Work situation - is this reasonable?

[Floofydawg]

I'm in a mid senior role in financial services. Work part time (4 days, not condensed) but still get a full time workload done. Am expected to travel around once a month for work which ends up in me doing more than my paid hours that week. I don't get that time back and I still have to get my work done.

Next Monday I've been asked to travel for a department wide 'away day' which will basically just be a talking shop. This would mean me leaving home at 6.30am and not getting back til around 8pm. I've said I'm not going and my manager is trying to pressure me. AIBU to stick to my guns?

Yes of course you should go. I often have to leave home at 6.30am and not back until 9pm. It’s expected in a senior role

you don't necessarily have to go sick for a long time

tell them this is the last straw
you're not going to the away day and will work at 80%

at which point they'll either offer you a pay rise or possibly redundancy, which might work out better for you.

Tbh it seems very well paid to me. I'm a similar age to you and will be starting a part time job in February which is paying 18k for 3 days. I have a degree though that's not compulsory for the role.

Having said that, it's not that useful to compare salaries because people have different levels of seniority/responsibilities etc. I've not been very career oriented, maybe you have been.

If I were you, in my 50s and feeling so fed up, I would take the occasional tactical sickie to make myself feel better. Falling on particularly long days that you won't get any extra pay or recognition for.

They should be giving you either overtime or toil. I'd request a sit down with hr, explain how many hours you're working over your part time hours. Your colleague shouldn't be refusing occasional trips. The fact they've allowed them to not go but forcing you to go is unfair. You should take turns. From now on log all your hours, don't go over them.

To be honest, I would go but would also expect there to be some give and take E.g. next week I am travelling for 3 days with work and have to leave at 4am to catch my flight. This week I have a carol concert for my 7 year old to attend during working hours so will take that time back then.
I also work 80% and went up to FT for a short period this year as I was becoming resentful of being paid a PT salary for working essentially FT but absolutely hated it so have gone back to PT with some personal boundaries in place.

I would ask for my contract to be changed to full time or .9 compressed over 4 days to reflect what you're actually working

Jesus, how many times?

The fact that you get paid 18k working three days a week in a completely unrelated non graduate job could not be less relevant to whether the OP is being paid MARKET RATE for HER JOB.

It's absolutely jaw-dropping that this is even being questioned for this type of position.
Also not the company's fault if OP lives in Cleckhuddersfax.
And anyone who's "too old for this sort of thing" could always become a lollypop-person.

Absolutely.@EmmaEmerald

Bottom line is employers will extract as much from you as you are prepared to give.

If you don't mind your health, they won't care.

I have seen up close how quickly companies move on when a completely "indispensable" person drops dead, ups and suddenly leaves, or is given a sudden cancer diagnosis and is instantly gone for 6+ months.

Life goes on so quickly and companies couldn't care less about the person involved.

You need to bring up pay and working hours every time you see your manager.
Every. Single. Time.
So many people in my career have got promotions just by being relentlessly pushy & repetitive and the manager capitulating.

You should also be asking for condensed working days - full time pay in 4 days.

So true

OP you do need to ask how you got here. If you're going to continue working, it mustn't happen again.

Did you even read my second paragraph before going on a rant?

Why didn't you just post the second paragraph then?

Sorry for zoning in on you in particular but these threads are so depressing. It's incredibly harmful to women and feminism as a whole for women who are being screwed over at work to be told by other women that they should be grateful for what they have got because X person in Y unrelated industry with different qualifications and different experience earns less.

I don't actually want a promotion - that would pile on even more pressure. I don't even want to be paid condensed hours as that would give them licence to ask for even more. I just want to do my hours and forget about work.

Interesting the range of views from 'stop letting them take the piss' to 'of course you should give your time for free'

Because OP asked for opinions re her salary?

My opinion is that she is pretty well paid, even comparing her salary to friends of mine who are working in graduate roles. But as I said in my second paragraph, it’s not that helpful to compare salaries because all jobs are different so what’s fair in one sector may be underpaid in another.

Im not saying she should be grateful. If I thought she should be grateful I wouldn’t be suggesting tactical sickies when she feels particularly taken advantage of. Implicit in that suggestion is sympathy for how she feels and a suggested small rebellion she could consider to make herself feel better.

I don't know, I kind of saw that as a rhetorical question actually.

Her initial question wasn't about her salary, it was about what is expected of her in terms of effort.

She only mentioned her salary after a lot of people assumed that she must be getting paid megabucks, and then asked the question after it became clear that a lot of people think 52k for a four day week IS megabucks.

Clearly it isn't, in the OP's line of work, and she knows that.

But my answer to that question would be that I would expect to get paid way more than that for the kind of effort they seem to want from her.

That doesn't sound like a huge ask. I don't like long days, but 6.30am-8pm as a one off is a non-issue in my book. Unless you have some caring responsibility that makes it impossible yes, you should go.

@Floofydawg - take out 'promotion' and put in the word that you want......... working hours............... flexibility ............ hours back..................... pay.........

Whatever it is, you bring this up every meeting you have with your manager.

You also just need to work your 4 days worth of hours, otherwise, what's the point in going part time?

All normal people hate away days and resent the travelling, enforced socialising, being away from home, cringeworthy activities and extra work they generate. They aren’t for our benefit, they’re to allow deluded Heads of Department to bask in the warm fuzzy glow of seeing all their minions in one place and feel loved and important.

Well I didn’t see it as a rhetorical question. And attacking other women who are giving personal opinions when asked to is a strange stance for a feminist to take.

How do you think it serves feminism to tell a woman who is complaining about being burnt out and working a full time job for a part time wage to tell her that she is being well paid, purely based on comparison to unrelated low paid jobs other people might be doing?

As I said before, men would never pull each other down in this way.

They'd say, "Talk to a recruiter and look for a new job paying at least 25% more. Then tell your employer to match it and give you a bonus or you'll walk."

Not helpful but I didn’t do that. I specifically said it’s impossible to compare jobs but was honest (since the question was asked) that the salary seemed quite high to me.

Men aren’t all the same, some would put other men down re salary, others wouldn’t. You having a go at me when OP themselves haven’t even shown any upset at my comment is not helpful to her.

speak for yourself. I've attended dozens of hugely useful events in the past, which required an early start and a late finish.

I think it was quite clear from the OP's post where she said what her salary is that she knows her salary isn't high, even if people without relevant knowledge would disagree.

I read the "what would you expect to get paid for this kind of commitment?" comment less as an invitation to opine on her salary and more as an expression of surprise that anyone thinks it's reasonable to bust a gut for what is a relatively modest salary.

And yes, yes, I know the average salary is 27k or whatever, blah blah. But the people on the lowest end of that spectrum earning minimum wage or not much more are not in the OP's position. They're generally either people in low paid jobs who clock in and clock out and get paid for the hours they actually work, or they're people at the very beginning of their careers who are expecting their hard work to pay off later in terms of salary and benefits. The OP isn't an intern or a new graduate, she's in her 50s and already at mid-senior level. If you're still working a lot of hours in a professional career at that age, you'd usually expect to be getting paid more than that.

What is the OPs actual job? Have I missed it? £65,000 fte is not a lower end salary. My friend was a senior manager (Director) in local government on a bit more than that. She certainly did things for work in her own time. Everyone at that level did.