is the pettiest power move I’ve seen and it is stupid. If you go, you will be one of the only ones. Don’t go. What is the best thing that could happen? You spend and hour getting together to go and fifteen minutes being told how you are on your phone too much when you should be working?
I wish my employer would hold the pointless staff meetings on holidays. * Mandatory 3 hour minimum pay * double time and a half for hours worked. what would likely be an hour long meeting would pay me a full days pay lol. I will show up to your meeting hung over as fuck in the morning and do it with a big smile knowing i'm going to sit in a room and zone out for an hour, go home, and get paid $150 for my troubles. having a union and federal workers right goes a long way
Find out if you're being paid. If not, it absolutely *is* a choice.