Dear Evil HR Lady,
I am a sales manager and my area happens to be booming lately, requiring extensive travel; planes, trains, and automobiles. I am exempt of course. I make my own schedules and go when needed and stay as long as is necessary to get the job done. I am away from home often and normally at least 2 to 3 nights at a time. I all of a sudden have not much of a life at home.
My boss will not let me take any time off unless I use vacation. He won’t let me leave an hour early if I need to go somewhere. If I get in at 9:00 p.m. from a 3 day trip, I am expected to be in the office the next day. I think we are treated like hourly employees, but expected to put in as many hours to do our jobs as necessary. Shouldn’t it go both ways? I have been a salaried employee for 25 years and have never had such rigid requirements and have to ask everything little thing. In addition our boss make judgement calls. It’s totally up to his mood and if he thinks it is “important”. I puts us in a position of never knowing what end is up and being treated like children when we have high levels of responsibility.
What are the rules on all this? Are you really at the whim of a jerk boss?
Can Your Boss Micro-Manage You To Death?
This was such a good column.
I had a boss kind of like that, he wanted to track every little detail and was in everyone’s business, and was NOT flexible about anything. I remember I had requested vacation time a over a month in advance and the week prior he told my team he hasn’t approved anyone’s vacation due to ensuring proper coverage. I put in to switch teams that day. The other team lead had a completely different management style, she was open, flexible, and it felt like I was literally working a different job.