Amy
Department Store Worker
Jacksonville, FL

How much work are you willing to do "off the clock"? Experience shows that once you begin on this road, there is no logical end. For instance, Fiat recently told workers at two factories in Italy that it intended to close one of them and that it would retain the one at which workers agreed to work every Saturday for free. Yes, for free. Though employees initially resisted it, they ended up giving in.

That may sound outrageous, but it's not so far from your situation. Perhaps this example will hit a little closer to home: At the Ford Plant in Minnesota's Twin Cities, management recently eliminated what are called "set up" workers -- men and women who bring stock (or parts) to the line, where other workers ("assemblers") attach the parts to the chassis moving by. They then ordered the assemblers to "build up their own stock"--that is, to leave the line to go get parts when they began to run low. But, of course, the line kept running, so the assemblers were in danger of falling behind--for which they could be disciplined. Some of the assemblers began reporting to work fifteen minutes early, before their shifts began, to build up their stock.