Hi, this is my first post but I'm sure not my last.

I've worked in a small hospital here in Florida for 5 years in the kitchen. It isn't the most glamerous or esteemed job around but it pays the bills for the most part.

Anyways, my wife and I have a 2 year old daughter and another on the way. We do not want to have our children in a daycare, so we have worked out our schedules so that we don't need to. I work from 1:30 pm- 10:00pm and she works from 10:45 pm-7:15 am (in the medical field). The problem is that our comings and goings require almost military precission in order for everyone to get to and from work on time.

Having a young family (My wife and I are both in our early 20s), I have told my boss that I can NOT work more than 40 hours in a week. I get to see my wife rarely enough given our schedule that I really cherish the 2 days off we get together each week.

As I said, I have told my boss REPEATEDLY I can't work overtime. Yet, for the first 4 months of 2005 she kept scheduling me for 6 days a week. When I finally confronted her about it yet again, she said that she understood and wouldn't give me any more overtime.

Everything was fine for awhile, but the past month she has been pulling the same ol' shennanigans. She says she needs to do it, but I sure know she hasn't asked me if it is okay. The thing is that there are about 3 other people who do my job as well, and she NEVER asks any of them. If she is short she just throws me in there despite my telling her I can't do it.

Now, it may sound silly to people who make more money or have more important jobs, but a kitchen is like a well-oiled machine. If I were to just not show up or call in sick when she does this to me, it would hurt a lot of people and I don't want to do that. So I feel that she is knowingly forcing my hand.

Also she changes the schedule, without telling or asking anyone, any time it suits her. I just found out on Sunday the 11th that now I have to work on Monday the 12th when previously I had off, and made plans to attend a family event.

Basically, is it legal to keep changing the schedule willy-nilly, and also to give someone overtime even when they have said not to ?

The employer, not the employee, determines an employee's hours.

To put it bluntly, your family situation is not your employer's problem. Unless you have a bona fide contract that specifically says otherwise, you don't get to tell the employer whether you will or will not work overtime; your employer gets to tell you whether you will or will not work overtime. She is not required to get your permission.

Unless you have a valid reason to believe that you are being singled out for this duty BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin or other protected characteristic, you need to find a way to make this work somehow. That may mean that you have to continue to remind your employer that she has agreed not to schedule you, or it may mean that you have to bite the bullet and start working overtime.

That may mean that you have to continue to remind your employer that she has agreed not to schedule you, or it may mean that you have to bite the bullet and start working overtime.

Or find another job that is more suitable to your needs, time-wise.