Working the hours you are paid for or unpaid overtime?

I work in the private sector and working overtime for free (no time off in lieu or pay) is normal.

Management jobs in the private sector involve unpaid extra hours, but the salary will reflect this.
Factory floor jobs are not expected to work for no extra pay.

Retail.

I worked as a teacher. It went with the job. Most evenings and every weekend either preparing or, more often marking. I usually had a Higher English class so had to keep on top of it.

Most of my working life was in branch banking. As this is essentially ‘retail’ no-one gets paid a fortune . Senior staff would work in head office , further from customers but much better pay.
In order to open a bank branch, there is around 45 minutes of work to be done, checking the building is secure and retrieving cash from the bank vaults and the reverse happens at the end of the day, including of course balancing the books. Staff were expected to come early and leave late without extra pay.
I have always worked in the private sector and have never had a job where you could just switch off and go home.

I have always worked in the private sector and have never had a job where you could just switch off and go home

Did you feel that the salary you were paid reflected that?

I worked extra hours and outside of the ‘normal day’ both in the private and LG sector. Partly, as in the private sector job I worked across time zones, partly because it got the job done in both jobs. I was trusted to do the job and manage my time, I took time off when it was ok for the projects. I also travelled abroad extensively, involving weekends, I don’t have a degree either biglouis.
I enjoyed working flexibly, being trusted to deliver, communication was key.

Working in Local Government, at the time, full time employees worked flexitime, 37 hours per week. Part time employees had fixed hours. The part time employees often stayed later than their contracted hours. The L A decided to experiment with part timers being given flexitime. This is when they realised how many more hours the part timers were working for no extra pay. They discontinued the experiment.

Oh biglouis, absolutely not. Quite normal to be on minimum wage with benefit top-ups. It was classed as shop work and working longer hours without pay was the norm .

Most of my working life from my late teens was spent working with politicians and believe me there were plenty of unpaid extra hours! And I wasn't one of those highly paid SPADS or advisers, before anyone asks!!

The nature of my work was that the job had to be done to a deadline and some times people needed urgent last minute information - and I needed to provide it.

It was not constantly happening, but i was not rare either. One year I worked until 7.00pm on Christmas Eve. Something was being couriered to Pakistan, so the fact that the following day was Christmas day was irrelevant.

I once took on a temporary Christmas job in a department store in the town centre.
The job description didn't point out that I would have to stay behind after closing time for as long as it took to cash up the tills etc. In reality, that meant that I might miss the bus home and have to hang around in the town centre for 75 minutes longer than I was officially paid for!

Retail and care work. Lowest paid and least respected and appreciated sectors. I worked in both.

I always worked over my hours in care.
45 mins a day extra, up to 5 days a week at times, with one couple I supported.

DH worked in the private sector, so he would agree with Coronation. However, he never asked his colleagues to do anything he wouldn’t do, stayed behind with them and mucked in with the tasks and often treated the staff afterwards, privately sponsoring the ladies netball team for starters. I think they were fairly well paid and no-one seemed to object to seeing a job through. I received the most amazing tributes to him, from them after his death.

When I worked in the public sector, there were set hours and flexitime. No wonder that some people, out of the door on the dot, built up big backlogs. In the private sector, the hours were those needed to do the job - evenings, weekends, holidays. I needed to keep my clients happy so I did what was necessary. I built up a very valuable client base. It’s what the job entailed, and still does. I ate what I killed.

I have worked extra hours a lot - especially in charity work. No extra pay.

I have opted OUT of Charity "It's a knockout" and local stalls at fairs and carnival floats etc. - I'm afraid spending all Saturday 7am to late on this type of activity was not what I was actually employed to do.

Report writing over a weekend and working on presentations into the evenings however seemed to be part of my job and if insufficient hours were available in the day, well that was my choice.

When I worked in the civil service, I was put the door and on the bus home, the second my 7 hours 24 minutes was finished.

I have worked all my Career in the NHS, every day I worked more than my set hours, that's not exaggerating.
I was at a grade where it was more or less expected as it didn't pay overtime rates.

I’ve worked in several retail stores. One manager insisted we were in the store 15 minutes before our start time, not a problem, I would do that anyway, but she made sure she gave you something to do. I also had to report to her at the end of my shift, and she kept you waiting. I too missed the bus after an event and had to wait nearly an hour for the night bus. Home after midnight, back in at 07:45 for an 8 am start.
I worked out she got at least an extra 30mins, unpaid, per shift, five shifts a week.
I thought this was normal because it was.
My present employer is very clear, I start at my start time and finish on time, or I’m paid the extra. It’s a small change but it makes such a huge difference to my self esteem.

I have never worked over or above my 37.5 hours.
I’ve worked for the same employer for 35 years

Working in the NHS, unpaid overtime was the norm. 6ou may have got time off for it, not often you got off shift on time, since the 80s it got worse. When I retired was owed 9 hours unpaid overtime. My manager refused to put it on my final sheet,saying "they won't pay you that". Loved my worked, hated the political crap and meaness that went with it.

I think everywhere, people who work hard will put more hours in, sometimes just for pride, recognition or because they felt a duty to do so.

I don’t think I’ve ever got paid for my overtime anywhere

I’ve worked in both the private sector and in Education. My jobs in the private sector I got overtime or toil. In education I got neither and worked a stupid amount of hours just to get the basic job done.