Wife's boss is on a power trip. Is this legal?

My wife works in a restaurant, and the power-tripping manager has instituted a new policy where all shift changes must be approved by management. I think that is reasonable enough, but they’re also asking the originally-scheduled employee why they are switching shifts, then approving or denying based on the answer.

For example, her coworker (Tom) wanted Monday afternoon off, and Harry agreed to cover the shift. The manager asked Tom why he wanted Harry to work for him, and Tom said, “I have a softball game.” Manager denied the shift change because it was “unnecessary”.

Is this legal? I feel like if you’re able to find someone to cover your shift, you don’t owe management any explanation why you need the time off. How should my wife approach this situation? Colorado, USA BTW.

smokin_shinobi,

“Personal obligation.” Should be the only response anybody gives him going forward.

Rivalarrival,

Could go into great detail about significant health issues, becoming more and more emotional as you go on, and tearfully asking “why would you make me talk about this? I wanted to keep this private! I haven’t even told my family yet!”.

LazaroFilm,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll show you my medical record if you pay for it.

dicksinabag,

Exactly. I’m a manager and literally never ask the reason unless it’s longer than a week. They like to tell me anyway even though I’ve told them I don’t care.

fleabomber,

Maybe they just really feel like they can open up to you, Dicksinabag.

Established_Trial,

I feel like I could open up to Discksinabag pretty easily

dicksinabag,

Open on up, bro. (But seriously, I believe in authenticity as a manager. I don’t hide anything from them unless I’m told explicitly not to share with them.)

Risk,

I’d actually prefer it if they opened up to me.

Established_Trial,

I don’t know, that feels like a risk

i_cant_sports,

Wait, are we all talking about docking now?

keeb420,

I thought we were talking about hamburgers and got hungry. I love dicksinabag

dicksinabag,

❤️🍆🎒

Bdaman,

Isn’t that called sounding?

JDubbleu,

I can’t imagine having a manager like in this post. I had to get a few hours coverage for my on call shift to pick my partner up from the hospital for an outpatient surgery. Manager didn’t ask why I needed coverage but it just happened to come up. They immediately offered to get my entire shift moved without me even asking.

SilentStorms,

Seriously don’t understand managers like this. Also a manager, qnd I’ll even find the coverage if someone needs a day off. I know how nerve wracking it is as an employee calling around asking someone to cover your shift, its a lot easier for me to send a mass text. Incidentally, the staff seem much more willing to pick up shifts this way.

Uniquitous,

Bad case of anal glaucoma. I just can’t see my ass going in to work today.

AstralWeekends,

A+, just got to figure out how to work this into conversation without getting HR involved now.

Bdaman,

Then use a more medical sounding term

I think my Rectal-Ocular Degeneration is flaring up.

DrQuint,

And if the boss still refuses, have them put it in writting. So that you can slam them with the “Boss demanding medical information”

Cylusthevirus,
Cylusthevirus avatar

Always give your boss as little information as possible. They aren't entitled to it and are much more likely to use it against you.

I say that as a manager. It's just good practice. If the manager doesn't know exactly why you're taking the day off, they can't be held accountable for it either.

lps2,

As a manager, I don’t give a flying fuck why my team wants to take time off. Wanna sit on your ass and play video games for a week straight, cool all good by me : just let me know the dates, check their PTO balance, and ensure it doesn’t conflict with key deliverables and if so either work out a plan for coverage or suggest they look for a different time to take off if possible

AshDene,
AshDene avatar

Yeah, I don't know what Colorado's laws are on this in general, but even if it's technically legal it seems like a huge risk that someone is going to plausibly allege that given the specific facts denying them time off was race/religion/family status/... discrimination. It might be legal (don't know), but it's a stupid policy for a number of reasons.

Tolookah,

“I’ve got a christening, communion, marvel movie, spaghetti dinner to attend. It’s religious.”

Or

“I’m re attaching my leg, keeps falling off. Medical things and getting old are hard, right?”

ImplyingImplications,

I have a co-worker who says her reason for the time off request is always gynecology related. Bosses never ask questions.

autumn,

Yeah the policy OP described just creates a culture where people lie about why they need time off 😆

It’s not school - if someone agrees to cover the shift, just let em

Blizzard,

“Good morning boss, I need two weeks off for gynecology-related activities”.

superfly_samurai,

“I don’t want to know, Dave.”

Awwab,
Awwab avatar

You could be having a baby, that falls into the scope.

tj111,

Or trying to make one on the beach in Fiji with a partner or a local.

Rivalarrival,

Or spending the week in bed, flicking the bean.

skepticalifornia,
@skepticalifornia@lemmy.world avatar

How about a partner and a local - Belts and Suspenders, and you only get one two-week shot at this.

jscummy,

It’s time to give up this dream, you never even went to med school

jsveiga,

I need a leave for my pap exam.

Denied.

Why?

You’re a man.

Gender discrimination reported to corporate headquarters.

throwing_handles, (edited )

“You don’t have to elaborate… Please don’t elaborate, but we are going to need a doctor’s note.”

E: apparently in the US it’s only legal for a company to require a doctors note if three or more consecutive absence days are taken.

moobythegoldensock,

Sounds like you need to source some tips from

!maliciouscompliance

bjwest,

Maybe take it up with his boss? I really can’t see the restaurant caring one way or another, as long as the shift is covered by someone qualified to do the job.

Durpadurp,

Well Colorado is an at will state so I would think it would be legal. Shitty but still legal.

BellyPurpledGerbil,

I think I would simply comply, maliciously.

What’s my reason? I’m going on a journey in alignment with my religion. Try telling me I can’t follow my religious beliefs on the record.

intensely_human,

I work retail and have tuesdays off for my men’s group, which takes 7 hours out of my day once travel is taken into account.

A coworker advised me that if management ever asks about why I need tuesdays off, I should just say “It’s religious”.

Froody,

Let me guess, you live in the U.S.

My suggestion, move away from that cesspool and towards more developed parts of the globe.

CarbonatedPastaSauce,

Because a server definitely has the resources to pick up and move internationally on a whim. 🙄

Froody,

Well that went over your head.

APassenger,

I think getting actionable advice was the point of the thread.

Editorials are often seen as disrespectful and dont get the engagement you’d hope (this isn’t a news community).

meteorswarm,

One way you might resolve this is to get everybody talking about it without the boss there. I bet nobody likes the policy. Maybe everyone would agree to not give a reason, or to give the same reason that is an obvious lie?

CurlyWurlies4All, (edited )

Maybe if all the employees presented a united front. Like a sort of joint group of just the employees. Together in a union of sorts.

brimnac,

Maybe individually they do not have a lot of power, but together could be strong?

Freeman,

This idea probably wont stick in the states. The workers there arent very united.

TurnItOff_OnAgain,

Individually they are weak like a single twig, but bundled together they form a mighty removed.

youtu.be/q34Qxl5HINg

Edit:

Aww, the text filter messed up the joke

InputZero,

Everyone should always say ‘its because I’m on my period.’ Men and post menopausal women too. It could be great, if the first few times the younger women use the line it works. Then whenever someone who doesn’t have menses uses it, everyone unites together and puts a little bit of their labor to helping a coworker. It’d be nice if there was a name for something like that.

_cerpin_taxt_,

It’d be nice if there was a name for something like that.

Synced menstrual cycle?

zik,

“Personal reasons”. If they continue to pry just say it’s extemely personal and hopefully they’ll back off.

ristoril_zip,

“show me in my employment contract where it says I have to disclose that”

acunasdaddy,

If this is in the US employment contracts are virtually nonexistent.

If a policy doesn’t discriminate against a protected class, it’s pretty much legal. Your recourse is to find another job.

ristoril_zip,

I am pretty sure at any firm bigger than a mom & pop, there will be some sort of written agreement that the employee signs that establishes their intent to work for the employer. That’s an employment contract even if it’s not labeled as such. For example, they can sue if they aren’t paid their agreed compensation. Because there’s a contract for them to receive that compensation.

acunasdaddy,

This is not correct. Wage theft is protected by law, not contract.

An offer letter is specifically not an employment contract - that distinction is usually spelled out in the law and also in virtually every offer letter.

SturgiesYrFase,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

We need legal advice communities

APassenger,

With the country built into the community name. Less confusion and wasted energy that way.

refurbishedrefurbisher,

In the US, the state matters as well.

Madison420,

Not really, it’s a private company unless you sign a contract they can indeed make their own policies.

Trebach,

Within the laws of the location of the employer. That's why state and sometimes even local laws matter.

Mugmoor,
@Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

In Ontario that’s perfectly legal. It’s also legal for you to decline to answer that question.I worked in kitchens for about 15 years and came across that problem at about 1/3 of the places I worked. Not super uncommon, the industry is filled with flakes.

Keep in mind in most jurisdictions Restaurants get special labour rules.

Mrmcmisterson,

“special labour rules”

Seems every industry has their own… I work in IT and we get shafted as well

GroteStreet,

It’s like a “special military operations”, in the workplace!

HobbitFoot,

It is legal, but this is going to kill the restaurant.

pinwurm,

Whats it say in the employee handbook regarding time off?

It’s not the manager’s job to decide if someone’s personal obligations are necessary or not. It’s their job to assure there is coverage and the work is complete.

If the employee is abusing the shift-change timeoff policy, that is a different story.

If the manager is the owner, it may be a good idea for your wife to freshen her resume.

aaron_griffin,

Tell her to just start lying about horrible medical conditions. Lying isn’t illegal.

“I need Thurs and Fri off to get a painful hemorrhoid lasered”

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