Rob Andrews: “So it's Friday afternoon at the nursing home, and Debbie and Donna are approached by the boss. The boss says, I have 5…”

“So it's Friday afternoon at the nursing home, and Debbie and Donna are approached by the boss. The boss says, I have 5 hours of overtime this weekend. You can either have cash or comp time. Debbie says, I'll take the cash. I need the money. Donna says, I'll take the comp time. Donna gets the overtime. The next Friday rolls around--the same boss, the same request. Debbie says, I'll take the cash. I'll take the overtime. Donna says, No. I'll take the comp time. Donna gets the overtime. It doesn't take very long for people to figure out what the right answer is when you're asked for overtime. You might say, Well, Donna is going to be okay because she gets all this comp time. Donna comes back and says, Next Friday is the pageant at my daughter's school for second grade. I want to take the morning off so I can go to my daughter's pageant. The boss says, No, that's not convenient for me. No. Now, I suppose in some theoretical universe Donna could hire a lawyer, sue her boss, and try to get to see her daughter's second grade pageant--not in the world that she lives in and the world we live in. The boss decides when she uses the comp time. The end of the year comes, and she hasn't used it yet. The boss writes a check to Donna without interest. Donna has made an interest- free loan to her employer. If the employer goes bankrupt in that year, Donna is out of the money altogether. This is not about flexibility. It's about the conversion of someone's wages and assets.…”