The latest pitfall of managing tech-savvy employees
Filed under: Communication, Employee computer use, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security and law
These days, tech tools like BlackBerries are no longer just toys for high-flying executives. Many of your company’s employees likely have them — even nonexempt workers. And lawyers warn that can create serious legal pitfalls.
Popular tools such as Apple’s iPhone give employees the chance to check e-mail and do other work anytime they want. Sounds great to managers who encourage maximum productivity.
But not to HR pros charged with ensuring wage and hour law compliance. The FLSA requires nonexempt employees to be paid for all the time they spend working, except for “de minimis” activities.
The law doesn’t spell out what’s de minimis and what’s not, but lawyers warn that even a short period of reading and responding to e-mails might be enough to require payment.
That’s a big problem when there’s easy way for the company to know there’s even work being done.
One possible solution: a policy against nonexempt employees’ use of e-mail outside their scheduled hours.
Also, managers should be warned not to e-mail nonexempt staffers after hours. If employees see that their boss sends them messages at night, they may feel pressured to stay in contact at all times.
Comments
One Comment on The latest pitfall of managing tech-savvy employees
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Bob on
Tue, 24th Feb 2009 7:18 pm
I think this raises an excellent point.
In many cases, devices such as the iPhone or BlackBerry that are personally-owned must be authorized by the server to which they connect prior to being used to access corporate e-mail. This technology control allows management to implement a policy against reading e-mail on personally-owned devices; the implication being that if the company wants you reading e-mail after hours, the company will issue you a device.
Additionally, most “mobile” mail server interfaces, including BlackBerry, allow the administrator to define policies regarding when e-mail can be received.
