Working the hours you are paid for or unpaid overtime?

Teaching, I worked many unpaid hours, at home, planning and marking, just to manage my job well. Being part time, there were no allowances for prep time. I suppose I 'volunteered, as it was my choice.

Still, in an admin job, it was a different story. I was expected to have the half hour lunch and full time day of the rest of the team - until I pointed out that I was actually paid hourly, for just six hours, so would take my hour's break and leave early, thanks all the same!

I must have worked in one of the best departments then, I think.
We ate and drank at our desks.

So, if your vat return form came to you smeared with branston pickle.....

It does sound ridiculous, though, doesn't it?

MissAdventure

I did quite a lot of coffee drinking when I was in the civil service.

We had a trolley lady who used to come round, laden with food, too.

😯
Wow!!

No coffee at the work station.

Callistemon I often worked after hours. Without TOIL.

I did quite a lot of coffee drinking when I was in the civil service.

We had a trolley lady who used to come round, laden with food, too.

nadateturbe

Civil Service, often worked unpaid hours. I get really annoyed when people talk about us sitting around drinking coffee and getting big pensions, rubbish.

I agree.
However, we did get time off in lieu and if we had to work at a weekend or Bank Holiday got extra pay.

Civil Service, often worked unpaid hours. I get really annoyed when people talk about us sitting around drinking coffee and getting big pensions, rubbish.

I believe that many people in younger generations are not so willing to do all this. Individual identity is no longer so much invested in a job nowadays. Young people are demanding more of a work-life balance and employees voting with their feet in companies where they do not get it. I also think many younger employees are unwilling to climb the hierarchical ladder and impatient of such notions as "working their way up". I saw this as early as the 1980s in my own profession with accelerated graduate profession. Often the people who were accelerated lacked not so much ability but practical experience. They floundered and expected the older staff to sub them out. And they did not take criticism well.

The old employment contract of being loyal to an employer and being rewarded is broken. Now its all about money and cost. The employment contract is just that - a piece of paper which describes rights and responsibilities. There is no intrinsic connotation of pride in the job or duty.

Is this a good thing?

I do now too Freya as it is taken for granted

JaneJudge

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

Duty yes, but then they take it as said. I used to switch my answer phone off, on my days off. Otherwise they would have you in then. Out of guilt, not because you wanted too.

I worked all my life in the NHS ,and I always worked after my shift ended. For my last twenty years I moved into the community into public health in a more or less 9-5 job, I managed a small team , we still worked extra hours but I was able to ensure we all took time back in lieu. I had had enough of being taken for granted for years .Higher management didn’t like it but couldn’t do much about it. I doubt I took all my time back but at least ensured my team did .

DS is an academic in a department where community involvement is part of the remit of the department and its members. It contributes to its ranking among other uiversities.

It is not uncommon for him to be working at least six days a week, plus evenings, as he gives talks to local groups and works with them on projects. As he works in the north of England the area he covers is large and several times a month he has to stay in hotels overnight - at his expense - because the journey home is so long and he needs to be in his department early the following morning.

vickymeldrew

I agree with all you said, having also worked in banking. Yes, paid from 9am, but usually in and getting set up from about 8.15am.

If you didn’t get off to a ‘good start’, you seemed behind hand all day.

I was running a small sub branch, and it was up to me to get things organised and on time.

My husband was an academic until retirement biglouis. He took redundancy towards the end of the pandemic when he was told he had to teach the sane modules twice - once for students who came back to university in the flesh and once that students could complete entirely online. He had online students in very different time zones and was working many days at 11pm and 6 or 7am.

He taught a practical course and the planning was horrendous. When he left he was owed six weeks holiday which he couldn't take and wasn't paid for.

Yes, in the earlier days there were benefits but he never managed to use all his holiday allowance- it's a cutthroat business now I think.

When I finished my Ph.d I worked in academia. There were no set hours but it was extremely flexible and there were some perks. Long before WAH became common I was working at home 2/3 days a week writing research papers, articles and grant proposals which would not have been possible in a noisy office. I only went in for essential meetings and to see my students. There were also lots of opportunities to go on courses and learn different skills.

My boss and I would agree a series of deliverables for X date and then it was upto me to organize the work. No one expected you to sit at a computer from 9-5 regardless of whether you were in the office or at home.

However I have worked through weekends, vacation days and one christmas holiday to complete work to a deadline. The reward for working through christmas was a trip to the USA all expenses paid which lasted 10 days. And we stayed in the best hotels. The only expense not covered was alcohol. Later I got the opportunity for an exchange to the USA as a visiting professor. That was an interesting glitzy year.

I believe academia is a very different job now with staff run off their feet and a lot more stress. Many of the conferences have become virtual so not so many nice paid for trips to exotic destinations.

I’m ex NHS too. The NHS only functions because of staff goodwill, extra hours are the unwritten contractual requirement we all signed up to. I do look back now and realise how much it sapped my energy, it took me a good year after I retired to realise how tired I had been.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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 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 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.