...work. Of course, I'm not going to talk about anyone specific, just ethics in general. After all, I haven't said where I work...have I? Here's the deal...as a benefit of working for this company, we have the option of working a flex schedule. It was awesome for me since I have such a long drive and I certainly could use the day off to cool it on my mileage and gas. Plus, it was one of the top factors when I was considering grad school. It gave me a day away from work where I could study. I am one of three people that are considered "administrative" personnel. I am not an "admin," actually, I am in marketing. But, they lumped me in with them because we are the three people in the company that don't actually have anything to do with what the company does. The other two admin personnel are truly "admin" functions. One is the receptionist and one is the accounts, invoicing, etc. person. These two people have been out sick a lot. Our receptionist just started this past July and she already took 6 weeks of short term disability plus another two weeks for a side-effect of her disability. Plus, she has been out sick quite a bit. The other admin person has a myriad of diseases, all of which are very severe and work against each other. She took 3 months of short term disability before our receptionist started, but in the same year. She is also out an average of at least 40% of the year. Around Thanksgiving of 2007, I had a severe throat infection which caused me to be out on the day that the other admin had off. She didn't cover for me and at about noon that day, we received an email stating that if the front desk is left empty again, our flex time would be taken away. After that, I worked my ass off to be sure I was here as much as possible. I covered every time the two admin women were out...I even worked when I was sick! The four or five times that I had to take a day or two off for being sick, I felt completely guilty and tried to work as much as I could from home.
At about 8am this morning, I found out that flex time had been taken away from the other two admins. They were not happy about this, but they understood since they were both out a lot and I can only cover so much. At about 8:45 this morning, I received the same email. Since my position has been lumped into the same category as theirs (which is completely unfair for other reasons), my flex time was taken away. Now, my company has categorically excluded an entire department from what they claim is a benefit. There was no reason to exlude me and the other two admins say that they think it's completely unfair to me as I have done nothing wrong. I still have over 3 weeks of paid time off that I have earned. Which proves that I am here all the time.
So, now I am looking into HR laws and seeing if I have a leg to stand on so I can go into my boss' office and fight my case for keeping my flex schedule. In fact, they said they started the four 10-hour days so that people who live farther away could have the option of driving less. Which is one of the main reasons I chose to do this schedule. When I was interviewing for this position, they told me that they were moving their office to a location that was about 5 miles away from my home. They ended up choosing a location that is 25 miles from my home. Having Fridays off helped save me quite a bit of money on gas and mileage on my LEASED vehicle. Working 5 days a week puts 13,000 miles a year on a vehicle I am only supposed to drive 15,000 miles a year.
I don't know what to do. I think this is very unethical for them to do and I don't know how to approach the subject. I'll keep you updated...
Updated: I did actually talk to my boss the next day. He explained their reasoning behind it all. I understand now why they did what they did, but it's still not fair. He actually said that the reason why they changed my schedule, too, is because I am the one that shows up all the time. So, instead of calling me in on my day off, it's better that I am just here all the time whether or not it's warranted? Thanks. On a funny side note, one of the admins who had her flex time taken away has now been out for almost 6 weeks. Her last full week was the week our schedules changed. Nice. But, this doesn't really prove their point too much as the receptionist has been here the entire time so there wouldn't have been a problem with me having Fridays off. Except the two days she was out for bad indegestion. But that was mid-week. Ugh.
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