Employee Shares how He Managed to Earn Overtime Pay for Training on His Day Off
Employees across the globe complain about unpaid overtime which raises questions concerning employee rights. It becomes a big deal as it's not just about money but it's mostly about having a good balance between work and personal life along with a satisfactory corporate culture. Platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok are filled with users sharing their frustrating experiences on how they are forced and not paid for their overtime shifts. The Sub-Reddit r/MaliciousCompliance has seen many such posts and one posted by u/SheZowRaisedByWolves received 3.7k upvotes.
The OP starts the post by informing and giving context to the whole incident saying, "My department heads recently suggested that employees shadow doctors in the department in order to learn more about workflow and reasoning in treatment/care/diagnosis. Additionally, the higher-ups told us to figure out the whole phenomenon as in when to come but when we tried to ask for help, they deliberately ignored us. All of us were baffled at the point when they suggested to come in on our days off but that was pretty unfair. At one point, the OP thought that he had extra work hours coming up, so I decided to shadow on my last shift instead." Later in the post, the user mentions, "I ended up shadowing for most of a full-day shift before getting checked off to go home".
After learning about the situation, his boss called the OP, who then explained to him that they were unaware of whether or not they should clock out for shadowing as nobody answered their query emails. The boss later a fixed schedule was set up in order to resume shadowing during our shift timings.
@wdjm commented, "If it's 'required'...then it is required to be paid. They cannot require you to 'volunteer.' That's literally illegal (at least in the States). But good job enforcing that in the most satisfying way possible". @SnakesCatsAndDogs commented, "I had an employer try and force us to volunteer our time for an event that we were required to do. It ended up in a screaming match between him and the office manager and then a massive office walkout". @jmurphy42 commented, "In fact, the DOL has made it clear that employees cannot volunteer for the organization that employs them even if it’s a nonprofit that frequently utilizes volunteer labor. All employee work must be paid work".
@ShadowDragon8685 commented, "Exactly, and it's to prevent exactly that kind of abuse. 'You're not working that day, you're gonna be volunteering. Or else you won't be working the day after, capice?". @Thin-Ground-5185 said, "I don’t understand, it sounds like you did your shadowing during scheduled OT nightshift? So how was the overtime a surprise?". @zangetsuthefirst wrote, "Write down the hours before you forget and make sure they're all accounted for on your pay stub". @spikewh mentioned, "If I'm working, in any way for my company, I'm getting paid. Doesn't matter if it's training, shadowing, reports, etc. I'm getting paid. I work so I can live and my time isn't free".
