It's Come to This

You're an employer.  One of your employees is a diligent and hard worker.  In fact, doing a fine job is so important to her, she works through her lunch break to finish a project.  You respond by:

A)    Giving her praise.

B)    Giving her a raise.

C)    Firing her.

Did you guess "A"?  Maybe a combination of "A" and "B"? 

Well; if you guessed anything other than "C", you got this real life problem wrong.  No, I am not kidding.

Sharon Smiley had worked for 10 years as a receptionist and administrative assistant at a Chicago real estate company until she was fired for skipping lunch one day. After a two-year battle, an appeals court in Illinois has found that denial of her unemployment benefits was "clearly erroneous."

Smiley, 48, punched out of work for lunch Jan. 28, 2010, but remained at her desk to finish a project assigned by a manager because she did not plan to eat that day, she said.

An employee fired for working too hard.  Now I've seen everything.

Comments

[R.K. Brumbelow]

Peg,

It is not uncommon to fire someone for breaking the law, the law requires that employees take a mandated break after certain periods of work:
Labor Code sec. 512 governing meal breaks:

512. (a) An employer may not employ an employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer and employee.

If the employer waves the meal period, then depending on other factors the employee is due overtime. An employer is liable and responsible for the employee while they are working.

Now the above being said, the fact that companies have to protect themselves from employees and lawsuits by enforcing policies in ways such as your post describes is sad. When I worked it was almost always salaried and my view was I am paid to do a job, and part of my job is being present during certain hours. So if I could complete my work in 5 hours of an 8 hour day, great, I still had to be there another 3, if it took me 10, then I was there 10. But my hourly employees? No! They did it in 8, or they stopped and resumed it the next day, I was not about to set my company up for a lawsuit.

[Peg]

Another friend of mine who works in human resources essentially said the same thing.

All I can say is - we have met insanity and it is us.

Thank God I work in a field where if I wish to work my ass off in the hopes that my sales will increase because of it - I can.

If my grandfather knew that someone could be fired for doing an excellent job and working a few more minutes - he'd be turning over in his grave!

[jammen]

Almost every state has enacted "At will" employment laws that allow an employer to fire an employee at will, no reason required.

Unions are the only thing that can save the middle class from the vagaries of employers.

[R.K. Brumbelow]

I think there is a solution though Peg, Companies could just start hiring everyone as independent contractors. It would be a good thing for people to start realizing just how much is paid in taxes anyway. Yes, the unions would have a fit, but then I am not certain that I would mind that one bit.

[Peg]

My strongly held belief is that unions have gone way too far overboard. One reason we are losing too many jobs is because the power of unions has become too great.

If an employer has to meet with rules so strict it seems wiser to cut back and not hire that employee - that's what they will do.

I am not anti-union. I appreciate that management can be too tough on employees, and bargaining is necessary. But - just as employers can be too tough - so can unions.

Until they realize this, we'll have fewer jobs and then it won't matter to people what the damn rules are!

Let's try to return some common sense to the marketplace.

And RK - I like your idea. (Speaking from the standpoint of someone who is an independent contractor!)

[R.K. Brumbelow]

Peg,
Are you not also a union member? My mother is a Realtor(tm or whatever) and even though Georgia is a right to work state and she is an independent contractor, the MLS are controlled by unions. Don't pay your dues, no MLS access.