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Working the hours you are paid for or unpaid overtime?

(92 Posts)
biglouis Sun 07-Apr-24 17:22:13

Have you ever been in a job where you were “expected” to work until the job was done, even if it involved going outside your contracted hours. Or did you just work the hours you were paid for, prioritise the most important tasks, and let the rest pile up or just slide?

Many years ago when I worked in local government we had contracted hours. I used to do quite a lot of extra work in my own time because I enjoyed it. For example reading up and doing research for exhibitions and displays. However there came a time when the structure of the profession changed.

I found that I and many of my colleagues were no longer valued because we had qualified under an earlier system and were not graduates. They had a bit of paper we didn’t have, so I made planned to go back into education, Applying to uni is a year long process because of research on courses, campus visits, interviews and so on. I received offers from all 5 unis on the UCAS form and was continually holding 2 offers until I made my final selection.

My final year in work I more or less coasted because I had nothing to lose. I had already said goodbye to the job. I don’t mean that I skived or wasted time and sat around drinking tea. I simply worked the hours I was paid for. No extras, no volunteering, no putting forward ideas or doing presentations or outreach activities. Of course my boss noticed that I had (as he put it) lost my mojo. But there was nothing he could do. They don’t sack you in local government for just working your hours.

When I resigned it was in a letter of one sentence. I did not tell my boss and he learned on the grapevine.

Frogs Tue 09-Apr-24 17:48:05

Ilovecheese

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.

One of my sons works in the private sector, not in a management roll nor on the shop floor. He regularly works 10+ hours a week of unpaid overtime in order to meet deadlines.

tictacnana Tue 09-Apr-24 18:16:40

Teaching !

nadateturbe Tue 09-Apr-24 18:17:03

It does sound ridiculous, though, doesn't it

It does MissA. Definitely doesn't apply to any office I worked in.

Cheryl1959 Tue 09-Apr-24 18:36:39

After many years in NHS I dread to think how many hrs of unpaid work & like many others in past & now . Despite good time management , as it is a public service patients are the priority. Would anyone want a nurse to walk away from a family member that either had an emergency or needed the toilet . The answer would be of course not . There is NO overtime & time back is non existent as unable to take back due to low staffing numbers. NHS staff SAVE the government money at a cost to the staff no wonder morale is near or at burnout !!!

LuckyFour Tue 09-Apr-24 19:12:53

I worked in the Health Service and my job was to go out and meet up with people who were on long term sick. I worked hard to find the right help they needed and made sure they knew the job was there for them when they were ready to come back. My immediate superior who never left the office was, I think, jealous of my success. She undermined me in front of two much younger colleagues and that was the moment I decided to leave. Never regretted it.

Mamardoit Tue 09-Apr-24 19:13:09

I worked for a High Street bank and always knew that my hours started at 9am but was expected to be at work for 8.45 at the latest. At the other end of the day no one left until everything balanced.

Once I had children I did various short term jobs. Part time piecework mainly. That meant you got paid for what you produced. The old fashioned way of getting paid which worked. I pulled in a bit of office cleaning too when DH was around in the evenings. Once DH started working away (sometimes overseas) all that stopped. It didn't bother me because when he was away he got a better rate of pay and overtime pay.

When he wasn't working away DH was on the staff so he worked all the hours necessary with no extra for overtime. When the firms were busy his hourly rate dipped. When they weren't busy we worried about him being made redundant. In the end he took redundancy and set up his own business. So back to if you don't work you get nothing.

Seems we have a very different working life experience to the majority of posters.

MissAdventure Tue 09-Apr-24 19:17:27

nadateturbe

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

It does MissA. Definitely doesn't apply to any office I worked in.

Someone inboxed me to ask if it was a particular place I'd worked, and they were right!

grin

Mamardoit Tue 09-Apr-24 19:18:01

Missed a bit once my youngest started school I became a class room assistant. Got paid very little but really enjoyed it and I got school holidays.

For those who worry about these things DH has a degree. I don't!

valdavi Tue 09-Apr-24 19:21:59

I'm NHS non-clinical. In one post I worked a lot of unpaid overtime as I loved the job & the commute was easy & I didn't have any caring responsibilities at that time. At other times I'e either been caring for elderly relative or 2 school-age children so in order to be fair to them I usually just worked my paid hours.A point I'd like to raise is, in one of the latter jobs I had a 2 hour round trip & caring responsibilities at home & full time so I worked my hours only. I had a colleague who always got in early & stayed late, unpaid, & made sure everyone knew. However they seemed to think that that entitled them to snoop around, gossip, disturb other people, send umpteen emails & notes about the state of the kitchen , the state of the loo, someone having a window open too much, is someone using so & so's coffee, what time did X get in this am etc etc which not only meant they didn't get much work done, it also affected everyone else's ability to get through their work. I know I did more in my standard hours than they did in their voluntarily extended ones.

nadateturbe Tue 09-Apr-24 20:03:48

MissAdventure 😁.

Tilly8 Tue 09-Apr-24 20:06:47

I remember being quite appalled at how many extra hours teachers were expected to work without receiving any extra pay. It was the late 80’s and I became heavily involved in the forming of an after school club at our local primary school. A few of us were volunteers but many involved were teachers who received nothing extra for the hours and hours they worked getting the club off the ground. I became the treasurer and always insisted that the kids club staff received overtime for any extra hours they worked. It won’t surprise a lot of you to know I was a civil servant and our terms and conditions were far more generous than teachers at the time.

MissAdventure Tue 09-Apr-24 20:09:10

A lot of teachers actually end up buying supplies for these clubs, too, from what I know.

LovelyLady Tue 09-Apr-24 20:22:59

Worked in FE and had a bully of a boss. She was very small and everyone was afraid of her. She only liked small people. Horrid woman. You were expected to come in very early and stay late even when students were on holiday. Will never forget that nasty bully. No thank you ever, just a look that would turn milk. She was always looking for a rich husband, and managed to get her children jobs. No one else could get their children work. She would summons me to a meeting, I’d knock the door and she’d not answer. (Power game play) I’d return to my lecture room. She wasn’t happy but it kept happening. I saw in the press that she had an award. Wish I’d spoken about the bullying. No one else reported either - we were afraid of loosing our jobs. This was 30years ago but still when I hear someone with her same Christian name, I shudder.

Tilly8 Tue 09-Apr-24 20:55:20

Misadventure - we were lucky in that the club was very popular and we managed to run the kids club financially separate to the school. Apart from a couple of hairy terms we always had the funds to cover resources. The club is still running 25+ years later. I retired as treasurer about 5 years ago.

MissAdventure Tue 09-Apr-24 22:09:54

That's a great achievement!

Think of the difference you made to a lot of families in that time.

I read for a minute "apart from a couple of hairy teens" smile

NellieJ Tue 09-Apr-24 22:21:01

Worked till the job was done nhs