If you earn over £60k...

[loveawineloveacrisp]

How much work over and above what you're paid for do you do?

I'm a month into a new job and it's clear that the previous person was only getting all the work done because she was working all hours. It's the job of two people, not one. I work 9-5.30 but people are sending emails before 8 and after 6. I was just letting off steam to a friend (who earns about £20k more than me) and she said oh it's just expected at that level. I earn £65k which I know is a good amount but it's not Megabucks and I'm being paid for my 30 years experience in the industry.

AIBU to want to just do my hours and log off?

Working more hours than you are paid is a mugs game. It's also a failure of your employer as they aren't resourcing their roles properly.

I was in private consultancy for 3 years and it was just expected to work until deadlines were met. The more competent people then got more jobs piled on until it was impossible to juggle. I had one colleague same seniority and experience as me who moaned constantly about the workload but delegated everything to junior members. I checked her calendar and it was literally full of "placeholder" meetings she had sent herself such as "catch up on emails" and "do timesheets". Whereas I was in actual meetings with actual clients bursting my chops. But if you looked at both our calendars you would assume we were equally as busy.

I realised after being "volunteered" to manage 4 concurrent projects because this colleague was "too busy" to take any on that it was time to leave. I was making myself ill and getting paid the same as someone with probably 1/3rd of my output.

Now in another industry that can be full on but I am making a conscious effort to only work my hours. I could probably work 10 hours a day for a month and still have things to do so I am pacing myself. I love my job but I don't want to do it for free.

£75k a year as a Quantity Surveyor.

It will be related to sector as well as your personality.
I earn more than that now and have to try very very hard to keep work within work hours. It's very difficult and I don't always succeed.

At 60k I mostly clocked in and out - only occasional running over.

I don't always do loads of hours routinely but in a real emergency i do have to be available etc. We had a really unusual situation last month where i had to work til 1am with a colleague but thats rare.

I'm in the US and I'm paid hourly, $45.95/hour. I'm only permitted to work 40 hours a week, so I don't work any extra.

Best to have a discussion about expectations with the boss.

In my organisation, there’s no need. Absolutely no one expects anyone to reply outside of core hours until you get to managing director/c-suite level I suppose.

I do significantly over my contracted hours but also have significant flexibility in my diary and work mostly remotely which is a worthwhile trade off for me.
I am a former teacher now working at service manager level in children's services.
I worked far more hours as a teacher to be fair.

I also think 2 months in is very early days. You will pick up speed and efficiency as you go and more confidence delegating.

Definitely. I do an hour at 7, log off for the school run, back on at 8.50 etc (all with employers agreement). Same in the evening. I still work far more than I'm contracted to.though.

Can you tell us what you do? Just interested really?

Yeah - that’s what the insufferable workaholic on our team thinks. Trust me, all your colleagues want to clock off and have a life like normal people but ‘happy to work over’ people like you throw everyone else under the bus. Thanks. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Clearly in the wrong line of work! earn less than that, was working until 9.30 and will be back out there checking on calving cows again shortly.

This.

Have the confidence to reply in your own time and not just scramble to reply straight away because you think it shows commitment.

My calendar is blocked out 7am-9am every morning so that I can go and do an exercise class before work. If someone wants to email me then, they can, but I won’t be replying until after 9am.

Compliance Director for a PLC in a highly regulated industry.

Update: I'm thinking of quitting. There seems to be an unpaid overtime culture and I know that my predecessor was working all hours just to get through the workload. It's insane.

I earn 67k, I work a standard 37hr week, but also work around 5hrs a week extra, but that can be a lot more if we are in crisis. Fortunately my boss lets me put through my extra hrs as payment, as she doesn’t want us all to use it for days off, as she knows realistically we won’t take it. Even a couple of days AL I dread what I could come back to. I love what I do though, work with great people and never dread going to work.

I would say that just because you get emails between 8-6 doesn’t mean you need to respond straight away. You’ve got to remember that someone else may work 8-4 and some one else may do 10-6

I’ve got a disability which means that I can be too sick to work for a few hours at a time: so I tend to flex my working hours. I might be sending emails all evening: but it’s probably because I was laid in bed feeling awful all afternoon

2 months in and spending 30 minutes to catch up with emails doesn't seem that bad to me, although I don't work in the same field. I imagine at your level that the emails may often require a bit more thought to respond to, compared to a lower level person who is likely to get more emails of the "please can you give me the June sales figures/add David Jones to the group/set up a meeting next week with Sue Smith and Jane Williams" type.

My FTE is approx £68k but only work 24 hours per week. Depends which client I'm on at the time. Last one was incredibly busy and regularly worked overtime especially after a holiday to catch up.

Current client isn't too bad. Probably just an hour on my last working day of the week to make sure it's all left tidy for that week.

Previous employer where my pay was mid 40s I was working a ridiculous amount of overtime and that's why I left. It wasn't always like that but it escalated over time.

I think the odd hour or two here and there if it's busy is ok, what your describing sounds too much x

I love this. If everyone did this the cost cutting re. employing more staff would have to stop.

It's not just the emails. The workload needs two people.

Friends who earn over £60k include: ecologist, bankers, accountants, lawyer, things like that. Fairly skilled.

Not me I'm p/t on £20k due to illness 😁

This sums it up perfectly.

My salary isn't in this range, but this is my experience too.

I don't mean this to criticise others who haven't had the same advancement, but you see quite a lot of posters for whom "hard work" = "volume of work" = "meeting objectives" = "progress".

Except it doesn't. Companies need people who can kill off the churn of a task and come to the same or better result quickly and more cheaply.

My top careers advice would be to make sure in your twenties that you have objectives related to applied knowledge and efficiency on your KPIs.