The Question
I'm an hourly employee in Ohio, and I've only been with my company for about 45 days. My regular schedule is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but my manager has told me I need to log into my laptop and check Microsoft Teams twice every evening, usually around 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
I have an upcoming check-in with HR. Should I bring this up?
My Thoughts
Yes. I absolutely would.
But I think there's an important distinction to make here: asking an hourly employee to perform work outside their regularly scheduled hours isn't necessarily the problem. Expecting that employee to perform the work without being compensated is.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), nonexempt employees generally must be paid for time they're required or permitted to work. That includes work performed outside their normal schedule, whether they're physically in the workplace or checking messages from their couch at 10 p.m.
And this isn't exclusively an overtime issue. Even if those additional minutes don't put the employee over 40 hours for the week, they may still be compensable.
Now, there's something we don't know from this question: Has the manager actually told the employee not to record this time? Or has the employee simply assumed that because the work falls outside their normal schedule, it won't be paid?
That's an important distinction, and it's exactly why I'd encourage the employee to raise the issue during their HR check-in.
Something as simple as asking how they're expected to record time spent checking Teams in the evenings could open the door to a very productive conversation.
But I also think there's a responsibility here that falls on the manager
Managers need to understand the implications of the expectations they establish for their employees.
If you're supervising hourly employees and requiring them to perform tasks outside their scheduled hours, you should already be thinking about how that time is being recorded and compensated. Employees shouldn't have to discover potential wage-and-hour problems on their own.
And from an HR perspective, this is exactly the kind of information I'd want to hear during a new employee check-in.
I'd want to understand the manager's expectations, confirm that the employee knows how to record their time, and determine whether other employees are being asked to do the same thing. If there's a misunderstanding or an inappropriate practice, I'd want to address it.
That's part of why these early check-ins can be so valuable. They give employees an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns before an unclear expectation becomes an established practice.
My Takeaway
Not every questionable workplace practice begins with bad intentions. Sometimes it's a manager who doesn't understand the implications of what they're asking. Sometimes it's an employee who hasn't been told how to account for work outside their regular schedule.
But those misunderstandings still matter.
Employees should feel comfortable asking how their work is being compensated, managers should understand the responsibilities that come with supervising hourly staff, and HR should be prepared to help bridge that gap.
Sometimes a simple question during a 45-day check-in is exactly what prevents a much bigger problem down the road.
