My boss has figured out how to text.

[Kaylyn]

So now I absolutely HAVE to turn my phone off if I don't want to be bothered to come in.

He texted me Sunday night asking me to come in. I didn't want to, but I agreed because someone called in sick. The night was awful. I get there, only one truck running and the other driver is in it. So I have to wait to get picked up, taken to our main terminal over an hour away, and drive back in a temporary truck. By the time all that was over, it was 2 in the morning, and I only had time to get 2 loads done. Normally we do 8 a night.

I turned my phone off the instant I got home because my general rule is I'll come in one extra day, unless I'm feeling up for more. It's my time off, I'll be the one to decide if I want to use that time to help out a company that sure doesn't care about helping me out ever.

Just turned my phone back on and had 3 increasingly desperate texts from the boss, saying the head office is breathing down his neck to get a THIRD driver working for some night in order to get caught up. I replied, said sorry I just got the messages, is it for tonight, because I usually work half-nights on Wednesday nights and I'd be fine to come in for the full shift.

I don't mind covering for someone who's sick, even if it's a nightmare like Sunday night was. I do mind coming in when they've already got 2 drivers and need a third. Because here's what happens. We get caught up, and then there's nothing to do on the days I'm actually supposed to come in, so I get called off. Excuse me, I signed up to work X days, not sometimes Y days and then be off on X days. If you want me to work Y days, switch me to the Y schedule and let me be off X days. Stop pulling this shit on me! I'd like to actually be able to make plans!

If he asks why I didn't reply, I'll just say I went drinking with friends both nights and it wouldn't have done much good, as I can't exactly drive while drunk.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Good plan. There's a prominent lawyer in Orlando whose radio commercials often speak about workers' rights and remind people that in many cases, it's almost impossible to leave work behind these days because of the phone calls, e-mails, texts, etc. we get off the clock. I only put up with work calling me on my days off because they don't push us to say yes if they ask if we can come in; they just call around looking for people who need/want the extra money...and they don't call me very often.

[MadonnaC]

I actually have text messaging disabled on my phone for this reason. Call me if you want me, friends use facebook and/or IM

[SuperDan]

Call or text with a question about how to do something that involves me? Sure, I'd rather take a few minutes to explain something off the clock than spend hours upon hours cleaning up the mess because the person messed it up. Call or text because you want me to come in on my scheduled day off? Sure, but my answer might be no. Text me (actually the whole crew) at midnight to let us know that the next day our call time that we were told was 9:30 am is now 8 am? DIAF, asshole.

[AccountingDrone]

Call or text with a question about how to do something that involves me? Sure, I'd rather take a few minutes to explain something off the clock than spend hours upon hours cleaning up the mess because the person messed it up. Call or text because you want me to come in on my scheduled day off? Sure, but my answer might be no. Text me (actually the whole crew) at midnight to let us know that the next day our call time that we were told was 9:30 am is now 8 am? DIAF, asshole.

LOL last job when I started at the call center I specifically told the boss that I lived an hour and a quarter drive away, I went to bed at a specific time, and I got up at a specific time [hours were 1100 to 8 PM, and I went to bed at 1 am and woke up at 9 am] and there was no getting me up before 9 am to go in early as he would have to call me at my version of middle of the night to hear me tell him NO. He would have to have someone call out the night before prior to 10 pm to get me there at the beginning of the normal morning shift to cover for someone. There are advantages to not living 5 minutes away from work =)

The few blizzardy days I needed to come in they actually got me a hotel room at a nearby Sheridan and bought me dinner and breakfast ... And they also authorized me to park in the underground [very tiny] parking garage so I didn't have to be wandering through the parking lot at the middle of the night. It was great, I never had to shovel off my car in the winter =)

[Josh]

No good deed ever goes unpunished. I lost count of how many times I got called in for some 'emergency' i.e. surprise visit, customer concern, project with a moved deadline. Most of these where a joke since there were always others that didnt get called in or it was an obvious phantom emergency that COULD wait. It got silly and I ended up cancelling my cell phone for a while, it was not well received but hell, 1. they werent paying for it 2. had a home phone provided as contact 3. I was beyong pissed at the amount of my very scarce days off that had been ruined (no extra pay/additional off days as salary, skeleton staff). After two weeks I reconnected my cell phone with a different number and never provided the new number to work. They got used to it and survived, I got to enjoy my days off without the dreaded text message or work ring.

[protege]

...and that's why I usually turn my phone off on weekends and when I'm on vacation. I'm off the clock, and don't want to be bothered. It wasn't always so, but after one epic call from my boss and our 3rd party tech...I'd had enough.

These tools called me no fewer than 6 times in 15 minutes one weekend. I was on my way to my grandmother's house, and had to pull over constantly to answer the damn phone. The emergency?

My boss decided that the server needed "updating," and bugged our 3rd party tech to come in over a weekend and do it. He felt it better to do that, than be without his data during business hours...since said "update" included backing up the data to DVD-Rs, blitzing the server's drives, reinstalling Winblows Server, doing the updates, and then reinstalling his data. Pissed me off, because I'm being pestered, because apparently, the 3rd party tech didn't know how to map a fucking network drive

Since then, my phone gets muted or turned off when I'm not at work. Even at home, with caller ID, I rarely take calls from my boss.

[Pixilated]

This is why I've never given employers my cellphone number. I've told them, in all truthfulness, that I rarely use it, and that it's on a pay-as-you-go system and it's not at all unusual for me to let the money run out so I can neither take nor make calls on it.

However, I am probably going to shut down my landline within the next few weeks (thanks to yet another f*ckup and subsequent total lack of help from Bell Canada) so my cellphone policy will likely have to change ...

[Andara Bledin]

Thankfully, the Bosslady here is sensitive to the idea that the hourly workers shouldn't be pestered when they're not on the clock unless it's something important and short. And if it can't be short, then we get paid for the time.

^-.-^