Bye, employee. Hello, Robot.
The Gooberment is on our @$$ 24/7.
When do we get relief?
Turn off you phone, or don’t answer it. When I went to work for NY State Dept. of Corrections, the first thing they told me was to not answer my phone on my days off. I found out the hard way, when my first Christmas there, I had swapped work days with another officer in order to get Christmas off. I had already worked Thanksgiving for the a-hole. Christmas Day, I’m cooking our dinner, and my phone rings. I stupidly answered it, and was told that the a-hole never showed up to cover my shift, so I was ordered to go in to work. I had no choice. I went. And of course, nothing happened to the a-hole, because he was one of the good old boys in the prison, and I was a new female hack. That was the last time I ever answered my phone on any day I had off.
More solutions looking for problems.
How often do pols nag their slaves after hours, and how would they react if one were to hang up on them?
More to the point, they just want jurisdiction over every moment of your existence.
How in the hell does CA have the authority to do this crap. Mandating a min wage is outrageous enough but this is beyond.
The problem is for service jobs like HVAC. The employer only has work when they get a call from a customer. If an employer was required to pay people to sit home then the customer bill would skyrocket. But liberals don’t understand things like that.
So much for “on call”.
People have always had the right to disconnect.
More campaign issues, for they are trying desperately trying to win back voters that they are hemorrhaging in significant numbers. That’s one reason they never codified abortion. It gave them a campaign talking point should abortion ever be overruled by the Supreme Court.
I don’t know there’s a lot of this. Bosses calling employees at random hours “I was looking at this can you answer a question”. And this seems to have gotten more so with WFH. We can say the employee should stand strong, but, let’s face it, we all got bills to pay and getting fired isn’t fun.
Now can the government adequately do anything about this? Probably not. But it is a definitely bad trend that needs reversing.
I had no problem disconnecting from bosses. When one of them wanted my cell phone number, it was a big, “No”. Of course, it depends on your position, whether salaried, etc.
“The problem we have now is the gray area, where an employee is expected to respond all the time when on paper they work a 9-to-5 job.”
Then if the contract signed is for 9 to 5, then just say “no, I can’t.” Then it becomes barter time on pay and other times off. If you need the money, then you shouldn’t have taken a job that doesn’t pay you enough. If you want the money or a better time to get off, that is your choice.
I got into this when I working for the department of the army and they insisted I come in for special duties not within my job description. I told them no and they got mad but there was nothing they could do about it. If they had terminated me for not working overtime, they would have seen the court room and I’ll guarentee you I’d have won the case because they didn’t put it in the job description and it was not within my regular hours or was going to be made up during the week. They told me it was in other duties as assigned. I reminded them that they had established my schedule for my approval of taking the position and that was weekends off. I was smart enough to get that in writing.
wy69
“The problem we have now is the gray area, where an employee is expected to respond all the time when on paper they work a 9-to-5 job.”
Then if the contract signed is for 9 to 5, then just say “no, I can’t.” Then it becomes barter time on pay and other times off. If you need the money, then you shouldn’t have taken a job that doesn’t pay you enough. If you want the money or a better time to get off, that is your choice.
I got into this when I working for the department of the army and they insisted I come in for special duties not within my job description. I told them no and they got mad but there was nothing they could do about it. If they had terminated me for not working overtime, they would have seen the court room and I’ll guarentee you I’d have won the case because they didn’t put it in the job description and it was not within my regular hours or was going to be made up during the week. They told me it was in other duties as assigned. I reminded them that they had established my schedule for my approval of taking the position and that was weekends off. I was smart enough to get that in writing.
wy69
Or... what we used to call exempt and non-exempt workers, "exempt" meaning not allowed to receive overtime pay.
-PJ
That's the key phrase. As part of my duties in different jobs, I was on 24/7 call and had to respond anytime, even on Christmas and New Years Eve which I did. When I managed a crew of techs, they were also obligated to be on call 24/7 for emergencies. There were a couple of techs who often did not respond to my calls. When I recommended one of their co-workers for a supervisory position over them, they protested and asked "why?". I said she always responded, and they did not. She being a black female tech, and the two complainers hated blacks. It was all about who can do the job when needed. If not a job requirement on paper, then the worker shouldn't be called after hours.
FLSA exempt employees are basically always on the clock. Non-exempt hourly employees are on the clock for pay when they are on-call or conducting business for their firm. That would mean a phone call after hours is compensable. The problem with that is employers who decide not to compensate employees for the off hours calls are subject to both state and federal labor code penalties, which include interest and can be remarkably expensive.
They’ve ALWAYS had the right to disconnect, they were just too sheepish to exercise it. I went to a CLE a few years ago where one of the speakers said, “My clients have my cell phone number and I’m available 24 hours a day. Get used to it.” Bravo. Sierra. That’s a sign of fear.
They’ve ALWAYS had the right to disconnect, they were just too sheepish to exercise it. I went to a CLE a few years ago where one of the speakers said, “My clients have my cell phone number and I’m available 24 hours a day. Get used to it.” Bravo. Sierra. That’s a sign of fear.
Oddly, I have a personal friend/client who expected me, at 5:30pm on Good Friday, to review a standard agreement via text and get back to him Monday morning. I pointed this out to him and said no. He’s still my friend and still my client.