“I’m Ready For The Hammer To Drop”: Boss Calls Employee To HR To Complain He’s Not Working Outside Office Hours, Makes A Fool Of Himself
We all get fed up with our jobs at times, be it an awful customer, a small task failed, or just a bad day overall. However, when it comes to work itself, how much is too much? It’s a question that can only be answered depending on the situation, really. Still, most people would agree that being expected to work weekends for free would be drawing a massive line when it comes to their employment responsibilities.
A redditor by the name of u/pappie317 went on to explain his situation to the community on r/MaliciousCompliance, saying that his company, or more so, his boss pretty much expected him to work on weekends, directing job-related calls to his personal cell phone. Fed up with the situation, the employee decided that he would not be taking calls for a single weekend, given that he didn’t receive any sort of compensation besides the fact that things at work went smoothly when he actually had to be on a shift.
How many of us would be happy with taking work-related calls during the time we are supposed to be off? We believe not many would be up for such a task
Image credits: blocks (not the actual photo)
A person got fed up with working on weekends for free as he went on to express his frustration online
Image credits: Campaign Creators (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Marcin Jozwiak (not the actual photo)
Image credits: pappie317
Expecting people who work regular weekday jobs to work for free on weekends, such as taking client calls from a personal phone, is unethical for a variety of reasons
We believe it goes without saying but, everyone needs their downtime, especially from work. We all need a chance to chill, kick back, and recharge from all of the stress. If work starts sneaking into our personal time, it just messes up the balance. On top of that, it’s actually against the rules in a lot of countries. There are laws that say workers should get paid for all the hours they put in, including any overtime, which in the OP’s situation is clearly not the case.
But let’s say someone does decide to work for free on the weekend. It sets this vibe that the employer doesn’t really respect or value their time. That’s not great for morale and might even make people less productive. It goes without saying that people can get super burned out, and become less satisfied with their jobs, or worse, might even quit. So, expecting free work isn’t fair and doesn’t respect the skills, know-how, and experience that employees are paid to bring to the table. Everyone should get paid fairly for their work, even if it’s done outside their usual work hours, a little bit of respect for your workers goes a long way, after all.
As the story went viral, people in the comments had some questions to ask regarding the OP’s job
Some also left their suggestions, opinions and even advice on the situation, given that the OP still wasn’t overly happy with how everything turned out
Just a quick reminder that HR is usually not on your side, especially when it comes to harassment complaints. Always leave a paper trail, get everything in writing. When they insist on a phone call follow it up with a mail that summarizes what's been said. If possible, contact a lawyer.
HR is never on your side. HRs bottom line is the company just like in this situation "so if we get you a phone this won't happen again". But yes always leave a paper trail. CYA
Human Resources are like natural resources, to be exploited in corporate processes and the waste products disposed of as cheaply as possible.
Folks, being on salary does *not* mean you aren't eligible for overtime pay. There are very strict rules for those who are exempt. If your job doesn't qualify for that time of exemption, you still get overtime salary or not.
In what country? I’m 🇨🇦, on salary and work 45-60 hour weeks, no overtime 😅 should I be looking into something?
Poland here, I am on salary, with understanding that i work 8 hours per day. If overtime is something requested by manager, like urgent things need to be done, project's on fire release date is close, ect. you get 1.5 times the hour pay for each extra hour you write in weekdays, if its on weekend than its 2 times the hourly rate. If I decide that I need to stay more to finish some work, that no one said is urgent, that's on me and no one will accept overtime for it(its more like i stay an hour more today have to go out early tomorrow thing). So that is to say, yes? look into things, and how is this handled in your workplace?
Try reading your contract and laws regarding employment on your work field. Pretty sure they are scamming you for about a third of what they should pay you
You know what? I'm Canadian too - and found out that we are SUPPOSED to get overtime pay because there are *very few* industries/jobs with a "Mandatory Overtime" clause in it - which often also includes no OT-Pay. Being salaried, yeah, you still get OT... but the companies make a note to not tell anyone that... and if you find out, then they make a whole obstacle-course of a process to get 'approval' for it. Many past coworkers refused to believe me, and (foolishly) thought "the company will see how hard I'm working and give me my due". Nooo... the company simply saw "Oh, this stupid amount of work is totally doable within an 8 hour day, let's not re-hire to replace the people we've fired, obviously the work can be done with no extra cost to us!"... and then they wonder why there's burnout and 12 hr-but-paid-8 hr days happening... HMMMMmmMMMmmm... what a mystery.
I also always wonder why people think that being on salary means some kind of unruled slavery where you have no rights. Oh wait, they usually are US citizens
I work in security. Recently we received a notice to sign that if we received company calls or email on our personal phone, then our personal phone was subject to search and seizure by the company in case of an investigation. I refused to sign the notice. When my boss asked why, I explained that I use my phone daily for work and the company didn't pay for my phone or pay my bill. If they want me to have a phone that they can seize, they can give me a company phone. He agreed with me and shredded all the signed agreements. He took the issue to IT and explained that he would need 50 company phones issued to security. They quickly agreed that we would be an exception to the search/seizure procedure.
Just a quick reminder that HR is usually not on your side, especially when it comes to harassment complaints. Always leave a paper trail, get everything in writing. When they insist on a phone call follow it up with a mail that summarizes what's been said. If possible, contact a lawyer.
HR is never on your side. HRs bottom line is the company just like in this situation "so if we get you a phone this won't happen again". But yes always leave a paper trail. CYA
Human Resources are like natural resources, to be exploited in corporate processes and the waste products disposed of as cheaply as possible.
Folks, being on salary does *not* mean you aren't eligible for overtime pay. There are very strict rules for those who are exempt. If your job doesn't qualify for that time of exemption, you still get overtime salary or not.
In what country? I’m 🇨🇦, on salary and work 45-60 hour weeks, no overtime 😅 should I be looking into something?
Poland here, I am on salary, with understanding that i work 8 hours per day. If overtime is something requested by manager, like urgent things need to be done, project's on fire release date is close, ect. you get 1.5 times the hour pay for each extra hour you write in weekdays, if its on weekend than its 2 times the hourly rate. If I decide that I need to stay more to finish some work, that no one said is urgent, that's on me and no one will accept overtime for it(its more like i stay an hour more today have to go out early tomorrow thing). So that is to say, yes? look into things, and how is this handled in your workplace?
Try reading your contract and laws regarding employment on your work field. Pretty sure they are scamming you for about a third of what they should pay you
You know what? I'm Canadian too - and found out that we are SUPPOSED to get overtime pay because there are *very few* industries/jobs with a "Mandatory Overtime" clause in it - which often also includes no OT-Pay. Being salaried, yeah, you still get OT... but the companies make a note to not tell anyone that... and if you find out, then they make a whole obstacle-course of a process to get 'approval' for it. Many past coworkers refused to believe me, and (foolishly) thought "the company will see how hard I'm working and give me my due". Nooo... the company simply saw "Oh, this stupid amount of work is totally doable within an 8 hour day, let's not re-hire to replace the people we've fired, obviously the work can be done with no extra cost to us!"... and then they wonder why there's burnout and 12 hr-but-paid-8 hr days happening... HMMMMmmMMMmmm... what a mystery.
I also always wonder why people think that being on salary means some kind of unruled slavery where you have no rights. Oh wait, they usually are US citizens
I work in security. Recently we received a notice to sign that if we received company calls or email on our personal phone, then our personal phone was subject to search and seizure by the company in case of an investigation. I refused to sign the notice. When my boss asked why, I explained that I use my phone daily for work and the company didn't pay for my phone or pay my bill. If they want me to have a phone that they can seize, they can give me a company phone. He agreed with me and shredded all the signed agreements. He took the issue to IT and explained that he would need 50 company phones issued to security. They quickly agreed that we would be an exception to the search/seizure procedure.