(Sorry for the misspelled words)

Charlene. Sorry but that is a callous outlook that should have long ago been put aside. If you are the H/R person then you are an advocate of employment law. If the employee is being worked in violation of employment law an H/R responsibility would become making sure the employee is being treated fairly and certainly not dismissing a wrong as “being happy to have a job.” That is why there are so many laws out there now. Trying to do the wrong thing the right way is not a good H/R trait. I’m not directing this at you on a personal level just that I highly disagree with any summation that dismisses rather than concluding based on law.

To be American is to voice complaints and be heard. As a nation, we had a problem with being ruled by Kings and religious leaders. We had a problem with being ruled by “robber Barons” in industry. From the complaints and the response to those complaints we have been vibrant and competitive.

In the communist countries, it has always been, “Be glad for what is provided and stop complaining.”

There is a sense of “unfairness” when an exempt person is asked to absorb the duties of a non-exempt position without any change in compensation. I have had this happen to me and it irks me that an hourly staff person can come to work with me and go home at the same time as I do, and they make more compensation with overtime. It further irks me that I spend many hours doing the same menial tasks as the hourly staff and am expected to also be “responsible” for large portions of the company. And finally, it irks me that I have spent good time and money to get the training and education to do what I can do, yet I am not as financially compensated as a younger worker straight out of high school. Oh, by the way, I am glad I do have a job. Being an older Veietnam Era Veteran I know how easy it is to find yourself unemployed because employers would rather have young workers to mold with less health problems.

To qualify for the executive employee exemption, the employee’s primary duty must be managing the enterprise, or managing a customarily recognized department or subdivision of the enterprise;
the employee must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent; and the employee must have the authority to hire or fire other employees, or the employee’s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees must be given particular weight.

To qualify for the administrative employee exemption, the employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and the employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

To qualify for the learned professional employee exemption, the employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and
judgment; the advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and the advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

As a student of history, the FLSA was started to get more people employed. Employers to that point were happy to work one person 80 hours per week rather than hire two. In order to make the idea acceptable to business, the exemptions were created. Generally, those exempt were compensated well compaired to their “hourly” counterparts. However, today, many exempt persons make less than their hourly counterparts when factoring in overtime.

You have done a fine job in slaughtering the term ‘management’ according to how FLSA defines it. Of course to use your people (or misuse them) in any manner you so describe happens to be why there are FLSA rules and guidelines are written.

Now I don’t know for certain anymore than you do what all of the specifics are other than what is reported in the article. However I and we here in this workforce choose to honor our people by acting in accordance with the law. We honor our people by respecting the definition of management we put them in. If that is a misunderstanding of the word ‘management’ then perhaps management is not for you.