I work for an employer in Indiana who does not believe in an employee handbook of any kind. Therefore, there are no set-in-stone rules of work hours for the salaried exempt employees. Our office hours are 7:30-4:30 and we are basically supposed to work within these hours.

Our office is fairly lenient with their salaried employee's schedules. Anyone who needs time for illness, doctor appointments, and just about anything else can pretty much come and go as they please as long as their work is not suffering. We have not in the past been required to make this time up in any way or use vacation or sick leave.

On my most recent quarterly evaluation, my supervisor chastised me for some time I missed for illnesses (which I had doctor excuses for) and a few tardies which amounted to 5-10 minutes each. I was informed that from this point forward I have to make all appointments before or after work or take vacation time for these appointments. No other salaried exempt employee is held to these rules, and I am by far not the employee who has the most tardies or misses the most days.

At the same time, my boss did not mention or even track the extra hours I had put in in that same time period. I average 1-2 extra hours per week, even on weeks when I've missed for one reason or another. I typically do not take a lunch and often arrive as much as 30 minutes early.

I refused to sign the evaluation and requested to see my personnel file as I wanted to see the absence slips he had written up for my tardies. I wanted to be sure he had not marked them with more time than I had actually missed. My request for my file has been virtually ignored and I am coming up on my next quarterly evaluation. I also discovered that I am the only salaried exempt employee whose absences other than vacation are being tracked in our computer attendance program. This is typically only used to track hourly employees' absences. What are my legal rights at this point?

Let me also say that on this same evaluation, I was given excellent marks in every other aspect on the evaluation. On a scale of 1-7, I received all 6 & 7's other than the attendance issue.

There is nothing illegal about holding an employee to a stricter standard than others, as long as the reason for the strictor standards is because of reasons such as illegal discrimination on the basis of age, race, religion, gender, disability, national origin, etc.

So, I have been salaried exempt for 7 years now. I've never had to track my time, and I've never been paid for any overtime. Now I am tracking my time and still not being paid for overtime. Does this knock me out of exempt status?

Also, there are only 2 salaried exempt employees who are female, and I am the only one with minor children. I do have to take time for doctor/dentist appointments. The men who have children all have their wives take care of this so they do not have to worry about this problem. What am I supposed to do, not take them to the doctor when they are sick? Let their teeth rot out of their heads? These types of appointments are not usually available before 7:30 in the a.m. or after 5:00 in the p.m.

I could see if they were making an all-around policy for all salaried exempt employees. However, it is only me. And, as I stated before, I by far have not missed as much work as some of the other S/E employees. One takes mega time to take the dog to the vet; another uses large blocks of time for his own construction business that he runs on the side.

Tracking your time does not negatively impact your exemption status, as long as your pay is not lowered as a result of missed time.

The only potential issue for you is if you are being treated differently because of a discriminatory reason, such as based on gender.