Is it legal for manager to be on call 24/7? 12-10-2008

I am a mid-level manager for a Fortune 500 company and have a boss who is just "over the top". I am a salaried-exempt employee, and my question is this: My boss (who as they say "has no life") sends continuous e-mails and leaves voicemail for me 7 days a week at all hours. All of these are work-related and many times he wants me to respond or act on them right away... in essence, leaving me working or on-call 7-days a week, 24 hours a day. As a family man and father of two younger children, I am not at all happy, and didn't agree to this when I "signed-on." Is it legal for him to continuously send this barrage when it is not company policy??

Rita Risser Replies:

It's legal, but I would think you could contact HR and/or his manager and create some boundaries. Unfortunately, this is becoming the new normal. I was just on Maui and it seemed everyone by the pool was either on the phone or email.

Good luck.

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