We work 7:00am to 3:30pm as do all the other trades at this jobsite except for the....err...hispanic form crew. However company policy states that at the stroke of 7:00am you will be at your work location with your checked out tools, ladders, personal tools, and ready to work.

Every single one of the guys working on-site signed several different forms during thier employment screening, assignment to the job, and arrival at the job agreeing to this. Since I am lead for my floor they expect me to enforce this, in fact they are threatening to write me up for failure to produce write-ups against my crew.

Now how does this work in real life?....yes you have to be there by 6:30 and I have to be there even earlier. No I am not getting paid and neither are you, but you better by-god be up on a ladder and working at 7:00am. Is this unfair?...not really in this case since my company gives free basic medical/dental/eyecare to all employees. Along with paid vacation/PTO time and other unheard of benefits in floridas ridiculously competitive non-union "right-to-work" state atmosphere.

Your pay is also considerably higher than that offered by all of the residential and service companies, and noticeably better than any of the other local commercial companies. Why?...because we only do the "mega-project" jobs; we want professionals and expect you to act like one.

Is it a violation of the labor laws to actually expect the person to perform the 8 hours of work he is being paid for? Personally I don't think so...you should be ready to work when your shift starts not three floors below just signing in.

All that being said I am a proffessional and my current crew is all the same now that a few have been weeded out. I don't yell and scream; I remark, cajole, and banter. I don't ask anyone to "bust thier a**", all I want is consistant continueous progress. Morale is great and the floor is also going great.

But....I am not produceing the expected number of write-ups for policy violations especially compared to the floors immediately above and below me. I have tried the "I have a great crew" defense but it apparently isn't going to wash. What the heck do you do when your employer demands that you write up a great employee because he didn't actually show up at the job until his start time once or twice a week over a few months?....

I'm at a loss on this one.....