Can you be sacked for not doing overtime?

treetrunks

May have been covered all ready but when I was a union rep we were always told that the part in your contract about working a reasonable amount of overtime as required, meant about 10% in legal terms.

Usually came up with people on rolled up salaries during redundancy situations.

josie.d

OP's other problem is that he isn't seeing his children before they go to bed. I know there are probably many of you out there who are in a similar situation, but not seeing your children because of work commitments is not a good balance, hence why OP is looking for alternative work.

I think that if I were in his situation, I would rather be let go after the three month trial too, but at least he's trying his best to find another alternative that means he will not have to go back onto benefits.

princessdon

josie.d wrote: »

OP's other problem is that he isn't seeing his children before they go to bed. I know there are probably many of you out there who are in a similar situation, but not seeing your children because of work commitments is not a good balance, hence why OP is looking for alternative work.

I think that if I were in his situation, I would rather be let go after the three month trial too, but at least he's trying his best to find another alternative that means he will not have to go back onto benefits.

You are right for most of us having a father to put children to bed (and even with the OT OP is suggesting he gets to do this at least 50% of the week) is a luxury.

My children see their father 2 nights a week on a good week.

Seriously I could understand your argument if OP was working 60/80 hours a week with a very long commute, but by his own words his "out of home time" is a shorter day than many.

The crux of it all here is that he doesn't like his job - I suspect if he had a job he enjoyed more on a higher wage then he'd be happy to work. In all honesty he needs a new job (longer or shorter hours) as he clearly doesn't like the one he has one bit.

falko89

I hate it with a passion, any job I've had in the past there's been at least 1 thing that made it worth while, maybe it was the money, maybe the work, maybe the perks or conditions, maybe it's the hours, I can't find 1 with this job, at a push you could say at least it's indoors and dry but other than that it's a struggle.

No if I had a job I loved I'd still not work long hours, i look forward to getting home and seeing the kids in the evening, but your usually no sooner in the door and the kids are tired which means fall outs and fighting and you oddly wish u were back at work, it's only really at weekends you see the kids in good form.

princessdon

I think it is clear to all that read your posts that you are not motivated or happy with the job and given those circs you certainly won't want to work or give more than the minimum needed. I can't imagine how it feels to work somewhere you genuinely hate.

My OH would love to see the kids more (though he'd probably agree that the mad hour before bed isn't seeing them at their best lol) but there are NO jobs here so you put up and adapt. We either survive on my part time wages and lose the house and all we worked for or put up till a more suitable comes along.

diable

Some people stay at work for free as so not to see the wife or the kids so count yourself lucky that you are getting paid for it

Joking aside if you don't like the job then stop complaining about it and leave, simple it's your choice and life is full of choices.

falko89

Yes that's it, i will put up with but my number 1 priority is to get out, but yes I have no interest in doing no more than the minimum in their, the motivation or incentive is not there.

Mista_C

I used to have a similar situation with an ex-employer. My contract stated my normal working days were Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 and that I may be expected to work outside of operational hours if necessary for completing a task.

My manager would often ask me to work evenings and/or Saturdays for various reasons and I was happy to oblige for the most part. A problem started to arise when I said no to covering Saturday examinations. He then demanded I be in else "there would be consequences". A number of times he would say to me "if I say you'll be in, then you'll be in, end of." I would point out that Saturday work may be required to complete a task, not to take on new ones.

It got to a point where he would call me at home on a Saturday morning telling me to get in and I would have to remind him that he was my employer, not my owner. From that point on whenever he demanded I would tell him to sort it out with my union rep and let me know how he got on. Every time he would back down.

It's not that I was work shy. If I needed to complete a task by a certain deadline then I would happily be there, as per the terms I agreed to in my contract.

There's a growing mentality that because someone employs you that you have to jump everytime they yell and because so many are in fear of losing their jobs they'll damn well jump until their ankles break. The contract is a mutual agreement to satisfy the terms of both parties, don't be afraid to ask for amendments. Likewise your employer does not own you, employment is a trade off. The employee gives his time to provide a service for the employer. The employer reimburses the employee by paying for his time and service. It's a two-way gain. Those willing to do OT without payment I'm happy you have so much time to give away, for some of us however that time is treasured and there's no company on this Earth that will make me miss the limited time I get to spend with loved ones. Ask yourself if your employer would be happy providing you with payment if you decided not to turn up every Monday for a couple of years outside of your normal annual leave entitlement.

If everyone keeps jumping then we may as well just reintroduce slave labour now.

CKhalvashi

It’s in my employees contracts that they have to do a ‘reasonable amount’ of overtime to ‘meet operational needs’. Between 160-ish employees, we have about 1100h of OT this week (or about 7h per staff member), and on double time, mine are happy to do this. I’ll also gave various bits/pieces of time off when we’re quiet later this year.

IMO, you should be happy that it’s being offered, as it means your job is secure (and that’s taking an employers POV as an employer myself).

CK

t0rt0ise

It's funny isn't it, when someone says I hate this because... instead of people suggesting things or sympathising, some, not all, but some will go to great lengths to show that they themselves are worse off.. LOL. That's people for you.