Being a new employee can be a tenuously enjoyable experience. On the one hand, you are focusing on fitting in and being part of a new workplace culture, on the other hand you may be concerned with making a good impression on your peers and justifying your salary.
While managing these feelings and navigating the workplace, it is important for new employees to understand that federal and state laws protect you at work. This is critical to understand because new employees often fall prey to overzealous employers ready to take advantage your desire to perform well at the outset.
With that, this post will highlight three important things new employees must know.
Employers must properly classify you according to California law – You may know that as a salaried employee, you are not entitled to overtime. But if you find yourself regularly working more than 40 hours per week, or nine hours each day, you may not be properly classified. In essence, you may be entitled to a better wage as an hourly employee.
You have protected sick leave even as a new hire – California law requires employers to provide at least three paid sick leave days even for new employees. Also, your employee handbook should provide information about this right, and how you may accumulate additional paid time off.
Big brother will be watching – Using a company’s network for Internet use, will subject you to monitoring and scrutiny by the company’s IT department or your supervisor. Suffice it to say, your right to privacy may not extend to workspace use.
If you have additional questions about your rights and options as an employee, an experienced employment law attorney can help.
The preceding is not legal advice.