40 Hour Workweek

There won't be a gardener in the whole conference room. Her name is mud with that set. Sixteen candidates begin their televised quest to work for Martha Stewart, as her Apprentice reality show debuts tonight at 8 on NBC. Shorn of her electronic monitoring bracelet, the convicted felon springs into primetime with a spin-off of Donald Trump's Apprentice. "Donald loves to fire people," Stewart told Time. "I find it an extremely unpleasant exercise. I have other people do it for me." Well, she'll have to find the words to let people go. The contenders will be sequentially eliminated as they scrape for the $250,000-a-year job. The Sweet Sixteen, according to the show's Web site, includes a natural foods chef, Los Angeles prosecutor, Internet company owner, TV newscaster and, perhaps, an early favorite - an interior designer named Chuck.

Janet Gartland loves her job, but not the hours. A logistics coordinator with Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. in Orlando, Fla., she regularly puts in 11- and 12-hour days, which translate into 55- to 60-hour weeks. Working that many hours week after week, "you tend to be more irritable, more frustrated," said Gartland, who has been with Siemens for eight years. "Things that don't normally bother you, bother you. You're on the edge all the time." She's not complaining. Gartland prefers being on edge to being bored, and her "multitasking, fast-paced" job is anything but boring.

County lawmakers gave themselves and their colleagues passing marks as they prepared to adjourn the bitterest General Assembly session inrecent memory."

The governor's plan to lengthen the state employee workweek to 40 hours unfairly discriminates against female workers, two women employees complained to the federal equal rights agency yesterday.The discrimination complaint was filed with the Baltimore office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Connie Powell and Gloria Chawla, assisted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.The governor's cost-saving measure to expand the workweek from 35 1/2 hours to 40 hours would create disproportionate burdens for female employees of the state, primarily because of added child-care expenses, they argued.

Q. I work as a sales manager for a major corporation. I average 50 to 60 hours a week, but since I am exempt I don't earn overtime. Yet, my pay stub states that I work 40 hours. Can I use this as a legal document to force my employer to abide by a 40-hour week? A. Sorry. That bit of information on your pay stub doesn't constitute a contract to limit your hours. That data is part of the employment records your company must keep. Sadly, if you truly are a manager, your company can ask you to work any number of hours without paying you for overtime.

Union officials say a report that a 40-hour workweek could cost Maryland almost $5 million in federal aid supports their argument that it would be unwise for the state to extend working hours."

Everything from paying water bills to adopting puppies will be more convenient starting tomorrow as Howard County offices begin staying open an hour longer, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.The longer hours -- they were 8: 30 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m. -- come from a personnel overhaul initiated by County Executive Charles I. Ecker.The new system makes a 40-hour workweek standard for full-time county employees. Before, more than one-third had 35-hour weeks. Those making the change will be paid for the extra five hours each week.

ANNAPOLIS -- State employees will be forced to give up incremental pay raises and to shell out more for their health insurance as part of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's plan to balance next year's budget.Mr. Schaefer also intends to ask the 1991 General Assembly, which convenes its 90-day session at noon today, to transfer $76 million from the Transportation Trust Fund to the general treasury, a move that would make a gas tax increase difficult to avoid.The budget-balancing plans were made public yesterday by the governor's budget secretary, Charles L. Benton Jr., who as a courtesy briefed Republican lawmakers on how the Schaefer administration intends to close a fiscal 1992 deficit now projected at $224 million.

I am an exempt salaried employee who is not a manager. My salary is based on a 40-hour workweek. If I work over 40 hours, does my employer have to pay me overtime? And can the company legally grant me comp time instead of overtime? If you are truly exempt, meaning you are exempt from federal overtime regulations, your company doesn't have to pay you overtime or grant you compensatory time. The exempt status applies to employees who fall into the executive, professional, administrative and outside-sales categories.

Union Bridge's new clerk-treasurer steps into a job that has grown from answering the phone and writing out bills by hand in a converted living room to computerized recordkeeping in a new town hall.Debra Rippeon, who started work Monday, won't be collecting money from the town parking meters, one of the tasks handled by former Town Clerk Kathleen D. Kreimer. The council has assigned parking meter collections to Council President Bret Grossnickle, but the clerk-treasurer in the town of 932 residents still has duties more varied than similar positions in larger communities with more municipal employees.