To not work 20+ hours above my contracted hours.

[Graceflorrick]

In the last two weeks, I have worked my normal contracted hours plus and additional 20+ hours (easily) each week unpaid. I can take the time back, but I don't have time as it would cause me more work.

I'm happy to work very hard during my contracted hours, I also don't mind not having time for breaks or lunch (or to pop to the loo) BUT I just want to be able to work the hours that I'm contracted for.

AIBU? Is this just the way work is these days? Are we all doing it?

I've resigned so I won't be continuing in my current job, but is it likely that this will be the case whenever I go?

Without giving too much away I'm in an advisory position in the public sector.

[JellyBelli]

They need another member of staff and are not being reasonable, talk to ACAS.
The Acas helpline number is 0300 123 1100. It is available Monday 8am-8pm, Tuesday 8am-6pm, Wednesday to Thursday 8am-8pm, Friday 8am-6pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2042

[rollonthesummer]

You sound like most of my teaching colleagues!

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

[00100001]

The thing a lot of employees fail to realise about contracted hours, is that the company has signed it too. So all this "it's the norm to work x hours above" is the employees problem and there is nothing compelling the employee to work above those hours.

[LaurieMarlow]

Grace, that sounds very familiar. And that's a classic marker of incompetent management.

There's no working around that so you're absolutely right to leave.

[LaurieMarlow]

is the employees problem and there is nothing compelling the employee to work above those hours

I don't think people fail to recognise that, it's just that in reality and in the context of many workplace cultures, additional pressure is put on employees to make it their problem because ...

It might be interpreted as incompetence if you don't
If you don't pick up some of the burden, even more will fall to your colleagues, marking you as 'not a team player'
You certainly won't progress if you don't take on the extra stuff

In every place I've ever worked, it just wasn't an option to say 'thanks chums, it's 5.30, see you later', because as Grace says, you would be managed out.

I've seen plenty try.

[TheProblemOfSusan]

Well done on resigning Grace. It's not like that everywhere, they're taking the piss. It sounds like no amount of careful boundary setting would have helped.

Consultancy at an hour rate sounds like a great idea, but not all teams are like this, honestly.

[peggyundercrackers]

its not commonplace where I work. people generally work their contracted hours, there are times where people work an extra few hours here and there but we get our time back. we are expected to manage our own time in general but if you work additional hours its not frowned upon when you take them back, its accepted the business will suffer if people take this TOIL back.

[Ebbenmeowgi]

I think it depends where you work. I work in the voluntary sector and there were only 2 jobs I've had where I was expected to work hugely above my contracted hours and that was for v badly run charities with incompetent managers. I'm happy to do above my hours on occasion in other roles but have never had a problem really taking time off in lieu for it. Guess you'd expect more understanding of having a healthy work-life balance working for a non profit (although I once worked for a mental health charity that had a massively unhealthy culture of over work! So many people left!).

[Graceflorrick]

I am finding his thread so cathartic, so thank you all so much.

We've had a locum in the office for the last two weeks. She's laughed at what is expected of her and has told the powers that be that the expectations are unrealistic. She's not staying either.

I'm counting down the days (but continuing to experience work related anxiety and pressure despite my end date)!

[Feckerlino]

I'm contracted to work 26 hours. I regurly work 40 and still cannot keep up with the workload. I have raised it time and time again and it falls on deaf ears. Its shit.

[Feckerlino]

Oh, and I asked for 2 hours off this week to attend an appointment - had to take it as holiday

[Graceflorrick]

Feck, that's awful. It's so very sad to hear how many of us are experiencing this.

[murmuration]

In my field it's totally the norm. And people leave and those that are left just have to take up the slack, and then they go "Oh, look, we don't actually need another person..." but because there are individuals who would be let down if we don't do our job-plus-50%-again, we do it anyway. It's a bind.

[aintnothinbutagstring]

Depends where you, in public sector it is absolutely normal to leave at your designated time and everything else can wait until the next day. In private sector, I've been expected to work on Saturday morning unpaid, I was young so sucked it up and did it, wouldn't now though. My dh is a locum and works his designated hours, if he does have to go over then he'll expect to be paid so he tries to avoid it because doing it regularly would be seen as taking the piss a bit.

[afromom]

I have the same issue. I work in the voluntary sector in an advisory role and very rarely work my hours. I do at least 2 evenings a week on the laptop, work a Saturday most months and often switch the laptop on Sunday afternoon. It's fairly commonplace that I send out emails at the weekend/evenings and get a response, so I know it's not just me.

I had a conversation the other day with a colleague about this exact thing. We came to the conclusion that we are all collectively making the issue worse. As soon as one or two people start working over their hours they are completing more work than if they stuck to their contracted hours. This then creates more work for others and they then have to work more hours to keep up and so on!

I've worked in the voluntary sector for 15 years. I can definitely see this has become more of a trend over the past 5 years where budgets have been cut massively. The team I mange for example has been cut from 100 hours to 48 in the past year, yet we have doubled our area and the number of services we look after.

Well done for resigning, I hope you manage to find something that works better for you. Unfortunately as much as I would love to work less hours, I love my job and the organisation that I work for so I would find it really hard to leave.

[Bluntness100]

For both my husband and I contracted hours is an irrelevance, we manage our workloads and ensure the job is done.

Contracted hours in my view is really only realistically applicable for junior admin type staff or someone in say retail or shifts etc. I genuinely don't know anyone else who works contracted hours only.

There may indeed be a resourcing issue at your current place, or, and I mean this respectfully as I don't know uou, there could be an issue with your way of doing the job which means it takes longer than it should, but generally I would say that if uou only work contracted hours then uou will probably highly limit your career potential.

For me, I'm paid to do a job, sometimes it takes me 30 hours a week, sometimes 80 depending on what's going on, but I don't view my salary as an hourly rate, it's simply my salary for this job as a whole.

[Trifleorbust]

Bluntness: In which case I would question why you have contracted hours

No-one should have to work an 80 hour week, it's unreasonable.

[PeachBellini123]

Bluntness - similar at my work. There are times when I get to leave early/come in late so I guess it balances it out.

Rightly or wrongly the people who come in at 9 on the dot and leave everday at 5 won't get far in the company I work at. You're expected to stay and get stuff done.

Not saying it's healthy but that's how it is.

[EllaCl]

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone sent an e-mail to their managers after returning to work from mat leave saying that they cannot do regular overtime anymore and can mainly work contracted hours only due to their childcare responsibilities. Is it possible to be dismissed on the basis of such e-mail or are employers obliged to try and make your work fit only in your contracted hours? I work in an environment where one's job can simply not be done within the contracted hours and regular overtime is the norm so I am also wondering what are the employer's obligation regarding no overloading of an employee's day.