Had a slight run in with my boss today and want your advice.
I work from 1:15 to 10pm five days a week. We are open from 6am - 10pm 7 days per week. At my employer, each night a different employee takes home the overnight on-call phone for any business between 10pm and 6am.
The past few weeks, I have been getting around 20-30 hours of overtime because we have had frequent late night/early morning ops requiring me to stay later than 10pm (rather than having the person with the on-call phone come out, since I was already there). Last week, my boss called me while I was driving to work and wanted to know if I could come in late since we had more late night ops that night (he didn't want to pay overtime). When I told him I was already on my way in, he said just go ahead and come in at my normal time.
Today, he called me again and wanted to know if I could come in a few hours late because we had late night ops again. I did come in late, but later on in the evening I (politely) brought up that if we had late ops in the future, I would prefer to still come in at my regularly scheduled time so that I could get the overtime, which I viewed as my compensation for 1) disrupting my sleep schedule and 2) for the fact that I have already planned my day based on the fact that I was coming in at my normal time, and when I'm asked an hour before work to come in a few hours late, I have already scratched any plans I might have otherwise had for that time.
He got really defensive and said he couldn't keep paying me 30 hours of overtime every week. I repeated the fact that I felt the overtime was my compensation for disrupting my sleep schedule (going to bed at 4am instead of 11pm) and that any plans I might have otherwise made I had already passed up thinking I'd be coming in at my regular time. He basically told me if I didn't cooperate, the company would move on and told me the discussion was over.
What I really want to tell him the next time he asks me to come in late is "No sir, I'll come in at my regularly scheduled time and if you want me to leave at 10pm and you just call in the person who has the overnight duty phone, that's fine. If you want me to stay past 10pm, that's fine too, but you'll have to pay me the overtime." It's not the staying late that's the problem, it's the fact he wants me to stay late and not pay me the overtime by having me just come in late.
I can't afford to lose my job, so obviously I'm going to do what I need to do in order to keep it, but am I in the right here or am I being unreasonable?
I work from 1:15 to 10pm five days a week. We are open from 6am - 10pm 7 days per week. At my employer, each night a different employee takes home the overnight on-call phone for any business between 10pm and 6am.
The past few weeks, I have been getting around 20-30 hours of overtime because we have had frequent late night/early morning ops requiring me to stay later than 10pm (rather than having the person with the on-call phone come out, since I was already there). Last week, my boss called me while I was driving to work and wanted to know if I could come in late since we had more late night ops that night (he didn't want to pay overtime). When I told him I was already on my way in, he said just go ahead and come in at my normal time.
Today, he called me again and wanted to know if I could come in a few hours late because we had late night ops again. I did come in late, but later on in the evening I (politely) brought up that if we had late ops in the future, I would prefer to still come in at my regularly scheduled time so that I could get the overtime, which I viewed as my compensation for 1) disrupting my sleep schedule and 2) for the fact that I have already planned my day based on the fact that I was coming in at my normal time, and when I'm asked an hour before work to come in a few hours late, I have already scratched any plans I might have otherwise had for that time.
He got really defensive and said he couldn't keep paying me 30 hours of overtime every week. I repeated the fact that I felt the overtime was my compensation for disrupting my sleep schedule (going to bed at 4am instead of 11pm) and that any plans I might have otherwise made I had already passed up thinking I'd be coming in at my regular time. He basically told me if I didn't cooperate, the company would move on and told me the discussion was over.
What I really want to tell him the next time he asks me to come in late is "No sir, I'll come in at my regularly scheduled time and if you want me to leave at 10pm and you just call in the person who has the overnight duty phone, that's fine. If you want me to stay past 10pm, that's fine too, but you'll have to pay me the overtime." It's not the staying late that's the problem, it's the fact he wants me to stay late and not pay me the overtime by having me just come in late.
I can't afford to lose my job, so obviously I'm going to do what I need to do in order to keep it, but am I in the right here or am I being unreasonable?
