Employee Credits & Accountability System

Overview & Purpose

The credits & debits system has four goals:

1. Make good work visible. When you do the job right — clean site, happy customer, covered a shift nobody else would — it gets recorded and rewarded, not forgotten.

2. Reward high performers. Credits unlock real rewards: cash, gift cards, paid time off, promotion reviews, company gear, and public recognition.

3. Hold everyone accountable — in every direction. A trainee can report a crew lead. A crew lead can report the owner. Reports are reviewed fairly before anything happens. Nobody is above the system.

4. Give the company a fair, documented path to discipline. When someone repeatedly cuts corners, the record speaks for itself. Discipline follows clear thresholds that were known in advance — not someone's bad mood that day.

The system is deliberately strict. Small mistakes add up fast. This is not meant to punish a single bad day — the numbers are tuned so that a genuine repeated pattern, not one slip, is what reaches a serious consequence. But the bar is tight on purpose: the standard is high, and staying above it is the job.

How Scoring Works — Two Ledgers

Every employee has two separate records. They are kept apart on purpose so that one bad week never erases all your good work.

Ledger A — Performance Score (your positive record). This is your lifetime credit total. It only goes up, and it never resets. Every good thing you do adds to it for your entire time with the company. A strong employee who has been here for years carries a big score that reflects all of it. Your Performance Score is what unlocks rewards and promotion reviews.

Ledger B — Discipline Ledger (your infraction record). This is one single rolling 90-day window. Every infraction adds debits, and every infraction older than 90 days drops off — no matter how big or small. Infractions range from small to large: an everyday mistake like a tardy or a missed site briefing is worth just a debit or two, while a serious violation (theft, violence, fraud, and the like) is a single large hit — set high enough to trigger a termination review on its own. There are no separate tiers and no permanent debits record. A serious infraction is simply the largest-value entry on the same rolling ledger, and it rolls off after 90 days like everything else.

An honest mistake is not permanent. Nothing on the Discipline Ledger follows you forever. Every infraction — small or serious — sits on the rolling 90-day window and then drops off. A genuine slip-up on the job does not haunt your record. (Termination and any Not Eligible for Rehire outcome are handled separately through the Code of Conduct and Employment Policies, not by a permanent debit mark — see those pages.)

Why keep them separate? If your good credits and bad debits were combined into one number, your best worker having a rough week would feel like all their hard work got cancelled out. That kills motivation. Keeping them separate means your top performer still earns their reward even while working through a discipline issue — and someone with a clean discipline record still has to actually perform to earn rewards.

Lifetime Score & Skill Stats Card

Your Performance Score is cumulative for your whole tenure — it never resets. On top of that single overall number, the system tracks your credits across separate skill sub-tracks by task type. Think of it like a sports trading card: one overall rating, plus a rating for each individual skill.

Example skill sub-tracks: riding / zero-turn mowing, push / walk-behind mowing, trimming & weed-whacking, edging, blowing & cleanup, landscaping & planting, mulching, gutter work, pressure washing, junk removal, snow plowing, snow blowing, salting & de-icing.

Your stats card might show an overall rating of, say, 78, with a 92 in zero-turn mowing, an 85 in snow plowing, and a 60 in gutter work — telling you and your crew lead exactly where you shine and where to grow. Ratings are measured relative to your position and rank, so a trainee is graded against trainee expectations, not against a veteran crew lead.

Why this matters going forward: In the CRM, these per-skill ratings let the company assign the right person to the right job based on real, recorded performance instead of gut feel. If a job needs sharp edging and tight trimming, the system knows who actually delivers that.

How Credit & Debit Values Work by Rank — Flat and Equal

Every rank earns the same number of credits for the same event. A Trainee who brings equipment back clean earns the same amount as a Crew Lead who does the same thing. There is no multiplier, no scaling factor, and no baseline-times-rank math. The number in the table is the number — for everyone.

Higher ranks accumulate more credits because they have access to more earning events — not because they earn a bigger slice per event. A Crew Lead's record grows faster because a Crew Lead performs more types of credit-earning work: overseeing crew members, conducting and signing off site briefings, handling customer contact, and accepting responsibility for the whole job. Those events are only open to Crew Leads. Trainees and Crew Members earn the same amount on every shared event they are both eligible for.

The discipline threshold ladder is the same for every rank. A Verbal Warning triggers at 5 discipline debits, a Written Warning at 10, a Performance Notice at 15, and a Termination Review at 20+ — regardless of whether you are a Trainee or a Crew Lead.

Credit and debit values and caps are owner-tunable and published here before they change.

Earning Credits

You earn Performance Score credits by doing the job well and going beyond the minimum. The table below lists the standard positive events, their flat credit values, and which ranks are eligible. Every rank earns the same number of credits for the same event — credit values do not scale by rank. A Crew Lead's record grows faster because Crew Leads have access to more types of earning events (crew oversight, job-site sign-offs, leading briefings), not because they earn a bigger amount per shared event.

Crew Leads can award the smaller day-to-day amounts to their crew (within their caps — see the authority section); larger awards and review-based awards are confirmed by the Owner or admin.

Routine awards are capped so accrual stays predictable. The two everyday awards — a clean job-site sign-off and equipment returned clean & stored — are each capped at once per day. That puts a clear floor and ceiling on your routine baseline instead of a number that swings wildly. Periodic awards fire on a schedule (a zero-callback month, a 90-day zero-infraction stretch), and occasional awards (reviews, covering a shift, training) stack on top when you earn them. The 'How fast do credits add up?' section right below shows how these numbers build per-shift → per-year.

Credit values and caps may be tuned over time as the system is calibrated. Any changes are published here before they take effect.

Positive Events — Performance Score (flat rate for all eligible ranks)

How Fast Do Credits Add Up? — Baseline Earning Rate

Now that you know what earns credits and how often, here is how they accumulate over time. The table below shows the baseline earning rate for any rank — what a typical solid, full-time employee can expect from routine good work, *before* any occasional bonuses (5-star reviews, covering shifts, training). Because credit values are flat and equal for all ranks, the same table applies whether you are a Trainee, Crew Member, or Crew Lead. It builds from a single shift all the way to a full year so you can see at a glance roughly what you earn and when.

Two capped routine awards drive the baseline: a clean job-site sign-off (+10/day) and equipment returned clean & stored (+5/day) — about +15 per shift. On top of that, periodic auto-awards land on schedule: +75 for a zero-callback month and +40 for every 90 days with zero infractions. Occasional awards stack on top and push a strong performer higher.

Because the routine awards are capped per day, your accrual is bounded and predictable — a clear floor and ceiling, not a number that swings wildly week to week. The worked examples further down prove these figures reconcile.

Baseline Accrual — Typical Solid Full-Time Employee (all ranks)

Incurring Debits

Every infraction adds debits to your Discipline Ledger's single rolling 90-day window, and every one of them drops off after 90 days. Infractions range from small to large. Everyday mistakes — a tardy, a missed site briefing, a PPE slip — are worth just a debit or two. Serious violations — theft, violence, fraud, and the like — carry a single large value (20 debits, the termination-review threshold), big enough on its own to trigger a termination review. The table below lists them all, smallest to largest.

The system is strict — debits stack quickly. Crew Leads can log the smaller day-to-day infractions within their caps; the large serious-violation values, anything involving another employee, and anything scaled by severity are reviewed and finalized by the Owner or admin. Because the serious-violation values exceed every Crew Lead and Supervisor per-entry cap, only the Owner or admin can log them.

Severity scaling on callbacks: not all callbacks are equal. A customer who simply wanted the grass shorter is a small deduction. A customer reporting property damage is a large one. The Owner or admin sets the severity when the event is logged.

Important: No discipline mark tied to suspected impairment is finalized until the DATWA testing protocol is followed, and absences protected by Minnesota ESST or PFML never incur debits (see the Legal Protections & Compliance section). The asterisked row below — a confirmed DATWA positive — is logged only after that protocol is complete.

Infractions — Rolling 90-Day Ledger, Per Rank (all roll off after 90 days)

Serious Misconduct (Large Debit)

Most mistakes are small — worth a debit or two — and fade after 90 days. A short, specific list of serious violations is different: each one is a single large debit, set at the termination-review threshold (currently 20), so a single serious infraction puts you at the termination-review line on its own through the normal debits math. Like every other infraction, those debits still roll off the Discipline Ledger after 90 days — there is no separate permanent debits record.

What counts as serious misconduct. These are the same violations the handbook already treats as immediate-termination and Not-Eligible-for-Rehire events — they are not new categories: - Theft — of company, customer, or coworker property. - Violence or threats — physical violence, threats, or intimidation on the job. - Fraud or falsifying records — including falsifying time records, job records, or safety documentation. - On-the-job substance abuse or a confirmed DATWA positive — finalized only after the DATWA testing protocol is followed (see Legal Protections & Compliance). - Willful property damage — intentional damage to company, customer, or coworker property (not an honest accident). - Harassment or discrimination — toward a coworker, customer, or anyone on a job site. - Gross safety breach — a deliberate or reckless safety violation that endangers people.

How a serious infraction works. A serious-misconduct entry is a single large debit value — set at the termination-review threshold (currently 20) — so it pushes you to a termination review on its own, without needing other infractions to stack up. Only the Owner or admin can log one, because the value exceeds every Crew Lead and Supervisor per-entry cap; a Crew Lead may recommend but cannot record it. Like every entry, it must be documented (who, date, specific reason, supporting evidence), you are notified, and you keep your full right to respond and to appeal (see Discipline Thresholds & Consequences and Appeals & Dispute Resolution). The debits themselves roll off after 90 days like any other infraction.

This is for serious misconduct only — never an honest mistake. A tardy, a missed briefing, a PPE slip, an honest equipment accident, or a routine callback is a small infraction. The large serious-infraction value is reserved only for the serious-violation list above.

Where termination and rehire status are decided. Termination and any Not Eligible for Rehire designation are handled through the existing termination process, not by a permanent debit mark on this page — the Serious Violations / immediate-termination language in the Code of Conduct (Disciplinary Process), the Termination for Cause and Serious Misconduct triggers in the Employment Policies, and the Not Eligible for Rehire designation in the Employment Policies. A serious infraction here is the credits & debits system reflection of those existing rules — not a separate or additional penalty.

Who Can Award & Deduct Credits / Debits

Authority is tiered and capped on purpose. This keeps a healthy dynamic up and down the chain — each level has real power over the level below it, but cannot wield the authority of the level above.

What "admin" means on this page. Throughout this policy, *admin* refers to the office/management staff who maintain records, run payroll, and process credit and debit entries on the Owner's behalf — today that is the Owner and the office support working with him. It is not a separate field rank and does not refer to any crew position.

The company's current active chain is Crew Lead → Owner. Today's active team is one Crew Lead, two Crew Members, and a Trainee — so the real working chain is Crew Lead → Owner. The Supervisor and Manager tiers described below are documented now so the policy is ready the day someone is promoted, but they are reserved and inactive — nobody holds those roles yet. Until a Supervisor or Manager is actually in place, every step that would route through them routes directly to the Owner (or admin acting for him). The day one of those roles is filled, that tier activates and reports, discipline, and appeals flow through the chain in order (Crew Lead → Supervisor → Manager → Owner).

Crew Lead authority (capped — active). Crew Leads can hand out the day-to-day awards and log the day-to-day infractions for the Trainees and Crew Members they supervise — but only up to a per-entry cap and a per-period (per-day) cap. Crew Leads can also call a Time-Out (Stand-Down) on a Trainee or Crew Member on their own crew — an immediate, reversible on-site stand-down after a verbal warning has failed (or instantly for an unsafe act), logged as a normal ledger entry inside the same caps and reviewed by the Owner within the next business day (see the Time-Out sections). They cannot make large adjustments, cannot finalize severity-scaled callbacks, cannot rule on complaints involving another employee, cannot log the large serious-infraction values, and cannot touch the record of anyone at their own rank or above.

Supervisor authority (capped — reserved/inactive until filled). A Supervisor oversees multiple Crew Leads, so this tier would carry a wider cap than a Crew Lead — enough to handle larger day-to-day awards and infractions across several crews — but still capped, never unlimited. This tier is documented for future use only and is not active until someone actually holds the Supervisor role.

Manager authority (large cap — reserved/inactive until filled). A Manager has company-wide operational responsibility, so this tier would carry a much larger cap than a Supervisor — approaching, but still short of, the Owner's unlimited authority. Like the Supervisor tier, it is documented for future use only and is not active until someone actually holds the Manager role.

Owner / admin authority (unlimited — active). The Owner — and admin acting on his behalf — has unlimited authority: large adjustments, major infractions, severity scaling, review-based awards, the large serious-infraction values, and anything involving a report about another person. The Owner also confirms promotion-review eligibility and reward claims.

The graduated caps exist so each level's authority is meaningful but never absolute, widening step-by-step from Crew Lead up through Supervisor and Manager to the Owner rather than jumping straight from a small cap to unlimited. They protect the people below from a heavy-handed superior and keep the biggest decisions with the Owner, where accountability is clearest. The exact cap numbers are owner-tunable as the system is calibrated.

Every entry must be documented. No credit or debit is logged on a whim. Each entry records who logged it, the date, the specific reason, and any supporting evidence (a photo, a customer message, a briefing log). The affected employee is notified promptly — ideally the same day — so nothing is a surprise weeks later, and you can view your own full record anytime. An entry with no documented reason should not stand, and is grounds for an appeal.

Credit & Debit Authority & Caps

Reward Tiers & Types

Rewards motivate most when they are attainable, tied to something you actually value, and delivered quickly. The company runs two complementary reward structures, and it helps to keep them straight:

1. The reward cadence (repeating). Small rewards that repeat on a schedule — monthly, quarterly, and yearly — for hitting periodic credits targets. This is the engine that rewards steady good work *regularly*, not just at distant milestones. See the Reward Cadence section right below.

2. Lifetime milestone tiers (one-time). Because your Performance Score never resets, you cross cumulative milestones over your whole tenure. These are long-tenure loyalty milestones — they take months and years to reach, not weeks — and each pays out once when you cross it. They run alongside the promotion track and recognize the people who stay and keep performing.

The two do not contradict each other: the cadence is the repeating-reward engine you live with month to month; the tiers are the big tenure markers you cross a handful of times across your career here.

Reward types offered (you may choose where applicable): - Cash bonuses - Gift cards — you pick the store - Extra paid time off - Promotion eligibility — your score unlocks a promotion review (see Promotion Eligibility) - Company gear / branded items - Public recognition — employee of the month, leaderboard placement

How rewards are paid and taxed. Cash bonuses, gift cards, and similar monetary rewards from *either* structure are treated as taxable wages — they run through payroll with the usual taxes withheld, the same as any other pay. Paid time off is added under the company PTO policy. Monetary rewards are given at the company's discretion as a thank-you for great work; they are a benefit of this program, not guaranteed wages owed for hours worked.

The lifetime milestone tiers below are tuned against the baseline earning rate (~375/month, ~4,500–4,700/year) so their timelines are believable — Bronze around four months in, Platinum at roughly five years. Thresholds are owner-tunable and published before they change.

Lifetime Milestone Tiers — Performance Score (one-time, never resets)

Reward Cadence — Shift to Year

This is the repeating-reward engine — the 'mix it up' structure that keeps recognition coming at every time scale, not just at distant milestones. Small rewards repeat often; the bigger ones land at the quarter and the year.

Here is the whole thing as one progression track: do good work → accrue Performance Score → hit your periodic targets for repeating rewards → cross the lifetime milestone tiers over your tenure → unlock a promotion review. Every level feeds the next, and the same good work counts toward all of them at once.

The targets below sit a little *under* what a typical solid month or quarter actually earns (see the baseline rate above and the worked examples below), so they are realistic to hit — a steady performer clears them, they are not a stretch goal. Note that the pay period is one week, since payroll runs weekly. Targets and reward amounts are owner-tunable and published before they change.

Reward Cadence Ladder

Worked Examples — The Math Adds Up

These examples show the numbers reconciling. Because credit values are flat and equal for all ranks, the same math applies regardless of whether you are a Trainee, Crew Member, or Crew Lead. The economy is internally consistent, not hand-waved.

A typical solid month (~375 credits): - Clean job-site sign-off: 20 shifts × +10 = +200 - Equipment returned clean & stored: 20 shifts × +5 = +100 - Zero-callback month: +75 - Month total: +375 — clears the ~250 monthly target, earning the ~$25 gift card. Add an occasional 5-star review or a covered shift and it climbs higher.

A typical strong quarter (~1,215 credits): - Three solid months × +375 = +1,125 - 90 days with zero infractions: +40 - One 5-star customer review: +50 - Quarter total: +1,215 — clears the ~900 quarterly target, earning the ~$75 gift card or paid day off.

Over a full year, that pace puts a steady performer around +4,500–5,000 — right at Silver tier (~4,500, about one year) on the lifetime milestone track, on top of every monthly and quarterly reward already collected along the way. Crew Leads build faster because they are eligible for additional earning events (crew oversight, site-briefing sign-offs, leading the crew), not because they earn a bigger amount per shared event. That is the whole point of the flat-rate model: every rank starts equal, and higher-rank accumulation reflects the broader scope of the role.

Promotion Eligibility

Promotion reviews are unlocked by your Performance Score, but the score only makes you eligible — it does not guarantee a promotion. Final advancement still depends on a clean discipline record, an evaluation, and operational need (an opening). Promotion criteria here work alongside the rank requirements on the Roles & Hierarchy and Uniform & Rank Identification pages.

Trainee → Crew Member: 500+ Performance Score, no active Performance Notice, at least 60 days in role, and a passed crew-lead/supervisor evaluation.

Crew Member → Crew Lead: 1,000+ Performance Score, no active Performance Notice, at least 90 days as a Crew Member, a recommendation, and Owner approval. Crew Lead openings depend on operational need.

Hitting the score is the green light to be considered — it is not an automatic title change. Promotion itself awards +100 Performance Score credits.

Where this sits in the progression track. These promotion thresholds are deliberately lower than the lifetime milestone tiers: at the baseline rate (~375/month), a trainee can clear the 500-credit mark in a couple of months — right about when the 60-day time-in-role gate opens — and a crew member clears 1,000 in roughly three months, matching the 90-day requirement. So the score and the time-in-role gate line up, and promotion happens well before the bigger Bronze/Silver/Gold tenure tiers. Promotion is one rung on the same ladder: good work → score → periodic rewards → promotion review → tenure milestones, all from the same record.

Discipline Thresholds & Consequences

The threshold ladder below applies to your Discipline Ledger — the rolling 90-day debits. As those debits accumulate within that window, the consequences escalate. These thresholds are fixed and known in advance — that is what makes them fair. You always know exactly where the next step is.

The calibration is intentionally strict. Here is what reaching termination on the rolling ladder actually takes from everyday mistakes: one no-call/no-show (5) plus three unexcused tardies (3) plus a PPE violation on a documented hazard (5) equals 13 debits — a Written Warning. Getting to 20 from small infractions in a 90-day window requires a real, repeated pattern of multiple failures, not a single bad day. That is the right bar for a termination presumption.

A serious infraction reaches the top of the ladder in one entry. A serious-misconduct violation is a single large hit — set at the termination-review threshold (currently 20) — so one of them lands you at 20+ within the rolling window on its own, triggering a termination review through this same debits math, even if your Discipline Ledger was otherwise clean. It is not a separate track; it is just the largest entry on this same ladder. See the Serious Misconduct (Large Debit) section for the list.

Where a termination review goes. Reaching 20+ on the rolling ladder — which a single serious infraction does on its own — triggers a termination review, and it does not auto-terminate anyone. Today that review routes to the Owner (or admin acting for him); once a Manager is in place, it routes to the Manager and Owner, consistent with the chain on the Roles & Hierarchy page. A 'presumed outcome of termination' means that is the starting point for the conversation, not a foregone conclusion.

Your right to respond. Before a Written Warning, Performance Notice, or termination review is finalized — including a termination review triggered by a serious infraction — you get a chance to give your side. Discipline here is a conversation backed by a written record — not a number dropped on you with no explanation.

Where Remedial Work Detachments fit. Alongside this ladder, the company can assign a Remedial Work Detachment (RWD) — a crew-level assignment of extra, legitimate work proportional to an infraction, typically used in the middle of the ladder (Written Warning and Performance Notice range) where the debits math alone leaves a gap between warnings and a termination review. An RWD never replaces the ladder and never changes these thresholds — it runs alongside them. See the Remedial Work Detachments sections below for the full rules, including the hard limit that every RWD must be genuine productive work.

Where a Time-Out (Stand-Down) fits. Below the Owner-only tools sits the Crew Lead's own middle step: a Time-Out — an immediate, reversible order that pulls a Trainee or Crew Member off tools on site after a verbal warning has not worked (or instantly for an unsafe act). A Time-Out is logged as a normal ledger entry inside the Crew Lead cap, does not change these thresholds, and ends when the employee passes the Re-Entry Comprehension Check or the crew leaves the site. See the Time-Out (Stand-Down) sections below.

Discipline Thresholds (Rolling 90-Day Window)

Performance Notice (No Demotion)

When you reach the Performance Notice threshold (15–19 discipline debits in 90 days), you go on a 30-day Performance Notice. This is the company's version of a structured improvement period — and it has real, tangible implications:

- Reward eligibility is paused for the duration of the notice. - Closer supervision — you work under more direct oversight. - Loss of solo-work privileges — you may be required to work alongside a Crew Lead or Crew Member rather than solo. - Weekly review with the Owner or admin to track progress.

The path back is clear and fast. Meet the standard for the notice period — clean discipline record, quality work, reliable attendance — and the notice lifts. Reward eligibility and solo-work privileges are restored, and you are back in good standing.

No demotion — ever. The company does not demote people by rank as a punishment. Demotion is demoralizing and doesn't actually fix performance, so we don't do it. If a Performance Notice ends without improvement, the next step is termination, not a drop in rank.

Voluntary step-down is different. If you choose, on your own, to step back to a lower-stress role, that carries no penalty and no debits. Asking for less responsibility is your right and is never treated as discipline.

Performance Notice vs. Remedial Work Detachment. A Performance Notice is an individual improvement period triggered automatically by your debit total. A Remedial Work Detachment (see the sections below) is an assigned block of extra, legitimate work — often crew-level — used to make an infraction right. The two can overlap: a crew whose missed work triggered debits may serve an RWD while a member is also on a Performance Notice. Neither replaces the other.

Remedial Work Detachments — What They Are & When They Trigger

A Remedial Work Detachment (RWD) is a structured middle consequence between warnings and a termination review: an assigned block of extra work — real, productive work the business genuinely needs — served by a crew (or the responsible members of it) to make an infraction right.

The premise is simple. If a crew did less work than the job required but was paid in full — a missed back corner, sloppy trimming that triggered a callback, an HR problem at a commercial site — the fair correction is *additional assigned work, proportional to the shortfall*. The deterrent is primarily the work itself: RWD assignments are deliberately separate from, harder than, and less enjoyable than a crew's normal route. The lasting effect the company wants is exactly this thought: *"I don't want RWD again — I'd better double-check that back corner before we leave."*

When an RWD triggers. RWDs tie into the existing Discipline Ledger — they do not replace it and do not change any debit value or threshold: - Written Warning range (10–14 debits) and Performance Notice range (15–19 debits) are the natural home of RWD — a pattern of workmanship or conduct infractions that deserves a real consequence short of a termination review. - A specific crew-level infraction — a missed area, poor workmanship on a site, a customer callback, or an HR violation at a commercial site — can trigger an RWD on its own even below the warning thresholds, when the Owner or admin judges that making the work right is the correct response. - Serious misconduct (a 20-debit entry) goes to a termination review, not an RWD. RWD is never a substitute for the serious-misconduct process.

Proportionality is a rule, not a suggestion. The severity and duration of a detachment must be proportional and reasonable to the infraction that triggered it. A missed strip of trimming does not earn a week of brush hauling. As a guide: a minor workmanship miss ≈ a partial-shift detachment; a repeat pattern or a callback with real cost ≈ one to two shifts; a Performance-Notice-range pattern ≈ up to a few shifts spread across the notice period. Anything longer requires the Owner's written justification.

Who assigns. RWDs are assigned by the Owner or admin. A Crew Lead may recommend one but cannot impose it. Every assignment is logged like any other discipline entry: who assigned it, the date, the triggering infraction, the assignment's productive purpose, and its planned scope and duration.

Remedial Work Detachments — Legitimate Work Only (Hard Limit)

Every RWD assignment must produce genuine productive value for the business. Revenue work, real maintenance, or a real operational benefit — nothing else qualifies. This is a hard limit, not a preference.

The assigner's test. Before logging an RWD assignment, the assigner must be able to answer *yes, in writing,* to all three of these questions — the answers are recorded with the assignment: 1. Would we pay someone to do this task anyway? (Is it on a client invoice, the maintenance backlog, or the shop to-do list?) 2. Will the business be measurably better off when it's done? (A weeded bed, a hauled brush pile, a serviced machine, a clean shop.) 3. Would I be comfortable describing this assignment, word for word, to the crew, a lawyer, and a judge?

If any answer is no, the assignment is prohibited.

Explicitly prohibited — never an RWD: - Contrived make-work — digging a hole and filling it back in, moving a pile twice, re-cleaning something already clean. - Arbitrary or sadistic tasks — anything chosen *because* it is unpleasant rather than because it is needed. - Anything cruel, degrading, or designed to humiliate — no demeaning framing, no public shaming, no "punishment detail" theatrics in front of clients or the rest of the crew. - Physically punitive exercises — push-ups, laps, wall-sits, or any physical exercise as discipline. Physical exercise is formally retired as a disciplinary tool, effective with this policy. Exercise is not productive work for the business, so it fails the legitimate-work test on its face. - Unsafe assignments — nothing that skips PPE, training, or the normal safety rules. RWD work follows every safety policy exactly like normal work.

Why the hard limit exists. The corrective power of an RWD comes from doing legitimate hard work the business truly needs — the crew can see the point of it, which is what makes the lesson stick. Invented suffering teaches only resentment, exposes the company legally, and is beneath the standard this handbook sets. An assignment that fails the test is grounds for an appeal (see the Documentation & Appeals section below), and an assigner who logs a contrived or degrading assignment answers for it under the Fair & Consistent Application rules.

Remedial Work Detachments — How a Detachment Runs

Deterrence by design: RWD is a distinct detachment, never blended into normal work. For the consequence to register, the detachment must be visibly separate from the crew's usual day: - Separate scheduling block. An RWD is scheduled as its own block — a distinct entry on the schedule — not folded quietly into a regular route. - Distinct from the usual route and duties. The work is different in character from what the crew would otherwise be doing that day: harder, less enjoyable, off the normal rotation. - Framed and logged as remedial. The crew is told plainly that this block is a Remedial Work Detachment, what triggered it, and what completing it makes right. The ledger entry says the same.

The policy is explicit on this point: the corrective effect comes from the character and separateness of legitimate hard work — never from humiliation or invented suffering. Separate does not mean shameful. The framing is professional: "this crew shorted the work, so this crew makes it right."

Who serves the detachment. - Responsible members by default. When responsibility is clear — one person skipped the back corner — the detachment falls on the responsible member(s), not the whole crew. - Whole crew when the failure was collective. When the crew as a unit signed off on incomplete work or shares the infraction (a crew-level callback, an HR violation the crew tolerated on-site), the whole crew serves. - Crew Lead responsibility factor. A Crew Lead who signed off on the work that triggered the RWD serves it with the crew — sign-off authority carries sign-off responsibility. The Crew Lead's own debit values already reflect this heavier accountability.

Mixing rules — non-disciplined employees. The default is to keep RWD crews separate: a detachment is served by the people who owe it. If operational needs genuinely require a non-disciplined employee on-site — supervision, licensed equipment operation, safety coverage — that employee works at their normal rate, in their normal role, and is explicitly not "on RWD." The log records them as operational support, their reward and credit earning is unaffected, and nothing about the detachment attaches to their record. No one is ever placed on a detachment by association.

Remedial Work Detachments — Example Assignment Menu

Assignments come in two families, both fully legitimate under the hard limit above. Revenue-generating detachments produce billable or client-visible work; non-revenue detachments produce real operational value in the shop. The menu below is illustrative, not exhaustive — any assignment that passes the three-question test qualifies, and anything that fails it is prohibited no matter how it is labeled.

Scope and duration follow the proportionality rule: match the tier of the triggering infraction, and when in doubt, assign less.

RWD Assignment Menu — Examples by Type & Tier

Remedial Work Detachments — Pay Models

Three pay models are written side by side so the choice is transparent. Model A0 is the company's default. Model A adds a rewards freeze. Model B — a temporary lower rate — is drafted here with guardrails but is not in effect until it clears attorney review (see the flag below).

Model A0 — full rate, the work is the consequence (default, in effect). The employee keeps their usual rate in full for every RWD hour. The consequence is the extra, less-desirable work itself plus the logged detachment on the ledger. Simplest, cleanest legally, and consistent with the premise that the deterrent is the work.

Model A — full rate, rewards frozen (in effect when designated). Usual base rate retained, but for the duration of the detachment the employee's credit earning, perks, and route-share/bonus eligibility are frozen. Pay is untouched; the program benefits pause. This mirrors the reward-eligibility pause already used during a Performance Notice.

Model B — designated remedial rate (drafted; attorney review required before first use). A temporary, capped, lower "remedial rate" for RWD hours, with every one of these guardrails mandatory: - Prospective only, announced in writing before the work. The rate change is communicated in writing before a single RWD hour is worked. It is never retroactive — hours already worked are always paid at the rate in effect when they were worked. - Never below Minnesota minimum wage. - Temporary and capped. The remedial rate applies only to designated RWD hours, never to normal route work, and each detachment states its end in advance. - Blended-rate overtime handled correctly. In any week mixing normal-rate and remedial-rate hours, overtime is calculated on the correct blended regular rate for that week — never on the lower rate alone. - Attorney review flag. Model B is not used until it is reviewed by an employment attorney and finalized per the remedial-rate legality memo (a separate task already on the books). Until then, every RWD runs on Model A0 or Model A.

RWD Pay Models — Side by Side

Remedial Work Detachments — Documentation & Appeals

RWDs follow the same documentation and appeal standards as everything else in this system.

Every detachment is logged. The entry records who assigned it, the date, the triggering infraction (linked to the ledger entries involved), the assignment's productive purpose — the written answers to the three-question test — the pay model designated, who serves it, and its planned scope and duration. The crew is told the trigger plainly before the detachment starts: nobody serves an RWD without knowing exactly why.

The normal appeal channel applies. An RWD can be appealed through the standard Appeals & Dispute Resolution process (14 days from notification), on any of the usual grounds — wrong facts, missing context, disproportionate scope — and additionally on the ground that the assignment itself is contrived, degrading, or otherwise fails the legitimate-work requirement. That last ground is explicit on purpose: the hard limit is only real if a crew member can invoke it. An appeal upheld on legitimate-work grounds voids the assignment, corrects the record, and puts the assigner's judgment under the Fair & Consistent Application review.

No retaliation. Appealing an RWD in good faith never adds debits and never earns a harsher assignment. The same no-retaliation rules that protect reports and appeals everywhere else in this system protect them here.

Completion closes it out. When the detachment is completed to standard, the log records it as served and the matter is closed. The underlying debits still roll off the Discipline Ledger on the normal 90-day window — an RWD neither extends nor shortens that.

Use the written form. Every assignment is logged on the [RWD Assignment Form](/points-accountability#rwd-assignment-form) at the bottom of this page. It captures the trigger, linked ledger entries, the written yes answers to the three-question legitimate-work test, the pay model (A0/A/B), who serves, and the planned scope and duration — fill it in on screen and print it for the file, or print it blank and fill it in by hand.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — What It Is & Who Can Call It

The gap this fills. Until now a Crew Lead had almost nothing between a verbal warning and calling the Owner — send-home, Remedial Work Detachments, and termination review are all Owner-only. A Time-Out is the Crew Lead's middle step: an immediately effective, reversible order that pulls one Trainee or Crew Member off tools on site while the rest of the crew keeps working. It is a pause, not a punishment ladder of its own — it sits inside the Discipline Ledger like everything else.

Who can call one. A Crew Lead, over the Trainees and Crew Members on their own crew; or the Owner (or admin acting for him) over anyone. Crew Leads cannot Time-Out other Crew Leads or anyone above them. The Owner reviews every Crew Lead Time-Out within the next business day.

What it is not. A Time-Out never resolves serious misconduct. Theft, violence or threats, fraud, on-the-job impairment, willful damage, harassment, or a gross safety breach still go straight to the Owner and the existing termination-review path (see Serious Misconduct). A Time-Out is for the ordinary, repeated stuff — ignoring a warning about phone use, sloppy work after being corrected, arguing with the crew, an unsafe act that needs to stop right now.

Two forms, chosen at the moment of the order. The Crew Lead picks one and says which one out loud: Stand-Down (paid, the default) or Released for the Day (unpaid from the release time, only when the employee can genuinely leave). The next sections spell out each one. Whichever form is used, no Time-Out ever reduces pay for time you already worked.

The self-serve Re-Entry Comprehension Check and the fill-in Time-Out Notice for this policy sit at the bottom of this page, below the diagram and the RWD form — the Crew Lead can text you the link.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Stand-By vs Stand-Down: Same Thing, Different Reason

They are the same mechanism. Stand-By and Stand-Down are both paid waiting: you are on the clock, you are not working, and the company owes you for the time because the company controls it (29 CFR § 785.15; Minn. R. 5200.0120). Both pay the same published Stand-By / Stand-Down Rate of $12.00/hour, both count toward the 40-hour week, both blend into the weighted-average overtime rate, and neither ever touches an hour you already worked. The company has exactly one non-regular rate, and these two statuses share it.

What is different is the reason — and the connotation.

- Stand-By is about the company. The Owner or Crew Lead set a start or pickup time and you showed up for it. If the truck, the Lead, or the go-ahead is late, that is the company failing to use *your* time properly, and Stand-By is how the company pays for that gap. It is neutral. It says nothing about you, goes on no ledger, and needs no warning.

- Stand-Down is about you. You were working, you were warned, and you kept doing the thing — so the Crew Lead pulled you off tools. The paid wait is the consequence of not adhering to policy. It is disciplinary: it carries a stated reason, a Discipline Ledger entry, and a Re-Entry Comprehension Check the Crew Lead reviews before deciding whether to put you back to work.

Same rate, same protections, same rules on the clock. Only three things change: who triggered it, why, and what goes on your record. Read the other side here: [Stand-By policy](/payroll-schedule#stand-by-designated-start-pickup-time-what-it-is-when-it-applies).

Stand-By vs Stand-Down — Side by Side

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — The Two Forms

Form 1 — Stand-Down (paid at the Stand-Down Rate). This is the default. You stop all work immediately, hand over tools and keys, and wait in a safe spot the Crew Lead designates — truck cab, shade, somewhere off the active work zone. You stay on the clock the whole time, because you are waiting at the company's direction (the law calls this "engaged to wait" — 29 CFR § 785.15; Minn. R. 5200.0120). From the minute the Time-Out is called, that waiting time is paid at the published Stand-Down Rate ($12.00/hour — see the next section) instead of your normal rate. It ends when the crew leaves the site or the shift ends, or earlier if the Crew Lead reinstates you after the Re-Entry Comprehension Check.

Form 2 — Released for the Day (unpaid from the release time). Used only when you have a genuine means to leave: your own vehicle on site, a confirmed ride, or a walkable/transit trip home. The Crew Lead must tell you clearly, and the notice must record, that you are relieved of all duty, free to go, and not expected until your next scheduled shift. Pay stops at the release time (29 CFR § 785.16). If you cannot practically leave — remote site, no car, no ride — the Crew Lead must use Stand-Down instead. An employee stuck at a job site is never unpaid.

Waiting after a valid Release. The crew does not owe you a ride back before the end of the route. If you were validly Released, could realistically have left, and choose to wait for the crew's normal return instead, that waiting-by-choice is your own time and is unpaid. If the Crew Lead is unsure whether you can realistically leave, the answer is Stand-Down. (This paragraph is flagged for attorney review before first use.)

One published second rate, two statuses. The Stand-Down Rate is the same number as the Stand-By Rate — together they are the company's single non-regular pay rate (the Stand-By / Stand-Down Rate). Stand-Down is disciplinary; Stand-By is neutral scheduled waiting from a designated start or pickup time you acknowledged until you are started for duty, and lives on the [Payroll & Schedule](/payroll-schedule#stand-by-designated-start-pickup-time-what-it-is-when-it-applies) page. Neither extends to travel time between sites, lunch, or breaks — those stay under the existing rules on the Payroll & Schedule and Route Shares pages.

Time-Out Forms — Side by Side

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — The Stand-Down Rate & Pay Rules

The rate. The Stand-Down Rate is the Owner-selected company rate — $12.00 per hour for 2026. It is the same published second rate used for Stand-By at a designated start or pickup time (see the [Stand-By policy](/payroll-schedule#stand-by-designated-start-pickup-time-what-it-is-when-it-applies)); the wage notice lists it once and names both statuses. The Owner re-verifies it against the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry each January and publishes any change here before it applies.

Why a second rate is allowed. An employer may pay different hourly rates for different kinds of work or status in the same week, as long as every hour is paid at least the minimum wage (29 CFR § 778.115, § 778.419). Stood-down time is paid time in a non-working status, and the Stand-Down Rate is set at Owner-selected company rate, so no stood-down hour ever falls below the legal floor.

Before it can ever be used — written notice. Under Minnesota's Wage Theft Prevention Act the Stand-Down Rate must appear on the written wage notice every new hire receives, and every current employee must receive and sign a written notice of it before it is applied to them even once (Minn. Stat. § 181.032(d)–(f)). No signed notice on file means the Crew Lead can still call a Stand-Down, but the time is paid at your regular rate.

Prospective only. The reduced rate starts at the minute the Time-Out is called and never reaches backward. Hours you already worked that day are paid at your regular rate, period (Minn. Stat. § 181.79 — no clawbacks).

Overtime is blended. If you go over 40 hours in a week that includes stood-down time, your overtime premium is figured on the weighted-average regular rate across both rates (29 CFR § 778.115) — the same blended math already used on the Route Shares page.

Your pay stub shows it separately. Stood-down hours and the rate appear as their own line on your earnings statement (Minn. Stat. § 181.032(a)). To make that possible, payroll (Gusto) needs a dedicated STAND-DOWN earnings code — the Owner must create it before the rate is used.

Worked example. A Crew Member paid $20.00/hour works a 9-hour day and is stood down for the last 2 hours. 7 hours × $20.00 = $140.00, plus 2 hours × $12.00 = $24.00. The day pays $164.00 instead of $180.00 — a difference of $16.00. If that same week totals 44 hours (42 regular + 2 stood down), straight-time pay is $864.00; the weighted regular rate is $864.00 ÷ 44 = $19.64; the overtime premium is 4 hours × 0.5 × $19.64 = $39.27; total for the week $903.27.

Everything else still applies. The Stand-Down Rate is not the whole consequence. The discipline entry (2–6 debits), the productive credits you did not earn during that time, the written record, and the required Re-Entry Comprehension Check all still happen.

Worked Pay Example — $20.00/hr Crew Member, 2 Hours Stood Down

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — What Stand-Down Means — Limits

Stand-Down is a paid, on-duty, non-working status. Both sides have limits.

What you do: nothing. While stood down you perform no work of any kind — no tools, no equipment, no loading or unloading, no navigating, no paperwork, no customer contact, no "just helping." If any work is performed during a Stand-Down it is paid at your regular rate, and the Crew Lead is responsible for making sure it does not happen.

Where you are. You stay inside the spot the Crew Lead designates — truck cab, shade, or another spot off the active work zone — within sight of the crew, away from running equipment, and away from the customer's living areas. Leaving that spot either converts the status to Released for the Day (only if you can genuinely leave and the Crew Lead confirms it) or is a further infraction.

Conduct rules still apply. Uniform, substances, no customer contact, no filming, no arguing with the crew — all of it. Personal phone use is allowed while stood down.

What you keep. Workers' compensation coverage. ESST accrual — sick and safe time accrues on hours worked at any rate, and when you use ESST it is paid at the rate you would otherwise have earned (Minn. Stat. § 181.9445). Your Minnesota rest-break rights (Minn. Stat. § 177.253). Your right to respond and to appeal.

What the company may not do. Assign you "light" tasks while stood down. Hold you past the crew's departure or the end of the shift. Dock or re-rate hours you already worked. Use a Time-Out for protected activity — asking about pay, reporting a hazard, using ESST or PFML, filing a report or appeal, or anything else the law protects.

How it ends — only three ways. (1) The Crew Lead reinstates you after you pass the Re-Entry Comprehension Check. (2) The crew leaves the site or the shift ends. (3) A valid Release for the Day. Nothing else ends it — and nothing extends it into the next shift without the Owner's review.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Prerequisites, Stated Reason & Notice

Prerequisite — a warning first. Before a Time-Out, the Crew Lead must have given you at least one verbal warning for the same or related conduct that shift, or there must be a logged Verbal Warning for it within the rolling 90-day Discipline Ledger. One exception: an immediate safety stop. An unsafe act can be stood down instantly, with the warning delivered as part of the order.

Stated reason, effective immediately. In person, the Crew Lead tells you: the specific conduct; the prior warning(s); which form (Stand-Down or Released); the start time; and exactly what you must do to return (normally: pass the Re-Entry Comprehension Check). "Go sit in the truck" without those pieces is not a valid Time-Out.

Notice is recorded. Today the Crew Lead fills in the Time-Out Notice at the bottom of this page and sends a photo or text of it to the Owner before the crew leaves the site; the Owner reviews it within the next business day. When the CRM is live, the notice is logged there instead. For a Release, the notice must also record that the Crew Lead confirmed your means to leave and read you the release statement.

Rank fairness. The rule is identical for Trainees and Crew Members. A Crew Lead who uses this tool heavy-handedly, skips the warning, misstates the reason, or uses it on someone stuck at a site as a Release is committing a debit event of their own, reviewable through the existing crew-override and appeals mechanisms.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Your Options While Stood Down

Every Time-Out Notice spells out your four options, and you can use more than one:

(a) Wait it out. Stay in the designated spot, ride back with the crew as normal, and finish the conversation with the Owner before your next shift.

(b) Leave — only if Released and able. If the Crew Lead has Released you for the day and you have a genuine way to get home, you may go. If you were stood down (not Released), leaving the site is a separate infraction.

(c) Ask for early reinstatement. Complete the Re-Entry Comprehension Check on your phone. Pass it, show the Crew Lead the result screen, and the Crew Lead may reinstate you for the rest of the shift.

(d) Give your side and appeal. You always have the right to respond, and you can appeal the Time-Out through the standard 14-day Appeals & Dispute Resolution process. Anti-retaliation applies in full — appealing a Time-Out can never cost you anything.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Re-Entry Comprehension Check

What it is. A 8-question multiple-choice review of the handbook policies that matter right now: general expectations, the specific rule you broke, safety, chain of command, and this Time-Out policy itself. Take it on your phone from the self-serve check at the bottom of this page. No login — the Crew Lead can text you the link.

On paid time, always. A required review is work under 29 CFR § 785.27–.32. You take it while stood down (already on the clock at the Stand-Down Rate) or, if the shift ended first, at the start of your next shift on company time. It is never an unpaid gate.

Passing. Score 7 of 8 or better and the result card says PASS. Show the screen to the Crew Lead, who may reinstate you for the remainder of the shift — regular rate resumes at the minute of reinstatement. The Crew Lead notes the score on the notice.

Not passing. Score below 7 and the Stand-Down continues for the rest of the crew's time on site. You may retake it as many times as you like while stood down. If you have not passed by the end of the shift, the review is repeated with the Owner before your next shift.

Honor system, on purpose. There are no accounts, so the check trusts you to take it yourself. Having someone else take it for you is falsifying a company record — a serious-misconduct item — and is not worth two hours at the Stand-Down Rate.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Ledger Integration & Repeat Escalation

One entry on the Discipline Ledger. A Time-Out is logged as a discipline entry worth 2–6 debits, chosen by the Crew Lead inside their per-entry cap (up to 15) and documented like any other entry: who, date and time, specific conduct, prior warning(s), form used, start and end times, and the Re-Entry Check result. It rolls off after 90 days like everything else.

Thresholds do not move. A Time-Out does not change the Verbal Warning / Written Warning / Performance Notice / termination-review thresholds. Its debits simply count toward them.

Repeats escalate. A second Time-Out within 90 days is referred to the Owner for Written Warning, Remedial Work Detachment, or Performance Notice consideration — the Crew Lead does not keep issuing Time-Outs for the same pattern.

Credits lost. You do not earn the productive credits (clean site sign-off, equipment returned clean) for a shift in which you were stood down for a significant portion of the work, at the Crew Lead's judgment and the Owner's review.

Owner review. Every Crew Lead Time-Out is reviewed by the Owner within the next business day. An entry missing the reason, the prior warning, or the form used should not stand, and is grounds for appeal.

Time-Out — Parameter Summary (owner-tunable)

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Worked Examples

Example 1 — Phone after a warning → Stand-Down. A Crew Member is on their phone while the crew trims. The Crew Lead warns them once. Twenty minutes later, same thing. The Crew Lead calls a Stand-Down at 1:40 PM: "You were warned about the phone at 1:20. You're stood down as of now — sit in the truck cab, no tools. To come back, pass the Re-Entry Check and show me." The Crew Member takes the check at 2:05, scores 7/8, and is reinstated at 2:10. Pay: 30 minutes at the Stand-Down Rate, regular rate before and after. Ledger: 2 debits. Notice photographed to the Owner.

Example 2 — Unsafe blade engagement → immediate safety stand-down. A Trainee engages the mower blades with a coworker in the discharge path. No prior warning is needed. The Crew Lead stops the machine and stands the Trainee down on the spot, delivering the warning as part of the order, and keeps them off equipment for the rest of the site. The Trainee passes the Re-Entry Check but the Crew Lead, within their discretion, keeps the Stand-Down until the crew finishes that site, then reinstates them for the next stop on non-equipment tasks. Ledger: 6 debits. Owner reviews the next business day and decides whether additional blade-safety training is required.

Example 3 — Own car on site → Released for the Day. A Crew Member who drove their own car to the shop meet-up keeps arguing with the crew after a warning. At 10:15 AM the Crew Lead Releases them: reads the release statement, confirms on the notice that the employee has their own vehicle, and records the time. Pay stops at 10:15; everything before it is paid at the regular rate. The employee is expected at their next scheduled shift, where the Owner holds the review first because it is their second Time-Out in 90 days.

Example 4 — Remote site, no ride → must be Stand-Down. Same conduct as Example 3, but the crew is 40 minutes out and the employee rode in the crew truck. A Release is not available — the employee cannot practically leave. The Crew Lead uses Stand-Down (paid at the Stand-Down Rate) until the crew returns to the shop.

Time-Out (Stand-Down) — Legal Compliance (MN / FLSA)

This policy was written around the wage-and-hour rules below so that the compliant version is the default, not an afterthought. Have it reviewed by employment counsel before the first Time-Out is issued.

Waiting at the company's direction is work time. Under 29 CFR § 785.15, idle time that "belongs to and is controlled by the employer" is hours worked even if the employee could technically leave. Minnesota agrees: Minn. R. 5200.0120 counts "waiting time, or any other time when the employee must be either on the premises of the employer" as hours worked. That is why Stand-Down is paid.

Time is unpaid only when the employee is truly off duty. 29 CFR § 785.16 and Minn. R. 5200.0120 subp. 3 require that the employee be completely relieved from duty, free to leave for a definite period, and told so in advance. That is why Released for the Day requires a genuine means to leave and the recorded release statement.

Required reviews are paid. 29 CFR § 785.27–.32: mandatory, job-related training or testing during working hours is compensable. The Re-Entry Comprehension Check is always on paid time.

A second rate is lawful with notice. 29 CFR § 778.115 and § 778.419 allow different rates for different work or status; every hour must still meet the minimum wage; overtime uses the weighted average. The same rate, notice, earnings-statement, and blended-overtime rules govern Stand-By under the [Stand-By policy](/payroll-schedule#stand-by-designated-start-pickup-time-what-it-is-when-it-applies) — one signed notice covers both statuses. Minn. Stat. § 181.032(d)–(f) requires the rate on the hire wage notice and a signed written notice to current employees before a change. Minn. Stat. § 181.032(a) requires the rate and hours on the earnings statement.

No clawbacks. Minn. Stat. § 181.79 — nothing already earned is deducted or re-rated.

Protected activity and leave are off limits. ESST (Minn. Stat. § 181.9445) and PFML absences never trigger a Time-Out; a Time-Out is never used in response to a report, appeal, wage question, or safety complaint.

Exempt-employee rules do not apply. The full-day suspension rule for salaried exempt staff (29 CFR § 541.602(b)(5)) is irrelevant here — all field crew are hourly, non-exempt.

Policy status. Like the rest of this handbook, this section is company policy, not a contract, and does not change at-will employment. It may be amended with published notice; pay-affecting changes are prospective only and require signed written notice.

Reporting & Accountability (All Directions)

Accountability runs in every direction. Any employee — including a Trainee — can submit a report about anyone above them, including a Crew Lead and including the Owner. This is the checks-and-balances core of the system.

How reports work — and the safeguards that keep them fair:

1. Reports never auto-apply. A report does not instantly deduct credits or debits from anyone. Every report is reviewed first. Only after review does the reviewer decide whether to log anything.

2. Reviewed before any action. Standard reports — about anyone other than the Owner — are reviewed by the Owner or admin, who makes the judgment call. Reports about the Owner himself follow the special public self-review and crew-override process described at the end of this section. Upward reports — someone reporting a person above them — default to 'flag for awareness' rather than an automatic infraction, and carry lower default weight than a customer complaint.

3. Partial anonymity. The reviewer always sees who filed the report (so the system itself stays accountable). The person being reported does not see who filed it — unless the reviewer decides disclosure is genuinely necessary.

4. Reporter accountability — no cap on real reports, but a pattern of false ones reflects on you. There is no limit on how many good-faith reports you can file. A frequency cap would not stop a bad actor — it would only delay the company from seeing problems as they happen. If someone is genuinely committing many infractions, every report is allowed to land and their high infraction count stands on its own; that is exactly the point. The safeguard against abuse is accountability for the *reporter*, not a ceiling on everyone. Every report's outcome — upheld, not upheld, or found fabricated — is recorded against the person who filed it. A single honest report that simply isn't upheld is never punished; getting it wrong in good faith is not an infraction. But a *pattern* of reports found unfounded, and any single report found fabricated or filed in bad faith to hurt someone, reflects on the reporter as escalating discipline — starting with a discipline deduction and rising to a serious-misconduct mark when the reporting is clearly malicious or knowingly false.

Report categories: Safety concern (top priority — reviewed within 24 hours), unprofessional conduct, unfair task assignment, suspected policy violation, and recognition request (a positive report nominating someone for a credit award).

Owner accountability — public self-review with a crew override. Reports about the Owner are handled differently from all others, because there is no one above the Owner to rule on them. The company does not hand this off to an outside party. Instead, two things keep it honest:

First — transparency. A report about the Owner, and the Owner's ruling on it, is visible to the crew. The Owner must state in the open whether he upholds or denies the report, and why. Unlike a normal report (where the subject never sees who filed it), an Owner report and its outcome are public to the team — so everyone can see exactly what was claimed and how the Owner answered.

Second — a crew override. If the Owner denies a report about himself, the crew can force the issue with a vote. If a supermajority of all active employees votes to override the denial, the denial is overturned: the report is treated as upheld, the affected employees earn credits as they would for any other missed standard, and it affects Owner-level bonuses and reviews — exactly as it would for anyone else. The override threshold is a high bar on purpose (default: two-thirds of all active employees; the Owner sets the exact percentage). Abstaining counts as not voting to override, so an override only succeeds with broad, genuine agreement — never a small clique.

Safeguards on the override: the override vote is anonymous, so no one fears voting against the Owner, but the final tally is public. Each denied Owner report gets one override vote — the same report cannot be re-litigated over and over. The override applies only to reports about the Owner.

This is the checks-and-balances core of the system working as intended: the Owner has the authority to make the call, but the crew holds a real, structural check that stops the Owner from simply clearing himself. The Owner holds himself to the same rules as everyone else — visibly — which is what makes the whole system trustworthy.

Report Categories

Appeals & Dispute Resolution

Anyone can be wrong — a Crew Lead logging a credit or debit, or even the Owner. If you believe a credit or debit on your record is incorrect, unfair, or missing context, you have a clear, written way to challenge it. A record nobody can question is not a fair record.

How to appeal:

1. File within 14 days. You have 14 days from when you are notified of an entry to appeal it. (Safety and legal-protection issues can be raised anytime.)

2. Say what and why. Name the entry you are challenging and what you believe is correct — wrong facts, missing context, double-counted, or a protected absence that should never have been a debit in the first place.

3. Who decides. The Owner or admin reviews appeals of Crew Lead and admin entries. An appeal that challenges the Owner's own decision follows the same public self-review and crew-override process used for reports about the Owner — so the Owner is never the final, unchecked judge of his own call.

4. Outcome. If the appeal is upheld, the entry is corrected or removed and your record is fixed. If it is denied, you get a plain-language reason. Either way, the result is documented.

No penalty for appealing in good faith. Filing an honest appeal never adds discipline debits and never counts against you. Only a knowingly false or bad-faith appeal can itself be treated as a violation.

Fair & Consistent Application

The credits & debits system is only worth trusting if it is applied the same way to everyone. These rules keep it honest:

No retaliation. Reporting a real problem, filing an honest appeal, asking a question about your record, or using protected leave can never be punished — not with debit entries, worse assignments, cut hours, or any other payback. Retaliation is itself a serious violation that the person responsible answers for — up to and including the Owner.

Applied equally. Credits and debits are awarded and deducted based on behavior and performance only — never on race, sex, age, religion, disability, national origin, or any other protected characteristic. The same standard applies to everyone in the same role.

Consistency check. The Owner periodically reviews credit and debit activity across crews to catch a Crew Lead who is unusually harsh or unusually generous, or any pattern that looks like favoritism or bias. The per-entry and per-day caps already limit how far any one person's reach goes; this review backs that up.

Your record is confidential. Your scores and discipline history are kept private and shared only with you, your direct supervisor, and the Owner or admin on a need-to-know basis — never posted for the whole crew to see. Any public leaderboard shows positive standing only, and only in the form the company chooses to display.

Legal Protections & Compliance

This system operates fully within Minnesota and federal employment law. Protected time off, accommodation, and impairment-testing rules always take priority over any credit or debit.

Protected leave never becomes a debit. No legally protected absence or activity ever generates a discipline debit, and it can never be recorded as a serious infraction either. Using a right the law gives you is not an infraction of any kind. This is absolute: there is no version of using protected leave that lands on your record.

ESST (Earned Sick and Safe Time, 2024). Absences covered by ESST can never be counted as discipline debits. A protected sick-or-safe absence is marked as protected before any discipline is considered — it is not an infraction.

PFML (Paid Family and Medical Leave, effective 2026). Same protection. Leave covered under PFML can never trigger discipline debits.

DATWA (drug & alcohol testing). If a discipline event involves suspected impairment, the company's post-incident testing protocol must be followed before any impairment-related mark — including the large serious-infraction value for a confirmed positive — is finalized. A suspicion alone is never recorded as misconduct; the DATWA protocol comes first. See the Post-Incident Drug & Alcohol Testing policy under Employment Policies.

Other protected time and rights. The same protection applies to any legally protected leave or activity — including reasonable accommodations under the ADA, leave under the federal FMLA where it applies, military service leave (USERRA), jury duty, time off to vote, and bereavement leave under company policy. Protected absences are marked protected and never become discipline debits. If you need an accommodation, just ask — the company will work with you in good faith.

No retaliation. Filing a good-faith report, appealing a credit or debit entry, asking a question about your record, or using protected leave can never be punished — not with any discipline debit, and never with a serious-infraction value. The large serious-infraction values exist only for the specific serious-violation list in the Serious Misconduct section; they can never be attached to protected leave or to good-faith reporting, appeals, or whistleblowing. See Fair & Consistent Application above.

Equal treatment. Credits and debits are never tied to any protected characteristic — see Fair & Consistent Application above.

At-will & transparency. Minnesota is an at-will employment state. Because every threshold and consequence in this system is written down and known in advance, a decision that follows the documented thresholds is fair and consistent. The full policy is disclosed in writing — that disclosure is the point of this page.

This policy is not a contract. This system describes how the company manages performance and accountability. It is not an employment contract and does not change Minnesota's at-will relationship. The company may update credit and debit values, thresholds, and rewards as the system is calibrated — any change is published here before it takes effect, and you may be asked to re-acknowledge.

Owner Accountability — Standards & Reportable Items

The owner is not exempt from this system — the same public self-review and crew-override process that governs all upward reports (described in the Reporting & Accountability section above) applies here. This subsection makes the owner's standards concrete: when the owner meets them, it is a credit event for the owner; when the owner falls short, the employees affected by that miss earn the credit instead — the shortfall does not dock the owner's points but directly rewards the crew who bore the impact.

Point values are owner-tunable, just like all other entries in this system. They are marked "Owner sets" below and will be published here before any change takes effect.

The table below covers six categories. Each row states the standard — what "meeting it" looks like — followed by what qualifies as an owner credit event and what employees earn when the owner misses.

Owner Accountability — Standards, Credits & Reportable Items

Acknowledgment Requirement

This system only applies to you once you have read and accepted it. In the company CRM, you will be asked to acknowledge this policy — confirming you understand how credits are earned and debits are incurred, the thresholds and consequences, the reward tiers, and the reporting rules — before any credits or debits are logged to your record.

Acknowledgment is required for every employee, and re-acknowledgment may be required when the policy changes. Until you accept it, the system does not score you. Once you accept it, the rules on this page are the rules that govern your Performance Score and Discipline Ledger.

Future access. In the CRM, you will be able to check your own scores — your overall Performance Score, your skill stats card, your standing on the leaderboard, and any active warnings — anytime from your phone using a personal login. This page is the written policy; that app will be where you live with it day to day.