Work Advice: Your mileage might vary
Q: I am a local representative for a company that provides in-home care. I support about 50 local clients and their caretakers, so I'm on the road a lot. The company asks us to track our time with clients, but we're not to include the time we spend traveling between clients. I am a “fee basis employee,” so I am paid a flat fee for each appointment, however long it takes. I use my own car, and I am not reimbursed for mileage.
Does my employer have to pay my mileage? If not, since the employer is not considering my travel time as work time, can I deduct my mileage as an unreimbursed employee expense on my taxes?
A: Regardless of your employer's time-tracking requirements, the Labor Department generally considers job-related travel time — other than your daily commute between home and work — to be work time. As a fee-basis employee, you're not paid specifically for those travel hours because you're paid by the appointment, but if your pay seems seriously out of whack with the time you put into earning it, then it might be worth checking with a lawyer to make sure you're correctly classified as a fee-basis employee, rather than an hourly wage earner.
Even in the case of job-related travel time, there's no federal law requiring your employer to reimburse you for mileage, although your state's laws may say otherwise, according to Carla Murphy, employment attorney with Duane Morris. As for taxes, IRS Publication 529 seems to give the thumbs-up to deducting unreimbursed local travel expenses, including mileage — but you should confirm with a certified tax professional.
Q: My manager and I have a “professional casual” relationship. I've shared personal details with her, and she says I can go to her about anything. She recently mentioned that she's noticed that I pick at my nails and cuticles (which I acknowledge is a not-great habit I have). She said she brought it up because it may indicate stress and anxiety, and she doesn't want me to be anxious or stressed at work.
However, she also repeatedly mentioned how it might make us look if I were doing that in a meeting with a higher-up. She said she wasn't trying to embarrass me, but it bothered me. Am I being too sensitive?
A: I get it — it's embarrassing. But a manager who wants you to succeed has the right — the duty — to point out an unsightly, unprofessional personal habit that could hold you back.
Granted, she probably shouldn't have focused on how it would make her look or speculated about your mental or emotional state. But hearing even a flawed private correction from someone you trust beats hearing it from HR — or never hearing it at all.
• Miller has written for and edited tax publications for 16 years, most recently for the accounting firm KPMG's Washington National Tax office. Ask her about your work dramas and traumas by emailing wpmagazine@washpost.com. On Twitter: @KarlaAtWork.