Changing Exempt to Non-Exempt

Magestry · January 2002

We hired an employee as exempt about two and 1/2 months ago. We are located in Florida. She was hired as an executive administravie assistant to assist the general manager in that facility to over look various aspects of the bussiness such as engineering, purchasing and sales. I know we are not to keep track of hours of any employee, but she was expected to put in the time necessary to traing up in these areas. Since she started the first week she missed half a day and the second day she missed an entire day. To continue she has called in various times that she would be running late and does not put in any of the extra time to catch up.
In the time she has been working for us, and the time she is at work, she does pick up quickly and is a good worker. The general manager does not want to get rid of her, but feels she would best be an hourly employee. Can we and how do we go about with this process?

Gar · January 2002

It seems to me that you don't have a job reclassification problem, but an attendance problem which should be dealt with as such. To reclassify this employee will undoubtably result in a change in her job functions. Can her boss live with that?

Rockie · January 2002

I agree with GAR. You cannot simply change the status of an employee because they are not meeting expectations of the position. You can change them to a lesser position which would not qualify as an exempt position.

bsa · January 2002

As I see this, there are 2 problems -- incorrect job classification and attendance. An executive administrative assistant to a president is not exempt in all cases. It is not the job title, but the duties and responsibilities that make a job exempt. If you change the classification of the job and put this position on the time clock, the attendance situation will become quite clear. She will correct it herself in order to receive a full paycheck or the company will enforce it's attendance policy with accurate documentation of her attendance failures.

To make the change in classification, tell her that her position was audited and reclassified to nonexempt. Emphasize the positives of the change, like overtime pay, eventhough it doesn't sound like there's much chance of that happening!!

Changing Exempt to Non-Exempt

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