To be sick of this, think it is utter bollocks and the next generation are actually bang on?

[Usunshine]

I’m in a professional role. Historically this career (like many others) is stay late, keep working, do absolutely everything you can for your job. I had a conversation with my manager in a 1:1 review meeting where he said I was doing fine, couple of bits to work on but all good and happy with performance etc. A normal review meeting really.

He then proceeded to say next I want to really mount the pressure, I want you to be feeling you have too much work and have to say to me ‘(Eric), I can’t take this on, it’s too much.’ I want you to almost feel like there’s so much on that you are non stop. That will mean next year we can talk about more money. It will mean late nights of course. We want to keep building more and more.

I have worked hard in my life. I’m late 30s and I’ve actually done the whole putting your life on hold to pass professional exams, worked late and weekends. I’ve done all that. I watch younger versions of me clocking off at bang on 5:30 and be called snowflakes by older members of the team. But I think good for them. For fucks sake why am I being told I have to have so much pressure I can’t manage the workload?! Why is that necessary? In my opinion the younger generation has it right. It’s not lazy logging off at half 5 to play tennis or go for a drink. It’s sensible. There’s no prizes for working yourself to the bone. Interested in others thoughts on this as I had a completely different view a few years ago.

Entirely agree with you. Never work late as a norm. Eric sounds a total twat.

I completely agree with you. All it does is make you ill/sad/lonely and gives the shareholders a better dividend payout as the company is able to operate on fewer fte than actually required.

I'm all for a gen z workplace revolution and think we can all benefit from aligning our practices.

Yes, thirty was the age I stopped all that shit too, and I have never regretted making that change, particularly when a redundancy process made it clear how much my loyalty was valued.

No one on their death bed ever wished they'd spent more time at work. Many though regret spending too much, neglecting their personal lives, their families, their hobbies and passions. Work to live, not the other way around.

Ugh, this is so predictable, and mainly from men towards women.
I've just experienced a man getting the promotion over me for the second time in my career. I've been working extra 4 hours a day on top of full time role to cover another area, working towards the top role which would cover my current and the one I was doing. However, company needed to find a role for 'Fred', who has no experience in the sector, none in specific department and no experience of the regulations we're bound by.
But surprise, surprise, the role will now not be advertised and in a jobs-for-the-boys move, Fred is now my manager.
I have gained my extra four hours a day back, plenty of time to search for the next role...

Have you ever worked out how much per hour you are on with all the extra hours you work each week

I bet that what ever Eric is going to offer you after a year of working outside your normal hours for free, isn’t going to cover the amount you have worked. You would be better clocking off at 5.30pm and going to work in a bar or as a waitress. At least you would be getting paid for the hours worked

@Oblomov24 yes he’s really funny on some of them.

It must take a while to film each one!

Theres an 90s Dad on Facebook I like too who dances to lots of 90s tunes. He’s pretty good too. Makes me laugh. I only use Facebook for dog and cat videos these days and a a few extras 😆

Working way over your contracted hours and being expected to do it on a regular basis and being punished if you don't is actually modern day slavery .

I pointed this out in my old job when I was working up to 20-30 minutes over my contracted time to get a job finished as I was on my own trying to do a two man job . I pointed out in writing either I get help or I get paid for this extra time . I also reminded them of the Modern Slavery Act in my letter . I soon got extra help and was out on time .

Oddly I did this with my boss, young energetic. She was working 70-80 hrs a week for the catering at a conference centre. I calculated the pay roll for all the casuals and permanent staff. We were catering for 1200 delegates at times. Her hourly rate was less than the rate of the lowest paid.

I warned her to dial it back. At 30 her heart was playing up. The result by her mid thirties her heart had enough, she's now disabled.

A friend of mine was an accountant in a small team for a big logistics firm, hardly the sort of job that involves emergencies or many additional hours other than at financial year end. However, the manager of the team was unhappily married and therefore used to volunteer his section for extra work, so that it would generate overtime which gave him a reason to stay at work until 9 or 10pm.

If you think being worked to breaking point improves productivity, you're living in the wrong century. And/or your surname is Rees-Mogg.

Pretty much every study that's looked into it has demonstrated that a 4 day working week improves productivity and reduces stress. Four day weeks and reduced stress lead to better health outcomes and less demand on public services.

Presenteeism and stress-induced heart attacks are a cause of lost productivity.

Sounds like a lawyer to me too. Lawyers do burn out more than most professions I think. I did all the long hours working my way up in my early career. I didn't have a family so I wasn't depriving children or anything.

Eric's management style seems to be to work competent people up to the point of a breakdown with this non-stop work nonsense. I've seen too many lawyers crack up under the pressure, commit suicide or die of heart attacks in their early fifties. In a firm I once worked in we found some document that enabled us to work out the age of the partners. Now we were quite young but we were astonished to discover a lot of men we thought were late fifties, maybe early sixties were actually in their forties. All those long hours, stress and no time for exercise really took a toll.

I think the key is efficiency. It is just really easy to get bogged down in stuff. I have known lawyers who did work reasonable hours but they were very focussed and maybe just naturally quicker. Yes, occasionally even those people have to prioritise something urgent and work late or the weekend or some combination of both but not as a regular thing. You can make a performance of working long hours of course.

He's not promised you the money either - he's going to talk about it. What sort of hours does Eric work? If there is HR and it's okay with your firm culture, I'd think about talking to them. Of course, people often forget that HR is not there to take care of the employees, it's there to take care of the firm and, if Eric is senior enough, nothing at all might happen. Can you get yourself transferred elsewhere in the firm/company so you are reporting to somebody else? What about the other people Eric manages? What sort of hours are they doing?

I'd just ignore Eric and start looking to move - sideways or to a new employee. It will take him several months to attempt to fire you for not working long hours.