Imagine working for a company where you’re not paid for overtime. Would you still work overtime if there was work that needed to get done, or would you refuse?

In this story, one employee is in this situation, so they make an agreement with their manager and set clear expectations. It’s not long before the manager seems to have forgotten about this conversation.

Keep reading for all the details.

You’re not paid to be on call because you’re not on call

I work in a support role for a global insurance/investment company.

Over the last 6 months I’ve lost many an evening and weekend to unexpected work problems, with not even a thank you, let alone any financial compensation.

As an example, being called at 21:30 and asked if you can log on, when you’ve met friends for a drink.

Where a job needs to provide out of hours support, a supplement is meant to be paid for being on call, with additional payment if you‘re required to actually work.

He knows there is some overtime that would be required without extra pay.

My contract is based on annual salary, where additional work might be required for no extra pay/overtime if it’s considered business as usual(BAU) or known in advance (this bit is important).

However, the work I’ve been asked to do on weekends/evenings is not BAU. BAU assumes processes work. If something goes wrong, someone needs to step in to fix it and it’s no longer BAU.

Hope that makes sense.

He talked to the manager.

A couple of months ago, I had the conversation with my manager about being paid for being on call.

I was told the work I was covering actually fell under BAU, and as I was always given advance notice (I wasn’t) I wouldn’t be paid for being on call.

Manager wouldn’t budge on this, so I made it clear I would not be taking my laptop home/available unless I was given advance notice I might be required to log on, to which my manager agreed.

The manager seems to have forgotten about this agreement.

On this glorious day I received a call from my manager asking me to log on as some critical data was missing from a file, causing significant problems with several admin systems.

Trying to sound as sincere as I could, I apologised and said as I was not made aware in advance, and I’m not on call, my laptop was left at the office.

This was met by an “Ah”. To which I responded, “Good luck, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Expecting it to be a disaster in the morning for muggins here to clean up, but it’ll be worth it.

Not bringing the laptop home is the right move, but OP shouldn’t have answered the call from the manager either. That’s technically working without prior notice too.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

One person shares the overtime rule where they work.

I completely agree.

This person would never work overtime for free.

One person has done some research.

You can’t tell an employee they’re not on call but call them when they’re not at work and expect them to answer.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.