Schedule changes and texts on your day off

What to know

1. Know the rule if you're hourly. Work your employer doesn't ask for but lets you do is still work time, and it has to be paid.
2. Count off-clock work. If you answer the phone at your desk during lunch, that's work time, because you weren't fully relieved from duty. The same idea applies when you handle work tasks on your phone after your shift. Log it and report it to payroll.
3. Know what on-call means. If you have to stay on call at your workplace, you're working. If you can be on call from home or leave a number where you can be reached, it usually isn't work time, unless the limits on your time are tight.
4. Keep your own record: every posted schedule (photo it), every change, who made it and when, and the hours you actually worked. Compare it to your pay stub.
5. Check for a scheduling law where you work. In Oregon, for example, large retail, hospitality and food service employers (500 or more employees worldwide) must give you a written schedule at least 14 days ahead, and pay extra for changes made without that notice.
6. Know you can say no to extra shifts in those places. In Oregon's law, you may decline shifts that aren't on your written schedule, and you can't be scheduled within 10 hours after a shift ends unless you ask for or agree to it, or you get time and a half.
7. Set a boundary in writing, kindly. Tell your manager how and when to reach you on days off for real emergencies, and ask that off-hours work be scheduled and paid. Scripts are below.