How much unpaid overtime is acceptable

[Lemonwoe]

Just curious. At a salary of £40k, how much unpaid overtime would you expect to do?

I'm on £38k and do 2-4 hours per week as well as an hour on a BH Monday due to the nature of the role. I'm going to sound like a kiss-ass but I don't view it as unpaid overtime, it's what needs doing to get my responsibilities done and enjoy what is a good salary for my area.

I will add I work for an amazing company though (bonus, BUPA, WFH etc) which always helps when you can see a give and take.

@Mintjulia

I used to be in the office 45 mins early every day, so 3hrs 45 per week, but in return I expected to go to annual sports day (a morning) without using up leave, I expected to leave on time or even 5 mins early for parent's evening and if ds was ill I expected to be allowed to flex without anyone grumbling. A working relationship is better with a bit of give and take IMO.

45 minutes EVERY DAY does not equate to half a day once a year

Depends on the job, company and how much leverage they give you.

If they give you none and clock-watch, I would do the same.

If there's give and take from their side, I would reciprocate.

Totally depends on the culture of the company.

This thread is making me both happy and depressed simultaneously. Happy to see how many people know their worth and depressed to know that as always teachers are the ones taken for mugs, working well over their hours. Teachers are paid for 1265 hours/year across 195 days. Our salary payment is split across 12 months. I work 0.8 and my wage slip says 28.5h/week which makes me weep with the hilarity of it because I get to work an hour early every day (07.15), leave on time at 3.20pm, but then work at least 1 hour from home and work through my lunchbreak sending emails from my desk whilst shovelling food into my face. On my day off I regularly work 1-2hrs. So in total, on an average week with 1 after school meeting, I work 43hrs. That doesn't include any time worked over weekends. This has depressed me just writing it tbh.

If someone is on salary, I guess they generally get paid if they are sick, so swings and roundabouts really as, if you are on an hourly rate, you wouldn't get full pay. I also don't believe teachers work every day in the school holidays (12 weeks) so their hours average out too. I'm a retired teacher and would go into school for a few days either side of the summer holiday and not do much extra over the half terms.

Part-time teacher about 10-15 at the moment with all the crazy extra marking and moderating. It’s not always quite this bad. Dh is a primary deputy head and he does absolutely loads. Can’t really even count it - regularly misses break and lunch, in school from 7:45 until 6pm everyday then often extra about 3 nights a week, always some time on the weekend. Plus some during holidays. I expect teaching is not the norm though. The country would be bankrupt if they paid teachers overtime.

None, for me. I won't provide free labour for a company I do not and never will own.

Happy to do extra when the (unpredictable and prone to catastrophe) business requires it, and then take most of it back in lieu, but not just for the sake of being seen to be a martyr as some people I've worked with in the past have done.

Management level on £36k, for reference.

As a grad one of my contemporaries worked out that on £19k starting salary we were being paid below NMW. 60 hour weeks were common when it was busy season (Jan to April). But your salary roughly doubled in the first three years, you had the name on your CV and exams were funded and you were expected not to do work whilst at college.

Trainee solicitors at firms I’ve worked at can genuinely work 15-20 hours extra per week, whilst earning around £24k

I think they think it makes a good impression and shows their work ethic, but realistically it’s usually due to a lack of experience.

An old boss once commented to me that it was a problem that I was first to leave the office, as it was “noticed” by the partnership. What the partnership didn’t notice of course was that I was first in at 7:45 every day and never took a proper lunch hour. But because I didn’t sit around until 6-7pm solely to have a “presence”, it was apparently deemed to be a problem. I wasn’t impressed and told my boss that I wasn’t polishing chairs with my arse just to satisfy the partners and I would be going home to my family after already working way over my contracted hours! He never brought it up again...

This is despite my billing being incredibly good because I was efficient in my job.

Of course I have worked over weekends and holidays and stayed up half the night working when it was genuinely necessary. Perils of the job.

Depends on whether it works both ways. If being flexible for the company means that I don't have difficulty sorting out dentist appointments etc. then I might be willing.

My husband who is a deputy head now but was on a similar salary a few years ago gets to work at 715 leaves about 545 (had lunch in school hall with kids so no break ) then does two hours work every evening and all day Sunday . So about 65 hours per week. Wrongly or rightly there is an expectation that you will do a lot of extra hours in teaching and it's not seen as overtime.

None! Who’d want to work for free? Everyone doing this as if it’s expected is doing the rest of the employed population a disservice. Maybe employers would pay properly if people stopped propping them up at their own expense!

Probably about an hour a day.

Hopefully hours of unpaid overtime is becoming a bit of a thing in the past in all but certain fields where its necessary at a less senior level in order to progress.

Why? Because jobs used to be better paid, relatively speaking, in the past. There seems little point in doing hours of unpaid overtime for a dead end average salary job in the UK.

If I was paid over 100k, maybe over 120k pa, I would be doing unpaid overtime without much complaint. As it is, I've been asked to do extra hours and extra work thats not in my contract recently, and have simply added it on to my bill at the end of the month.

About 1.5hrs - 2 hrs a day. Senior management so paid well but I'm actively trying to reduce. Tbf it's just canx out commuting time at the moment so not too much 'life' impact.

Up to an hour a day in busy periods but then I also think flexibility works both ways and I take time out of my paid hours to go to the doctors, kids school things etc

Teacher here so technically paid for 32.5 hours and usually average 55 per week. Been particularly bad this year since March it's been 60 per week minimum.

None.

I give up to 15 minutes (usually) at the end of my shift, anything more I claim as overtime or TOIL.

A woman I knew charged every minute extra she worked.

Amazed at how many people don't bat an eyelid at over time. I am a senior manager on a good salary but I work flexi and will note the time I finish and take any time owed off. I expect my staff to do the same too of course. Of course we all have to work more some weeks, but it is recorded and taken at a time of our choosing.

To the PP who said a manager should expect to work overtime until they can do the job faster, nope, an employer should pay the person for the job they can do, I expect to get paid more the more experienced I get, not just reduce the overtime

Not that salary, but when I worked in retail there was tonnes of unpaid work. If you were on opens you were expected to be early to get tills functional, check any deliveries that had arrived, and set up for the day. If you were on close, the doors closing signalled your paid hours stopping, but cashing up and cleaning still had to be done. If I worked a full day I’d end up easily working 75+ extra minutes per day. That doesn’t account for stuff over lunch either. The good old “oh, if you’re popping out for a sandwich could you take this to the post office and get some change from the bank?”

Self employed,this last year I have pretty well worked all the time when not sleeping
Nothing else to do

I used to do loads and we were constantly told you work the hours for the job.

Now I do some most days but we get toil. When I think of the days I worked for free ...