Expectancy of working past hours

agnes

agnes

agnes

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2006
Posts
16,893
Location
Amsterdam, NL
Sup all, in my current job, it's expected to stay after you finish. If you leave on time, it's heavily frowned upon. It takes me 2 hours to get to where I work on most shifts.

Yesterday, I left 45 minutes after I finished as the level of work was so high I just couldn't walk away. And when I eventually did, it was received badly.

This has become such a regular occurrence within the team, that me, the new guy (couple of months now) have a 'bad rep' for leaving on time.

Even though the first 2 weeks, I came in 45 mins early every day for the first 2 weeks and have only probably actually left on time a handful of times.

I'm all for giving that bit extra, truly I am. But the nature of work means that there is ALWAYS a back log, it's not a job that will have nothing to do. I just don't want to become a person who stays at the office 1+ hour after they finish every day yet I don't want to become that guy everyone hates because I leave on time?

Thoughts? I mentioned it in a catch up meeting with HR, and they simply said "it's the nature of the business and to be expected". So, I can't turn to them. I've been contracting for years and normally, when I finish is when I finish, if you want more, you pay for more, this is perm.
 
IMO if you need to stay late because you actually have work that is on a deadline, stay. If not, go on time. If you're doing your contracted hours, screw them, they're fools for staying late and their bosses are laughing at them getting extra labour for free.
 
agnes said:
Sup all, in my current job, it's expected to stay after you finish.
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we literally all stand there with our coats and bags staring at the clock on the wall and the manager has to dive out of the way at 6am to avoid getting stampeded.

try telling us to stay after the end of shift and the answer will be "how much you offering for it"?

Cant understand why people let themselves get bent over to work more than their hours, all your doing is lowering your hourly rate.


if theres too much work to be done in the time your boss needs to either hire more people or start paying for overtime.
 
Do you get paid any extra? I think the whole working early/late thing is indicitive of poor management either on your part if it's your own workload or in this case, on their part if there's an infinite amount of work to do. What's the point of advertised hours if it's expected to always exceed them? I understand the need for it occassionally if something is really important and the ball has been dropped, but not as a regular occurance.

It's not like they can fire you for it, I'd like to see an employer justify firing an employee that worked hard in his contracted hours.
 
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I wouldn't tolerate it, but then I don't know what industry you're in or what your employer's like. For me, I'll happily stay a bit late now and then if necessary but then my management will also let me leave a bit early if I need to. Expecting me to stay late every day however and making me feel guilty for leaving after my contracted hours have ended would be unreasonable to expect.

They either need to pay you overtime (if you choose to take it) or you should just leave on time and say **** 'em.

Again, I don't know what your relationship is like with your employers so what I say may well have viery different repercussions for you than it would for me.



What they're doing is flat out wrong though, no doubt about that.
 
I work the hours I'm paid to work. If an employer want me to work more, I expect to be paid. I'm not a charity, and I sure as hell don't see managing directors offering to work for free.
 
What does your contract say?
My contracted hours are 9-5:30, I leave no later than 5:30 unless my manager has agreed overtime / call-out pay for working extra.

You shouldn't be "expected" to work extra if your contract states your working hours and nothing has been agreed. If theres a massive backlog tell them to get people in to assist.

My journey home is 1:30 each way, so leaving late is not a option I want to take unless its required.
 
Look in your contract and see if it says somewhere that you are expected to work longer than contracted hours if the business needs it.

If it says that nowhere then your contract covers you anyway, surely this is a little bit of bullying for people to be treating people who leave ontime different specially if its contractual hours?

:|
 
Do you work for an American or Japanese company? I've worked for both and working beyond normal hours is expected. Doubly so if they consider themselves part of the media sector.
 
oldbag said:
IMO if you need to stay late because you actually have work that is on a deadline, stay. If not, go on time. If you're doing your contracted hours, screw them, they're fools for staying late and their bosses are laughing at them getting extra labour.
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When I had my first catch up with my boss, he brought it up. Basically stated that he had seen me leave on time and it's not the done thing here (ignored the 2 weeks of me coming in MUCH earlier than needed as I wanted to give a good impression), and that it's expected if I'm to receive any form of bonus.

The bonus amount isn't stated and naturally, no one is giving up how much they get (and too right, I wouldn't).

The nature of the work means there is always work in the queue of things to do. If it's absolutely critical, but in this instance, it really wasn't but I already was pushing my time.
 
Depends on how much you're getting paid and how you're getting paid. If it's by the hour/day or you're on a low salary for the industry I'd expect to be paid overtime for any extra hours I did. If I was receiving a high salary, well I think the company has a right to expect a certain amount of unpaid overtime from you to get the job done.
 
To summerise, no, not paid, I came in on the Sunday of the second week working here as some overtime was offered... When I asked the rate, I was returned with "There is no rate unless it's project work, no TOIL. But it is noted for bonus".

Salary is an average salary for a senior 2nd line back end support role. Nothing special, trust me.

As for contract, looked this morning on my long ass journey in. Nothing is stated about extra hours. Just what I said about 37.5 a week.
 
agnes said:
When I had my first catch up with my boss, he brought it up. Basically stated that he had seen me leave on time and it's not the done thing here (ignored the 2 weeks of me coming in MUCH earlier than needed as I wanted to give a good impression), and that it's expected if I'm to receive any form of bonus.

The bonus amount isn't stated and naturally, no one is giving up how much they get (and too right, I wouldn't).

The nature of the work means there is always work in the queue of things to do. If it's absolutely critical, but in this instance, it really wasn't but I already was pushing my time.
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Shrug, I'd personally find another job in that scenario. Life's too short to spend more time than you have to at work, even for a tiny bonus (after tax).
 
Also, another thing to note is that the Sunday I came in, the cost of the commute was out of my pocket and also it took me 4 hours round trip to get in for 1 hours work... As the other guys didn't even show up anyway. I was fuming.

I was let off an hour early the next day after I asked the rates, but this is when we (manager and I) had the chat about expected extra effort. Both staying late on shifts and weekend work.
 
oldbag said:
Shrug, I'd personally find another job in that scenario. Life's too short to spend more time than you have to at work, even for a tiny bonus (after tax).
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I've already started looking chap. Not happy and stress is creeping in.
 
agnes said:
To summerise, no, not paid, I came in on the Sunday of the second week working here as some overtime was offered... When I asked the rate, I was returned with "There is no rate unless it's project work, no TOIL. But it is noted for bonus".

Salary is an average salary for a senior 2nd line back end support role. Nothing special, trust me.

As for contract, looked this morning on my long ass journey in. Nothing is stated about extra hours. Just what I said about 37.5 a week.
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If thats the case then you cant possibly get disciplined for it :\.

So what there bonus's are basically them paying you for said overtime?
Sounds kind of stupid to me, discount overtime lol, they dont exactly have to pay you minimum wage for those hours you specially when its some kind of lump sum. Say your bonus is like 1k and you divide it up between all the hours over time you did outside of your contract I hazard a bet its probably pretty low.

\o/ Either that or its really good and thats why everyone stays \o/.
 
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