I just returned from a great two day seminar on management. It was very helpful overall and the speaker was great in his area of expertise (management). He was lacking, however, in his knowledge of law as far as I can tell. For example, he didn't really have a good grasp on how malpractice claims are really just tort claims of negligence against professionals (among other criticisms I have). Another legal shortcoming was his understanding/explanation of duties of property owners to entrants and invitees. Obviously he wasn't holding himself out as a legal expert or attorney, but in our line of work, I'd like to think people would shut up if they don't know what they are talking about, particularly if the tuition is $1000+.
He brought up one particular point that I'm interested in. I have spent some time searching and I can't find any definitive answer one way or the other. The speaker's statement was to the effect that even exempt employees MUST be paid overtime if they are directed to work overtime by their employer. But it must be specifically directed and not something that the employee takes upon themselves.
For example, "Bob, come in Saturday and finish this project" equals overtime must be paid. In contrast, "Bob, I know it is Thursday afternoon and I'm asking you to do 20 hours of work to finish this project by Monday morning. I don't care how you complete the project, just make sure it is done by 8:00 am sharp on Monday" equals overtime does not have to be paid.
This seems like an arbitrary distinction to me, but the shocking thing was that employers would have to pay overtime to ANY exempt employees. I couldn't find anything in the Fair Labor Standards Act to require this. Any employment lawyers or HR execs have any clue here? Is it straight time or time and one half?
If this is true, I'm going to start engaging in the game of making my employer specifically require me to work overtime when necessary so that I can demand overtime pay! 
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