I'm a boss at work AMA

amother

Sun, Jan 21 2024, 3:59 am

amother Coral wrote:

I want to cut back on my work hours now to twice a week.
From a bosses perspective how would you accept such a request from an employee?

Tough one. It might depend on the type of work you do.

It wouldn't be enough to get their work done at my workplace, so I would likely say no. In general, every employee costs the company a certain amount of money (like overhead costs) and also helps the company bring in a certain amount of money (you may not be doing this directly, but all employees contribute to profit in some way, even indirectly). These are also not directly proportionate to how many hours you work (like if you work half the time, your costs are not necessarily cut in half, it might only be a third). If the company is losing money by having an employee be part time (e.g., by working part time you would cost us more money than you would hep bring in), it is not always worthwhile to to allow it. If we are really stuck on manpower, or if you are a really star employee and other people can't do what you do, it might be worthwhile anyway.

Either way, I would open a discussion first as to why you want to cut back (not to pry, but to problem solve), to see if there is another solution that might work instead - e.g., more flexible hours, more work from home days, etc.

zaq

Sun, Jan 21 2024, 2:57 pm

amother Burntblack wrote:

are a dept. manager? Lat I know a boss actually owns the company and is not on payroll

Not necessarily. A "boss" is anyone who gives you your work assignment, reviews your work, approves or disapproves your timesheet and leave requests, does your performance evaluation, hires and fires (or recommends hiring and firing where a personnel department is technically responsible for that function) and so on. In a company with ten employees that might be the owner, but in a large organization a "boss" may have a title like supervisor or manager, with a manager usually being a supervisor's boss, and an officer or some other title being a manager's boss.

From Merriam-Webster online, a boss is "a person who exercises control or authority,
specifically : one who directs or supervises workers."