I’m Exempt–What Does That Mean?

I just started a new job where I am an exempt employee. When I started, I was asked to provide a “regular work schedule” that I selected as 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. When I inquired about coming in at 8:30 on Monday and Friday mornings, my employer said they didn’t favor that and as a new employee,  I didn’t feel comfortable pushing back. As an exempt employee, what are the rules about standard hours?

To read the answer, click here: I’m Exempt–What Does That Mean?

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5 thoughts on “I’m Exempt–What Does That Mean?

  1. A good article for any person new to the exempt world. I would love to see a similar post from the employer perspective with commentary on the proposed future changes to the FLSA. Thanks for your great content!

  2. I am the controller for a small company and I handle payroll/HR. We have an employee who is exempt and has developed a habit of requesting time off but not wanting to use his PTO. He will word the request something like this, “I worked 44 hours last week. I would like to take this Friday off but I only want 4 hours to come out of PTO because I worked 4 extra hours last week.” Any ideas on how I should handle?

    1. Honestly, as a manager, I would always let an employee do as you described if it didn’t interfere with any other projects/workload. There are going to be busy times where people will need to work 50-60 hours or more per week – be flexible when you can.

    2. The question is, do you value him? Does he do great work? Is he a slacker? Because if he does great work, I’d let him do as he asks. If doesn’t, then I’d explain that being exempt means you work until the job is done, and you don’t track hours, but if he’s gone a full day he needs to take a whole day of vacation.

  3. I have a couple of questions I have never really been given a good answer on.

    1) If you are an exempt employee and have no PTO can the company withhold a days wages based on salary/week divided by 5?

    2) Day after Thanksgiving is a good example. The company closes on the Friday after dictating that you must use a PTO day to get paid for the day, including exempt employees. Is that valid as well?

    Two different companies I have worked for in the past but never really received a good answer regarding the scenario’s.

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