Work Your Proper Hours Day
Discussion
The TUC has designated this Friday as 'be a lazy bast*rd day'. They also recommend that anyone asked to do anything by a customer or client should reply 'it's not my job Guv'. Details below.
BBC said:
People should take their breaks, says the TUC
Senior managers have overtaken teachers at the top of the unpaid overtime league table, the TUC has said.
The union group said its research showed overworked managers could earn another £24,000 per year if they were paid for the overtime they put in.
Teachers also burned the midnight oil, working on average 11 hours 36 minutes each week without pay.
The TUC is encouraging people to work only their proper hours on Friday as part of its labour campaign.
And it says they should take their proper breaks.
The research suggested workers in other areas such as law, finance and accountancy also suffered from the long hours culture.
Employees in the UK still work the longest hours in Europe, the organisation said.
However, the figures show the number of people who work unpaid overtime has fallen for the fourth year in a row.
According to the figures from the TUC, 4.76 million workers did unpaid overtime last year, which is a 6% fall since 2001.
There is still a long way to go before the UK gets anywhere near the European average
TUC leader Brendan Barber said the aim of the campaign was to encourage people to think seriously about their own work life balance.
He said: "Work Your Proper Hours Day is an opportunity for a bit of fun after work and during lunch breaks up and down the country.
"But it should also make us all think seriously not just about our own work-life balance, but also about whether we can organise our workplaces better so that we can be just as productive but get home a bit earlier.
"We are beginning to cut the UK's working hours, but there is still a long way to go before the UK gets anywhere near the European average."
'it's not my job Guv' saying that to anyone customer or collegue would get you fired here...
I pay your wages so it is your
ing job if i say so 
I dont expect people to work extra hours for nothing, i dont clock people in and out, but equally if there is a problem and its 5pm i dont expect you to just bugger off without a) trying to fix it, or b) if you cant stay arranging for someone else to look at it...
Just yesterday one chap said his mother wanted him to take her to an exhibition at 3:30 could he go, no problem says I cos a) he asked and b) i know if we do need to do extra he'll stay and do it
What I dont agree with is where a company generally expects you to do an extra couple of hours each day for nothing. that is wrong... and taking the piss
manys the time i've done a day on site thats not finished untill 10pm but equally sometimes i've buggered off home by lunchtime as the days wrapped up...
I pay your wages so it is your
ing job if i say so I dont expect people to work extra hours for nothing, i dont clock people in and out, but equally if there is a problem and its 5pm i dont expect you to just bugger off without a) trying to fix it, or b) if you cant stay arranging for someone else to look at it...
Just yesterday one chap said his mother wanted him to take her to an exhibition at 3:30 could he go, no problem says I cos a) he asked and b) i know if we do need to do extra he'll stay and do it
What I dont agree with is where a company generally expects you to do an extra couple of hours each day for nothing. that is wrong... and taking the piss
manys the time i've done a day on site thats not finished untill 10pm but equally sometimes i've buggered off home by lunchtime as the days wrapped up...
They do flexible working hours at my place, which is good - as long as you are there between 10am and 4pm (3pm Fridays) you can work a 'normal' day which might be a bit longer than standard hours, but because you're used to it you don't notice. Then you can get in late or leave early if it's convenient and take upto 2 days per month off if you save up enough hours 
So I can effectively have another 24 'days off' per year, in addition to the 25 days + Christmas week annual leave that I get anyway.
(That's why I'm at home now because I need to use up my annual leave before end of Feb)
So I can effectively have another 24 'days off' per year, in addition to the 25 days + Christmas week annual leave that I get anyway. (That's why I'm at home now because I need to use up my annual leave before end of Feb)
Graham said:
What I dont agree with is where a company generally expects you to do an extra couple of hours each day for nothing. that is wrong... and taking the piss
The company I used to work for was like that. If you arrived less than 15 minutes early, or left within an hour of your actual finish time, the boss would call you a part-timer. As for taking lunchbreaks...
But hey. It was okay. If the entire office put in a lot of overtime (60 hours + between us) in a week - all unpaid, of course - then the boss would go out and buy us a bunch of flowers to look at in the office.
And people wonder why I then opted to go freelance.
The last establishment I worked for, the Management team in IT had a "flexible arrangement", they were all each others mates, one employed the other who then employed the other etc etc. If all of them were in them someone in the department would call "HOUSE"...it was that rare an occurrence. One of them clocked up 60 days leave, or "working from home" as they put it. Until we discovered that this particular manager had no VPN connection fob to enable her to connect to the network from home.....then at the end of the year she proudly proclaimed that she still had 14 days to take before the end of the year.......
I think the general expectation of a professional is that you put in the hours required to do your job. Notions of fixed hours are pretty arbitrary and meaningless IMO. Clearly that means being there beyond 5:30 if there's a job that needs finishing, and likewise not worrying about coming in by 8 if you've got bugger all on that day.
The last establishment I worked for, the Management team in IT had a "flexible arrangement", they were all each others mates, one employed the other who then employed the other etc etc. If all of them were in them someone in the department would call "HOUSE"...it was that rare an occurrence. One of them clocked up 60 days leave, or "working from home" as they put it. Until we discovered that this particular manager had no VPN connection fob to enable her to connect to the network from home.....then at the end of the year she proudly proclaimed that she still had 14 days to take before the end of the year.......
my new job which admittedly pays better than equivalents in the field take the piss with the hours a little, twelve hour shifts from 7 till 8 with an hours break, I actually get 1/2 an hour of im lucky. The place closes at 8 and the pay stops but its not physically possible to finish then as theres at least an hours worth of work still to be done. I think the european union is a load of twaddle but the sooner the working time directive is enforced the better as far as im concerned. Incidentally the company I work for isn't a british one.
I think that this thread highlights something else that's a particularly British trait, and that's the reluctance to stand up for oneself because doing so might appear rude. If you're working the hours, ask to be paid for them or else work to your contract then go home.
My first 'proper' job after leaving university was as a field engineer. (That's the poor bugger up to his knees in snow, or up to his arse in crocodiles). The hours were horrendous, but I was young, eager and enjoyed the work. My average week was 83 hours .... a long week would be heading towards the 100 hour mark. That said, although the work was stressful and hard, the job was great for a 21 year old because you were given a huge expense account and a different hotel for every night of the week. All meals, a reasonable amount of drinks etc were laid on for you. All you had to do was get out of bed in the morning, work your arse off and make sure the job was finished before you moved on to the next one. Another plus, for someone saving, was that you never had time to spend a penny you were making .... then there was the company car (started on an Astra
but after seven years had proven myself to be worthy of a scooby ... now that starts a whole new topic, because the powers that be in that company were all car nuts. No-oen had a brand new car, but everyone had fun cars. There was a Seirra Cosworth, Lotus Carlton, 928, a raft of 4x4's ... the whole idea being that the depreciation on the cars was as little as possible...)
Anyway ... the point of this lil story is that somewhere in the 2nd month I had a word with my MD and pointed out that I was salaried and contracted for 38 hours a week. I asked him if he wanted to pay me an overtime rate for the rest of the week or if I should just go home on Wednesday and put my feet up. He turned a little pale and we started to talk about hourly rates.
That job paid for my second degree and my house.
My first 'proper' job after leaving university was as a field engineer. (That's the poor bugger up to his knees in snow, or up to his arse in crocodiles). The hours were horrendous, but I was young, eager and enjoyed the work. My average week was 83 hours .... a long week would be heading towards the 100 hour mark. That said, although the work was stressful and hard, the job was great for a 21 year old because you were given a huge expense account and a different hotel for every night of the week. All meals, a reasonable amount of drinks etc were laid on for you. All you had to do was get out of bed in the morning, work your arse off and make sure the job was finished before you moved on to the next one. Another plus, for someone saving, was that you never had time to spend a penny you were making .... then there was the company car (started on an Astra
but after seven years had proven myself to be worthy of a scooby ... now that starts a whole new topic, because the powers that be in that company were all car nuts. No-oen had a brand new car, but everyone had fun cars. There was a Seirra Cosworth, Lotus Carlton, 928, a raft of 4x4's ... the whole idea being that the depreciation on the cars was as little as possible...) Anyway ... the point of this lil story is that somewhere in the 2nd month I had a word with my MD and pointed out that I was salaried and contracted for 38 hours a week. I asked him if he wanted to pay me an overtime rate for the rest of the week or if I should just go home on Wednesday and put my feet up. He turned a little pale and we started to talk about hourly rates.
That job paid for my second degree and my house.
action tonight J1mmyD said:
I think that this thread highlights something else that's a particularly British trait, and that's the reluctance to stand up for oneself because doing so might appear rude. If you're working the hours, ask to be paid for them or else work to your contract then go home.
It depends really on the job you are doing. As pointed out in the article the people doing most unpaid overtime are senior managers. Your contracted hours might well be 9-5, but if you are being paid a decent salary it is expected you will do more if needed.
stumartin said:
I think the general expectation of a professional is that you put in the hours required to do your job.
Indeed, my contract does not specify working hours at all - it just says "this is what you do" (which seems to cover anything and everything). As I combine being a Prof with being a senior manager, I work a lot of hours when you tot it up - but to a fair extent I do them when I choose.
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