From Up-and-Coming Manager to Do-The-Minimum Timecard Puncher
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the negative effects of the Administrations new overtime rules for managers.
The only people who now have the right to work more than the minimum to demonstrate one's readiness for more responsibility are those paid over $48,000 a year. McKinsey consultants and lawyers and investment bankers can choose to work extra hours in order to gain promotions. McDonald's shift managers no longer have that same right. This is a law written by salaried professionals telling younger and lower-paid workers that they have no right to be ... salaried professionals.
One of the things that I failed to mention was the reaction of my own managers, which has been universally negative. No one wants to go back to filling out time sheets. I know this will sound odd to Progressives, who seem to envision that all workers only want to do the minimum, but my managers fear (rightly) that I will have to set arbitrary maximum numbers of work hours for them. They take incredible pride in the facilities I ask them to manage, and worry what will happen if something needs doing and they have run out of hours.
A reader of mine sent me another example from the Albuquerque paper that really sums up the change in relationship demanded by the new rules
Although the proposal aims to increase pay for an estimated 5 million workers, including many at restaurants and retailers, some employees are saying, “no thanks.” Bret Crowder, a general manager in one of Shriver’s cafes, doesn’t want to go back to being an hourly paid worker.
“All of a sudden, the government has just demoted me,” he says. “It would basically put me back down to being a teenager.”
My longer post on the effects of this law is here. Some notes about the arbitrary nature of this decision, and how it was dressed up as science, are here. And even the DOL admits it won't result in much extra pay.
