Working extra hours unpaid - what to do?

bestpud

From the employers POV:

Say they allowed her to come in late whenever she is held up by the weather, or adverse traffic conditions, because she lives a distance from the site.

Then 'Joe', who lives round the corner, says he is late sometimes because his child was up all night... I mean, it's no more his fault, is it?

Then 'Fred' says he is late sometimes because he has to drop his partner/child elsewhere and gets caught in traffic despite living close to the site... Is that different from your friend?

Then 'Harry' looks on and thinks he will have an extra hour in bed as he's hungover, and it doesn't matter because they don't worry about the
odd late start...

Before you know it, everyone is strolling in when they feel like it.

Fact is, we all have issues that crop up, but we can't make a unilateral decision to ignore our work hours when these issue occur!!

birkee

Mischa8 wrote: »

Actually race bandwagon - I myself am white, she happens to be black - I have no idea if her colour would have anything to do with, I'm sure it doesn't have and I hope not.

But as you and I and my friend knows, in the past race has been used against people as per this situation. Please note I also mentioned sex.

Both my friend and I don't believe the sex/race card is being played here but in this type of environment who knows? I was merely asking a question.

I would love to know why you think they gave a job to a black female? So they could discriminate against her?

Sound more like an attitude problem to me.
Getting to work 45 mins early is "working like a dog"?
That's time, not work.

Definitely an attitude problem.

paulwf

OP it may be that under the current system (i.e. set working hours) although it doesn't matter to her workload what time she gets in management may be enforcing it to set an example to others. She is in a fairly senior grade so if she came in late then others in more time critical jobs may pick up on that. At the moment it also makes life difficult for her manager if they assume she will be in a 9am and isn't, they may have 15-30 mins of wondering if she is sick that day, having to log a short working day, rearranging team briefings etc

That's not to say she can't request the system is changed so she gets flexitime. You have to bear in mind though that if one person gets it everyone will want it, and that soon creates an administrative nightmare.

A 30-40 min commute isn't unusual, I live only 2 miles away from work but that still takes that sort of time if I walk in or get the bus (buses take forever round here). Getting in early and putting the kettle on and grabbing some breakfast is the sensible thing to do as a buffer against those days when you are running late. It could be a lot worse, many central London commuters have 90+ minute commutes each way every day and still have to get in early to cover themselves against delays.

shanefay

sometimes we must do overtime, every day is too much

SarEl

shanefay wrote: »

sometimes we must do overtime, every day is too much

She hasn'r been asked to do overtime. The complaint is that she arrives early to be on time for work, starts work when she arrives (which nobody has asked her to do - so her choice) and then wants to know if this is race or sex discrimination.

LittleVoice

SarEl wrote: »

She hasn'r been asked to do overtime. The complaint is that she arrives early to be on time for work, starts work when she arrives (which nobody has asked her to do - so her choice) and then wants to know if this is race or sex discrimination.

To be fair, she is not the person asking the discrimination question. It was the OP (her friend) who "wondered" about it. (That is unless you think all questions about a friend's situation are hiding that it is actually the poster's own - and I don't.)

Mischa8

SarEl wrote: »

She hasn'r been asked to do overtime. The complaint is that she arrives early to be on time for work, starts work when she arrives (which nobody has asked her to do - so her choice) and then wants to know if this is race or sex discrimination.

I would like to make it clear that both she and I have discussed this and she is almost 99.9% certain it is not sex or race discrimination.

In fact, she has almost gone the other way in pointing out to me that because this is a huge construction company with strong HR etc that it almost certainly *would not* be racially/sexually discrimination.

The main thing here is that she is unhappy about the way they have gone about this and hand in hand with the fact that her equal colleague seemed to have preferential treatment by brown-nosing with the manager, she felt maybe she was being unfairly treated. It was more me who suggested the race/sex card. And I am only saying this because as a white female I can see where they could have pulled the race/sex card against her, regardless of how big an organisation it is.

But thanks SOOOO much for pointing all this out to me Sar_El and also comparing and contrasting your oh-so-busy job with my friend's - something which I don't really think is relevant here. It is not a competition in which I am comparing my friend's workload with yours, it is more a question of her being treated fairly and being able to negotiate if she wanted to etc flexible working hours.

Mischa8

LittleVoice wrote: »

To be fair, she is not the person asking the discrimination question. It was the OP (her friend) who "wondered" about it. (That is unless you think all questions about a friend's situation are hiding that it is actually the poster's own - and I don't.)

Exactly Little Voice, thanks so much for this. I have really got annoyed by the amount of people have so far REFUSED to see my original points and have turned this into something it is not.

And yes, I am NOT the person in question with the problem. I am merely posting on her behalf. She would probably wonder why and maybe be embarassed at all the attention this post is getting. As am I.

Mischa8

paulwf wrote: »

OP it may be that under the current system (i.e. set working hours) although it doesn't matter to her workload what time she gets in management may be enforcing it to set an example to others. She is in a fairly senior grade so if she came in late then others in more time critical jobs may pick up on that. At the moment it also makes life difficult for her manager if they assume she will be in a 9am and isn't, they may have 15-30 mins of wondering if she is sick that day, having to log a short working day, rearranging team briefings etc

That's not to say she can't request the system is changed so she gets flexitime. You have to bear in mind though that if one person gets it everyone will want it, and that soon creates an administrative nightmare.

A 30-40 min commute isn't unusual, I live only 2 miles away from work but that still takes that sort of time if I walk in or get the bus (buses take forever round here). Getting in early and putting the kettle on and grabbing some breakfast is the sensible thing to do as a buffer against those days when you are running late. It could be a lot worse, many central London commuters have 90+ minute commutes each way every day and still have to get in early to cover themselves against delays.

Thanks for this. I am sure she has taken this all on board. I don't really know the rules at her company relating to flexi-time but I assume like you say that sometimes they won't want to give to one person unless everyone else wants it. And right now (although this may change in the future) she is NOT for example a working mother where the flexi-time question may be easier to enforce as she would have to get kids up and ready for school etc.

Actually, funnily enough one of her previous jobs WAS in central London and I believe she commuted by train etc but put in necessary early morning hours etc.

I am sort of wondering if it is partly an attitude problem on my friend's part and also due to the fact that her manager and her previous colleague had a professional relationship where the colleague was trying to get more preferential treatment (this was subsequently knocked on the head and they're all separated and they all get equal fair treatment) and maybe she's still a bit bitter about that? Who knows?

I do know that unfortunately my friend at the moment is not particularly happy in this role but has to stay there due to family/work commitments for the money etc. She is trying and has tried to leave and get another job, maybe closer to him. I know from previous experience that it is the worst thing in the world to stay in a job where you're unhappy with unfair aspects of appraisals etc.

My friend has stated that as soon as she has another better job she will leave but maybe this overtime and going in early will reflect far better on her appraisal and be a good thing all round? I don't know.

Thanks for your advice though.

SarEl

LittleVoice wrote: »

To be fair, she is not the person asking the discrimination question. It was the OP (her friend) who "wondered" about it. (That is unless you think all questions about a friend's situation are hiding that it is actually the poster's own - and I don't.)

And to be fair - I didn't say she had or that I did. I said that "the complaint is..." - I did not specify who said it.