If on Vacation, the employer IN NO WAY could call a employee except management persons, they could be called in regardless where or how much money would lose to come back to site.  Union could NOT be contacted until returned to normal hours first day after off Vacation.

It's truly amazes me how some  are soooooo dedicated to the 'company' that they forgo any quality time with family and friends....

Frankly, if you answer the phone ,you're either the 'key man' and getting paid a million a month OR you're a fool. Life is way too short to not enjoy as much time as you can with friends and family.

Now  if you're self employed, that's different but only IF whatever the call's about IS and emergency, like 'furnace broke, no water or too much........'

it was expected that I put in 10-12 hours overtime every month and wear a pager ( late 70s). when I asked what I'd be PAID to wear the pager.... ZERO came up. Hmm, I mumbled about doing beer proof related pager dumpings at the local bar......

so I never wore a pager...

been retired 1/2 my life( turn 70 in May), disconnected phone in garage, NO cellphone either AND landline now has call display,after 3rd ring 'please leave a message' comes on...1 out of 100 actually leave a message.

heck, my truck's in the shop. I will NOT call to ask 'is it done ?' cause I know the mechanic has to answer the phone and I'd rather him WORK on problems than take my silly call. He's tried hiring 2 class A mechanics for 4 years....none want to work...so he's super busy.

I don't get any calls from the company anymore. I retired. It's great!................. The second week I was home after I retired I said to Jo Jo, "awful quiet round' here ain't it"? Phone ain't ringin' anymore........ 

Steve@B&B

Pretty funny to read this, then Steve's just below.

 

"Dedication", well, it's called part of the job.  I'm not "The Guy", I don't quite make a $million a month, but I am "A Guy" that knows some imortant things others don't.  

Every policy, every statement of job duty, pretty much every communication of any significance in our company ends with the same sentence.  "Nothing in this policy changes the at will nature of your employment."  In other words, if you don't like it, there's the door, and if we don't want you working here anymore, we'll show ya out.  

After 11 years at STELCO, I found out the 'kid' 6 years junior to me was making $5,000 more than me ( think 1985 dollars) and even though I was tossed into the 'stockboy' position ( 500K inventory...no organization though) I was still expected to be on call,24/7 to FIX the online spectrometers,especially on weekends when the 5 others were no where to be found. Seems my knowledge of 'stock' and having a $10K Xray tube in stock, didn't equate to being as important as a 3yr degree( 1 had 2 +6 years 'training in the trenches'. So I'm a little 'sour' when it comes to 'big business' expecting overtime and answering the phone. BTW , if I solved the problem  over the phone, ZERO into my pocket. One night, foreman calls,  I decide to go in (4hrs pay ) as it was a nice warm summer night. Stopped at the gate, security didn't want to let me in(driving my spiffy CJ-5,no top,doors, windshield down. He was concerned if a 10 ton ingot fell on me, I'd be dead. I said 'Really, you THINK a cloth top will protect me ?' Still he didn't want me to pass so I said fine, YOU call the BOF superintendent (THE boss), call number xxxx and tell him why HE is NOT going to make HIS bonus tonight (special MIL grade steel ( high Boron).... I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. I did not appreciate the twofaces of management.

I fully understand about 'farming' being a 24/7 career especially with animals..that's totally different that what I had to put up with.

And so, you quit.  At age 35 or whatever.  As any of us are free to do, but most of us don't.  

Cell phones, Pagers and hand held sideband radios, the death of Off Duty.

 There are times when my job has me on 24/7 standby duty, and when something goes wrong, I am that 'go to' guy.  Effectively, in that timeframe, I'm the 'command leader' of my team, and I'm the most experienced person, I'm who has to make the tough decisions. 

Now, there's times when I'm away on assignment somewhere, and I might be working a 20-hour day or three to get a system up and operational.  There's some times when I've got a weekend, and a comp day or two... so totally off-duty, but even then, I get text messages and phone calls from my team, or from field crews all over the US and Canada... and I answer the calls and texts.

Why?  Because these are people who I work with frequently, they work hard for me, and I depend on them to keep my systems running, and they're stuck in a situation they don't know how to solve.  I could say 'no', and that would be sending them a clear message that their plight means nothing to me.  I'm not a guy to abandon my team.

My wife knows it.  Back when I was self-employed, I took assistance calls all the time, albeit, that was on a land-line (it was the days of the 'bag phone') which was dedicated to my business.  When it rang, my wife would answer, and have them wait, she would go get me.  If it rang in the middle of the night, she'd wake me up, and I'd go answer... and it was that response level that got me significant contract values.

I've also had jobs where off-duty calls were a totally different situation.  I have friends who are very religious, and as a result, they do not answer calls on certain days... and I totally understand 'turning the ringer off'... but my occupation doesn't grant me that 'leisure'.   You will find that very few of the 'no off-duty calls' types don't work in livestock or field agriculture-  Mother nature makes all the workplace rules... cows don't get to choose when the calf has to come out, and when the field will only be dry from Saturday 3pm 'till sunday noon, that's when you'll be working it.

Some peoples' occupational circumstances work one way, some works other ways.  It isn't until you've had an occupation under BOTH, that you understand

So, if your wife gets annoyed, it is clearly because she doesn't understand, nor value what being responsive to your occupation's challenges brings to the dinner table.  You won't likely be able to 'fix' that, until she finds herself in a circumstance other than an office building or school.

Dan ,that may work south of the 49th but NO nurses on this side have had ANY measurable  raises since before  amerchinvirus came to town. I know 5 here and ALL are burned out, TERRIBLE working conditions, and well, POed  about the 1% 'raise' and the REQUIREMENT to work back to back  shifts. Of course the politicians got SUBSTANTIAL raises and perks....

Now IF we'd get 50,000 nurses to come to Canada..that would BEGIN to make a 'dent' in the backlogs in ERs, the death while waiting at ERs, etc.