Joe7572
01-10-2008, 07:56 PM
I work as an IT help desk agent that provides assistance to the military. I don’t work directly for the federal government. I’m considered a contractor.
My current status is Salaried-Exempt.
My work schedule for the past 14 months has been Sunday- Thursday. I work a total of 8 hours everyday. At the end of the day the company has a computer system that we must log into and put the number of hours we worked that day. I’ve never had less than 40 hours in a week.
(Company complete workweek is Saturday-Friday)
The department that I work in has what’s called the after hours pager. Once the help desk closes a voicemail is turned on advising those who call the help desk after hours to call the pager for assistance.
The area I work in only has 5 employees and we’re forced to carry this pager for 7 consecutive days every 5 weeks in addition to the regular 40 hours with no compensation. Even when paged and I have to return phone calls all night helping clients there is no compensation. There have been days where I work my 8 hours. Get paged later that night, work with the client till 3 or 4 in the morning and be right back at 7am. Being that the country is at war and my job is directly linked to the military for those 7 days I’m limited to what I can do as far as my personal life because I have to be ready for a page. Also the pager doesn’t work outside of my local area so if I wanted to travel somewhere on my 2 off days I’m not allowed to go. Is this legal? I put in my 40 hours but for an entire week I have to put certain parts of my life on hold for an entire week because of the after hours pager and never receive any kind of compensation for it.
If someone brings up “the pager issue” we’re always told that if we don’t do the pager then the help desk would have to be open 24x7 and threatened to be but on the graveyard shift (some people like working nights). With only 5 people that’s not possible and I am just a help desk agent and staffing level is not my responsibility. They want to provide 24x7 service availability but only want to do it with 5 people.
Also there have been days where I’ve come into work sick. I worked 2 or 3 hours and decided to go home because I was feeling too bad. I was told that I can’t count the few hours that I’ve worked and have to take the entire 8 hours as a sick day. Is that legal?
Thanks for your help.
My current status is Salaried-Exempt.
My work schedule for the past 14 months has been Sunday- Thursday. I work a total of 8 hours everyday. At the end of the day the company has a computer system that we must log into and put the number of hours we worked that day. I’ve never had less than 40 hours in a week.
(Company complete workweek is Saturday-Friday)
The department that I work in has what’s called the after hours pager. Once the help desk closes a voicemail is turned on advising those who call the help desk after hours to call the pager for assistance.
The area I work in only has 5 employees and we’re forced to carry this pager for 7 consecutive days every 5 weeks in addition to the regular 40 hours with no compensation. Even when paged and I have to return phone calls all night helping clients there is no compensation. There have been days where I work my 8 hours. Get paged later that night, work with the client till 3 or 4 in the morning and be right back at 7am. Being that the country is at war and my job is directly linked to the military for those 7 days I’m limited to what I can do as far as my personal life because I have to be ready for a page. Also the pager doesn’t work outside of my local area so if I wanted to travel somewhere on my 2 off days I’m not allowed to go. Is this legal? I put in my 40 hours but for an entire week I have to put certain parts of my life on hold for an entire week because of the after hours pager and never receive any kind of compensation for it.
If someone brings up “the pager issue” we’re always told that if we don’t do the pager then the help desk would have to be open 24x7 and threatened to be but on the graveyard shift (some people like working nights). With only 5 people that’s not possible and I am just a help desk agent and staffing level is not my responsibility. They want to provide 24x7 service availability but only want to do it with 5 people.
Also there have been days where I’ve come into work sick. I worked 2 or 3 hours and decided to go home because I was feeling too bad. I was told that I can’t count the few hours that I’ve worked and have to take the entire 8 hours as a sick day. Is that legal?
Thanks for your help.
