I am a Pharmacist in Ohio working for the largest drugstore chain and I need a question answered. I am an exempt salaried professional and I was on vacation(it was scheduled) and do to the weather I was not able to return to ohio until one day later from my vacation. I was schuduled to work that day.. I called my supervisor 2 days before and told him that I was not going to be able to work that day and he said ok. His secretary left me a message and said that I would either have to take a vacation day or make up the time.!!!! That I missed... Is this legal.?????? or should I have lied and said that I was sick and use sick time.... Is this what they want use to do?

Yes, it is legal and I'm not even certain why you think it is unreasonable. Why shouldn't they require you to use a vacation day when you are held up from returning? Why should they pay you for a day you don't work at the end of your vacation?

Yes, it is legal and I'm not even certain why you think it is unreasonable. Why shouldn't they require you to use a vacation day when you are held up from returning? Why should they pay you for a day you don't work at the end of your vacation?


Because I'm a salaried employee... Would it have been better that I called in SICK? I would have been paid for calling in Sick.....

And if your employer had reason to believe that you were not actually sick, you could be an unemployed salaried employee. Employees who call in sick on what is supposed to be the first day back from or the last day before a vacation, are looked at askance at the best of times. On a bad weather day, you can bet that a sick call-out on what would have been your first day back, would have been looked at up, down and sideways.

You are being paid; you're being paid by a vacation day. It WOULD be legal, in these circumstances, for the day to be unpaid. Even a salaried exempt can be docked if they take a full day off for personal reasons. Not being able to get back from your vacation because of bad weather counts as personal reasons.

Sorry, but you've got no gripe coming to you. Your employer is 100% legal.

But you wouldn't be calling in two days before you got sick, would you?

If you waited until the day you were supposed to be at work, said you were sick and they saw by caller ID that you were out of state, that would pretty much end your employment in many places.

I have to ask. What exactly do you think they should have done here? Paid you for the day you did not work and were still on vacation? Why does the reason you were still on vacation matter?