One day in a far-off land ten years ago, my-then supervisor called me at home at 10pm to discuss work. I was not amused. I said to myself, "He's abusing my phone number!"

That was in a different country in a different time. Now let's come a bit closer to home in North America. How do you define "off-the-clock"? If you as a supervisor call an employee after work hours to discuss work, is that "off-the-clock" or "on-the-clock"? According to a recent federal court case, that is defined as "off-the-clock" and violates labor laws.

Case in point: A supervisor at a Wal-Mart store in Minnesota had accused some of the employees and the store manager of being against her because of her race. But an investigation revealed employee beefs against her. During all of this, one of the employees asked that this supervisor call her to "let her know how she was doing." Apparently the supervisor called this worker after hours where they both spent 90 minutes on the phone discussing both work and personal matters. But when the store manager found out about this call, he said the worker must be compensated for this time spent on the phone as it dealt with work matters. The supervisor was then dismissed for violating company policy about off-the-clock work.

The supervisor sued, but the Court said that the company had correctly applied its policy and applauded the company for ensuring that its managers respect the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Conclusion: keep work-related discussions within office hours.

Do share your thoughts with us.