Go home on time day

theoretica

I think if you have an employer who permits equitable give and take - working late when needed, long lunches when feel your work won't suffer, or indeed promotions, bonuses or more interesting projects - then you are being paid for the time you work. Perhaps it is on a longer timescale or less tangible than the weekly or monthly pay packet, but it is there.

So actually maybe the moral is try to work for a good employer.

pinpin

This threads turned in to a bragging competition, lol

Sanne

I start work some time between 8.30am and 9am, depending on which train I take and leave around 4.45pm and 5.15pm with a 20 to 40 minute lunch break, depending on if I've got lunch or need to grab something.
If I've worked enough hours I can leave at 3.30pm on a Friday but I tend to normally stay until 4pm.

You can probably tell I'm on flexi time!

Which doesn't mean that, if required, I stay until 6pm or longer or work weeks with more than 37.5 hours. I don't use their time logging system so couldn't even tell you - my boss trusts me there. He works the same way.

I should say that I've got one of the rare employers who actively discourage overtime - even senior management (incl. the Directors) leaves on time if there isn't anything hugely important requiring them to stay longer.

At my last place I'd regularly work significantly longer hours than I was contracted and I don't really want to go back to this. I've got a long-ish commute and am studying part-time so working an hour longer nearly each day wasn't great.

Though, as said, if the business needs me there I will be the last one to just leave!!!

Deep_In_Debt

As my commute in my last job was quite a long one and having to rely on public transport, I used to try and leave on time. If I missed a train, it was a while hanging around waiting for connections and getting home late.

Now I'm working locally but I like to avoid the rush hour and start work early and leave a bit earlier. I'm usually at my desk by 8am so leave around 4.45 to beat the traffic,

James_B.

I was discussing this with my wife, who has a member of staff with that attitude. He's the only one, everyone else does a bit over when it's needed.

Her view is that he's completely entitled to do exactly what his contract states, and in return, he also received precisely what his contact states.

The others get a mid five figure bonus, first choice of leave, pay rises, promotions, and flexibility if they want to go out during the day to take care of things.

It means that this guy will earn less per hour than anyone else, will slowly see his pay drop behind, and will never move up through the phone, but at least he's not a mug, working for free...

t0rt0ise

I've always given more than was needed in jobs and I've always felt I've been taken advantage of. One of my last jobs I used to stay late every night, my colleague used to go in early every day, we worked overlapping shifts, and yet we still got told off for not getting everything done. Truth was that there was too much to do but we really did try. I left that job after 10 months thinking that I'll not be taken advantage of again. There has to be give and take in this or it doesn't work.

pinpin

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I've always given more than was needed in jobs and I've always felt I've been taken advantage of.

Same here.
I used to put in extra effort and work for free (partly because my place of work pretty much sack people for smiling on the production line!), but it didn't get me anywhere.
I was just a mug being taken advantage of for minimum wage.
Probably different if you have a top degree and are already in a high flying career earning hundreds of thousands, but for us bottom-feeders, it's just a way for employers to exploit us with no upside for us.

Not to mention that some people put free time above money.

(so NOBODY is the mug in that respect. People who just care about money can stay at work until Midnight each night, and people who care about have free time can leave the second their hours are done. Everybody wins)

DD265

I also leave on time every day - but if there was a valid reason that I needed to stay late then I would. I wouldn't leave work undone either if it needed doing that day.

I have a 1hr15 commute on average so it's a bit naff to stay late on top!

zagfles

This discussion is a bit silly - as if all employers are the same. A relationship with an employer is no different to a relationship with anyone else, friend, partner etc. Sometimes you give extra and get rewarded many times back for it, sometimes you give extra and get treated like a doormat.

I've seen both. With a previous employer, when the working time directive came out (48 hour week), we were all asked to sign an opt out. My department refused, we all sent an identically worded letter to HR refusing to opt out (we rarely went over 48 hours anyway). Another department we worked closely with all opted out. There was a round of reduncancies a short while after. Guess what? The other department got hit far harder. Why? Because they knew the remaining mugs would work longer hours to get the job done with less people, they knew we wouldn't.

Giving extra doesn't have to be longer hours, in fact as someone else said, employers often see that a weakness, that you're struggling to do the job in normal hours. In a highly technical role some people can get a job done in 2 hours which would take someone else 10 hours.

IME the biggest difference in career progression is people willing to adapt and move into new areas, especially in fast changing areas like IT. Those who are willing to dive into something new, take a risk, get stuck in and learn on the job rather than saying "I've not had training, I can't do it, it's not my job" etc. Nothing to do with number of hours worked.

Gavin83

zagfles wrote: »

IME the biggest difference in career progression is people willing to adapt and move into new areas, especially in fast changing areas like IT. Those who are willing to dive into something new, take a risk, get stuck in and learn on the job rather than saying "I've not had training, I can't do it, it's not my job" etc. Nothing to do with number of hours worked.

I agree. I rarely work longer than I'm contracted and there are people in the department who work longer hours than me. However I recently received a promotion above such staff. Why? I'm always the first to jump on a new project, learn new things and I'm considered someone who's reliable that management can come to if there's an issue. It also helps that there are several important areas I know that no one else does. I strongly believe no one is indispensable but I try and make myself as close to this as possible.

Saying this I've no issue putting in the extra hours when required but I'm not gonna work extra hours just for the sake of it.