Who the fuck would call their employee after hours? In none of the places I’ve ever worked, would the boss even think about calling me to do something when I’m not at work. Nobody would expect me to answer. You don’t need a law about basic things like that.
But see this is america where workers have paltry few rights. So we do need laws about basic shit like this. In the IT field on-call and after hours work is just expected, you’re expected to answrr calls and emails etc. It’s awful. So it’d be nice if there laws against it.
Couple of weeks back I was on holiday in Corfu. The number work has for me - and by extension the people who I work with - is my personal phone number, for which the company pays me a small stipend every month.
I was genuinely expecting a couple of calls because that’s just how it rolls, but nope. Got nothing. It was lovely.
See, you’re just lucky. Many folks don’t have good bosses, so a law like this is good.
Have you been living under a rock?
Hell, one of the two major political parties in the US has been pushing (successfully in many states) to roll back child labor laws. Teens have died already: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/20/republican-child-labor-law-death
No only do we need the laws, but we need to be conscientious in applying them and making sure they stay strong.
Fighting fascism is exhausting, it’s a constant battle.
This law isn’t catered to you personally, don’t you think there are bosses or work places that call their employees after hours - it’s pretty common. I don’t mind, but I get mails and messages after hours and just answer them.
It does effect me without me knowing in some ways, but I personally feel it’s more important to help someone, that also might be stressed and decide to contact me, for some help or questions.
If the person or boss isn’t an asshole I don’t mind, but not everyone has that luxury, of having a boss that cares. Often they don’t want to contact you after hours.
Why I do respond sometimes out of my own convenience I’m careful to schedule the message for work hours so it’s clear to people when they can expect a response.
If it was worth stressing about, it was worth discussing with me when I was on the clock. The entire premise of a job is that I work in direct exchange for money. No money? No work. Pay me or wait until next shift.
If it was worth stressing about, it was worth discussing with me when I was on the clock.
If your users suddenly start getting errors in prod at 6 PM, that wasn’t something that anyone would’ve known 2 hours earlier when you were still at work, but it affects business nonetheless.
However, a company of any real size should have employees who get paid to be on call to deal with ongoing issues. In the example of the software industry, this would be site reliability engineers who take part of an on call rotation.
But if you’re a max 20 person startup? You bet your ass that your average software engineer can expect a phone call.
So what I’m saying is that nuance is a thing. Working for a large corporation, or just in a job where nothing you do can be super urgent? Literally ignore your boss. Working in a small company where you taking that phone call has an actual impact on the company’s near-term financial performance or reputation? Might be worth reconsidering your stance, but probably not if your boss is an asshole and you know that no matter how well you perform, you’ll never get promoted.
