ASK THE EXPERT

Exempt workers can be required to do self-evaluations at home

Our supervisor told us we have to fill out our self-evaluations on our own time. Because these are mandatory and part of our annual review, which determines salary, promotional progress, etc., shouldn’t we be allowed to work on it during work hours? A coworker was caught filling it out while at his desk and was written up. Can they make us use our personal time for this?

The company may have legitimate reasons for wanting you to contemplate and complete your selfevaluation outside of regular working hours. You or your co-workers may be in positions that involve providing customer service or dealing with the public on a constant basis. Would you really expect that a retail clerk or customer-service representative or call-center employee could have enough time to think globally or do a serious self-evaluation while on the job? Likely not.

The company may also want employees to do their own self-assessments and not rely on input from fellow employees. It is fortunate that your employer is invested enough in the review process to seek your feedback and even to do an annual review, because many companies do not.

If you are an executive, profession- al or administrative employee, as defined by federal wage and hour laws, or if you are otherwise exempt from overtime, then your employer may direct you to do your self-assessments away from work and on your personal time. Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime and are paid to do a job and not to work certain hours.

But if you are non-exempt from overtime, then the time you spend filling out a self-evaluation that is used by the company for work purposes counts toward hours worked, and that time is included in the hours for which you must be paid. Non-exempt employees do not work on personal time because if they are performing workrelated tasks that the employer has requested or accepts, then they must be paid by the employer.

Directing a non-exempt employee to work on personal time violates federal law. Writing up a non-exempt employee who refuses to work on their personal time is retaliatory and also inconsistent with federal law.

If you do not know if you are exempt or non-exempt from overtime, you need to ask. Try talking to your employer about this issue — during working hours. Good luck.