break time

[wud]

My boss seems to think there is no time for employees to take breaks in his brewery. We don't even get to sit down for lunch, we just eat on the fly. Is this typical of the microbrew industry, or is my he just overbearing with no idea how to treat his employees?

[MikeRoy]

In my mind it's a bad work environment to not give employees a break during their workday,whether it be 8 hours or more. Their work and attitude are going to reflect this type of approach to running a business. In my experiences and from people I know in the industry breaks are always given,however they can vary from day to day and depending on what tasks are trying to be accomplished. Some days I eat my lunch at noon, other days, 2,3,4,5,6, I just try to look at my schedule for the day and pick a time in which it will least affect my work at hand.

[jay]

I have worked in many Micro's that cycled breaks because of the daily schedule, but it is required by law that non salaried"non-exempt" employees be given breaks. Unfortunity some managers are ether not aware of the law or don't care. I have seen from expirience that this has to be handeled carefully or it might turn in to a huastle environment. Stand up for your rights, be diplomatic, and document your discussions in case things don't work out.
Good Luck

[kaiabrew]

Employee's are small business' greatest asset. Your boss has made some poor desicions neglecting your needs. Jay is correct it is required by some state laws to have paid breaks. Take a look at postal workers!

My brewers sit down and have lunch usually right after they clean out the mash tun during their boil. They also need to have their lunch order in before noon or have to wait until 1:30. I don't like them eating during our lunch rush. If you time it correctly you have at least 15-20 minutes before the next hop addition and then the next step is the end of the boil.

Generally, brewers are on salary so why does he care if you take a break. As long as the beer is on tap, the orders get filled on time there should be no problems. Brewing is a lifestyle. It provides you a chance to work with your hands, have a flexible schedule and be able to manage your brewhouse typically unsupervised. You are also probably coming in on weekends to check gravity's, chill beers and stage brews too.

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by wud
My boss seems to think there is no time for employees to take breaks in his brewery. We don't even get to sit down for lunch, we just eat on the fly. Is this typical of the microbrew industry, or is my he just overbearing with no idea how to treat his employees?

According to the Georgia Dept of Labor he is not required to give you any breaks for meals. If he does give a break for a meal he is not required to pay for it and he cannot require that work be done during the break.

Here is your states labor laws

http://www.dol.state.ga.us/em/employment_laws_rules.htm

More specifically here is your states law regarding breaks/meals

http://www.dol.state.ga.us/em/cl_break_meal_periods.htm

Here is the Federal Department of Labor's page on breaks.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/breaks.htm

When I had assistants they were free to eat at any time as long as they gave me a heads up of what was going on, that they were not ordering during peak kitchen hours and that they sat in the bar area and not a booth/table in the main dining area.

[tarmadilo]

I've worked in both production microbreweries and brewpubs, and never had a boss who wouldn't let me sit down to eat lunch!

Not to say that, on a brewing day, I didn't fit my meal into the brewing process! As has been mentioned already, there's often a fair amount of slack time during the boil, after you've shoveled out the mash tun and cleaned it. Same with earlier, during the sparging. Sure, you have to pay attention to temps, levels and runoff volumes, but that isn't exactly heavy labor. I'm not by nature a very organized guy, so I always made up checklists, and made sure I was caught up on all my tasks before taking a break. The plus side of that is you can show your boss exactly what's going on, and that you have things under control.

On cellarwork days, there's absolutely no reason you can't take a break to eat between tasks.

So, does he let you drink any beer???

Cheers, Tim

[tarmadilo]

(cringe, cringe) Not the whip!!! Not the whip!!! Anything but the whip!!!

Anything?

Sigh... The whip....

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by tarmadilo
(cringe, cringe) Not the whip!!! Not the whip!!! Anything but the whip!!!

Anything?

Sigh... The whip....

The beatings will not stop until morale improves!!!

[tarmadilo]

Hey, Mr. Hops deleted his message (or someone else did). Kind makes my reply about the whips seem a little stranger than intended...

Cheers, Tim