Forced On Call

What is the name of your state? Az

As with most high-tech companies mine has gone through reductions in force leading to a skeleton crew of us left to maintain business vital systems on a 24X7 basis. While in the past we have had groups of people that could trade off on-call responsibilities we are now down to some groups having only 1 person to perform this task.

The expectation is that you will ALWAYS be available by cell phone and that no matter where you are and what you are doing you will drop it all and come running in case of a problem. While problems are few and far between this tends to put a damper of what you can do.

How far can a company go in requiring this kind of response but offer nothing in the way of additional compensation? I have brought this up in the past and basically the line is that 'you are exempt and this is expected as part of your job'. As I see it I am now 'working' 24 hours a day and even slaves get time to sleep.

Thanks for you advice/comments in advance.

If you are exempt, the employer has no obligation to provide any additional compensation for extra hours worked including the 24/7 on call situation you describe. You always have the freedom to find another job where the terms of employment are more to your liking. An option slaves did not enjoy which makes your comparison considerably off the mark.

I disagree totally with you. If I leave and I cant find a job for 13 months (like a friend of mine) I wont have to worry about sleep as I will be living in a gutter along with my kids after my retirement and savings had been exhausted. Your response was flippant and reminds me of the management talking heads who are telling many people about their jobs being moved to India and cant find work here anymore at anywhere near close to the same salaries. The economy and this threat has allowed employers to use the exempt pay exceptions to work and burn out resources without regards to the long term effect on the employee.

Boy oh boy it took you this long to find this out..... have you been in a fog!

That is why you scimp and save money, and dont buy the new car or the new home, cash rules.

Live as cheaply as possible, so when you get the boot your money will last twice or 3 times as long as your neighbors hi falutin lifestyle!