Expectation at work around working hours?

[Hop27]

We are back in the office FT and have been for a while. Contracted hours are 8:30-5, however EVERYONE works more as and when required to meet deadlines, get through workload.
My boss has started complaining about everyone's timekeeping, apparently coming in late (8:15) and leaving early (5:15/30), I walked in at 8:05 and it was noted that I was 'late' lots of jibes about working part time if you leave at 5.
He wants to sit everyone down and explain the expectation is that everyone works 8-5:30/6pm - everyday and that it's respectful to ask permission to leave early or arrive late. He keeps going on about how flexible he is and will support everyone to work flexibly.
If he isn't in the office he'll call after hours to see how your day was. I was on the train at 5:45, he called I answered and you could hear the disdain in his voice 'so you can't really talk because you've already left for the day and your on public transport' ....
AIBU (I doubt very much I am), I love my job but seriously how is this the way to treat people it's archaic. We are trying to hold an intervention about how ridiculous he is being!
(FWIW he is unhappy at home, it's common knowledge and uses work as an excuse not to go home)

I actually think a meeting is a great idea, particularly if you line everyone else up beforehand.

Him. So work hours and 8-6.

You. Sure. When will the new contracts be issued?

Someone else. What else is changing in the new contract?

Someone else. Is there a formal consultation on the new contracts and have the trade union be consulted?

Someone else. Will wages increase prorata for the additional 1.5 hours a day, so 7.5 the equivalent time of another day a week? Or will annual leave be increased?

You. Yes what is the process and the outcome

I've had managers like this and honestly ended up leaving the job because it's just not healthy. I've also turned down jobs when the prospective employer has set out expectations like this- one great job but the hiring manager said in the interview how she rarely sees her DC because she's always in early and working late and expected the same of everyone... quickly turned that down.

You are contracted and paid for 8:30-5, that's it. ACAS or union can help you find a way to handle it and make sure you are protected.

Fuck that.

Full time at my workplace is 8-4.30. Everyone starts on time and we're packing up at 4.28 to leave. We work the hours we are paid for.

He's a shit boss. Stick to your contracted hours. If this is stressful, look for a new job. Life's too short to work for arseholes who don't respect you

I used to work for someone who frowned on people leaving on time and we all knew it was because he didn't want to go home to his wife.

Oh hell no! Take a copy of your contract. If he wants you to work flexibly what is the policy for TOIL for the extra day a week he appears to be expecting you all to take?! Do you all take flexi? Flexibility goes both ways, not just you work more!

I think it depends what type of work it is. If you are in a call centre or in retail say, I would very much expect you would work the hours per contract.

I have always worked for multinationals in a professional capacity, in my working life the “contracted hours” are just core office hours but the employment contract would say something about working whatever hours are required to complete tasks. Leaving at 5pm every night would definitely have been very career limiting.

He sounds like a total control freak. That's a bloody long day that he wants from you.

So what? This is how employers take the piss frankly and it's up to employees not to play the game.

If you give your time for free you don't value yourself and you employer certainly won't.

Workplaces like this are shit. We were on flexitime, standard working day 7hrs 24 minutes (5 x 7.24 equalling 37hrs). I was always in around 8.15-8.30 single-handedly covering the phones until 9am. Then when I left at 5.15 I got looks, like I wasn’t pulling my weight.

I worked somewhere where additional hours were the norm. I bought into all that 'go the extra mile' bullshit.

My reward was an ever increasing workload and no pay rises. No one respected me, they just exploited me (and others like me).

I now work somewhere else and I've made it abundantly clear that I won't work additional hours or take on extra responsibilities without a pay rise.

I'm completely respected, valued and no one takes the piss. I'm so much happier.

Make sure everybody sees him for what he is: an entitled thief. If you helped yourself to an extra 20% on top of your salary from the company safe, to make it up to what you consider what you should 'really' be paid based on your stated salary, I can't for one moment imagine that being treated as a 'reasonable adjustment'.

Even just grumbling repeatedly about not being paid enough, the same as he keeps grumbling about you supposedly not working enough, would be looked on very negatively.

I think the only way to deal with him is to refuse to do any extra work at all. It clearly isn't appreciated when you do. If that leaves this nasty gaslighter ready to explode, meet him with an equal amount of righteous fury. Demand to discuss your contracts and to know how he's got to a position of adult responsibility without even being able to figure out how time and clocks work.

If he finds that he can't get all the work that he wants to be done completed in the hours for which staff are paid, he needs to do exactly what anybody else does when their budgeted payments fall short of what they want to buy: either increase their budget and pay more or otherwise make do with what they can afford.

I'd also be tempted to start openly asking questions about the company's financial health and expressing great concern that it sounds like it may not be viable if it can't even afford to meet its required wage bill.

but the employment contract would say something about working whatever hours are required to complete tasks. Leaving at 5pm every night would definitely have been very career limiting.

Working the hours required to complete tasks means you work late if there's a deadline but get that time back in lieu or flexibility elsewhere. It doesn't mean work late everyday because there's too much work v hours in the day.

He can't just change your working hours like that without contract negotiation. You need to make that clear.

Are you job hunting because if you're not you should be.

This man is taking the p*ss.Where I use to work the shifts were 8 hours with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break meaning our working day was 7.5 hours long.This CF is expecting you to work the equivalent of a whole extra shift for free each week;that's an additional 52 days or based on a 5 day working week;an additional 10.2 working weeks per year;what's the equivalent of 10 weeks additional pay?

You shouldn't judge how other employers value their staff from how you value yours.

I value all of my staff greatly, look after them as well as I can, and yes, they all tend to do more than their contracted hours.

Professions with a culture of extra hours also tend to be those with the highest pay. My staff, I think, put in 50-60 hours per week each on a 37 hour contract (there's no clocking in or out so I can't be certain), but even at the higher end of that scale they are still getting at least £50 per hour.

I can't see that someone doing 37 hours per week on £12 an hour is really winning the "game" as you put it.

I would be expect to be there in time to have jacket off and computer on by 8.30am (so 8.25) and not switch off until 5pm. Anything more is goodwill which I am happy to do a bit more in busy periods now and then so long as not obligated to, it is appreciated and not often.

Is it a sales environment? I used to work in recruitment and the hours were long and that expectation was very clear from the start. Other environments ( banking etc ) are going to have long hours and you’d be expected to buy into that culture when you joined. Corporate lawyers aren’t clocking off at 5.00pm and saying “fuck the man”. So it slightly depends on your current job and what the industry culture is like.

Corporate lawyers aren’t clocking off at 5.00pm and saying “fuck the man”. So it slightly depends on your current job and what the industry culture is like.

True but that's slightly different to what's going on here. The boss seems to want them in the office outside of their contracted hours, regardless of whether it's necessary for workload purposes

It's a bit sad how some poeople will do the absolute minimum that they can at work, be happy to make clear that they hate management, and would prefer not to be there at all, and then complain that they aren't very well paid, aren't being considered for promotion, and are fist out of the door when there are job losses.

That's not about the OP, by the way, but some of the responses here. The difference in value to a company between someone who comes in each day and tries to make everything wirk just that little bit better, and someone who's obstructive, argumentative, and just difficult is huge.

Consult your union. And if you aren’t in a union, join one. They exist to stop crap like this happening.
There is power in numbers.

now retired, but I only worked the hours I was paid for.

its not just about increasing your wage, but also increasing your employers pension contributions, which will something you are very grateful for when you retire.

this is exploitation of workers, pure and simple.
have you considered everyone doing a work to rule - which is only working the hours you are contracted for?

It's a bit sad how some poeople will do the absolute minimum that they can at work, be happy to make clear that they hate management, and would prefer not to be there at all, and then complain that they aren't very well paid, aren't being considered for promotion, and are fist out of the door when there are job losses

it’s incredibly sad that some bosses are still able to screw their employees over, forcing them to work unpaid. Who wouldn’t hate an employer that does that?

Loads of folk work because they have, not because they love their jobs - and that is perfectly fine. You don’t have to love your job to want to do a good job.

and putting in all the hours god sends without recompense doesn’t mean you are good at your job either

How much are you paid and what type of job is it? If you’re in a highly qualified professional role on £100k then of course working longer hours is part of that. If you’re in an admin role on £15k then he can go fuck himself.

Context is everything here.

Without recompense? As I wrote above, my employees are still getting about £80 an hour, even if they are up towards 60 hours a week.

You are perfectly entitled to do the minimum that your contrat states, and in exchange you should expect to get back exactly what your contract states. No promotions, not front of the queue for paid overtime, and likely to be top of the list if there are job losses.

I finish at 5:30, my computer is switched off by 5:25