Workplace encourages workers to be available 24/7, creating an unsustainable workplace culture: 'If you miss a message, they act like you personally sabotaged the company, I’m paid for 40 hours, not 168'

I think it stands to reason that you should be paid for any time that you are working. Forget laws, case-studies, and jurisdictions. Employment generally operates on a simple basis: Money for time. This is the simple foundation of any employment relationship.

Of course, when you're paid a salary, it's basically saying that your pay for a certain period of time (say, a week or a month) covers the entirety of your time spent and production during that period. But there are reasonable bounds and limits to this, in both directions.

Flexibility is essential, and flexibility begets flexibility (how many times have I written that?) I've often found that the willingness to be flexible in my work has been both rewarding. Sure, there might be some periods where you work more or work less or leave early or stay late, it's all about balance. 

But as you need to be able to switch on, you also need to be able to unplug. Working with calculated, methodical effort is better for productivity. But once you're done with your work within that properly defined period or productive time, you need to be able to switch off, put everything behind you, and focus on other pursuits. 

Just as calculated strokes are excellent for sharpening a blade and holding an edge against the whetstone is the most surefire way to dull it. Companies that force their staff to always be effectively on call are hurting their productivity by constantly exposing them to that same metaphorical whetstone. 

This worker found themselves at their employer's beck and call 24/7. This always-on culture seeps into every corner of their employers' expectations, leaving them and all their coworkers with little to no work-life balance.

It's almost as if this is some "business hack" or something that has been sold to unscrupulous business owners in a cheap business manual as it seems to be something that is used almost as a weapon to keep workers in line and see who is really dedicated to the cause. 

If your workplace requires you to log on at any time, within reason, you should probably be paid for it; if they're setting unrealistic expectations, they should be paying you for those expectations.