Oh dear.. suspended

Beansprout said:
What we don't know (unless I missed something) is the time of the texts in the morning, and how much sleep the OP got....I find if you're tired in the morning it's better to stay awake, eat/drink something, and generally wake up..you'll be fine. Your body works much better after it's been awake for a while.

So true, ive just finished my 6th 12 hour night shift (6PM - 6AM) and now ive 4 days off. However, ive got to take the g/f to work for 8:30AM, go and pick my little bro up and drop him at school and i will be in bed by 9:30. 12:30 alarm to fetch g/f for dinner so she can have her car back!!

If i go to sleep now, ill never wake up :D
 
MNuTz said:
As for Bigstan, you may work long shifts and all the rest of it but i bet your standard of work is a lot worse at the end of several 18 hour shifts than if you rested properly in between. I know from experience, you can go to work and do the hours but your concentration levels drop, it effects your work.

You're correct, working prolonged extended shifts does affect performance.

My main point was that the occasional long shift should not affect one's performance and anybody who uses tiredness as an excuse for not doing the occasional extended shift is either unwell or lazy.
 
Bigstan said:
You're correct, working prolonged extended shifts does affect performance.

My main point was that the occasional long shift should not affect one's performance and anybody who uses tiredness as an excuse for not doing the occasional extended shift is either unwell or lazy.

How would the op cope doing long shifts in a labour intensive job? Not very well I expect, no sympathy from me.
 
DAvE18 said:
Hmmmm Is it not illegal for them to ask you to be in before you have had 11 hours between shifts or overtime, thats the law in the uk as far as our employers know. Working time directive !

Infact quick edit. You go in there and tell your HR department he WAS breaking the law by asking you to come in Before you have had your 11 hours and watch as they crumble and give u a verbal if that.

It will work and anyone who says otherwise doesnt know how HR work.

Unless I'm missing something, he finished at midnight and was told to be in by 11am... so that is indeed 11 hours.

I would have thought you could be summarily dismissed for telling your boss to 'f off' incidentally? That seems pretty serious to me.
 
MNuTz said:
Its simple, do your job in your contracted hours and then leave. Dont do the extra hours and they cant complain about it.

To this this would be just plain stupid, there are some jobs which just required out of hours work once in a while, flexibilty is required and generally the UKs workforce is very flexible, this is one of the reasons why we have a strong economy compared to the contract hugging europeans. People who abide by each line of the contract will find themself not improving their work situation or being promoted and such because lets face it companies need flexibility and if your not going to provide that they probably wont want to give you another contract when your current one expires, or any other company for that matter
 
I think if this was a rare event and the work was needed he would have no problem - he feels however that this is happening all the time, he doesn't get paid for it, and isn't getting his time back.

It's not the hours, it's not the sleep, it's his perception of how he is being treated.

And bigstan - off shore doing 12 hour shifts? Do you work constantly or do you have like 2 months on 2 months off? Do you get paid more than you would on a mainland 9-5 job? These things need to be taken into account for the reasons above.
 
Telescopi said:
And bigstan - off shore doing 12 hour shifts? Do you work constantly or do you have like 2 months on 2 months off? Do you get paid more than you would on a mainland 9-5 job? These things need to be taken into account for the reasons above.

I usually work 1 month on, 1 month off and I get paid about twice what I would earn onshore.

My point is that to be asked to do the odd exceptional shift is not unreasonable, as long as it doesn't become the norm and the employer isn't taking the ****
 
Ah reminds me of my work place. Guy here recently handed in his notice and finishes end of this week. He is quitting simply due to how stupid and incompetent our new manager is. (one person finished his notice 2 weeks ago and another leaves next week).

Long story short, massive pressure is being put on him to "get stuff done" before he finishes, most of which is unreasonable (from the aforementioned **** now managing us). It brought great joy to our entire department when he told our manager to "go **** himself" in front of the hole team :p
 
Bigstan said:
My point is that to be asked to do the odd exceptional shift is not unreasonable, as long as it doesn't become the norm and the employer isn't taking the ****

Only if you're on a decent wage. No way work overtime if in retail/minimum wage.
 
Fight club style for you I think - kick his ass, break his nose, call him a bitch and realise you are just a coporate work whore. Leave your job and do something you enjoy more, preferably something outdoors that's a little more fulfilling than everyday having to ass lick pen-pushing white-collar jumped-up *****.

Thats just my opinion btw :p
 
squiffy said:
Only if you're on a decent wage. No way work overtime if in retail/minimum wage.

It's up to the individual to negotiate his or her salary.

If you can't manage that, don't come here complaining that your work conditions are unacceptable.

For Christ's sake, grow some backbone you lot and don't come on here winging because you're having to do work not detailed in the contract you never paid attention to :rolleyes:
 
My work has just changed my contract to include a load of rather unpleasant duties that were previously done by contractors, so I am now expected to do my own duties and those that were done by two separate outside contractors as well. I am on a nationally negotiated wage, so will get no extra pay for this :(
I've tried to leave on the company voluntary redundancy package, but I'm apparently too useful to be released (the lame and lazy employees meanwhile are being given nice big payoffs to leave the company), so I'm stuck in a rotten job doing three times the work for no more pay, and I'm told my department will fold within two years and who knows what will happen to me then - thanks BT, you really know how to motivate your workforce - rant over .
 
wozzizname said:
My work has just changed my contract to include a load of rather unpleasant duties that were previously done by contractors, so I am now expected to do my own duties and those that were done by two separate outside contractors as well. I am on a nationally negotiated wage, so will get no extra pay for this :(
I've tried to leave on the company voluntary redundancy package, but I'm apparently too useful to be released (the lame and lazy employees meanwhile are being given nice big payoffs to leave the company), so I'm stuck in a rotten job doing three times the work for no more pay, and I'm told my department will fold within two years and who knows what will happen to me then - thanks BT, you really know how to motivate your workforce - rant over .

Grow some backbone and negotiate yourself a better salary if you're so valuable.

If this is not an option - leave.
Don't be a doormat - make sure you're paid for what you do.
 
quit get another job, take them to court over constructive dismissal :)

if nothing else it will give you something to do
 
Legal this, legal that, legally this, legally that.....
And you wonder why the first thing said after any accident or exchange in words these days is "I'll see you in court...." or "I'll just call my lawyer...."

I'm sorry but once you get into the real world and you start working in a position of responsibility you need to be prepared to let a lot of that go.
Sure the law is there to protect workers of all levels but if you want to work to the letter of these laws for your life then expect at best mediocre jobs with mediocre pay.

So there are laws on maximum amounts of hours worked, shift length etc.
However there is also the needs of the business and the company you work for and above else you really need to put these first.
If you can't do that then go and find some work where your hours are 9:00 - 5:00 and you are not expected to put in those extra hours as and when required - just don't expect to be at the top end of any pay scales.

I've worked in IT for 12 years now in one way or another.
I started by selling PC's and I was in at 8:50am and was leaving at 5:40pm
I very rarely did overtime and I was paid the same as most people in retail.
I moved to general Technical Support and my pay increased.
However once again my hours were pretty standard and so I was at the lower end of possible pay for that kind of work.
I moved away from customer facing Technical Support and became the only IT person in the company I work for now.
Things changed - I could be found working all hours.

My longest?
Moving the company from their SBS network to the AD Win2k Domain we still run to this day.
Started at 8:00am on the Saturday and left at 2:00am Sunday morning.
Arrived back onsite at 9:00am Sunday and was still there when the first people arrived at work on the Monday.
Even then I had to hang around to make sure there were no problems with users logging onto the new network etc.

Forget all this legal rubbish - if you want to work for a company and earn respect within it then you knuckle down and show that you are dedicated to your work and the company.
I'm now the IT Manager of the same company, I have three people under me and I feel I'm well respected.
I doubt I'd be in the same position now if when I'd joined the company as the only IT person I'd stuck to my contracted 9:00am - 5:30pm hours no matter what was going on or needed doing.
 
stoofa said:
Legal this, legal that, legally this, legally that.....
And you wonder why the first thing said after any accident or exchange in words these days is "I'll see you in court...." or "I'll just call my lawyer...."

I'm sorry but once you get into the real world and you start working in a position of responsibility you need to be prepared to let a lot of that go.
Sure the law is there to protect workers of all levels but if you want to work to the letter of these laws for your life then expect at best mediocre jobs with mediocre pay.

So there are laws on maximum amounts of hours worked, shift length etc.
However there is also the needs of the business and the company you work for and above else you really need to put these first.
If you can't do that then go and find some work where your hours are 9:00 - 5:00 and you are not expected to put in those extra hours as and when required - just don't expect to be at the top end of any pay scales.

I've worked in IT for 12 years now in one way or another.
I started by selling PC's and I was in at 8:50am and was leaving at 5:40pm
I very rarely did overtime and I was paid the same as most people in retail.
I moved to general Technical Support and my pay increased.
However once again my hours were pretty standard and so I was at the lower end of possible pay for that kind of work.
I moved away from customer facing Technical Support and became the only IT person in the company I work for now.
Things changed - I could be found working all hours.

My longest?
Moving the company from their SBS network to the AD Win2k Domain we still run to this day.
Started at 8:00am on the Saturday and left at 2:00am Sunday morning.
Arrived back onsite at 9:00am Sunday and was still there when the first people arrived at work on the Monday.
Even then I had to hang around to make sure there were no problems with users logging onto the new network etc.

Forget all this legal rubbish - if you want to work for a company and earn respect within it then you knuckle down and show that you are dedicated to your work and the company.
I'm now the IT Manager of the same company, I have three people under me and I feel I'm well respected.
I doubt I'd be in the same position now if when I'd joined the company as the only IT person I'd stuck to my contracted 9:00am - 5:30pm hours no matter what was going on or needed doing.

This guy speaks the truth.

If you're happy with what you're doing and want to stay there for the rest of your life, then carry on the way you're going.
If you want to advance and get promotion, grow some Cahonies and show your boss that you want that promotion.
 
squiffy said:
No it's not, some jobs have a fixed hourly wage (except for sunday/nights)

Nonsense.

Every salary is negotiable.

If the employer says otherwise, go somewhere else.
 
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