To be fed up of doing a 2 full extra days of work for free a week

[Deadcatbounce]

I took a pay cut and went down to 3 days a week earlier this year , will be or rest of this year at least , tend to do 4 days min to Thurs just to keep up but don't work Friday.

I'm finding constant meetings and email requests for work now on a Friday so I am doing 5 days plus sometimes a day at the weekend all unpaid

I'm not.getting irritated as it seems to have become the norm, I know I am.lucky yo have a job but equally.dont take the piss

What would happen if you got another job on those 2 days??

Honestly if I got another job try would probably.ask me to go back to full time as job is full time !!!!!!

I don’t get it. Why would you see a meeting and agree to it, even tacitly, by attending/not declining? You’re making a rod for your own back. If you don’t work Thursday & Friday, why are you doing so? Just tell the boss no.

Just saw the post re complaint person being sacked. I understand your worries, but then you go for unfair dismissal, no?

In a seasonal business we used to estimate annual hours and pay staff over the year. We kept a record of hours worked against the hours budgeted for and paid OT as necessary. It worked well. So I think you should be sending your boss a regular update of your overtime on a cumulative basis, so he is aware of the time, ie you working 28 hours and being paid for 21 reduces your hourly pay from £10 per hour to £7:50.

Our staff were on NMW so we were particularly careful that no one was under paid.

I would start looking for a new job (I’m not sure what sector you work in and whether this is realistic in the current climate?) Your boss is being exploitative but I can see you’re in a difficult position if you don’t have a union or HR department to support your very reasonable complaints.

Are Fridays usually meeting days at your office?

If so you may be better working a Friday and not working the Monday (or one other day)

However don't work on the days you aren't meant to be

@Deadcatbounce

Honestly if I got another job try would probably.ask me to go back to full time as job is full time !!!!!!

So do that then. Might be sensible to look for another job anyway.

Switch off, I work Mon-Thurs, as soon as I finish work on a Thursday my work phone and work laptop are turned off until Monday morning.

YABU to not be irritated and to be doing the extra hours.
Your boss is on the fiddle. He’s saving on pay (do you still make NMW when all your unpaid hours are taken into account, NI, pensions, clearly with the intention that your time is his regardless.
Not on mate, not on.

get another job

Since you're working pretty much full time why don't you ask to go back to full time pay and then find another job

@Deadcatbounce

Thanks, all very helpful comments!

Last person who complained about being paid for 3 days and doing 4 or 5 got sacked and I'm the breadwinner so a rock and a hard place right now

They got no pay off nd a weeks notice

Then this sounds less like an accidental issue and more like a planned tactic to see how much free work they can get out of people. If you don't get a new job I suggest you join a union.

In most professional environments you cannot simply turn off your phone. It simply doesn’t work like that, and clearly won’t for OP. Most workplaces expect everyone to work beyond their hours even those part time. You need to subtly make it clear that you will not work on days you are not paid to work. The problem is that you have allowed them to abuse those limits. Either you have a difficult discussion or you juggle and take time off to account for the time you are asked to work on those days. They will probably still expect you to work on weekends (as I suspect others are). But at least you should try to reset so interferences on your non work days are the exception not the norm.

Just out of interest how was it worded? An hours deduction or just a pay reduction, unless they clarified they were aligning less pay with less hours you may be in a sticky place, at our work, they were very clear that the 40% temporary reduction in pay would mean more flex but not two days off a week..... how did they word it?

If you are senior enough to know what was going on with the other person (“in my role I would know”) then you need to put on your big girl pants and have a sensible conversation with your manager- ask him/her again what was the business reason for reducing your days? The company clearly needs more hours than you are being paid to work- so the experiment hasn’t worked and how can you work together to resolve this situation fairly? Increase your hours again, give some of your role to someone else, etc etc. Go in with proposed solutions not complaints.

And, as I said, start doing things on your day off that can’t just be dropped. I’m guessing you have kids in school? What if they were younger and you had stopped paying for childcare for them? You would not just be able to work extra days in that situation.

Just don't do it.
Can you really see them in a tribunal saying they sacked you for not working on your days off?

I work with a woman who works hours over her contracted hours and at the weekend. Never stops complaining about it but still does it because she's got soooo much work to do. She's creating the problem. They won't reduce her workload if she's coping with the amount she has on. I tell her constantly to stop but nothing changes.

I understand how hard it can be if you're worried about your job. Like you I was put on reduced days (a long time ago tho in 2008). We were asked to do four days hours over five days. I knew this would result in basically working full time so I said no. We worked hard to accommodate the business and at the end of the year they made two people redundant anyway. I realised businesses don't have loyalty to you, and if you work more than you should (a) no one else will stop you doing it and (b) you won't get any credit for it either. Good luck being firmer

There are so many employers who are taking advantage right now. The GMB union have a current campaign to protest against employers who sack people and then re-hire them on reduced hours or reduced conditions. I have just e-mailed my M.P. to join the many who have voiced concerns regarding this growing trend.
I have just found temporary, part time evening work. after my employer informed me, with 2 days notice, that they were not applying for Furlough again. Before this I was going to start work as a temporary parcel sorter for Hermes, but I can not believe the cheek of the employment agency. The job was advertised as Night Parcel Sorters, 10 pm until 6 am. At the induction, 1 week beforehand, we were told until the operation is established, we would be working 8 pm until 6 am, 10 hour shifts over 4 days. Then, on the Monday before I would have started, the agency dictated via text that we would work from 7 pm until 6 am, as it was the first shift. Five minutes later I received yet another text, that we were expected to come into work at 6.45 pm, in order to put our food in the canteen etc, then queue up to sign in !! And we were not paid for the induction 1 week before !
Thank goodness I had already received a phone call on Saturday morning, asking me to start elsewhere, for another agency. However, the above details are a daily reality for many people, hired from week to week, just names and numbers, completing hard physical work with spartan breaks, and micro managed by relentless, self seeking supervisors and managers. Workers of the UK, revolt and let's see decent working conditions for all.

I'm not going to say YABU because I understand exactly where you are coming from.

As main or sole breadwinner there is always that fear: what happens if they decide to get rid of me?

Now be rational - you are working 5+ days per week but being paid for 3 days. What is your hourly rate?

Essentially you have been forced into a pay cut not an hours cut.

Also I understand in some businesses there's an expectation you'll pick up the phone if there's an urgent question, and that's ok if that's what everyone does, but that's not the same as going into a meeting! When I had to go down to four days I would take urgent calls eg someone asking where a file was for an urgent matter, but nothing more than that. No emails, definitely not in the office. If they want to get rid of you they'll find a reason, no matter how hard you worked. Sorry if that's a bit harsh, but better to be prepared and start updating CV and putting out feelers now

OP says she took a paycut and an hours cut, so it looks like she really took a pay cut AND a further pay cut

In most professional environments you cannot simply turn off your phone. It simply doesn’t work like that, and clearly won’t for OP. Most workplaces expect everyone to work beyond their hours even those part time.

The fact that its been happening for years and is an expectation does not make it right. I get it, putting ones head above the parapet to make a stand is unlikely to be successful in most companies. But the fact that there's many a company making a nice profit off the back off unpaid overtime stinks.

Although it sounds like the op isn't a case of unpaid overtime in the traditional sense. Its a cowboy owner/manager who just wants to pay employees less for the same amount if work

Look for another job or suck it up. It’s clear from what happened To your colleague that if you complain/aren’t available they’ll sack you. You have few other options, as sensible as the boundary setting advice on this thread is.

Depends on the salary and job as well.