Companies take liberties. - The liberty some seem to enjoy most is yours. As recessions hit and profit pressures become the sole reason for existence, bosses seem to believe that they own workers--until they discard them for younger, fresher models.
Now a curiously human law has reared its head in Brazil. According to the Associated Press, this law says that if a company e-mails you after your allotted working hours, then this is the same as if one's supervisor is giving one an instruction to perform a certain work task.
Ergo, argue Brazilian labor lawyers, if a worker receives such an e-mail and has to act on it, he or she qualifies for overtime pay.
I can already hear the howling of corporate management in, say, America. I can hear sniggers suggesting that every corporate employee should be on call 24 hours a day.
That is today's connected world.
Some might offer, though, that today's connected world has become peculiarly inhuman-- one in which employees are numbers, rather than human beings to whom the company has made a longer-term commitment.
If, as Mitt Romney tells us, corporations are people, perhaps people should now be corporations.
"You want me to answer an e-mail at 9 p.m.? That will be $900. Night-rates, you understand."
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