Work-life balance can be tough, especially if a boss has high expectations.
These days, we can feel expected to be available 24/7, even if we’re not being paid.

This Redditor defended his right to ignore his work phone after hours, but his boss wasn’t on the same page.

Check out the details!

AITA Told my boss I’m not required to answer my phone 24/7, and now he’s salty

I (37M) work in a department where I’m the sole expert for our equipment. If an issue comes up and the shift crew can’t figure it out, I’m the first one they try to contact.

I’m happy to help since I’m friends with all of our guys, but these calls can come at late night or early morning, and my schedule is 7 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Seems reasonable enough. Work-life balance is important.

When I go the job, the only stipulation was that they would be able to contact me for stuff like scheduling issues, shift coverage or other issues, but it did not mention anything about after hours on-call.

Outside of my normal hours, I dont give a rat’s *** about the plant.

I’ll usually answer calls out of my own good will, as long as that’s not being abused.

As it should be. Work shouldn’t follow you home.

However, my sleep time is sacred. If I’m woken up, it will take me at least an hour to fall back to sleep IF I’M LUCKY.

My phone started going off around 1 am and went off a few times more before my wife gave me a swift kick in the rear telling me to shut it off or answer it.

I call back, and it’s our shift technician (Clayton). He apologized for waking me up, but they’ve been dealing with an issue for hours, so I help him out and it took all of 5 minutes.

Thankfully, the problem was solved — but could he go back to sleep?

After hanging up, I ended up lying there in bed for another 2 hours before falling back asleep.

That morning, my supervisor (John) has me meet him in his office and this is how our conversation goes:

John: “It seems we had an eventful night. Clayton had to get ahold of me. You didn’t answer his call?”

Me: “Around 1 am? I was asleep, and the phone didn’t wake me.”

John: “Well he called me, and I wasn’t able to do much for him, so I had him call you back. Told him you were probably hard to wake up and to keep calling.”

Me, a little angry now: “Well I’m always happy to help the guys but they can’t rely on me to always be available. I usually keep my phone in the kitchen, but I just happened to have left it on my nightstand last night.”

John: “Well, this isn’t the first time they’ve had trouble reaching you.”

Me, a bit more agitated: “Most likely because my phone was in the kitchen, I don’t keep it on me 24/7.”

John: “You’re required to have a phone on you.”

Me, angry: “Ok, nowhere in the policy does it dictate that I am to keep on a phone on me at all times, nor does my job description.

So glad he noted this!

I am only required to have a method for you to contact me if we have a scheduling change or some other issues that deal directly with my ability to get to work.

If you wish for me to be on-call then perhaps we need to discuss promoting me to a position that requires me to be on-call, but I am happy with my current arrangement.

If you feel differently, then maybe we need to invite HR to join our conversation.”

Wow. Well said!

That’s where things ended. I’m well aware that I could suffer some consequences for this, but I feel that this is an overstep on their part.

I do have a good working relationship with everyone, but when he said that I pretty much snapped at him and now I’m feeling like an AH.

So AITA?

Do Redditors experience work environments similar to this? Let’s see what they have to say.

A Redditor noted that this after-hours pay rate should be handled immediately.

Another reader supported this man in his defense.

One commenter remarked they’ve been through similar.

And another user recommended getting a lawyer involved.

This boss is off their rocker if they think this behavior is normal.

Once you clock out — you are NOT working.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.