[Mike Flanagan]

Two important points that I did not see mentioned by anyone else:

1. EMPLOYMENT LAW. Aaron mentioned he was paid by salary. Very often, especially in the media industry, employers INCORRECTLY categorize an employee as “salaried” as opposed to “hourly”. The incorrect presumption then is that a salaried employee need not be paid for overtime (i.e. Salaried = Exempt).
Actually, the proper employee categorization is EXEMPT and NON-EXEMPT, not salaried and hourly. Employment laws specify several stringent requirements that must be met before an employee is exempt from (being paid for) overtime. Chances are high, IMHO, that Aaron is not truly an exempt employee in the way he is being compensated. Most likely he should be paid hourly, and extra for overtime.
So, if Aaron works on “personal projects” during his normal working hours, he deserves no extra compensation. If he already worked 40 hours and then tapes an event on a weekend, he deserves extra compensation.

2. CUSTOMER SERVICE. Aaron should ask “Who is my customer?” Answer: his boss. So the boss’ “personal project” is just another customer project, and he should do it as he would for any customer. If Aaron was running his own business and his customer brought in a “personal project”, would Aaron turn away the customer because it was “personal”? I think not; at least not if Aaron wants to stay in business long.

I just came across this thread, and hence the delay between now and the original post. Hopefully this will help Aaron and any others reading the thread.