Hello. I am a salary-exempt employee who works in accounting at a residential treatment facility for teens. The residents are there for various reasons, including abuse, drugs, etc. Obviously they can be quite a handful. The company is having some financial difficulty, and in an effort to reduce costs, has decided to completely disallow overtime. Since most of this overtime is incurred by direct care staff (the ones who stay on the units with the residents), of which we are required to meet a client-staff ratio, someone has to fill in the gaps. The company is requiring that all salaried employees fill in for some of the hours, as well as do their regular jobs, since they are in need of free labor. They have given us an availablity sheet to fill out including a phone number where we can be called in at any time. I know they can require all the hours they like, but can they require an employee to work in an area like that for which they have no training? I don't know if it matters, but I am the only salaried employee in the facility who is not either upper management, or among the group who already work with the kids. I am frankly scared to death of this assignment. Thank you for reading.

Do the caregivers have to be licensed? Honestly, I would be afraid to do this as well and, to be frank, it might be the hill I chose to die on. I'd be looking for another job pronto. Requiring untrained employees to do such work because they can't afford to pay the trained ones to do it is dumb at best and dangerous for both you and the clients at worst.

They don't have to be licensed. They have one week of class training at the company, and about four days of on-the-job shadowing. They do have to be up-to-date on Red Cross CPR, which I am not. As an accountant, I obviously haven't had the shadowing. They also have to keep up what's called CPI training (how to properly restrain them, and what to do when they start to attack you), which I did have at the beginning of the year, but have never used. I found this out yesterday, and the first thing I did when I got home was look for a new job online. I am planning on refusing to do it, but volunteering to help in any other area. Can I be fired?

Yes, you can. I completely understand why you're reluctant to take the assignment but you can legally be required to perform any duties the employer asks for unless those duties are illegal or unsafe by OSHA standards, assuming that no law requires you to be licensed to peform them.

Since you say licensing is not required, and since the duties are neither illegal nor unsafe by OSHA standards, you can be fired for refusing.

Well, at least I am prepared now. Thanks so much for all the help.