Oh. Dear. I have a professor that puts smiley faces on papers when grading. Not only does she use smiley faces, though. She also uses sad faces with tears running down the cheeks.

Someone needs to find a Sunday School class or Brownie troop or something where she can use her smiley-frowney urges in a more age-appropriate setting.

Robin, I'm afraid they can probably make him do it that way. If his normal schedule is M-F, and he is not there, they can count it against him.

I'm glad you have a job, Betsy. That's a really weird way for the company to handle it. I understand not telling people before the layoff (in a I wish they wouldn't do that way) but not saying who's gone after they're gone is just weird. And surviving a layoff can be almost as stressful as being laid off, or so my management courses taught me, so don't feel bad about feeling shocked.

I did my taxes on Saturday while babysitting. Between me not working for half the year and paying tuition, we have a pretty good refund coming. That will make saving up for our next move quite a bit easier. No smiley faces on the form, though.

My statistics teacher used to put smiley faces on quizzes. I didn't think a thing of it. No frowny faces with tears, though.

HEC!!! or any California HR types--I have a question. One of our exempt employees took a day off last week, but worked a full day Saturday so he put in a 40-hour week. The Head Office wants him to take his day as Paid Time Off, thus using up a vacation day, and the Saturday is considered by them just extra time that salaried employees sometimes have to work (I worked on the Saturday, for example, and won't get overtime for it, since I'm also exempt). This seems wrong to me, but I can't find anything concrete to back me up.

I'd strongly suggest you research CA overtime laws. You both may be entitled to compensation despite being described as exempt. I don't know if the Fed tweaks had any impact, but before those went through, a friend of mine on a salaried job was able to prove he was supposed to get some kind of overtime pay for his extra hours. They gave him extra comp time.

Just e-mailed off my take-home final exam. Two incompletes done, two to go.

Since he is classified as exempt, the overtime laws don't apply. He might be able to challenge that classification, but that is a broader question than just the two days.

eta: Yay VW!

Yay, vw!!!!

Since he is classified as exempt, the overtime laws don't apply.

That's the thing. Lots of companies think so; the EDD's been prone to disagree. The law says that only certain occupations can be fully exempt from overtime, and a lot of companies ignore that list or think it's broader than it really is.

Yay, VW!

Hee. [link]

Betsy, what if that's contagious?