Overtime, contracts, custom and practice

[Fatman2]

sleep envy said:

Fatman2 said:

I guess I was fortunate when I was salaried as my company paid OT. If I did not get paid OT then I definitely wouldn't travel in my own time unless I knew the company gave it back in some way i.e. through a day in lieu or something.

Sadly I get the feeling the OP's company has a manager that likes to take the mick and expects people to work for free. Not on in my book.

IME people who I've worked with that have taken that attitude are those who get given the stty projects and whose names are first on the redundancy list

the days of paid OT for salaried staff are long gone

I can, hand on my heart, say that I've never worked on a naff project because of my attitude and have yet to be made redundant (although I say 'yet!').

I have, in the past, worked over and above what was expected (as a salaried member of staff with no OT) but I knew the company was first class so had my loyalty in spades. Thus when necessary I'd happily do a run of 80 hour weeks but this happened with the knowledge that I'd, a). get a bonus and b). when times were quiet I could work periods of 5 hour days and still get paid my salary.

This is true give/take and IMHO breeds a long fruitful and respectful relationship with employees/employers.

The trouble is, most companies think they are doing you a favour by employing you and expect 45-50 hour weeks for nothing in return. This is fine if the hard work you put in results in promotion/bonus/payrise etc. but often it does not and only sets your stall out for making 45-50 hour weeks the norm.

From my experience it is the people that regularly operate this kind of working week that are the root cause of the problem. If it became the exception, rather than the norm, then perhaps companies wouldn't be operating so much on the charitable nature of its employees.

[Johnnytheboy]

What he said - unless you're a supremely highly paid industry, expecting people to work for free with not even some unofficial time in lieu/bonus/overtime is hardly likely to make for motivated staff.

[sleep envy]

Fatman - your post suggest it was in the past, have you been promoted to director?

[Fatman2]

sleep envy said:

Fatman - your post suggest it was in the past, have you been promoted to director?

Kind of. Sadly I left that company as the work dried up completely

I'm now a director but not what I consider to be a 'real' one though as I work as a Ltd company contractor.

[sleep envy]

To make sure all your overtime is paid, nice

[Fatman2]

sleep envy said:

To make sure all your overtime is paid, nice

For sure

It's taken me a while to get to this situation and whilst I've been paid OT in the past, have found the hard way that commitment and loyalty is one way traffic for some companies

The grass isn't always completely green though as it's a little more precarious going Ltd.