california workplace
What are my working hours rights as an exempt employee
<p>My new boss wants to use the following paragraph in my contract to insist that I be in the office 9 - 6 Mon - Fri, be on call 24/7, and go into the office out of hours regularly (including weekends):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Normal office business hours are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday
  through Friday, although, these hours are subject to change.  As an
  exempt employee, you will be expected to work additional hours as
  required by the nature of your work assignments.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>As an exempt employee in the state of California what are my legal obligations and do I have any protection against this?</p>

<p>Read it carefully. "Work additional hours as required by the nature of your work assignments".</p>

<p>Does the nature of your work assignments require additional work hours? That's very unlikely. It may be that your boss wants you to do three weeks work in two weeks, but it's not in the nature of your work assignments that they take two weeks. If it's three weeks of work, then it is actually in the nature of your work assignments that it takes three weeks. </p>

<p>It may be in the nature of a work assignment that once it is started it must be finished quickly. For example if you are a plumber, it may very well be that once you start a job and unscrew the first screw, that job must be finished. In that case, you can't go home after 8 hours and leave a job unfinished which could be a major problem for your customer. Are you in a similar situation? </p>

<p>If your company is too tight to hire enough people to do the job, and deadlines will be missed if people work 40 hours a week, that is not in the nature of your work assignment - it's because your company is too tight to hire enough people. </p>
