If they want to pay you to work 24/7, they should offer you a contract that says so and pay you accordingly.

When you are at home, turn your cellphone off. All the rest of you can snag you by gtalk. Turn the damn thing off.

If your boss is not paying you to be on-call, you do not answer the phone.

Also, vacation, take it. You have the time and you’re earning it. If they can’t survive a week without you while you take some time to destress, how are they going to manage if you get hit by a bus?

Set your boundarys and stick to them.

Another thing is to actually remind the boss. You can always request a meeting a day or so in advance and leave the topic as ‘Career Advancement Options’. Thnk about what you want to get into. Then you make sure you bring up the promise from last year. You should make note that you had made some changes in the past few months (moved out, exploring new possibilities in hobbies, etc) and it reminded you of moving ahead at work, and the promise from last year. They are welcome to give more promises (or excuses) in response, but at the end get them in writing - ask for a meeting summary.

Oh, and as for vacation, send 3 weeks notice (or one week more than they generally request) and tell them you are burned out, and you are going to lose it if you don’t take a week vacation now. It’s not your job to fill in the void when they have already granted you the time off.

And schedule the next week off for 3 months later. Buy the train/boat/plane tickets and inform them you won’t be near cel towers for that one, either. Consider the wilderness, somewhere away from civilization.

Otherwise, take every (or every other) Friday off, and make sure you get over/double time if they call to come in when you are away.

Anyway, I feel ya.