Worker Asks About Socializing With Supervisor
Shop Talk is a forum for readers to ask questions about on-the-job situations and get answers from specialists on workplace issues. This week’s experts are Ron Riggio, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Cal State Fullerton; and Elizabeth Winfree Lydon, Orange County regional manager and senior staff consultant for The Employers Group. Question: There’s a clique in my department at work that includes some of my co-workers and our supervisor. They socialize after work, and those of us outside the clique feel that the supervisor gives her friends the best assignments and promotes their work better than ours. What should we do?
--A.M., Long Beach
Answer: It is interesting to note that in Japan workers are “required” to socialize with superiors and co-workers--it’s considered part of their jobs. However, in the United States we are more inclined to keep our business and social lives strictly separate. Obviously, your boss prefers mixing the two and giving special treatment to the “in-group” members. You might try approaching your supervisor and voicing your concerns. But don’t try to join the clique if doing so would make you feel uncomfortable.
--Ron Riggio
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Question: Can my boss require me to take comp time if I work late, or does the law allow me to take my pick of either comp time or overtime pay? --M.B., Santa Ana
Answer: It is difficult to answer this question without more information.
If you are a salaried employee who is exempt from overtime pay requirements, then compensatory time off, or CTO, is primarily a matter of agreement between you and your employer.
For non-exempt workers, however, granting CTO in lieu of overtime pay is much more complicated and subject to strict limitations under three independent sets of state and federal regulations and guidelines.
The California Labor Code does authorize comp time under certain circumstances. But there are a number of situations in which certain sections of the labor code are not applicable. And a separate set of guidelines applies solely to some health-care industry employees.
Above all else, the state permits CTO in lieu of monetary compensation only if the employee requests it in writing before working the overtime.
If you prefer CTO to overtime pay, write out your request and give it to your boss in advance. If you have any other concerns about your work schedule, your hours and how you are compensated, talk them over with your boss.
Because both state and federal regulations on this issue are extremely complex, your employer might want to get legal or professional advice on how to set up your company’s CTO program.
--Elizabeth Winfree Lydon
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Question: I have a new baby, and my boss is letting me work at home so I can breast feed. Are there any books or other resources available on working out of your house when you have small children around? I have trouble getting everything done on days when the baby is fussy.
--S.C., Seal Beach
Answer: There isn’t much available in the way of books to help parents who work at home while caring for children. There are, however, many books for new parents on how to organize child care and work activities. One of those is “Creative Parenting” by Dr. William Sears of USC Medical Center.
What you really need, though, is to get your work time organized so that you can work effectively in brief spurts. There are many books on effective time management, most of which emphasize organization and goal setting. One such title is “The Time Trap,” written by Alec MacKenzie and available through the American Management Assn.’s AMACOM publishing unit in New York.
--Ron Riggio
COUNTERPOINT
One answer to a question in your inaugural issue of Shop Talk on April 4 was surprising and, I believe, incorrect. The question was what to do about a romantic affair between a supervisor and a co-worker in which the co-worker was treated more favorably than the others. The answer was to do nothing or, if the writer had difficulty working in that environment, to consider the alternatives.
In my opinion, the situation is a very clear case of sexual harassment, which is no longer tolerated in the workplace. My advice would have been to report the situation to the human resources department of the company. Whether or not the liaison is taking place during business hours, the co-workers are at a disadvantage, and the company is bound to correct the situation.
--William F. Whalen, Placentia
Please mail your questions about workplace issues, challenges or problems to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Or fax them to Shop Talk, (714) 966-7711. Questions of general interest will be answered in this column on Mondays.