Generally, better jobs are exempt, at least in certain industries. Or at least as in most blue collar jobs get wages, not salary.
“Independent contractor” is often used to exploit. Like: I am going to treat you as self employed, except without the autonomy and self-sufficiency. Because I don’t want to pay for your taxes and healthcare (not sure how ACA affects this).
That and 1-ply toilet paper. That’s when you know your boss doesn’t care about his/her employees.
That is the way it works in practice for some types of jobs. It is supposed to only to apply to ‘management’ type employees or professionals even if they are advanced individual contributors but even that gets stretched belong recognition sometimes. The idea is that people in those positions have enough power and discretion in their work that they can’t be easily exploited.
There are federal rules about who can be considered exempt and who cannot.You can’t just say that all your fry cooks and cashiers are now exempt, salaried employees (even if that salary is extremely low) for example and make them work as much as you want because their job clearly does not qualify as exempt. However, there are some companies that do push it as far as they can. It is currently possible, if not shady, to make people some kind of token manager (like assistant fast-food restaurant manager), give them a $25,000 a year salary and make then work 80+ hours a week with no additional pay at all let alone overtime which is effectively less than minimum wage. That is one of the things Obama has recently tried to address with his new overtime rules.
I do system/network administration and just about every job I will ever get will have an on-call policy. Computers/routers/etc don’t break only during business hours. And staffing someone to work after hours and basically sit there and do absolutely nothing is a it stupid.
The businesses who abused on-call, well, I left. Simple.
My present job requires on-call. My bosses also rock. I’ve had a couple calls, way less than previous jobs due to the nature of the business, and compensation in the form of time off requires ‘Hey, I am leaving early’.
What I have seen (and yep, this is just personal experience) is that the companies that treat their on-call staff badly end up with shitty employees because all the good folks go get new jobs.
I routinely read work email after hours. Not because I have to but because I want to know what is going on. I can plan my day and am more effective if I actually, ya know, pay attention to what is going on. My bosses like this and give me raises and are flexible about all kinds of things.
The only exception I make is vacation. I tell my bosses that on vacation the phone will be off. No exceptions. So far I haven’t had any blowback from any of the companies I have worked for.
Slee
And I always treat my co-workers with respect, and expect the same from them. I am rarely disappointed. I have often been disappointed when doing the same with a boss.
You help them cover their shifts? It is your job as boss to ensure all the shifts are covered.
Help them with problems? It is your job to ensure work is completed, if these are work problems.
Rules can’t be written for the virtuous.
“Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many of them.”
–The Doctor