To think everyone works outside their paid hours ?

[relax2]

Evening all

Now I know we're in tough times with regards to jobs etc but I recently took a new job because in my last job I was working long hours and my work life balance was rubbish for my family.
So now in new job and it's starting to go the same way. I have a constant stream of work to do with little let up and in order not to feel stressed or get behind I end up doing some in my own time. The more people I speak to the more "normal" this seems that many people do this but I feel it's not right.
I'm allowed to accrue TOIL but not if I work at home in the evenings as our company doesn't want us doing it but then if I don't I'll always be behind!!

Do most people end up working in their own time? Just interested

Sorry...ahem....YANBU!

Back to scheduled programming

not minute extra though many of my colleagues do - and I think they are stupid for doing this. It's an office role, not well paid, no great benefits etc.

Also, I have a severely disabled child and can only work school hours and I just cannot stay as I need to be home by a certain time for DC's taxi from special school.

I am sure some colleagues begrudge me for leaving on time but that is their problem, not mine.

I'm in a job with Government targeted deadlines. We can accrue flexitime, which I stopped keeping a record of after I hit 75 hours. I very rarely work my contracted hours.

I often work over at home of an evening and will be on call/available for crises. Sometimes this interferes with my holiday. I'm on 0.8 FTE but can claim the time back.

I work solidly through the day and there is only me in my team. In comparable organisations there would be 2 or 3 of me FT.

My colleagues who get paid much more (I'm on mid 30s FTE, they are on 60-70k but we have the same level of responsibility )spend about 3 hours a day chatting/moaning. It's really distracting when I have so much on. Then they complain they're having to work additional hours (which they claim back as paid or holiday)!

I think it depends on the job. I am a secondary teacher and hold a promoted post. The core school hours when children are in are 8.30am-2.30pm. We have morning briefing at 8.15am 3 days a week and have two meetings until 4pm.

I do work outside of those hours because otherwise no lessons would be planned, books couldn't be marked etc. There is also.other paperwork that has to be completed.

I am pretty efficient these days though and manage to do a good job without the hours being too crazy!

I work with someone who is constantly going on about workload and how stressed she is and how she can't fit it all in. However, although she gets in early in the mornings, she faffs about for almost an hour having coffee, doing her make up etc. If she grabbed a coffee and got on with something she would find it easier!

No, I'm middle management and have flexi. I'm no martyr, if I do extra work it's logged and I take it, thankfully if I do a bit in the evenings it's allowed to be logged (biggest saviour ever as it enables me to take kids to school and start later, but come home a reasonable time). I love my job but I'm not a slave to it, work life balance is hugely important to me, thankfully I've worked for organisations where that is respected, I've had no issues getting promoted etc, I do work full time though.

I sometimes do, because if I'm in the flow if a piece of work, then I might just finish it rather than go home. Other times, if I have something I need to be back for, I leave. But mostly we're pretty flexible, and as long as you do your hours, the exact start and finish times don't matter.

I'm in tech, and sometimes we do have to do out of hours work, but you can claim that back as TOIL, or sometimes overtime. We also have an on-call rota, but there's extra pay for that. If we have a major outage, then it's all hands on deck, but hardware and so on is much more resilient these days, so it doesn't happen that often.

I grew up on a farm. Cattle have to be fed and milked every day, but they don't always have calves at reasonable times of day. If they get out in the middle of the night, then anyone available helps out in getting them back safe. And during harvest, you work with the weather and do long days to get everything in. But other times, there can be less to do, so it probably balances. I think it gave me a clear sense of priorities about what work needs doing now, and what can be left till tomorrow, and I am pretty good at time management.

Agree with PPs that there are different expectations at different levels.

I don't expect my team to have to work outside of hours. If it's really needed then I give them the time back but on the quiet as some of our department don't agree with it but in my view they don't get paid enough to spend their weekend doing extra unpaid work.

On the other hand I do extra work most nights whether that's being on my laptop until midnight in very busy periods or just catching up with all the emails I've missed during the normal working day. My workload is just too heavy to fit it into a 40 hour week. But then that means no eyebrows are raised if I need to leave early for kids, come in a bit late or go to an appointment.

My husband works in the steel industry and if he works over his hours he is paid overtime.

I'm on 6x minimum wage and very, very rarely go over my hours.

Sorry misread the title.... my husband doesn't work beyond his hours unless he chooses too and will get paid for it.

Retail management here... I didn't used to work very much unpaid at all.

However accepted a new job, where I am only paid 9-5 (unpaid hour lunch in that too) but the shop opens 9 and closes at 5, so every day I am working I clock up at least 40 mins unpaid work.
I do a post office run before opening, get till in, then after work there's no way I can leave at 5pm as have to cash up tills, hoover etc. I also very rarely get my unpaid lunch either..

I get paid just over min wage, I think if this had been laid out before I accepted the job, I'm not sure I'd have accepted.. As I was used to having at least half an hour paid either side of shop opening & closing.

I'm public sector and on a decent wage but I don't really do much outside my contracted hours. I would if we had a proper Flexi or TOIL scheme, but I'm not prepared to do it for free. A few people my level and above do unpaid extra, but I wouldn't say it's the norm.

I used to do 60 hour weeks in teaching . And weekends spent on work too. I absolutely think now I was being a mug and no one be benifited from it. I now work 8.30 to 4 and manage fine. Life's too short.

It depends on the role. I don't in my job.
I did in my previous role I had no choice though the pay reflected the workload it was a salary rather than hourly rate.
I often stay late in work but I am clocked in until the last minute.
When I leave the jobs done, it isn't a great job, it is one I do well without stressing even through manic periods. work is a relaxing time in comparison to my DC

in order not to feel stressed or get behind I end up doing some in my own time

This is the key sentence. It is you putting this pressure on yourself. I was working in a job where many of my colleagues would put in a lot of extra hours for this very reason. It's not necessary. I have never done over my hours (except when taking it back as TOIL). Did I get behind sometimes? Yes. But my mantra is always "I can only do what I can do" and my work life balance is very important to me. Are you quite a perfectionist in your work? Sometimes good enough is, well good enough! Not all my work was my "best" work but it was the best I could do in the time available and none of my managers ever had an issue with my work. Look at ways to streamline what you're doing. Learn to leave work at work. If you can't manage your stress levels you will be the same in any job.

Usually winter time when our ward is busy and it’s almost impossible to get discharges done or there are things we still need to do so night staff can start obs/drugs then take over from us if they can. Or if there is an emergency we stay until things are resolved so can add 15-60 mins or more into our shifts but we aren’t paid and we all do it if we need to

In teaching ( not schools ) I’ve always got hourly paid for class times but it’s in the contract that all prep and admin is unpaid . So the hourly rate looks great , but then you need to divide it by 2 really . Always wondered why it’s like this. Seems that other industries are the same.

You need to speak with your manager about the workload or ways to manage it if it’s not possible to complete it within the allotted time.

I never have and I've had a few different jobs (retail, bar, library, admin).

I work in Education Management (University) and I never work unpaid hours, same as everyone else in my department. I can see this is unusual, but it really shouldn't be.

Ive never worked a minute over my contracted hours. If you can't get the work done in your hours then either you're not working as productively as you should be or the work load is too great. If it's too great then people need to speak up and say they cant do it in the time allotted.
Noone's going to have written on their gravestone that they took work home each night

Hah try being a secondary school teacher! Most days I was working 8am to 6pm and then a couple of hours marking in the evening and on Saturdays too. No such thing as contracted hours!

I usually do 8.30am to 6.30pm, but I do take 30-45 minutes for lunch. Coming up to board reporting deadlines I do more in the evening and over the weekend. A 60 hour week would not be unusual.
I wish it wasn’t necessary to put in the extra hours but I am well paid overall in an executive management role so just get on with it.