This was me in previous jobs. I was on call 24/7 with no breaks for like 6 months. I was getting paged in the middle of the night 3 to 4 nights a week. It came closer to killing me. Subsequent jobs I have not allowed that. I may be lucky it's worked out for me since.
Can someone explain how this works in the US? If my work said this to me I’d feel totally comfortable saying no, and if I did come in I’d charge for transport and get double time.
Well, in this particular instance, they asked on Wednesday to make up for time lost last week when I had to deal with a family emergency. So, I can understand that request. Otherwise, if a full-time employee is under by X hours, then they can usually get away with the request. Asking beyond that is overtime.