What is the typical understanding of and expectation between Employer and Eployee when said employee is hired as a salaried employee?

I thought there was more to the definition and agreement by both sides.

i.e., I thought a salaried employee was not eligible to be paid for overtime, but on the other hand if his/her work was completed and personal time was needed or employee asked to leave early that was permissable. (I thought salaried meant that there was some flexibility?)

I work in upstate New York and was recently injured outside my job and was unable to work. The doctor finally approved a return to work doing half days for two weeks and then return to full time. I have been a salaried employee with this company for 16 years, and was suprised to see that my first paycheck was calculated on an hourly basis at 4 hours per day. That was especially frustrating because I had felt bad about working half days so I worked longer each day, actually averaging 6 hours a day. On top of that, no one ever mentioned to me that the terms and method of calculating my paycheck had been changed. This was done by someone payroll? Company President?

We are a small company with 3 offices and approximately 20 people. Probably 8 or 9 of which are salaried.

In addition, they have emailed me that I must inform the woman who does payroll/accounting when evver I have a doctor's appointment. It sounds like they'll be deducting time I spend going to the doctor!

This all came about on Friday afternoon, and it turns out the company president and his wife (the accountant) are out on vacation this week!

Have you been realeased to work from your doctor without restrictions? When you first returned to work you had restrictions. Being that you did not hurt yourself on the job your employer does not have to bring you back to work. It sounds like you are being compensated as a part time emploee due to the fact that your restrictions state you can only work 4 hours per day. I would talk to payroll or the human resources manager to find out the facts.