My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Massachusetts.
My employer hired me to be an on site advisor in education. At no point was working remotely mentioned or included in my offer letter, interview or job description. I was to report onsite, in office to do my job. That's fine and good until our phone systems/ internet went down. The first time it occurred we were told to use our own personal cell phones to continue calling leads (about 100 a day) and conduct student interviews (that last about 45 mins long). I understood the importance of making sure an appointment was kept and did not question it. A month later I saw my phone bill; which is not unlimited and the charges from dialing long distance numbers wracked things up. I am also part of a group plan and so I received overages. Whatever, I'll just expense my phone bill and pray phones don't go down again. Well the phones went down more and more and again I was asked to use my personal phone for work. It is now the go to method when our phones go down in the office. This has occurred a good 10 times now, including winters when the office was closed my boss told me again to just use my personal phone from home. Today the phones dropped and I was asked to use my personal phone and finally said no. I am tired of reporting to my place of employment ready to work and not having the means to do so by my employer. I am tired of fronting the money to do my job when nowhere was it ever disclosed to me that I would need to use my cell phone when their equipment on site goes down. Because I said no, I was then asked if I had a landline I could use to work from home tomorrow because phones are down apparently again tomorrow until noon. Am I really supposed to accommodate a home office and use my personal phone for an on site position? I now have to install a landline that hooks up through my laptop and somehow connects to our phone systems remotely? Somehow this doesn't seem right. I don't wish to be subordinate but nowhere in my job description does it disclose accommodating remote capabilities should technology go down at place of employment. What if I didn't own a cell phone? What if I didn't have internet at my home? I don't have a landline and my boss is angry with me for refusing to use my cell phone. Am I wrong here?

