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Alison
Citizen
Username: Alikoz
Post Number: 153
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 1:46 pm: | 
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Say you've signed up for a weekly class (7:30-9:30 pm) to indulge a certain creative interest, totally unrelated to work. And that class cost a significant amount of your personal money. And then your learn you will have to travel for business, or work a late night, at the last moment--and you are forced to miss a class...or even several classes...
Is it reasonable to ask your employer to compensate you for the missed class (particularly if you are a salaried employee?)
thanks fot the input in advance... |
Wendyn
Supporter
Username: Wendyn
Post Number: 2672
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 1:47 pm: |
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Nope. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8496
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 1:53 pm: |
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Good question.
My sense is that it would be OK only if business travel wasn't in the job description and you had no expectations of having to work on personal time. |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1316
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 1:54 pm: |
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Not in any job I've ever had! If they made me rebook my vacation, maybe, but not if they messed up my evening plans.
More seriously, I can only imagine this being appropriate in unusual situations, in lower-paid non-professional jobs with clear-cut expectations of no evening work or business travel. Even then, I'm not sure it is smart to ask in most cases.
I also don't ask to be paid back when my husband needs to hire a babysitter because of my occasional business travel. It just comes with the turf of deciding to have a responsible job and an active personal life. At least in my career, I just consider it as part of the overhead cost. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 1215
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 2:02 pm: |
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No, unfortunately, I don't think it's appropriate to ask. Your employer is not responsible for that.
What I would do next time is before you sign up for a class have a conversation with your boss and explain what you're doing and why it's important that you make the class. Explain that you want to clear this with him/her because although it isn't something that occurs during work hours, it's absolutely necessary that, on the days you have class, you'll need to leave "on time", and that before you sign up and pay a significant amount of money, that s/he is on board with that. I'm not sure what kind of work you do, and if this makes sense or not, but I would also make sure that you express that when extra work comes up at the last minute late on those days, that you'd be willing to come in early the next day or stay late the night following if needed to make sure the work gets done.
This way, you're expressing to your boss that you're on board 100% for the company, even though you will be going to class and you'll still be making sure the work gets done. They're likely to say no problem, and it gives you leverage when the last minute work creeps up on a school night to say that you can't stay, but you'll work through lunch tomorrow and have it done by 5:00 the next day (or something like that...), and since they "ok'd" it, they may be a little more forgiving. |
shoshannah
Citizen
Username: Shoshannah
Post Number: 1158
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 2:48 pm: |
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I agree with everything said. However . . . I once asked my employer to reimburse me for theater tickets (for The Heidi Chronicles -- so we're talking a looong time ago) because a client had an emergency and everyone had to work late. Not only did they reimburse for my ticket, but they reimbursed for the ticket of my friend who was going with me. Of course they just charged it back to the client. |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1317
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 5:52 pm: |
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The theater ticket case is somewhere in between missing a weekly class and having to reschedule a vacation trip, I think -- at that level (an expensive one-time event), I'd consider asking.
In many modern professional jobs, assuming that you can make every session of a weekly class, with no overtime or travel, is a different issue, and often not appropriate, sadly enough.
On the other hand, if you communicate this to the boss well in advance, he/she doesn't counsel against it, and he/she then completely ignores your outside commitment, then you are learning something valuable about that boss and job!
Alison, hoping that you manage to make most of your sessions going forward! |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 6952
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 7:23 pm: |
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Alison:
I would say that is the chance you took when you signed up for the class. The employer is not responsible for reimbursing you for a missed personal activity even if it was scheduled for non-traditional work hours.
If last minute overtime and/or travel is a reasonable expectation on your job, you should consider this when investing in an on-going leisure activity or taking on an outside-the-home responsibility. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12120
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 8:09 pm: |
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I think it probably won't hurt to ask, though you may get the above explanations as answers.
"This is the only thing my signature says."
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