would you expect to be paid?

[Yobz]

That is complete BS. Your boss is a moron and needs to go and get an MBA...or a brain. Employees will spend more time talking about what he did then the meeting lasted itself, he will lose more money because of his dumb decision.

[DBowling]

i always got paid for meetings i attended

[DeezNuts]

[ QUOTE ]
I would imagine if you are pure commission, you wouldn't expect to be paid for meetings. If you are an hourly employee you certainly should be. You could complain to the state labor board. A lot depends on how much you value this job. Is it a throwaway, easily replaceable job with crappy pay? Definitely lodge a complaint. Are you a highly paid professional (probably not if you punch a clock) who is afraid of being put on a sh*tlist? Shut up and deal with it, unless the whole office is willing to revolt. This isn't what Norma Rae would do but it's practical. Your boss may not fire you for raising a stink (he'd worry about a lawsuit) but you may find yourself passed over for promotions and your work quality receiving extra scrutiny. It sucks, but it happens every day all over the country. Good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's right is right. Don't sacrifice what is right in order to "look good" in front of the boss. He is the one abusing his employees' time.

Too many people sacrifice their principles in the workplace for future promises of a "career", which further subjugates them to becoming a faceless, nameless piece of the corporate machinery.

DN

[bholdr]

If the company expects to increse it's profits by holding such meetings (it does) then you should be paid. this is a bad sign for your job... how else will they be screwing you? IMO, if you're not getting paid, if you're not on a salary, then it's not mandatory.

i could almost see a boss asking people not to punch in for a 30 min meeting, but asking them to punch out? smells like BS, to me.

find a better boss.

[EliteNinja]

Keep a logbook of all the crap you have to put up with in all its gory details.

Log when and how long your meetings are and if you get paid for each one.

Keep some evidence around.

You don't have to put up with this crap.

[sourbeaver]

I would expect to get paid 100% of the time.

[gorie]

Yes, most everyone there is considered full time hourly employees. A few people are seasonal hourly part timers. It's a small company.

I wouldn't want to sue him, or file a complaint to risk getting the company in trouble, nothing that drastic. I'm not that kind of person.

I'm pretty sure if he really thought he was doing something wrong and confronted properly he would make it right before letting it get out of hand. I'm still trying to understand why he would actually tell people to punch out for it. It's not the first time he shows little value for his employees, but to be so obvious about it is just stupid.

I like my job (not my boss), at times I hate it and want to quit, but I'd have a hard time finding something I like that paid what I get now (which is still not a lot but not bad for having no degree, either). So this isn't something I want to risk my job over. We're all use to my boss being an idiot, but this one just bugs me a lot. Especially when part of the meeting was about how "time is money". Yes, time is money! Where is our money. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Luckily, my boss does like me and I know I am a valuable employee. I can't see him firing me unless I did something very wrong. If I notice not being paid for that time on my paycheck I will definitely confront him on this issue, though. I might regardless for the sake of everyone else and that it bothers me that it even happened. I think I was the only person who stayed punched in so it should be interesting to find out. It's stupid to upset employees right before busy season too!!

Thanks for that link to DOL. The bottom of that link though says "It is intended as a general description only and does not carry the force of legal opinion." But it's something. I am having a hard time finding anything about Wisconsin labor laws regarding this anywhere either, hmph. But I suck at that stuff :P

[Six_of_One]

[ QUOTE ]

"If you don't come in on friday, don't bother coming in on monday"

[/ QUOTE ]

The better quote is, "If you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother coming in on Sunday." Attributed to Jay Chiat (of advertising fame), though of course I have no idea if he actually said it or not.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

I have always been paid for meetings.

And I have had about 20 different jobs ranging from manual labor to office work.