To ask how many hours overtime you do and if this sounds achievable?

[Mellowyellow21]

NC’d. So for the last year, I have received a small amount of benefits. It equates to approximately 178 a month. I will be losing this in a few weeks as I moved in with my partner. And that’s fine I totally understand that. I have decided, however, that I would like to continue bringing in this money essentially by doing overtime. I usually do some overtime anyway which gives me an extra 100/150 per month. For me to bring in this extra 178 (the benefits amount) after tax I need to do another 10 to 11 hours overtime (at 1.5x pay rate) so that works out at about 2 1/2 hours on top of what I normally do which is approximately 2 1/2 hours per week. So I’ll have to do on average five hours per week overtime. Depending on the time I can sometimes have overtime at 2x pay rate so some weeks I may be able to do slightly less. I think this is achievable do you? I’m not being unreasonable to think that this is achievable. I’m the only person doing my job in my department so I reckon I could do it? Dp think I shouldn’t put pressure on myself as obviously his earnings are in the household now.

Just do what your happy with and reassess when you want to.

£178 per month is not a "Small amount of benefits"

It sounds achievable in terms of extra hours/time spent.

In practical terms I think it will depend whether your company would be ok with paying the extra, since apparently they don't need that much overtime now, and in most jobs you can't really just unilaterally decide you want to earn more so will work more hours, esp at an enhanced rate.

There’s generally always something I can be doing extra as such. But yeah, I couldn’t just unilaterally decided to do 20 hours extra all my extra time has to have a reason applied to it. Some weeks are busier than other so sometimes I actually have to because of deadlines and then other weeks I don’t so some weeks I may do 12 hours extra (like this week) and then some weeks I may really have nothing but I could stretch to 2 1/2 hours for reviewing documents, etc.

I suppose it’s not it’s just not a “huge” top up of thousands if you know what I mean.

It depends on your lifestyle & your commitments outside of work really.

Personally for me at this stage of my life I couldn’t commit to 5 hours extra per week without it directly impacting other- more important- things like my time with my daughter so I wouldn’t do it. But if it was just me & my husband at home then 5 hours extra each week, basically 1 hour extra each day, isn’t unthinkable.

Yeah I do have dc so I mostly do my extra hours when they are with their dad. Sometimes I do one hour in the morning before actual start time which is 2x hourly rate so that’s great. And sometimes it’s ok the evening after work. If I have to log on at the weekend or in the evening to do a call etc then that is actually a lot more…like I could log on for 1 hour but I get paid for 4 hours. That’s just the policy. But there’s certain criteria for that.

I often work overtime/in the evening and it’s doable but it makes the week feel very samey. In your position I’d think about doing something entirely different rather than more of the same -- for example, babysitting a night or two a week would leave you free to mostly relax.

I do 15hours a week, mon and Wednesday I do 3.5hours after my shift ends at 4pm, and I do 8 hours on a Saturday 6-3.30pm. I put $1k aside a fortnight and the rest goes into a general account. I’m saving for a new car so I have a goal. I also don’t have children at home or any commitments and it’s an office job so if I feel burnt out, I just stop for a week. But the money is very very good.

I work full-time and have a primary aged child. Single parent. At certain times of year (the majority of the time, although only just over 6 months a year) I work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. It's a killer.

However, I could easily add on 5 hours a week to a full time week. It's only an extra hour a day. And IF you can work flexibly, you could do some in the evenings / at weekends. I'm lucky that I have that option, but I know not everyone does.

Oh god I hear what you’re saying, but I really don’t want to look after other people’s children 😂😂 looking after my own is enough.

I think it’s fine. Lots of people end up with deadlines meaning they work more hours on certain projects or times of the year.

The thing to think about is where you will "fit" the extra 2.5 hours, and what you would otherwise be doing with that time. If it's scarce time with your children, or the only rest time of the day, I'd say no. If you have lots of time on your own with nothing much to do, then it sounds more achievable.

I don't know your company's overtime policy, but I'd be wary of constantly working a lot of overtime - they might well decide they need to employ an extra person to do the work instead of paying an enhanced rate.

How many hours is your normal working week? If part-time, then a few extra isn't much but if already working full time- it might have more of an impact.

I've never worked anywhere that you can just choose to do overtime and get paid 1.5 or 2x for it! I'd be extremely cautious in being able to justify your overtime with tangible work that can't be done within your regular hours.

What are your plans if they crack down the stop all overtime?

Then stacking shelves, walking dogs etc if that comes close to your hourly rate at all. Or whatever you can think of. I used to deliver flyers for the council, for example. It paid well if you walked fast.

I work in the NHS where it's very normal to pick up extra shifts to top up your income. Most months I do a shift which is 10 or 12 hours, it's easier to get it over and done with rather than spreading it out.

Have you factored in tax etc? If you are on lower income (which I'm guessing you are to get benefits) then you'll find any extra income might incur more tax than you expect.

My normal working hours are 39 hours. Monday to Thursday 8 to 4:30, Friday 8- 3:30

Anything in the morning before the 8 o’clock start is considered 2x pay, anything in the evening is 1 1/2 x pay and other instances where it meets the criteria is considered a callout. These are the overtime allowances they have in place. It has always been that way. As I said, there has to be a justification when we put them into the system.

if there is a deadline the deadline usually finishes at midnight that day so it’s very common that people will do overtime to meet that deadline before midnight.

my pay will go up in March next year by approximately 4.5% so once that kicks in and I won’t feel the need to do as much OT.

My rate of pay at 1 1/2 times is 36 per hour, I calculate it that I will need to do 10 to 11 hours to make enough for them to take tax and then I will be left with approximately 178.