Anyone work excessive overtime for free?

[Itsjustlife]

Last month there was a very busy period at work, I worked many hours extra.
Firstly I wasn't asked if i could do this i was put in a position where i had to. I get paid (salary) for 35 hours a week however worked in excess of 70 for 3 consecutive weeks. This was also away from home.
Its now a quiet time in the build up to xmas and have suggested getting some of the time back. The response has been its part of the job and not how the company operates so in fact NO!
I see this as unreasonable. Does anyone else do this? i have a strong CV and would pick up another job. This situation at work looks like it will not change and extra will be required going forward

This is really quite typical, especially in my profession.

I can't talk for everyone, but every young professional I know (lawyers, engineers, architects) are salaried, and as such there is no paid overtime, and you just have to work the required hours if there is a big deadline. Generally the salary is good enough that you accept this, and normally these types of company are quite accommodating if you have eg doctors appointments etc that require a little time off from work.

Absolutely no fucking way would I work a single minute for no pay.

Leave. Make sure your new place does time-off-in-lieu, and doesn't just pretend to.

I'm forever sending my team home and telling them to get offline and stop working etc. We do TOIL properly too. Work four evenings, get at least two days off.

I hate that crap. It's like the neanderthals setting policy have never heard that people who are knackered do lower quality work. Morons.

Not if you get paid a shit salary, No.
Work out the hourly rate and see if you're happy to continue to work for that. Looks like nothing will change so long as you keep doing those hours. It's bloody disgusting and the reason it goes on is because people say "suck it up, it's normal".
All those who fought for workers rights must wonder what the point was.

I'm with Beza. You pay, I stay. Say no, I go. Simple unless you're in one of the aforementioned professions where you do have to suck it up. Or someone else will.

I don't work for free.

Every teacher you've ever met.

Well I might briefly consider it if I earned 70k or thereabouts, but otherwise? No. If I want to do voluntary work I would help a homeless charity or similar, where you can make a difference to actual human beings.

Very normal for a salaried role. Your contract probably says that you work such hours as are necessary to perform the role - which basically means you have to stay to get the job done and you don't get more pay. If you don't stay and therefore cannot complete all required work you would expect to be performance managed.

Nope. Mama didn't raise no fool. I will maybe, MAYBE, come or stay late as an occasional once off for something very important if it personally benefits me to do so but otherwise as soon as that clock hot 4:45pm I'm out of there like shit through a goose if I'm not getting paid to stay. And everybody knows it.

Quit. Your bosses don't appreciate your worth.

I used to, but have recently stopped. I arrive around 15 minutes early and on occasion work 10/15 minutes extra. I get time in lieu for anything more than that. I found that when I used to arrive an hour or so early (trains) they began to expect me to be working at that time. When they started calling me on my day off, I got fed up.

I am a manager and I give my staff time in lieu if extra is required. If there is a special event or similar that requires overtime, they are paid for it.

If the work cannot be done in the time then either they have too much work or are not working well, which we would then address. However, in some industries this isn’t the case and I know huge amounts of overtime are expected, so I made a conscious choice to avoid them.

if You’re a professional that’s life. You are a salaried employee, it’s nice when you can get your work done in 37.5 hours, but the reality is the average would be nearly 50.

That’s the nature of it, you are paid on that expectation and the career prospects are accordingly good.

People that say they won’t work a minute for free at some stage in their careers don’t typically earn much.

YANBU
I've always worked with the expectation of unpaid overtime and the concomitant freedom to take odd hours back through longer lunches in the quiet periods, flexibility to pick my kids up if they're poorly etc. I recently had to put in some serious overtime over a few weeks to meet a deadline - although nowhere near 70 hours a week. Once it quietened down, I took a couple of days' TOIL - told my boss I would be doing that, and they were fine with it.

Unfortunately normal, but not right, and not everyone does it.
You don't mention numbers, but if your hourly wage falls below National Minimum wage for your age based on hours worked then they can't do it.
Otherwise there's not much you can do to argue - just decide as a pp said whether you want to continue to work in those conditions, and if not whether it's possible to find another position elsewhere.

I work in professional services, it is normal and expected to do overtime. On average i do about 300hours overtime a year, sometimes 400 if its a busy year. I have a good salary and lots of flexibility though so i don't mind too much

Utterly normal in teaching!

I'd say that's standard in a lot of professions.

Completely off topic but “I’m off like shit through a goose” just made me snort laughing 😂

It's very normal in salaried professions.

I work for an hourly wage so I always get paid for the hours I work. I clock in/out and for what I earn, there is no way I would do any work for free.

Thanks all
I earn an average salary, but no more than my role in different industries would be.
The issue is mainly the inflexibility from my employer, it would be frowned upon if i was to leave an hour early this week.
I will always go above and beyond when its fair, in this case i wasn't told when offered the job that there would be overtime let alone to this extreme.

This is one of these things that is completely relative to you and your situation and probably your gut feeling is the right one for you.

I regularly have to work well over the 37.5 hours I am contracted for, including taking haul flights over a weekend so I am there by a Monday. But I have an annual salary that is six figures and when I am not travelling I work from home, which gives me lots of flexibility. For me, it works and I am fine with it.

It has come to be the expected norm in a lot of fields, but it shouldn't be.

In almost 30 years of working in a professional job have never been paid overtime nor only worked my contractual hours, always more. Now as an employer my staff have similar contracts and don’t get overtime pay either but I would never expect them to work such an excessive amout of overtime. In previous job someone complained that the had worked an extra hour the previous day and when I said that I did that everyday her response was that I got paid twice as much as she did - she didn’t like my reply that the extra hours came hefore hig salary. In the orofessions it is just expected if you want to get on

This increasing practise of expecting employees to give up large swathes of their own time for free is very wrong. You should be either paid or given the time off in lieu.

Perhaps if someone is on a very large salary and has a lot of autonomy it can be seen as part and parcel of the job (within reason) but for someone on a normal or even good but not great salary their free time should be respected.

YANBU.

I work in investment banking, it's par for the course that you work well in excess of the contracted 35 hour week. Every week, for each of the 20+ years I've worked in this industry. But it really depends what the culture is like in your industry.