Working out of hours

is nothing new. My BIL works in a role where he needs to be in contact with America during their office hours. To add to the complications the hours vary from one side of America to the other. He is still expected to start work at 9am and stay until 5pm. He often does not take a proper lunch break. He doesn't get paid "extra" for this. It is simply part of his job.

Teachers expect to work outside school hours too - often very long hours. When the Senior Cat was the head of area schools the teachers drove the children to school in the morning and home in the afternoon. The tiny "additional salary" for that did not begin to cover the time or the responsibility.  Those same teachers were still expected to do everything else a teacher normally does. There are still teachers doing the same thing.

Doctors don't drop their stethoscopes when the clock hands reach the end of their shift. They often continue on far too long. A surgeon certainly does not drop tools in the middle of a surgery because it is time to go home.

There are probably very few jobs with any degree of responsibility where you can look at the clock and say "I am going home now." I certainly cannot do that. I am responsible to other people who do not have that luxury. 

The government's "Right to disconnect" laws, rushed through parliament, have already been shown to have unintended consequences. Certainly the idea that contacting an employee after hours should be a criminal offence is ridiculous. If an employer really is taking advantage then there are remedies and the vast majority of employees are aware of those remedies. I know any number of employers and not one of them would call up one of their employees for something trivial. 

There was a flood in a building not far from here recently. It was caused by something outside the control of the employer, indeed not on the property. The manager was called in late in the evening. He could not handle the situation himself but if it wasn't handled the company would potentially have lost millions and some of the staff would have been out of work. He did the right thing and called in some of the staff to help. They had to work until the early hours of the morning to resolve the problems.  Yes, they were compensated for what they had to do but the one who was telling me about it told me he was quite okay with being called in to help. 

"It was an emergency situation. We knew what needed to be done so we went and did it. If the government thinks it is right to make that sort of thing difficult or even impossible I reckon they have another think coming."

The rare employer who takes advantage is going to find it difficult to get good employees. There are others who, like the former employer of a neighbour's son, tell their staff to hand their work phones in when they go on leave. That is probably the way it should be done.