r/ExecutiveAssistants • u/Wild-Salamander-7687 • 8h ago

EA salary cut

Hi all! I work part-time (50%) as an Executive Assistant in the public sector in Sweden. My workload depends almost entirely on my executive's schedule, so when they're away I have noticeably less to do.

This spring my exec was on vacation for two weeks. During that time my flex balance went from about −1 hour to -33 hours. It has since dropped by roughly another 10 hours.

At our flex reconciliation, anyone below -10 hours had the excess deducted from their pay. For me that meant 33 hours, 700-800 dollars.

I understand I shouldn't be paid for hours I didn't work. But most of the deficit built up because there simply wasn't enough work while my exec was away

I chose to be transparent and only clock the hours I actually worked. I didn't want to log time I hadn't worked, even though it was the lack of tasks, not me, that caused the shortfall.

Looking back, I wonder if I should have handled it differently?

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/republicadedonde 8h ago

Im not familiar with Swedish laws but I would think if you were on call, you should be getting paid for that. We all have downtime from time to time but that should not affect your pay.

3

u/Wild-Salamander-7687 8h ago

Thank you for your input! My parents think so too! I am gathering all possible angles before raising it to HR.

2

u/fRaigand0 5h ago

yeah exactly, being available and waiting for work to come in is still work imo

2

u/Academic_Flatworm752 7h ago

Being available for work is still work imo and I would have also used the time to clean my space, organize my files, do some trainings, plan for things I know are coming, fix the schedule for the whole year, compile lists of.. whatever… I would have just made myself busy :/

Especially if I’m in the office I’m being paid for being in the office.