You may believe that all those extra hours you're putting in on the job without being paid will help you stay in the boss's good graces, but you may not realize that you're breaking the law — and you could be fired for it.

Shanti Atkins, a lawyer and president and CEO of San Francisco -based ELT Inc., which specializes in ethics and workplace compliance training, says that showing you're dedicated by "volunteering" your time is a mistake.

"A lot of people are worried about their jobs, and they want to contribute in this recession by working off the clock. But 90 percent of people — and their managers — don't realize they're not complying with federal wage and hour laws and it's a huge — huge — area of risk for companies," Atkins says.

Atkins says class-action lawsuits related to wage and hour claims outnumber all other class-action lawsuits combined. The average federal settlement for these wage and lawsuits? About $23.5 million. State settlements are a little more at $24.4 million, she says.

"These are 'bet the company' lawsuits," she says. "They're very cut and dried. Did you pay someone overtime for the extra work they did or not? Records show very clearly what happened."

Atkins says employees should refuse any "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" requests from managers that they work extra time without pay, "and the manager should be reported for asking them to do it," because under the law, an employee can be disciplined or fired for not reporting it, Atkins says.

Atkins says this is just one example of employees being unfamiliar with their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. Others include:

• Speaking your mind. While freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment, what you say around the workplace water cooler can cost you your job. For example, if you "create a management problem" by making statements that could be considered harassing or discriminatory, you may be setting the groundwork for a pink slip.

"A real lightning rod in this area is when sexual orientation intersects with religion, such as someone saying at work that it's a sin to have a gay lifestyle," Atkins says. "Or, they try and pray for another employee to convince them of the error of their ways. Or, they refuse to go to sexual harassment training."

While employees may balk at a "Big Brother" atmosphere that monitors what they say on the job, Atkins says bosses are obligated under federal law to make sure they provide a "safe environment" for workers. That includes, she says, anything introduced into the work environment with personal handheld devices.

"Just because it's your iPhone doesn't mean it's OK to show a racist video in the break room," she says.

• Social networking. More employees and managers "friend" one another these days on Facebook or "follow" one another on Twitter. The problem is that "this exposes managers to information they might not normally have," Atkins says.

"Employers aren't supposed to know about an employee's sex, religion or politics, but the employee forgets about the boss now having access to the information (through social networking)," Atkins says.

"Discrimination cases are based on what managers knew," Atkins says. "Social networking reveals an awful lot."

Atkins says even LinkedIn, which is considered the "professional" online networking site, could get managers in trouble.

"Ninety-nine percent of companies have a policy that you can't give a letter of recommendation for an employee because it's a liability if the employee doesn't work out for the other employer," Atkins says. "But if you recommend someone on LinkedIn, you've just published one."

Reach Anita Bruzzesse c/o: Gannett ContentOne, 7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22107.