Excessive overtime help needed

[reddaisy]

I am the deputy of a very busy department and I work four days a week. Today because my boss (who just so happens to be on holiday for the rest of the week) failed to rota someone to cover sickness he was informed about yesterday (on my day off) I had to work a 12 hour day.

This kind of thing happens regularly, I also did a 12 hour day on Friday and Sunday and frankly I am sick of it. I am also 30 weeks pregnant and have one DD who DP has fortunately been able to collect/drop off at nursery.

Part of me understands that as a deputy of a department is is my responsibility to ensure the job is finished before the end of the day but the other part of me is furious. Particularly as more senior people than me leave before me without offering assistance and pile more onto my workload throughout the day although they got a firm no from me today.

What, if anything can I do about this? I felt like leaving at my allocated time today and letting them finish off the shift but I couldn't do it. Advice appreciated as it looks like these hours could last for the rest of the week an frankly, I'm knackered already.

i have sooo many questions

but i guess starting at the beginning, do you have an HR dept, do you have KPI's and what would happen if you went home or where sick?

oooh, how are they covering your maternity leave?

What does your contract say about extra hours?

My contract says (off the top of my head) something along the lines of doing the hours required to get the job done.

I was doing four peoples jobs yesterday, two for holiday and one for sickness and my own of course so it is hardly "getting my job done."

I really do not know what would happen if I went home sick or went home. The more senior people would have to do it I suppose.

I don't know what KPI's are but we do have a HR department.

KPI's are Key Performance Indicators ( really your targets , they can be weekly or monthly or even longer)

My advice would be to write down what you are doing each week and sit down with a line manager to see what you can pass on to others and/or to get them to tell you what they want you to focus on

This sort of stress falls under "H+S" legislataion.

If no improvement after speaking to line manager you probably need to go down the "grievance" route (involve HR) Keep talking about stress, the way you are working is not sustainable

are you private or public?

Thanks clappyhands. I am in the private sector and my line manager normally helps keep the overtime to manageable levels but he is very disorganised which contributes to it and he is off at the moment and our boss does not care how long anyone works despite me explaining how shortstaffed we are and how it impacts on me/the people I manage.

I am very tempted to start my maternity leave early just to get out. But that will mean I will have less time to spend with my baby when it arrives.

have HR carried out your "risk assessment" for being pregnant?

i would imagine excessive working hours and being that pregnant don't go well together

are you planning to return to this job - have you thought how this will all work with childcare factored in as well?