to think no one should be regularly working beyond their paid and contracted hours

[Lydiaatthebarre]

I was talking to a neighbour yesterday who said she was exhausted because she rarely gets home from work before 8.30 - 9.00 in the evening. Apparently her contracted hours are 9am - 6pm but 'nobody only works their paid hours, we all end up staying on for an extra hour or two".

AIBU to think that this increasing practise of expecting employees to give up hours of their time, free of charge, is totally wrong and a really backward step?

I'm not talking about a bit of give and take now and again, but a regular practise that seems to exist in many workplaces.

Yes I have so often seen someone leave a job that seemed to require really long working hours, holidays cancelled etc. Then there replacement comes in and does a perfectly efficient job in normal working hours.

Yes I have so often seen someone leave a job that seemed to require really long working hours, holidays cancelled etc. Then there replacement comes in and does a perfectly efficient job in normal working hours*

And of course there are rare industries when overtime isn’t directly proportional to efficiency and is simply unavoidable. Rare as I said but it does happen and as long as employees are given the full picture, there shouldn’t be a major issue.

It's not on, is it? I'd only expect to work over and above normal hours if there was an emergency but this is exploitation. The boss is relying on no-one being brave enough to actually go home at the proper time. Without a concerted and consistent effort from everyone in the department pointedly leaving on time nothing will change.

When the boss at my last office job told us all off for daring to leave on time I knew that it was time to find employment elsewhere.

I work part time in a university. I leave bang on time, everyone does! All overtime is either paid or given back as time in lieu.

I used to earn a lot more working in the City. Even then I used to do 8:30 - 16:30 I would only occasionally say later. I did check my emails on my Blackberry on the way to work. In the public sector I had flexi time.

I would never work anywhere needing unpaid overtime. I don’t have an amazing career and have no wish to have one! Like most people, I just have a job.

Teachers are not paid for 1265 hours, nor do we have overall contracted hours. 1265 is the number of hours the Head can direct - tell you what to do and where to do it. Then there are unspecified additional hours necessary to meet the requirements of the job. I am not saying these requirements are reasonable (they are not), but the STPCD does not say we are contracted for 1265 hours.

I remember working in an office when I was younger where the supervisors would tell you not to rush off at 5pm on a certain day of the week when one of the higher up managers was on the floor as they didn't want us looking like we 'couldnt wait to get out of there'.

I told them where to go as I have to catch public transport home and I'm not missing it, waiting an hour for the next one and getting in late just because they don't want me to seem like I have a life outside of the place. Get real!

I remember years ago when I worked part time in a retail store, one of the supervisors told my manager that I spent all day clock watching. The manager never raised it with me. I was 17, earning £4.60 an hour and doing it as a part time job whilst at college. Of course I couldn’t wait until my 8 hours were done and I could go home!

My OH is a night shift supervisor for a retail company, he is contracted for five 12 hour shifts weekly. His shifts always run 14-15 hours (every shift)

He works well into the day shift the following day, making sure everything on his schedule is done but then providing support for the day shift as well.

Its expected of him and he can't just leave after the 12 hours because then he gets in bother with the store manager, who expects all supervisors and deputy managers to abide by the same.

He starts his shift at 8pm, what is supposed to be a 12 hour shift ends up being 14-15 hours and sometimes 16. He doesn't get home until gone 11am most mornings, if he's lucky.

Today he didn't get home until 1:00pm in the afternoon because of a managers meeting scheduled for 11.30 which he was expected to stick around for after working his shift.

He is "supposed" to leave work at 8am.

It is ridiculous