12 things your boss may not legally be allowed to ask you to do
Has a boss ever asked you to do something at work that made you wonder, “Can they legally make me do this?”
Most of us expect our bosses to tell us what to do at work. That’s part of having a job.
But there are limits.
Depending on your job, employer and state, a manager may cross a legal line by asking you to work without pay, hide your salary from coworkers, participate in discrimination, reveal certain medical information or take a lie-detector test.
The rules aren’t always as simple as “your boss can never ask this.” Federal employment laws contain exceptions, some protections apply only to certain workers or employers, and state laws can provide additional rights.
Still, these 12 requests should make employees stop and ask whether their boss is asking for something the law doesn’t allow.
Work off the clock without being paid
“Can you just finish this before you leave?”
For hourly and other nonexempt workers, that request can become a legal problem if “finishing this” means working without pay.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, work that an employer requires or allows an employee to perform generally counts as working time. That can include finishing a task after clocking out, taking work home or doing other job duties outside scheduled hours.
Importantly, the rule can apply even when the employer didn’t specifically ask for the extra work if management knew or had reason to know it was happening.
Eligible employees also generally must receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek.
If your employer allows you to work, it generally can’t simply pretend those hours didn’t happen.
Reveal private medical information without a legitimate reason
Your employer isn’t automatically entitled to know everything about your health simply because you’re sick or have a medical condition.
The Americans with Disabilities Act places limits on disability-related questions and medical examinations.
Once someone is employed, an employer generally may seek disability-related medical information only when the inquiry is job-related and consistent with business necessity. Employers may also request appropriate documentation when an employee asks for a reasonable accommodation and the disability or need for accommodation isn’t obvious.
There are other circumstances in which medical information can legally be requested, so this isn’t an absolute right to refuse every health-related question.
But your boss generally doesn’t get unlimited access to your diagnosis, prescriptions or medical history simply because they’re curious.
Medical questions at work generally need a legitimate employment-related reason, and medical information obtained by an employer is subject to confidentiality requirements.
Put up with illegal harassment from a customer or client
A paying customer doesn’t get a free pass to harass employees.
Federal anti-discrimination law can hold employers responsible for unlawful harassment by customers and other nonemployees when the employer knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take prompt, appropriate corrective action.
That doesn’t mean every rude, insulting or unpleasant customer creates an illegal hostile work environment. Federal harassment law generally concerns conduct based on protected characteristics such as race, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability, and whether conduct is legally actionable depends on its nature and severity.
But an employer can’t necessarily dismiss unlawful harassment simply because the person responsible happens to be an important customer.
“They’re a good client” isn’t a blanket legal excuse for allowing discriminatory harassment to continue.
Discriminate against job applicants
Imagine your manager tells you not to interview someone because she’s pregnant, his name “sounds foreign,” or the applicant appears too old.
That isn’t simply questionable hiring advice.
Federal employment discrimination laws prohibit covered employers from making employment decisions based on protected characteristics including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability and, for workers 40 and older, age. Other federal protections cover genetic information and pregnancy-related discrimination, while state laws may protect additional characteristics.
An employee involved in recruiting or hiring shouldn’t assume an illegal instruction becomes acceptable simply because it came from someone higher up.
Hiring decisions should be based on legitimate qualifications, not instructions to screen out legally protected groups.
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Keep your pay secret from your coworkers
Many workers have been told that discussing salary is inappropriate.
For many private-sector employees, it’s also legally protected.
The National Labor Relations Act protects covered employees’ ability to discuss wages and other working conditions with one another. Employers generally cannot maintain policies prohibiting those discussions or punish covered workers for having them.
There are important exceptions. The NLRA doesn’t cover everyone; supervisors, independent contractors, government workers and some other categories fall outside its protections.
But for millions of employees, the boss can’t simply declare salaries confidential and prohibit workers from comparing their own pay.
Talking about what you earn can be a legally protected workplace activity.
Punish someone for legally protected whistleblowing
A manager who is angry about an employee’s complaint may be tempted to make that person’s working life miserable.
Federal law provides whistleblower protections in numerous circumstances.
OSHA alone administers more than 20 whistleblower statutes covering areas ranging from workplace safety to transportation, environmental rules, securities laws and other regulated activities. Other federal and state laws provide additional protections.
But “whistleblower” doesn’t mean anyone who complains about anything at work is automatically protected. The employee generally must engage in activity covered by a particular law.
When the activity is protected, retaliation can include firing, demotion, discipline, threats or other adverse actions.
Before taking action against someone who reported possible wrongdoing, employers need to consider whether that employee is legally protected from retaliation.
Skip a meal break your state says you’re entitled to
This one depends heavily on where you live.
Contrary to a common misconception, federal law generally does not require employers to provide adult employees with lunch or coffee breaks.
State law can be very different.
Some states require meal or rest periods for certain employees after they have worked a specified number of hours. Other states largely leave breaks to employers.
Federal law does regulate how certain breaks must be treated when employers choose to provide them. Short rest periods generally count as paid working time, while bona fide meal periods may be unpaid when employees are completely relieved from duty.
So whether your boss can tell you to work through lunch may depend on your state’s law, your job and the circumstances.
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Perform work that presents an imminent danger
Workers don’t have an unlimited right to walk away from any assignment they personally consider unsafe.
But there are circumstances in which refusing dangerous work can be legally protected.
OSHA says workers may have the right to refuse a task when they genuinely believe they face an imminent danger of death or serious injury, a reasonable person would agree the danger is real, there isn’t enough time to resolve it through normal enforcement channels and, where possible, the employee has asked the employer to correct the hazard.
That’s a much narrower standard than simply deciding a task looks risky.
Workers also have the right to report unsafe conditions to OSHA and may be protected from retaliation for exercising workplace safety rights.
If a task appears genuinely dangerous, employees don’t necessarily have to choose between risking serious injury and losing their job.
Give your boss the password to your personal social media account
This protection largely depends on state law rather than one sweeping federal rule.
Numerous states have enacted laws restricting employers from requesting or requiring usernames, passwords or other login information for employees’ personal social media accounts.
But the details vary considerably. Some laws contain exceptions involving workplace investigations, company devices, employer-owned accounts or suspected disclosure of confidential information.
Employers can also generally view information you’ve made publicly available online.
So don’t assume everything involving your personal social media is legally untouchable.
But if your boss demands the password to your private Instagram, Facebook or another personal account, check your state’s law before assuming you have to hand it over.
Take a lie-detector test just because your boss wants one
For most private-sector employees, federal law sharply restricts workplace lie-detector testing.
The Employee Polygraph Protection Act generally prohibits private employers from requiring, requesting or suggesting that employees or applicants take lie-detector tests. It also generally prohibits punishing someone for refusing one.
There are exceptions.
Certain security and pharmaceutical employers can use polygraphs in limited circumstances, and an employer may sometimes test an employee reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident that caused a specific economic loss. Even then, strict requirements apply.
Government employers are treated differently under the federal law.
For most private-sector jobs, your boss can’t simply hook you up to a polygraph because something went missing from the office.
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Make deductions that illegally push your pay below minimum wage
A broken glass, a cash-register shortage or a customer who walks out without paying can create an ugly dispute over who should cover the loss.
Federal wage law doesn’t prohibit every possible deduction for losses or damaged property.
But an employer generally can’t make deductions for things such as shortages, breakage or employer-required expenses when doing so would reduce a covered employee’s pay below the applicable federal minimum wage or cut into required overtime compensation. Tipped employees subject to a tip credit have additional protections.
State laws can be considerably stricter and may prohibit or restrict deductions that federal law would otherwise allow.
Your boss can’t necessarily turn an ordinary business loss into your personal bill simply by taking it out of your paycheck.
Force you to participate in a religious activity
Your boss can have religious beliefs. So can you.
What an employer generally cannot do under Title VII is require or coerce a covered employee to adopt, abandon or participate in a religious practice as a condition of employment.
The EEOC specifically says employees cannot be forced to participate—or not participate—in religious activity as a condition of employment.
That doesn’t mean religion must disappear from the workplace. Employees may have rights to religious expression and reasonable accommodation, and religious organizations have some different rules.
But a supervisor generally can’t condition your job, promotion or favorable treatment on joining a prayer meeting, attending a religious service or adopting the boss’s beliefs.
Your paycheck shouldn’t depend on whether you worship the way your employer wants you to.
Final word
Your boss has broad authority to assign work, enforce workplace rules and set expectations. But “my manager told me to do it” doesn’t automatically make every request legal.
The tricky part is that workplace protections aren’t universal. Some depend on whether you’re hourly or salaried, whether you’re legally considered a supervisor, how large your employer is, what industry you work in and which state you live in.
If a workplace request involves unpaid labor, discrimination, medical privacy, retaliation, safety, your paycheck or another protected right, it’s worth checking the law before assuming you have no choice.
Employees can find federal information through the U.S. Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. State labor agencies can explain additional protections that apply where you work.
