Advice please re unpaid overtime V stress

Wyndham

Let's say it's 10 minutes a day. And lets say you work 250 days a year (allowing for weekends and holidays), then 10*250 is 2500 minutes extra a year. Or, to put it another way just short of 42 hours. This is more than a standard week, and as you work 6 hours a day, then I assume you work 30 hours a week? So, do you really want to give your employer nearly 1 1/2 extra weeks work for nothing?

For 20 minutes extra a day, just double it to 84 hours a year...

If you boss says 'no overtime' then the cost to them of that is that the work may not get done. And so long as you are working hard then that is their problem, not yours.

toniskinner

I may be from a more 'old school' thought process than some posters on here, but I think depending on the company you work for there should be levels of give and take. In previous positions, I frequently worked 10, 20 even 30 minutes unpaid overtime most nights in the week - either to ensure my workload was done, or that it was done to a standard that would impress my employer. At the same time, my employer would let me leave early for personal reasons if needed, or come in late the morning after a particularly long work day.
Our working relationship was based on mutual trust and respect, which I feel was built up by neither of us worrying that the other was attempting to 'take the p***.' (of course if your workload is consistently causing you to work late then this may be somewhat to do with looking at time management during the working day)

I think in many situations in working life you will have to go above and beyond your expected hours to ensure that the job you do is done to the best of your abilities. Effectively, by doind this you could be allowing yourself to stand out in the crowd from the other 5.30-on-the-dot-clock-off employees; effectively leading to faster promotion or wage increase.

I do feel however, at the same time, you should look into the stress caused by your work. This should be addressed as a seperate issue, but definately focused on, and may be something that can be easily resolved with a quick look into control issues you may have. (I don't mean this in a negative way, everyone has control issues to some degree or another, but it is important to find a way to keep these in perspective!)

sweetilemon

SarEl wrote: »

Please don't encourage her

But seriously - people do, but people shouldn't! And people who are already suffering stress and depression definitely shouldn't.

I'm not encouraging her at all to do unpaid over time as i've alreay said it would let her employer take advantage. All I was saying is 10 mins if its out of choice to make the next morning less stressful rather than a need to get the job done it would be fair not to request payment for the time as it xould have been done within paid hours. If the job cannot be done in the time given the op should discuss this with their employer.

lee636

toniskinner wrote: »

I may be from a more 'old school' thought process than some posters on here, but I think depending on the company you work for there should be levels of give and take. In previous positions, I frequently worked 10, 20 even 30 minutes unpaid overtime most nights in the week - either to ensure my workload was done, or that it was done to a standard that would impress my employer. At the same time, my employer would let me leave early for personal reasons if needed, or come in late the morning after a particularly long work day.
Our working relationship was based on mutual trust and respect, which I feel was built up by neither of us worrying that the other was attempting to 'take the p***.' (of course if your workload is consistently causing you to work late then this may be somewhat to do with looking at time management during the working day)

I think in many situations in working life you will have to go above and beyond your expected hours to ensure that the job you do is done to the best of your abilities. Effectively, by doind this you could be allowing yourself to stand out in the crowd from the other 5.30-on-the-dot-clock-off employees; effectively leading to faster promotion or wage increase.

I do feel however, at the same time, you should look into the stress caused by your work. This should be addressed as a seperate issue, but definately focused on, and may be something that can be easily resolved with a quick look into control issues you may have. (I don't mean this in a negative way, everyone has control issues to some degree or another, but it is important to find a way to keep these in perspective!)

Spot on :T

lee636

sweetilemon wrote: »

I'm not encouraging her at all to do unpaid over time as i've alreay said it would let her employer take advantage. All I was saying is 10 mins if its out of choice to make the next morning less stressful rather than a need to get the job done it would be fair not to request payment for the time as it xould have been done within paid hours. If the job cannot be done in the time given the op should discuss this with their employer.

Exactly Sweetilemon.

Maybe those 10 minutes could be used to construct a basic outline of all the things that need to be done, thus a structured plan would help the day run smooth - maybe leading to the OP finishing 10 minutes early and asking if she can leave?!