As St. Lawrence is continuing their staffing shortage problems, overtime hours are being watched for some employees in the Athletic and Maintenance departments. The fall semester is in full swing, athletic teams are back on campus in full practice schedules, and some employees are being told and are seeing some of their overtime hours being watched and cut. Some staff inside Appleton Arena and Augsbury Field House are seeing their overtime hours being cut or being given their regular days off when they normally work for almost two full weeks during the preseason for the fall sports teams.
One employee who normally works for two full weeks during the preseason of the fall sports teams saw them lose some of their workdays towards the end of preseason camp. They were given their regular days off, so that they would not fall into overtime hours, and had someone else fill in during those days. One Appleton Arena maintenance employee mentioned that he had to be wary of his hours and how much overtime he was working during his shifts because they are cutting his overtime hours. The problem is that he is running Appleton Arena by himself on the night shift while having to clean locker rooms for both the men’s and women’s teams, but also the locker rooms on the other side of the rink. This does not include the other areas of the rink that he has to clean, or the fact that he must resurface the ice on average three to four times a night, with all the practices and rentals that use Appleton Arena. Normally two employees work the night shift, just as there are during the day shift, but St. Lawrence has been having a difficult time keeping the employees on the night shift, this is not that hard to understand when St. Lawrence are only paying the night shift employees minimum wage, which is $13.50 in New York right now, although I do believe the employees are due for a raise or have just received a raise.
One thing I think that some of the higher-ups forget or do not realize is the amount of work that these individuals put in day in and day out. These are not easy jobs and deserve to be paid more, and earn the overtime that they should be getting. Most of the time, overtime is required to do the job that these people do.