Am I the pushover, or is work just like this now.

[Giraffapuses]

Hi - I work in a corporate environment in a senior but not executive role. My DH thinks it's unsual and weird that I frequently have to work the evenings and weekends. To me this seems fairly typical of six-figure jobs for big corporates. He says 'just don't do it'. But if I didn't do it, the bosses would still expect it done and if it wasnt they'd see it as my responsibility. For example today I started work around 8am and will finish about 2pm

Six figures jobs on mumsnet... i don't think it's a six figure thing. I work on £30k as police staff and worked lots of weekends and evening, eventhough technically my job was 9-5. Now I am on six figures and don't do any evening or weekend working since I left policing.

Is there a reason you are not able to get through the work during contracted hours?

I think at a senior level there a degree of working evenings and weekends eg attending events outside of working hours or catching up.

Six figure salary here. I won’t even glance at my work phone / laptop this weekend. Some weekends I might need to take a call, but I’ve not had to do more than a couple of hours work across a weekend since taking a role at this salary.

Six figure here too, very very rarely work weekends. Maybe twice a year?

I occasionally work evenings if I have a tight timescale but that’s probably 1 evening a month.

I think it's more a middle management thing. At senior level 6 figure salary most people wouldn't be working at the weekend.

You are cheap labour if you are giving the company an extra workday+ a week for free.

Not 6 figure, but high salary. I used to do it without anyone asking. Then got made redundant.

Now I don't, and no body cares. If it doesnt get done by Friday, it gets done Monday.

YANBU - I'm on near 6 figures and I'm working for 3-4 hours today - just having my lunch so picked up my phone to check out MN. I very rarely do any work at the weekend though - perhaps 5-6 times a year, but I almost always work an extra 1-2 hours, sometimes 3, in the evenings. That's the nature of my profession and I'm definitely not the exception in my firm.

I guess if you're the only person in your firm at your level who is having to work extra hours and/or other firms in your industry offer a better worklife balance, then maybe you should start examining whether your view that this is normal is indeed correct.

You are a pushover.

Six figures too, rare to work weekends. Work some evenings when I need to.

Most senior people on 6 figures in my organisation do some weekend working and/or late evenings/early mornings. Not all the time but it’s fairly common. We work in global teams so some work is time zone driven but much of the extra hours are due to the sheer volume of work, high expectations and aggressive deadlines. But we’re number 1 globally for a reason. A lot is expected, a lot is delivered.

What is the job role? And how comes you can't do it in your working hours? Are your colleagues in the same boat?

An extra hour or two in the evening (not every day) is fairly usual but working weekends crosses the boundary for me. I will do it if necessary but if it’s not in response to a major incident I’m probably not managing my workload or delegating effectively. Flexible working can skew the norms on these types of things, as you might see emails trickling through late or at the weekend and think that’s normal when it’s in lieu of their contracted working hours.

I don't think it's normal to always have to work evenings and weekends, no.

There are some industries where the working hours are fluid and you're remunerated very well, because there is an inbuilt expectation that you will work as long as it takes to get the job done. It sounds like you're in one of those jobs and your DH isn't and maybe never has been, so he doesn't understand. Whether it's reasonable or not depends on whether you consider your salary reflects the hours you work.

My DH never work week-ends (almost 6 figure) unless a special event maybe twice a year. And he gets those days back in time off. He declined a promotion that would mean that his working hours would be unlimited even though the salary would be excellent. It's time vs money and since our time on earth is limited...

Not my experience. I only work late or at weekend under very exceptional circumstances.

If it's especially busy, I usually just start an hour early or finish and hour late all week but that's about once a quarter.

Nope. Six figures outside of London here (so six figures without London weighting) and I've worked weekends once in terms of ACTUAL work in the last two years. Occasionally I'll have international travel which falls on a Sunday evening (but I usually travel on their time not mine) or Business Development jollies to the rugby / cricket / football / other BD event.

Someone told me that work will always take what you are prepared to give though and I think you can't row back from that kind of input on a weekend. You essentially need to leave to reinforce your boundaries.

If you try and stop and reinforce boundaries now, it will be seen as you slacking off. You've set expectations that this is acceptable to you.

Look elsewhere.

It could be down to the orgs culture. I've often found people working extra hours they don't need to and it's because peers and seniors they aspire to be do it more often in the that org.

A lot of overtime on general is presenteeism but not necessarily performative, it's just driven by other people doing it.

I say this and regularly work stupidly long hours a week as standard but it is my own business. Had I employees I'd be mindful they didn't take a leaf out of my book we all need a life.

If that's normal for a 6 figure salary I'm very glad I only earn 5 figures.

I run my own business and the more I work the more I can potentially earn, upwards of the six figures, so I will work evenings and weekends when needed but I see the result of my extra work in business growth.

I would never contact my staff or expect them to put in those hours, I'd see myself as failing as business owner if they did that.

If I was employed no bloody way would I earn the business more money than they paid me, I'd do a fab job but in my hours, if they need more they need to employ more staff.

What are all you 6 figure types doing for a living?

Just to be nosey here.

That's too much OP as a routine occurrence.

I'm on 6 figures and I do work evenings and weekends sometimes but on my terms.

• when something's needed urgently to get a job done
• if I need some focused time to think about something and haven't had a chance during the week
• in response to some kind of urgent development or issue
• if I haven't been particularly efficient say on a Friday afternoon and need to catch up
• if I need to prep for something on Monday morning and didn't manage to do it on the Friday.

When DC were little I would knock off to pick them up / bed and bath time etc and log on again for a couple of hours as needed. Now they're teens this is much harder as they're up so late so i no longer get that focused evening time that I really needed sometimes, but I no longer have to pick them up so horses for courses really.

Do you have DC OP?

I work in the corporate world in a 'Head of...' role on £75k, so not six figures, but I live in a very low COL area.

I've never worked late in my life, never logged on at the weekend, and never worked on the train during my commute.

I make clear what I have capacity for and work efficiently during working hours to get it done.