Ever been ripped-off by your own boss...?

[LiquidMidnight]

This is what employers call a keeper. A team player.
Use your head and make situations like this work for you.
You will go far my friend.

...as long as the organizational culture and performance appraisal system reward value added to an organization by employees. The optimistic capitalist in me likes to believe that organizations are meritocracies in which people get rewarded for hard work, innovation, and adding value, but the cynical conflict theorist in me knows that many organizations will happily keep the value added by employees without offering them anything else in return. The experienced labor professional in me knows that politics are often the most influential factor in how people move within organizations.

 

[Munjibunga]

The OP's an exempt employee for FLSA purposes, so even overtime doesn't matter in this case. He's salaried. However, there was an opportunity cost on the employer's part as 1SHOT alluded to a few posts up.

But if I'm reading between the lines correctly, it sounds like the OP is really looking for an "atta boy!" for taking on such a project. That's not unreasonable, IMHO. Really, you don't have to do an exhaustive literature review on transformational leadership to get that giving a little praise to employees every now and then goes a long way. Unfortunately, a lot of managers forget that.

There are very strict requirements for classifying an employee as exempt, and very harsh penalties for not meeting the criteria. I don't see where you got enough information to say he's exempt. Even if he is salaried, he may not meet the criteria. I've got some hair-raising stories about employee classification, but there's not enough bandwidth to flesh them out here.

Regarding your second point, I agree 1,000 percent. In my former company, we work hard to keep morale up. Money is a motivator (and we have spread around a lot of it) but praising an employee in front of other employees and managers goes a long way toward keeping employees happy. I made a point to mention excellent work at staff meetings every week. My successor does the same.

 

[LiquidMidnight]

The OP said that he's salaried, so I made a good faith assumption that he meets the FLSA qualifications for being exempt. It wasn't a DOL-stringent analysis or a legal opinion, but rather just an illustration that if he's salaried, overtime most likely wouldn't be as big of a managerial economic decision when it came to asking him to take on the 'B' project. But you could very well be right and he may not meet the tests to be an exempt employee. I should have taken that into consideration more.

You have enough stories at your company to make a book, Munji. You need to write your own leadership book and get it put on the shelf between Welch and Covey. Haha, you already have a lot more credibility than Covey.

 

[Truktek2]

The boss looses his own production for his own company and needs to compensate that, the $500 is that compensation.
Even if the 3 lost days isn't immediately missed, at the end of the fiscal year this employee has worked 3 less days on company A's production.

Company A hasn't lost 3 days, the OP stayed after to make up the lost time

Nope, I think you didn't read the whole thread. The OP put his own companies work on hold in order to complete additional work for the other company. If he'd done all the work for the other company after hours and still completed everything on his usual work scheduel, I'd agree with you.

That's exactly what happened

If the OP worked overtime to do the work, Illinois law requires that his employer pay him time and a half for every hour worked over 40. The last thing the employer wants is an Illinois Department of Labor claim. If the OP did not work overtime to complete the project, I stand by my original opinion.

Salaried employess don't get overtime to the best of my knowledge.

Using your guys logic, I can hire you to paint my house for 1000.00 regardless of wether it takes you 3 days or 2 weeks. Then, have you stop that job, go paint my friends house and expect you to finish painting my house after hours. Now I can collect 500.00 from my friend all because you're salaried. Is this that new capitalism everyone's talking about?

 

[LiquidMidnight]

Using your guys logic, I can hire you to paint my house for 1000.00 regardless of wether it takes you 3 days or 2 weeks. Then, have you stop that job, go paint my friends house and expect you to finish painting my house after hours. Now I can collect 500.00 from my friend all because you're salaried. Is this that new capitalism everyone's talking about?

You wouldn't be salaried. You'd be a private contractor. Total apples and oranges scenario here. If the OP were a contractor (and sometimes contractors do work internally for quite a while) then this would be a valid argument.

 

[Truktek2]

Pssst....OP.....shhhh over here....keep this between you and me. Forget the atta boys, ego stroking, good jobs and ever elusive carrot management holds over your head. Tell him to show his appreciation in cash. Work hard. Don't f**k off. Be on time, do your job to the best of your ability and always give 110%. Do your job and only your job. Don't let them take advantage of you or you'll be cleaning toilets if you let them. I've seen plenty of hardworking people doing more than their share, with ideas of moving up in a company, only to get passed up for the boss's drinking buddy.

 

[Truktek2]

You wouldn't be salaried. You'd be a private contractor. Total apples and oranges scenario here. If the OP were a contractor (and sometimes contractors do work internally for quite a while) then this would be a valid argument.

The point is still valid. The OP did work outside what was required for his job and was not compensated.

Seems more like granny smith apples and red delicious apples to me

 

[Eublet]

You guys should listen to Munji on this one. There are some in this thread who understand also, but it seems most of you have no clue how business works at all. The fact that many of you are likely adults makes this deduction very sad to me. Our education system is seriously failing us when adults don't understand simple business matters and ethics. But I can't say I'm surprised at all. As a business person myself, finding good help is extremely hard, mostly because people don't understand a good working ethic and how to get ahead in the real world.

 

[Simo98]

That's exactly what happened

So, I took time out of my day (it took 3 days actually to complete) to work on this project, setting other in-house projects aside...

..Next time, in a lighter, more non-aggressive way, I will simply let A know that I do not have time for these projects during work hours, and if they want to charge me for overtime, I will start the project at 5pm once I am off work hours, and we will figure out some sort of pay for my time....

..Basically the job that was assigned to me for B was an urgent freelance project in which I had to put aside hours of my own workload to get this completed.

Doesn't sound like it to me. I did see the OP mention that he did have to work late at a later date to catch up on his own work, which I agree could be considered the same as doing the job for B in that period, and it's definitely something to put forward to the boss, however as he didn't actually log the hours of overtime he did and attribute them directly to the external project he was working on, I think it's a bit too late to expect any sort of compensation for it.

Using your guys logic, I can hire you to paint my house for 1000.00 regardless of wether it takes you 3 days or 2 weeks. Then, have you stop that job, go paint my friends house and expect you to finish painting my house after hours. Now I can collect 500.00 from my friend all because you're salaried. Is this that new capitalism everyone's talking about?

These are two very different situations.

A contractor quotes for a specific job, and is paid a pre-determined amount (as quoted) to complete it. If the job changes, so does the quote.

A salary earner shows up to work every day and gets all the work done, occasionally having to put in a little overtime but generally is compensated with other bonuses as well as having a reliable income, and the ability to be more flexible with their work hours etc.

The OP did get a bit of a bum deal here, but either talk to you boss about it or chalk it up as a lesson learned, next time you're asked to do something similar pre-arrange some sort of compensation for the project or let your boss know you'll need to push back some deadlines on other projects in order to get the external job done.

 

[sloasdaylight]

These are two very different situations.

A contractor quotes for a specific job, and is paid a pre-determined amount (as quoted) to complete it. If the job changes, so does the quote.

A salary earner shows up to work every day and gets all the work done, occasionally having to put in a little overtime but generally is compensated with other bonuses as well as having a reliable income, and the ability to be more flexible with their work hours etc.

Bingo.

 

[sloasdaylight]

Well, next time he comes expecting, drop things off significantly. If he comes over to you and asks what you're doing, just say, "crappy pay=crappy product".

This is probably one of the most unsurprising things I've read in this thread, given who it was posted by.

 

[1958Bassman]

It seem the the company you work for would be considered a Small Business.

Small Business thrives on Team Work.
You sure do not appear to be a team player.

You did nothing extra. You did your job and got paid.
Now you want to complain? What on earth makes you think you deserve one dime of that money?

If I ever found out that one of my employees went on the internet and complained about me "ripping him off" over something like this, he would be sent packing.

I agree with a lot of what you posted but someone should be able to say what they want when they're on their own time, which this is (unless he was posting from work). Also, this isn't something a company owner would win if the employee filed a grievance for wrongful termination because, again, it didn't happen at work. If he had mentioned the company by name, it would be different.

 

[1958Bassman]

Whoa. Slow down there, skip.

I did do extra work. 3 days of worth of work for a non-client "friend" of the owner of my company. I think that's not quite as black and white as you're making it seem. The fact that B needed the project with a ridiculous deadline made for the fact that I had no choice but to work on it during regular work hours.

That 1 project put my whole regular workload into a tailspin and ended up costing me to stay late working on in-house projects to catch up for days afterwords.

I'm sorry if you're offended with my posts, but with that sort of mentality you might just have your own employees venting about you on their favorite off-topic forums. Better check into that...

OK- you did extra work and stayed late. You were paid overtime? If he withheld overtime, you should talk to him and he needs to pay that- it's mandatory.

I worked at a stereo store in the late-'70s - late '80s and one time, the owner asked if I wanted to go to Chicago on a Saturday to help set up the room for a particular speaker manufacture. I said I would (hanging out with that bunch of crazy Danes was always a good time) and was paid fairly well. I later found out that I got half of what was paid by the company to the store. At the time, I was young and very reactive, so I stewed about it for a while. I got over it. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't important, other than a wake-up call for making me realize that I needed to pay more attention to certain things.

I think you should have asked for more details up front- if there's a next time, I wouldn't recommend being confrontational about it, just look at it as a negotiation.

 

[1958Bassman]

Salaried employess don't get overtime to the best of my knowledge.

Using your guys logic, I can hire you to paint my house for 1000.00 regardless of wether it takes you 3 days or 2 weeks. Then, have you stop that job, go paint my friends house and expect you to finish painting my house after hours. Now I can collect 500.00 from my friend all because you're salaried. Is this that new capitalism everyone's talking about?

They're supposed to be paid overtime if the employer deducts for extra sick time off and for other reasons. It has been upheld in court, which is a good thing for salaried employees. If this was a salaried employee and the extra work was supposed to be on company time AND the normal work load was expected to be completed on time, as scheduled, it's a problem but we haven't seen anything that supports this (and we have only heard/seen the employee's side of the story).

If someone quotes a price and it takes longer, it's not the customer's problem but if the contractor has to go and work on another job, it becomes their problem, especially if they're having the work done so they can sell whatever is having the work done on it. Also, there's a potential for being put on the back burner to make the customer whose project was bumped to feel very bad about whatever relationship they have with the contractor which can include them breaking it off completely if the contractor handles it badly enough.

 

[Truktek2]

You guys should listen to Munji on this one. There are some in this thread who understand also, but it seems most of you have no clue how business works at all. The fact that many of you are likely adults makes this deduction very sad to me. Our education system is seriously failing us when adults don't understand simple business matters and ethics. But I can't say I'm surprised at all. As a business person myself, finding good help is extremely hard, mostly because people don't understand a good working ethic and how to get ahead in the real world.

I'm failing to see how having someone give up their personal time to maximize a company's profits is "ethical". As a business man are you running charity? Neither am I. I also don't get how a company can do whatever it wants to boost its bottom line, but when the working guy does it, he's not "a team player".

Also, If your having trouble finding hard working people, especially in this economy, you may want to take a step back and aak yourself why this might be.

Sorry, but saying "good job" doesn't pay my mortgage. I don't try to get over on my fellow man, and I expect the same in return. Maybe it's different in your nefk of the woods, but around here it's dog eat dog.

As far as Munji goes, I'm more leery of guys in Hawaiian shirts than I am of management. j/k

 

[livinitup0]

...as long as the organizational culture and performance appraisal system reward value added to an organization by employees. The optimistic capitalist in me likes to believe that organizations are meritocracies in which people get rewarded for hard work, innovation, and adding value, but the cynical conflict theorist in me knows that many organizations will happily keep the value added by employees without offering them anything else in return. The experienced labor professional in me knows that politics are often the most influential factor in how people move within organizations.

If that's the case then simply pack up and leave... People keep saying "oh the job market's soooo hard... Poor me" whatever... Hard work and self-marketing = you'll never have a hard time getting a job.
My proof? Ask a business owner how hard it is to find a good employee.

 

[eyeballkid]

if "B" was sending a check as a thank you to you then it is yours. if it was a payment to the company for services you were paid salary to do then its the company's.

 

[livinitup0]

I'm failing to see how having someone give up their personal time to maximize a company's profits is "ethical". As a business man are you running charity? Neither am I. I also don't get how a company can do whatever it wants to boost its bottom line, but when the working guy does it, he's not "a team player".

Also, If your having trouble finding hard working people, especially in this economy, you may want to take a step back and aak yourself why this might be.

Sorry, but saying "good job" doesn't pay my mortgage. I don't try to get over on my fellow man, and I expect the same in return. Maybe it's different in your nefk of the woods, but around here it's dog eat dog.

As far as Munji goes, I'm more leery of guys in Hawaiian shirts than I am of management. j/k

How many job descriptions have you seen that say:

".... And all other duties as assigned by management."

This is one of those "other duties". Pretty cut and dry... OP just needs to make sure his boss doesnt forget about this example of going above and beyond.

It's just building value in yourself in the eyes of your employer.... So that you can have some leverage come raise time and to show them you're not easily replaceable.

 

[scorpionldr]

This is probably one of the most unsurprising things I've read in this thread, given who it was posted by.

No sugar coating. if we do its Diabeatusall 2012

 

[Spinal Tapper]

Hey guys. I appreciate all the responses to this. I've definitely read them all through and seen all sides. This is an interesting topic, it turns out, with many different opinions on whats right/wrong morally, and legally.

Not sure if it matters now, but when I really get to the bottom of why I was truly feeling "ripped off", I initially felt like the check (or at least some of it) was supposed to be for my time and hard work.
I'm pretty good at picking up on people's intentions- and I really felt those were the intentions from B. After all was said and done, I think the project took longer than he expected, and I think he actually felt kinda bad about it. He was a really straight-shooting guy through this whole thing, and I think he knew he was "putting me out" from my regular workload.

I worked very closely with B on this project. Over many phone calls and emails. B seemed like the kind of guy (unlike A) who would want to reward a hard working fellow like myself for my time on his project.

When his assistant called ME to ask what address to send the check to, she had the same kind of appreciation in her voice like, Hey, B wants to do something nice for you. Where can we send this check?
Kind of like how you get a bonus around Christmas. It's not mandatory at all, but it feels good to the person getting it, AND feels good to the person giving it- like doing the right thing...

Now that's just assuming...but that was how my gut really felt, which lead me to create this thread. B's intentions were for me to get some of the check.