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Tag: break time

Federal and State Meal Break Law Compliance

Published by Lindsay Sommers

Breaks have always been a bit tricky for business owners to tackle. With so many rules in place, it’s hard to decipher what to do to stay compliant with federal and state law. As of May 2020, twenty-one states and two U.S. territories have meal break requirements in place. Generally, employees must take their breaks by a certain time within their workdays and the breaks are paid. Whether you’re curious as to what your state’s rules are, or if you’re thinking about implementing a break policy at your workplace, this article will help you understand federal and state meal break requirements. 

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Is it Legal to Work Through Lunch In California?

Published by Lindsay Sommers
a woman sitting working on her laptop.

California meal period laws can be confusing to many, especially when they are changing every year. Employees used to take meal breaks after 6 hours, but that has since changed to 5 hours after Labor Code Section 512 passed. In addition to Labor Code Section 512, California cities also have their own regulations. With multiple laws in place, it’s incredibly important that employers speak with their local labor boards. This will help ensure that employees are following meal break laws correctly. If employers don’t comply with laws, they may receive penalties and might have to pay employees back in the future.

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Is it Legal to Automatically Deduct Employee Lunch Time?

Published by Lindsay Sommers
A man and a woman drinking coffee

Lunchtime can be a tricky thing to track. Some employees forget to clock out, adding minutes to their paychecks daily, while others forget to clock back into work once they return. This leads to inaccurate timestamps and, even worse, inaccurate payroll. You will end up either overpaying employees or underpaying employees, which can lead to issues down the line. In order to keep timestamps more accurate, some employers choose to implement automatic lunch deductions for hourly employees. This ensures that employees get lunch breaks deducted, no matter the circumstance. This is great for employers who want to avoid overpaying employees, but many people still have questions about the legality of lunch deductions. 

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Tips For Remote Employees

Published by Lindsay Sommers

Working remote is becoming popular in the US, a trend that grows daily. Approximately 4 million US employees (about 3%) work from home at least half of the week. With an estimated 168% increase of remote employees within the next 10 years, companies everywhere will need to prepare. Although convenient for many, working remotely can come with many distractions for employees. Employers may also find it harder than expected to manage their remote employees. Remote workers must be able to organize and discipline themselves when outside the office. Those unable to adjust can miss deadlines, stress themselves out, and provide poor quality of work. Here are some tips to share with your employees about working remotely to help them stay on task and get the most out of their work day:

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How to Overcome Procrastination and Boost Productivity

Procrastination vs. Productivity

Contributed by Ashley Andrews

A colleague of mine at our office told me about a breakthrough he had made years ago when he worked from home.

He used to procrastinate a lot during the work day. He’d say, “I’ll just watch the cricket on TV today, and catch up tomorrow”. Then, the next day, there would be another excuse.

Eventually, after a warning from his boss, he reined this in, and stopped procrastinating. Not surprisingly, he saw a corresponding rise in his productivity. This got him thinking about his productivity. Now that he was changing habits, he decided to try to become even more productive. He realized that the less he procrastinated, the more time he gained back and so he started working on better utilizing that time he was gaining.

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What Online Timesheets Are Good For, and What They’re Not

Published by Peggy Emch

Magic fairy dust in the office

Online time tracking is a great way to glean information about employee work habits, to learn about the progress of projects, to help make certain types of business decisions, and to easily run payroll and billing. Not tracking time online is almost as crazy as not using a smartphone in today’s world, but let’s not get carried away. Online time tracking isn’t magic fairy dust either.

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Ruby Tuesday Pays Big for Meal Break Violations

Published by Peggy Emch

It’s always sad to see companies guilty of labor law violations, for one because workers rights are so important and two because the violations can be easily avoided.

The Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division launched an investigation of Ruby Tuesday’s labor law practices. Ruby Tuesday was found out of compliance with both the length of shifts of school aged teenagers as well as meal breaks for employees working more than 6 hours.

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Time Management: The Bread and Butter of Effective People

Published by Peggy Emch

A lot has to line up for a person to be successful. There must a good deal of intelligence, talent (which might just mean a lifetime of hard work), confidence, and time management. Articles could be written on any of these traits so in effort to avoid playing down importance of any important factor, let’s just focus on time management and how to get better at it.

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