If you earn around £50k how many unpaid hours extra do you put it?

[SnarkyBag]

Just trying to decide what’s just part of settling into a new role and getting to grips verses what’s reasonable long term. I’m giving it til the new year to settle but right now I’m finding I’m putting at least an extra day each week to keep on top of things.

there’s definitely a learning curve so I’m seeing some of it as professional development but longer term it’s not sustainable and to be honest I’m not really a work for free kind of person (well not for £50k a year anyway!)

obviously I know some professions such as teachers will be working crazy ridiculous hours (which I think is so wrong and insane and a culture that needs to come to an end by the way) but generally speaking how much are people working for free because of unrealistic work loads?

Maybe 3-4 a week. I don't often take my lunchbreak, but that allows me to nip out for 30mins for school pick up if my diary is clear, and not feel guilty about it. Likewise finishing at 4 on a Friday.

My team work flexibly, so I am often answering teams messages in the evening, but I don't often work on full documents/projects unless there is a deadline looming!

That just isn’t how it works in most jobs. Especially public sector.

I earn just over that OP and some weeks I’ll have no lunch break and work til 10 or 11pm every night and some weeks I’ll finish on time every day. Same with everyone above me in the line management chain (I wouldn’t have people below me working late at night, I would work more to avoid asking them to).

5-6 hours a week. Public sector. However occasionally I need to finish early for caring responsibilities and that is accommodated.

I also do between 2-8 hours on weekends in my own time, but that’s for a degree that work are sponsoring me through so I discount that.

@MiddleParking it's not how it works currently because people put up being treated like shit.

If you stop doing work you're not paid to do they'll have to stop expecting it.

It's hard to say overall, my role is a bit hurry-up-and-wait. When things are hectic it's work all hours, forget what the kids look like, curse the senior management who agreed to the deadlines.
Then in slow times I potter around, 'network' and bunk off early. Because there's literally nothing for me to do and I get bored.
Probably averages out to 40 hours but it's pretty miserable and I'm actively looking for somewhere with more consistent workload.

I earn more than that but I actually think the salary is a bit of a red herring. Outside of jobs that are heavily unionised and/or strict shifts I'd say it depends far more on:

1. Organisational culture;
2. Line manager's attitude;
3. Personal attitude.

I've been lucky that I've never worked for an organisation where there was an cultural expectation to routinely work extra hours.
I've only ever had one boss who tried to pressure me into routinely doing extra. That was a short battle of wills and they lost decisively, thanks in part to the organisational culture.
I don't think twice about doing extra if the situation genuinely merits it but I don't work extra just for the hell of it. I also have the good fortune to work for a company that cares only about the job getting done well and is not interested in presenteeism. If I have a private appointment such as dental, medical, car going in for a service etc I have the freedom to just go and do what I need to do. I currently have three people who report into me and I've made it very clear to them that they don't get brownie points for extra hours. I expect them to prioritise their general welfare and work-life balance as that is what's most important to me as their manager and to the wider organisation. Happy, energetic, unstressed people who feel genuinely valued do a far better job in my experience.

I no longer work (SAHM) but when I did, I earned over £50k.

Someone on our team worked out during one period when a number of deals were closing that we were earning less than minimum wage, such were the amount of additional hours worked!

Well no they won’t because there are loads of people who’d love my job and would happily work extra hours unpaid like I do now 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nope I don't work over. Senior nurse in a specialist community role earn over 50k, very rarely work over & would be paid extra to contract if I did.

None. Public sector-ish.

Civil Service and generally don't need to work over my hours, though there are occasions I do. DH earns the same (different industry) but works quite a bit extra

I’m public sector but flexible working. There’s weeks when I do 12 hour days but then when there is less work I’ll finish early and have longer lunches.

@MiddleParking why are you happily doing it? That's what I'm saying. It happens because people like you are happy to do it. That creates a crap culture because you're being hugely underpaid for what you're doing.

I work hours outside of my contracted hours quite a lot - I am often picking things up at weekends and evenings when it is quieter on email / Teams.

But I do choose to do it. I get satisfaction from the work I do and want to do it well so I don't complain about it. It is not my company forcing me to do it, it's just sometimes a piece of work requires some serious thinking and I prefer to do it out of hours when there are no distractions.

Everyone works differently and I know what I do does not suit everyone. I also check emails when I am holiday, but again, I prefer to do that to avoid the hideous anxiety feeling the night before coming back in to a pile of emails - I'd rather just see what is going on in real time.

£48K - public sector. I typically work 7-10 hours overtime in a week. I used to not mind so much but now I'm peri-menopausal and permanently exhausted, plus providing increasing care for elderly parents, I am starting to struggle and resent it.

Up until recently I was on way less than 50k, contracted to 30hrs, working around 50hrs. Near killed me. And that’s without the CPD I was doing in my own time over the weekend. Never again. I now get paid more and work less.

People who earn £50k plus aren't really paid by the hour. They are paid to do a job ie deliver a project or whatever. Whether that takes 4?hours a day or 10 hours a day.
These are usually the sort of jobs where you can set your own hours according to the work load.
Some days I start early and/or finish late. Some days I start late and/or finish early.

I've had two 50k jobs and both of them were the most junior role in the team so not sure where the assumption you have underlings to delegate to has come from.

One of them I worked 9-5 every day, one of them I probably did 3-5 more hours a week.

🤣🤣🤣
then there is real life…🙄

Totally agree with this

I am not paid by the hour - I have targets to meet to get my wage and bonuses so I do what it takes to get them!

The only time I worked strict contract hours only job was working minimum wage in retail. Every other job was at least an hour extra a day to get things done. Bank holidays were not always welcomed as it just meant had to pack it all in four days (weekly publication- deadlines could not pass over to the following week).

This.
and the higher the salary the bigger the tasks are and more hours you need to put in
i worked in private sector till took early retirement 3 years ago

i was working something like 55 hours at desk (home, offices ) but I was also away from home a minimum of 30% of working days on my contract. In last 3 years that increased (outside of contract) to be away form home around 50% of time including breaking into my weekends with travel time (long haul flights ). I was certainly breaking the Eu directive but we all ignored that

I quit when I realised I’d spent just 126 nights in my own bed at home 8n last 12 months and Realised why I was feeling ill, stressed, depressed, unfit etc etc.

I was paid a very good salary (not 6 figures but very good ). Under our HR policies no one on “professional grades” could claim overtime. You were paid to do the job. How much time you put in was irrelevant up to a point .

I learnt how to say “no” to certain assignments to stop being overloaded- but was expected to manage that myself,

on the other hand, I had a reputation for delivering above and beyond and was given a lot of flexibility with no questions asked. If I need time off for kids illness, or a partial wfh while they were ill - no questions asked. I had already “banked” way more hours than I took off, and no one was going to start clock watching me as it would have backfired on them massively. That’s certainly a benefit of being at these salary levels- but it does come at cost of you going above and beyond your contracted hours routinely and flexing for the company when even more is required for given projects

I was regularly working an extra 1 to 2 hours per working day at least, plus taking work home to do at weekend. I’ve been with the company a long time as have most of the other staff.
My boss actually came to me to discuss a pay rise, but unfortunately for him, he picked a bad day to do so, as I was stressed out, at the end of my tether and basically told him I was on the point of walking out. 12 months later, I am on a 4 day week after getting a 10% pay rise. He took on an extra staff member, and I am now in the lucky position that over the space of a month, I work my actual paid hours. I have deadlines to meet which means some weeks I can still be working extra hours, but on others I can actually finish early because all my work is done.

£59k work zero hours extra Charity Sector. However, on lower paid roles for same organisation would need to work more hours to keep on top of tasks…..

I work in an NHS managerial role on around 50k. I work on average an additional 5 hours a week partly due to unrealistic workloads and understaffing and partly because of the way I am (poor boundaries, love my job)