Do I have to attend this meeting?

If you are invited, I think it would probably be unwise not to attend. While you are working only part-time you are, nevertheless, employed by the company, and to display a lack of interest in your job is never a good thing to do. That the meeting is happening on your day off after closing time has no relevance, in my opinion.

It’s mostly up to your employer I would think. I don’t know if there is a law to help you out. Even if there is a law, in my opinion it won’t matter, because if the employer feels everyone should attend then if you don’t you look bad and uncooperative.

Having said all of that, I think it is awful if people are asked to come in often on a day off for a meeting, full time or part time. One time every six months may be ok, but more than that, I think it is asking for too much. I never required my part timers to come in for a meeting on their day off, and I usually scheduled all full timers on a meeting or training day if it didn’t wreak havoc with the schedule. We even tried to avoid making people come in early when I worked in retail if it was a long training, and did two shifts at lunch, usually providing lunch for the employees.

No matter what you should be paid if you attend anything for work.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Why no bearing? It might be a huge inconvenience for some people. Maybe they take care of their mother on that day, or their child, or have a scheduled medical treatment, or work a different job. Not that I think it is any of her employers business why it is her day off, she could be eating pizza in front of the TV, it’s not a scheduled work day for her.

My answer, @JLeslie, is based on limited information from @Headhurts, who doesn’t tell us what the meeting is about or why he or she doesn’t want to attend. If there’s a good reason for not attending the meeting other than simply blowing it off, even if it’s a social gathering, my answer would be different.

Nonetheless, in this economy, even a part-time job is worth protecting and at the very least @Headhurts would do well to tell the employer he/she isn’t attending and why. That’s both common courtesy and a smart employee practice.

It is just the monthly meeting about what new stock is coming out and why and to see how we all are. If there is anymore to it, then I don’t know about it. I won’t be getting paid for it.

I don’t want to because it is my day off and I don’t want to spend all day thinking about and spending ages getting ready for a meeting that doesn’t even concern me.

I would make sure that you aren’t getting paid for it. I have had to do the same a shitty companies and even they paid for these meetings.

And you don’t have to attend, but you could piss off the manager. I worked at a movie theater and you pretty much had to be caught stealing cash to get fired. They would just give you 2 hours a week if they wanted you gone until you quit to avoid paying unemployment.

I am definitely not getting paid for it. They have made that quite clear.

If you are prepared for a yes answer, you could ask your boss if it is important that you attend.

If your boss says yes, it’s important for you to attend, then politely ask them to pay you for your time. Tell them that you at least need to cover your cost of transportation.

Isn’t it against the law to force a worker to do something and not pay them?

You should get paid for it. (this is why I like unions. If you had a union, this bullshit wouldn’t happen).

If you’re not at work that day, and not getting paid, I would not be attending if I were you.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room The bad economy excuse to abuse workers does not fly with me. I am waiting for the workers to rise up again, because employers feel like they can pay nothing and overwork people, because the staff is afraid they won’t find a job somewhere else. Oh yeah, McDonald’s already had employees organizing for higher wages. I really rather not have unions and government regulations start coming in because employees are taken advantage of, but that means employers need to at least follow current employment law and do a little bit of golden rule.

I don’t think it is any of the employer’s business why or what she does on her day off. Why? Does the mom taking care of her kid get more exceptions than the single man with no kid? Fuck that.

I don’t know the laws where the OP works, but if she is a wage earner I cannot imagine the laws don’t say she must be paid. I don’t know how she earns her money. I think she works at a salon, but I don’t know what position.

Every month is a lot of times a year if it always happens on her day off. Maybe it doesn’t.

@JLeslie, I’m not endeavoring to come up with any reason or excuse to win you over—only expressing my opinion based on 50 years of experience in the workplace.

Now that I see @Headhurts’ reason for not attending (“I don’t want to because it is my day off and I don’t want to spend all day thinking about and spending ages getting ready for a meeting that doesn’t even concern me”) I feel even more strongly about my original comment. Even as a part-timer, he should be concerned about the financial health of his employer. Plus, just the act of attending the meeting on his day off would send a signal to his manager and co-workers that he cares about the company. I always made it a point to attend my company’s business meetings and always came away with a bit of info I might not have gotten otherwise.

Good luck, @Headhurts, with whatever you do.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room This really is all directed more to the OP, for her to see the conversation, I have no argument with you really. I did too. I attended the meetings. In my first answer I said it is likely the company will think it looks bad. But, I was on a career path. I still resent it, was exhausted, probably shortened my life, and I still resent companies having unfair, sometimes illegal (often they don’t realize it) expectations. You don’t have to convince me, I already know how the workplace works, I worked in it for many years with many promotions, and had a lot of loyalty to my company. More than once they didn’t pay me for various things that later they policy changed (probably someone sued) and I did not get back pay for the hours I put in, got sick, less energy for my husband and myself. Here and there there were people in the company who did not oblige the company with every little thing they asked, and they still kept their job. Now, I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t do above and beyond for no pay and to the point I get sick from it. Not on a regular basis. I will quit first.

In fact my more recent job they only gave employees a half hour for lunch, and if you didn’t clock out they automatically deducted it unless you wrote up a sheet saying you never took lunch. I did not conply with their policy, fuck them. I took my 45-an hour. I am not rushing for them, I will gladly stay fifteen to thirty minutes more at the end of the day. I was great at my job, and a few more minutes in the middle of the day did not impact business or my availability to my manager negatively at all. I always punched out for the full time I took my lunch. I had already left the company when one of the women I knew who still worked there said I can get money because there was a lawsuit that the company was not paying people for lunch when they had to by law. I told her I have nothing to claim, I always punched out. A lot of employees abused their ability to get some money out of the company, because the company was now vulnerable. Their abuse some of the time, came back to haunt them. Good. But, honestly I find it unfortunate. I don’t want the company to pay money that is not deserved. I don’t like to see employers or employees take advantage or do anything illegal.

I know since the OP is part time she probably won’t get so overworked as I did, but it is still the principle of the thing. A manager can take aside the people who miss the meeting and fill them in. There is no reason everyone has to be hit in one meeting with the information I’m betting, especially if people work all different hours at her work and it is 9–5. I don’t know the hours where she works, but that was my case.

Remember last year when Auggie’s daughter at the age of 17 was scheduled for midnight black friday night to go to work. Midnight to some hour in the morning. In the media stores were trying to say their employees volunteered for the hours. Bullshit! I knew there was no way enough employees are volunteering for that. Auggie’s was told she would be fired if she didn’t work her schedule. My opinion was all employees should ban together and say they won’t show up until 7:00 the next morning. Take a stand. Or, that she should tell them she won’t do it, and then if she is fired, then fine. Well, she went to work (her dad drove her to and from at my suggestion, because I feared a teen would fall asleep at the wheel with no sleep). A few days later became very sick, wound up sick for almost two weeks and had to antibiotics, that is what retail is like, they will drive you into the ground all too often. But, even situations that are similar, like demanding someone come in on their day off with no pay, is moving in that same direction. If you have worked in an office your whole life, I am not assuming, then you might not fully understand the exhaustian. In retail a lot of us spend one of our days off just trying to recuperate. We wake up feeling hit by a bus during the holiday season.

File with the Labor Relations Board, Walmart use to have their people clock out and then tell them to attend a work related meeting.
It is against the law in United States.

” Lectures, Meetings and Training Programs: Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time only if four criteria are met, namely: it is outside normal hours, it is voluntary, not job related, and no other work is concurrently performed” United States Department of Labor. Website DOL

My anxiety makes its hard to go to a meeting. It’s hard tog et my head round. If I am already there then fine, but I cannot justify to myself to waste a whole waiting to go to a meeting. I give no input to these things. I just sit and wait until they are over. Normally they have been in the mornings and I can attend them with little fuss to myself, but at the time of day I need to be there, it will cause me great distress. Plus, I don’t want to go anyway.
I don’t have an important role and they never ask me anything, not that I’m complaining. I sit and the back and slouch down anyway, can’t bear to be looked at.

@Headhurts But, are you there to learn something? You implied they show you new products. So, you have to have someone show you what’s new and be briefed on any information you need to know if there is some sort of policy change or something. Will your manager communicate it to you?

No. It is new products for the beauty girls to use. I have nothing to do with them.

@headhurts Maybe just tell your manager it will be very difficult for you to come into the meeting, and is it ok if you miss it. See what he/she says. Funny, I hated the early morning meetings, and those are the ones you didn’t mind.

If it is first thing in the morning then I can go in with Paul and I then have the rest of the day to myself. Late in the afternoon, I can’t do anything, I can’t exercise or clean, because I am waiting and I just can’t do. I’m not going in. Sod em.

You’ll let them know? Or, just not show up?

I will let them know. I wouldn’t just not turn up.

Hopefully they are fine with it. I don’t blame you.

if you have to go they have to pay you and in most states there is a minimum number of hours they have to pay you just for showing up . There could even be a class action law suit if they try to force you to come without paying you.

@Judi @Headhurts lives in England.

Oops. I would think that the laws to protect workers would be even better there.

Given that you are part-time, and the meetings concern products that you don’t use, and are scheduled outside of your work hours, if I were your manager, I would not be expecting you to attend. I would also not expect to have to tell you that you don’t have to attend. If I did want you to be there, given the circumstances I listed, I would definitely expect to have to speak to you in order to make that clear.

IMHO, if it is after hours and does not implicitly state that it is mandatory, then you are not obliged to attend.

If one has to schedule one’s day off around a meeting, is it really a day off?