So what does it mean to be working “off the clock?”
When you are off the clock, people are referring to an employee doing work for which he or she is not being compensated. When you go “on the clock” you were thought of as being on company time and therefore being paid to work.

A large amount of unpaid overtime claims involve employers who are not paying workers for working outside of their normal scheduled shift, hence “off the clock” lawsuits. Working employees illegally off the clock is more common in some industries than others. For example, persons working in the restaurant industry may be rolling silverware or prepping salads while they are off the clock, whereas when they are waiting tables and having to put orders into computer systems they are on the clock. Employees in the tech sector sometimes start working before the shift starts when they come in early to get computers up and running and emails caught up. If your employer knew or should have known the workers were doing this, these pre-shift actions must be included in the FLSA computations which puts many people into the category of unpaid overtime. This can also happen when employees stay late.

The most common instances of off the clock work are:

Rolling silverware or cutting lemons while off the clock.
Starting up your computer or other equipment before going on the clock.
Roll calls and huddles prior to your shift.
Reading training manuals at home.
Staying late to clean or prep for the next day, or to input your time or other notes.
Taking conference calls or dropping off mail or papers on the drive home.
Getting calls from your boss or other workers on work-related matters.
Reading updates on outages or new policies while clocked out for your lunch break.
Meeting with your manager.
Reading your emails before your shift begins, or at home.
Requirements that you show up for work 10 minutes before you clock in to your shift or you are penalized for lateness.
Staying late to train other employees.
and many more.

If you think you may be working off the clock in violation of the FLSA you should contact an attorney immediately. They will determine if you are an exempt or non-exempt employee and if the actions you are doing count as off the clock work. You can reach attorney Morgan Smith at (615)852-5028 to set up a consultation on this very matter.