Work Your Proper Hours Day

SandC

My experience as someone who has always been salaried but always well below the 'national average' is that generally you do not get paid for overtime except in exceptional circumstances (such as if you are involved in a stocktake perhaps which means working a full day Sat and Sunday). It has also always been my experience that staff are expected to work over their set hours if there is a work that needs completed.

However, the amount of overtime worked directly relates in many cases to the organisational skills of the management. I regularly had to work until 9/10pm one day every month in my first job in order to get the monthly reports issued on time. In every job I have had since then they have still had reporting to be completed to deadlines each month but because the management have been more organised it would not necessitate a last minute panic.

Of course there are jobs that require you to work outside of office hours but these tend to salaried accordingly. It is part of the job description perhaps to travel, to attend conferences or evening functions etc.

I mentioned in a previous post that in an interview for my second job the boss said to me that if I had to work overtime more than around 5/6 times per year he would worry about my competency. This was because the lady who held the position for some weeks before I was taken on could not handle the workload and would be in the office for 2 or more hours after official finish time each day to get things done. He knew the work was doable in normal office hours, he therefore let her go and took someone else on who was more capable of organising the duties.

In other circumstances there is simply too much work for one person and again this is down to management to address.

I have worked with someone who simply 'never had time' to take all her annual leave. Strange, then, that when she retired she wasn't even replaced and her work was divided up between existing staff.

Hermia

I do actually work my contracted hours and no more (unless there is an urgent deadline/problem or to cover when someone goes sick etc). I did the long hours thing in my twenties and was constantly tired, had hardly any life outside work and hardly saw my loved ones. I have vowed never to do that since if I can help it. I do work hard and don't faff around at work so I don't feel guilty for going home on time. Several bosses have commented on the fact that I get more done in a day than many do in a week. And to be honest I am not sure that the work I did in the last few hours of a long day was of the highest quality.

I had an odd experience a few years ago where I started working for this company. During my first week my heart sank when I realised they had a long hours culture. Every night people were still sat at their desk at 8pm. I was prepared to look for a new job rather than go back to that so I decided I would leave on time each night & face the consequences. So I did and I made sure I had done my fair share (or more) of the workload before I left. I got a few evil glances from my colleagues, but the bosses did nothing. When I had my first appraisal I was expecting it to be mentioned, but it wasn't and they seemed very happy with me. When a promotion came up I got it.

donnajunkie

jdturk wrote: »

Its because some realise that some jobs are not 9-5 and to have more employees to do the work will ultimately mean the company may fold

Also those that are salaried are expected to work more hours if required.

Don't come with these 'down trodden' rubbish, employees are much better of now than even 5 years ago

even if someone is salaried that pay should be for a certain number of hours each week. your contract should state you get paid this amount of money for working these set hours and any overtime will be paid at this rate. if you dont do extra hours you dont lose any pay so you are effectively a slave for any extra hours you work if you dont get paid overtime for them. if you like that then you are mad but i understand people having to put up with it if the law allows it. if i was unlucky enough to find myself with an employer that does not pay me for every hour i work i would start looking for a job elsewhere. most companies pay for overtime so i cant understand how these companies that dont pay manage to retain their staff.

donnajunkie

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Any member of my team who insisted on attending only for their contracted hours would soon find me insisting that they worked at 100% workrate for every single second they were in the office. No visits to the vending machine, no chats, no personal phone calls etc etc. I'm not in favour of working long hours so that one can be seen to be doing so, but if the work demands a 'bit extra' from time to time and employees are not willing to put themselves out once in a while...well, there are a few million people who would much rather have their job.

how many of the unemployed would be interested if you made a point of telling them in the interview that the overtime rate was zero? they would also be off at the first sign of a job were they would be paid for overtime. as far as putting themselves out now and then i agree with so long as they are paid for the hours they work.

donnajunkie

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

I have never and will never work extra without being paid extra.

Why should I? what benefit is there for me?

And anybody that does is quite frankly a mug.

Theres one reason and one reason only why somebody works unpaid
overtime, and thats to be a brown noser, and I despise everything those people stand for.

If you cant climb the ladder without doing it, then your not cut out to climb the ladder.

i've worked at companies that finish people for not working overtime. i dont mean for not working any overtime i mean for just missing the odd bit of overtime. i rely on public transport and i once worked at a company that had overtime on every sunday. i told them at the interview that i could not get there on a sunday due to there being no buses running early morning to there on a sunday. he just said there will be someone who can give you a lift, there wasnt though. so in my first week i worked a couple of overtime stints until 6.30pm which meant not getting home until 8pm. i also worked saturday morning. the foreman dropped me off at the bus stop and said see you tomorrow. i said i couldnt work it. he then said if you dont it wont look good for you. at the end of the next week it was see you later we dont want you anymore.

donnajunkie

jdturk wrote: »

What about a company that is struggling, people work overtime there for non purely because if the company goes pop they have no job.

So not just 1 reason huh!

if a company is struggling it is usually coz they dont have enough work. so why would they have overtime on whether it be paid or not?

donnajunkie

jdturk wrote: »

I would work for my wage and if I had to put extra hours in for a short period of time then I would do it.

For example because of the recession alot of builders, electricians etc have cut their prices, so their margins are tighter which means that whilst they may have work in to keep paying the normal wage of its workers they may require the workers to put a bit extra in until business picks up

I would think that is a fair reason to do the extra work (obviously if things pick up then I would expect to be paid for it)

i've never heard of a building company that doesnt pay overtime as builders are usually on a contract that says they are paid by the hour. the companies may well be charging customers less per hour for their services and therefore need to work longer hours to make a profit but they will still be paying the workers for it unless they are cowboys.

jdturk

donnajunkie wrote: »

i've never heard of a building company that doesnt pay overtime as builders are usually on a contract that says they are paid by the hour. the companies may well be charging customers less per hour for their services and therefore need to work longer hours to make a profit but they will still be paying the workers for it unless they are cowboys.

My example was an extreme example but I am sure that there will be a company that are working on a price and the workers know that not doing the extra hours could adversely affect the company. As I said for a short period of time to help a company through is fine, if work got better then maybe I wouldn't expect to work for free

jdturk

donnajunkie wrote: »

if a company is struggling it is usually coz they dont have enough work. so why would they have overtime on whether it be paid or not?

See above.

Wildside

Happy Work Your Proper Hours Day.

Really interesting comments so far, hope you all have a good day today. Did you take all breaks & leave on time? Or did you work more hours than they pay you to?

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday/