Who is right in this work situation?

Question

This is not something that happened to me, I witnessed this happening last night and I am wondering who is right and who is wrong.

I live in a condo and yesterday, I over heard one of the janitorial workers asking his manager if he can go to the bank (around 2 pm in the afternoon) because it closes at 4 and he wanted to go before it closes. His manager started yelling at him and said no, your shift ends at 6 pm, you can't leave whenever you want. Your life revolves around work hours, not your own personal hours. Then the worker said something like, but this is something personal I need to do, and I need time to do it, and they broke out into an argument.

Who was right and who was wrong?

Answer 1

Everyone believes there is a right and wrong in every perceived adversarial situation, which isn't always the case.

To begin with the employee should not have asked for personal time during work hours. The implied contract he has with his boss is that he will perform his job during his assigned hours. Granted there are valid situations that require exceptions, such as the school has called and your child has just fell off playground equipment and broke something. But needing to run to the bank doesn't qualify as something really important.

On the other hand, the manager yelling at his employee is unacceptable. Sounds like he was having a bad day. But the tirade would not have been unleashed had the employee not made the request.

Most bosses are pretty reasonable people and will bend over backwards in order to keep an outstanding employee, so my first thought would have been that this employee probably has a history of trying to take advantage of the boss.

Answer 2

The manager is right in not letting the janitor go out from his work during office hours,because an employee is being paid for his/her performance.He is wrong in yelling an employee because he can explain everything in a very nice manner.After all, he must know how to interact with other people because he is the one who finished his studies and thus be a good example to others. What the janitor should do is convert his account to an atm so he can go to the bank anytime of his convenience.

Answer 3

It depends. First, the supervisor was out of line to say that, "Your life revolves around work hours". Sometimes, there are things that we need to do that can only be done during the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Therefore, sometimes we have to take a few hours off during the regular work schedule.

Is this a habit of the worker, needing to leave often during his work schedule and could this have been done during his lunch break.

It is hard to say who was right and who was wrong without knowing the details, but it is definitely wrong for someone to thing that their life revolves around their job or work hours.

Answer 4

Well, we don't know if this employee is constantly asking for time off work or to leave to do personal things. It's never right to yell at an employee, especially where customers can hear. I would have to know the whole situation, but I would say that the manager had no right to yell and it was done very unprofessional if you could hear it too.

Answer 5

In this case, I think both parties may have had some shortcomings. On the janitor's side, he should formally ask for a vacation leave. I think even janitors are entitled to this under the law. Letting the employer know beforehand will allow the employer to get a replacement for the janitor's shift while he is away.

On the side of the employer, he should make it clear to employees that vacation leaves *are* allowed. If he refuses to do so, it's a refusal to follow labor laws, and he might get into trouble for not following them (Note: Be sure to consult the labor laws in your area/country). Some employers require prior notice for vacation leaves. In addition, employees are entitled to sick leaves and emergency leaves, among other things.

Answer 6

The employee should take a break or his lunch hour to go to the bank, not take time off from work. As an employer, it gets tiring to have people just run nilly willy off the job to take care of personal business that they can take care of after work or on a break or lunch hour. We usually give our employees thier paycheck in the morning and remind them they have a lunch hour to go do thier banking business.
The employer (or boss in that situation) really has no right to yell or be abusive to the employee. But it sounds like he's had to deal with this employee before on such issues.
So, in a way, I think the employer (or boss) was right.

Answer 7

The manager had a problem with liability, if the employee is hurt during work hours it is on the employeer, including damage to his car.

The employee should have done his banking during his lunch hour.

This whole thing should not have been a public demonstartion though, they were both very unprofessional.

Answer 8

Neither is right.

While it is true that an employee are required to be present at work during his work hours, given no urgent work, management usually lets workers do personal tasks if it is brief and not constant.

Employee has no right to demand he let go, employer has shown ultimate inflexibility for no apparent reasons.

Answer 9

If it is just once and the person needed a special trip to the bank, I don't see a problem. Especially if he would be willing to make up the time. However, we don't know everything. It could be that he chronically needs time off for this and that and that could be the reason he was refused.

Answer 10

the manager sounds like a a55 employees should be aloud personal time(without pay of course)to take of personal business that cant be taken care of after work hours.unless the worker does that sort of thing in excess then the manager would be correct in his actions