Working late/long hours when your colleagues don't - how is this fair?

[TwentyOneGuns]

It's really starting to get to me that some of my colleagues are complete clock watchers and only ever work their exact hours, always finishing at exactly the same time regardless of how busy they or anyone else are. In contrast, other members of the team, me included, put the hours in when needed, often working late or coming in early.

Why should I work longer than them when we're all of the same level and I assume are paid roughly the same? To rub it in I was even given someone else's project to take over the other week because she 'didn't have time' whereas I obviously have because I'm often in the office 2 hours after I should have finished.

Nobody's ever told me specifically that I have to work late but I often need to as do other colleagues, and my contract does state that working late will be expected now and then. It doesn't seem to apply to everyone though. I wouldn't mind so much if I could carry the extra hours over and take the odd half day off but it doesn't work like that.

What's the best way round this? Do I just have to accept it and hope it gets noticed favourably by the bosses? Or should I say sod it and knock off on the dot like other people do?

They are working the hours they're paid to work.

If there are any issues with their quality or quantity of work that is absolutely none of your business, unless you are their manager.

Stop moaning about your own choices, or stop being a mug.

I used to work considerable extra hours. Evenings, weekends, easily doing double my contracted hours. I cancelled things with DD and worked when I was seriously ill and signed off (not contagious). This was over a sustained period.

Was it appreciated? Nope
Did my employer take me for a mug and keep taking? Yes
Was I rewarded or even thanked? Nope
Was I treated well? Nope

I'm on maternity leave now but will be looking for a new job rather than going back to work for those fucking shits. I'll never put myself out like that again.

You could be my colleague. I come in a bit early or leave a bit late if it's really, genuinely needed - but only a bit. Other than that I do my contracted hours and then leave. My (lovely) colleague, though, puts in ridiculous hours and I just don't get it. The world won't stop turning if X task is done on Wednesday rather than completed at 7pm on Tuesday. She makes me feel vaguely guilty (but not enough to stay on more than 10/15 minutes beyond my finish time).

Blimey some of you are a bit harsh! I did say that my contract states that working extra is expected at times. I'm not doing it for fun or to be some kind of martyr, I'm doing it because I need the time to manage my workload and because it's what I signed up to I guess. I don't know if everyone has the same contract but it just feels unfair that in a team some members are able to work their set hours and others (and it's not just me) can't.

I don't see how colleagues working their contracted hours and leaving on time causes you so much upset? I'm assuming you could do the same but choose to stay?

I used to be contracted so gave them 9-5 ... I now work on flexi so don't mind if I stay as I don't loose out.

But I agree with others that your not thought of better for working all the hours you just get put on as you sound like you are. So start working to rule if your not happy they can't say anything.

If your workload is unmanageable in your hours then you need to speak to your manager.

'but I'm afraid I can't help feeling resentful'

IMO this is what you have to work on. If we all thought like you, and resented colleagues as you do, all our workplaces would be unpleasant, net-curtain twitchy type places. You should value that they (and you) are able to leave - not long to work somewhere where they can't.

I leave earlier than my peers and people watch me leave. No one says anything to me, though I sometimes think they'd like to. I meet my deadlines and produce good work so I kind of get left to it. Honestly, I don't think it affects my career prospects one bit.

In my job before last I was contracted for 7.5 hours per day no overtime, but the culture was to work 8.5 hours or 9 if you skipped lunch. I could have lived with that if the whole team (all same level doing same job) did it but that didn't happen and then like you they kept pushing the person who was always out the door bang on time work onto me, or holding me up as the example of how to do the job (making me soooo popular). If I had done the amount of work she did I could have worked a 7.5 hour day or less. The resentment was awful and the team moral very poor. It was the same throughout the company in all departments, and there was never any reward or recognition to those who put the hours in or anything said about the clock watchers.

I do though tend to work in senior roles where the norm is to work over your contracted time.

I have now found a job within a team but with my own specific role which is mine to make as much of as I want, I won't have to take on other people's work and if I stay late it will be because I want to or to need the needs of the business, I don't get overtime still, but there are performance bonuses written into my contract

Go home...on time! Do not work unpaid past your official end of shift time. If you continue to do so then you will be used. Managers need to see that they don't have enough staff.
Some colleagues will have children to collect from childcare so can't be expected to stay behind.

Don't want to give too much away but office based with too many deadlines!

What kind of deadlines? Internally set or externally driven? E.g. Are you a lawyer with court dates or property exchange dates that are immovable or a customer service rep working to internal service standards?

Your colleagues for whatever reason have clear, strong boundaries. They work the hours they are contracted and paid to work. You don't have boundaries and are prepared to work for free. No point in feeling resentful but you may want to review your own working practices. If your regularly giving your employers two extra free hours a day that soon builds up and could easily be two extra 'days' a week. Who's right you or them?

I worked for myself for a long time so I guess I got used to putting in the hours where needed. Obviously it's a bit different when you're working for someone else!though.

Our deadlines are externally driven in general, based on the requirements of customers. However I think sometimes senior people promise things (on behalf of other departments eg mine) that are unrealistic. Business is tough so I can see why they do this and the work late culture which exists in our company as well as many others means things do get done. I'm not sure how I'd get out of it tbh, you can't just say no to your boss can you?

Don't devalue yourself, you can say no. Being self employed is entirely different but currently you are an employee with a contract. Occasional is just that and not everyday. You may need to say that you can't work late as you already have plans or if you are prepared to stay on be clear and say you've worked X extra hours so will take time in lieu on such a day.
I learnt the hard way that working for free doesn't impress the management they just take you for a mug.

I bet some of my colleagues feel this way about me (my work is a lot like yours - office based with too many deadlines - and I'm a single parent, so can't get in earlier than 9 or leave later than 5). I know you say the people you're thinking of don't have children, but I'm quite sure some of the people who'll have noticed my "clock-watching" won't have realised I do. Even those who do know, I don't think they realise that even 'just five mins' makes it extremely difficult and stressful to get to nursery before it closes at 6pm.

Actually, I'm really really grateful for the existence of non-parent people (perhaps completely no-caring-responsibilities people) with strong enough boundaries to work their contracted hours and no more. It helps manage expectations correctly (ie you can't get away with giving a team of 5 people the work of 7, because nobody is going to kill themselves doing more than is reasonable) and stops me from looking like a burden when actually I get my work done on time inside my hours!

I hope you can't sort your situation, OP - whether that's getting your evenings back for yourself or what.

You don't get overtime so effectively you're earning less than your colleagues. On a pay/hours worked basis.

I used to be in a job where overtime was expected and paid but I found out that the management suggested you weren't efficient if you had to work past 5/530.

My job now pays no overtime. So no one works. The office is dead by 530. The policy is you work efficiently get the work done between 9-5 then go home and have a life.

The work late culture exists because there are people like you that feed into it!
Go home on time and when boss asks why work not completed then it's up to them to fix it by hiring more staff or saying no to work in an already overstretched department.

Don't hope your bosses will notice. If I've learned anything over the years it's that that doesn't happen unless you draw yourself to their attention. Tell management what you are doing , when and how, if you want recognition. Those that sell themselves are the ones that are noticed, even though it goes against the grain of many women in particular to do this.

virtually all contracts say that about extra work hours expected "from time to time", it doesn't mean you have to do it every day. if you want to, fair enough, but i dont think you should call people that choose not to clock watchers, you don't know what other commitments they have. Or maybe they just worked for a company for years and realised that nobody recognised their extra hours and just decided not to be taken for mugs anymore.

This issue is one of the reasons I became a self employed contractor. Contractors work their contracted hours and leave on the dot, nobody bats an eyelid. When the shit occasionally hits the fan we'll be up all night sorting it out (often from home). virtually all office based jobs have remote access, you don't have to be glued to your desk every evening.

It's concerning that you think leaving on time is unprofessional. That's indicative of a bad attitude, yes. On your part. You can value your own time how you like, you don't get to that for other people. I do a bit more than my contracted hours, though arrive no more than a few minutes early and leave dead on time because I have young children, but I do this because I get give and take in return. I don't have the right to kick off when others don't do it.

And frankly, that sort of attitude is letting the side down. Times are hard now, I understand that many people are desperate and, if their employer wishes them to eat shit, have no choice but to eat shit. In that scenario, if you're being exploited to the extent that unpaid overtime is required to keep the wolf from the door, do what you have to do. But you don't say anything to suggest this is you. If it's not, and you have the option of addressing the work allocation with management but are instead choosing to work longer hours and fulminate over another colleague who works their hours and does the work they're asked to (I get the irritation over the one who does nothing, but not because of their hours) then you're fucking other people over because of your lack of backbone. You're contributing to a general erosion of workers rights and privacy, voluntarily, and it's your responsibility to address that.

I don't have kids but always leave work on time.

I work hard whilst I am there and quite frankly have better things to do than spend my life working.

But don't you feel that if you want to get ahead it's sort of expected? Not saying that's right but it's the way it is even if no-one will admit it.

I have done free work in the past.
that's what you're doing now.

it probably goes without saying that i found sense eventually.

Yes, sometimes. It doesn't follow that you have any right to expect it of colleagues though.

I would find it annoying if I was working my proper hours and leaving on time and a colleague was regularly staying longer to do free overtime!

If you are routinely working longer hours than you are paid for, then either the job needs re-structuring or the way you are doing it is wrong. If you are having to stay late at night to meet deadlines you should record the extra hours and take time off in lieu. Any decent manager would expect this. Line management should also be aware of the extra hours you are working and discussing them with you. If they are not being pro-active about this, they are poor managers. But it is your responsibility to raise it with them if they have not noticed.

IME there are some people - at all levels - whose jobs always turn into 12 hour a day jobs. When they move on their successors manage to complete the tasks equally well within the time allotted.

Don't be a martyr. No-one will notice. And you will not get any thanks for it.