How much unpaid overtime is reasonable in a £50k role?

[Strumpetpumpet]

I’m 6 months into a new job, which was a bit of a promotion for me. I enjoy it on the whole but am finding there’s too much work to fit into a standard working week. My 2 colleagues who are the same level as me, seem to work lots of evenings and weekends to get everything done. I’m 55, menopausal, don’t sleep well and am always tired, and I just don’t want to have to work tons of additional hours just to keep up. Am I just out of touch and should I expect to be working late nights and weekends at this level?

I work 4 days a week in a similarly paid role. I reckon I do about 10 hours overtime a week.

I earn £52k for a 37-hour week and I don’t do unpaid overtime unless there’s a major crisis. I think sometimes it becomes a habit but it’s not a good thing. If there’s not enough time to do everything then you need more people and resources, or different systems - I’m not interested in masking that by giving away my personal time for free!

I've always worked in industries where lots of extra hours are the norm, but I've never done them. I work hard, I do a good job, if I can't fit it into the time allowed no one can and therefore it's an unreasonable expectation. It's never done me any harm to be the person who leaves when my hours are done.

I'll work extra to deal with an unusual event - sort out a crisis or something, but not just to get routine work done.

I think some companies expect it but you shouldn't have to be working overtime just because your salary is over a certain amount.

When I was on £50k I worked in an org where the attitude was very much sometimes you will need to work longer hours to get the job done, but it's not expected that you will be working all the hours god sends just to get the basic job done. It was a nice balance and we always got the time back if unpaid overtime was necessary.

I'm on considerably more £ now in a senior role. For the jobs that are £50k plus in my current org you could work aaaaaall the hours if you wanted but I choose not to. What I see some others do is that they go to so many pointless meetings they can't get their actual work done and do end up working long hours and weekends. I am very strict about my diary and won't have meetings without a clear purpose.

At the same time, my manager regularly works at weekends and can't work out how I manage to do such a good job and get everything done and more without working at the weekends 🤷🏽‍♀️

45k and zero overtime. My manager earns 55k and as far as I know doesn't do any either. It would be quite frowned upon at my company who put a lot of effort into supporting wellbeing.

£20k and do about five hours unpaid.

£40k and roughly 30 hours overtime

Unpaid overtime I mean

£59k, 35 hours pw and zero overtime.

As a few others have said overtime if a crisis but not every week for routine work

£62k- no overtime required or expected, i work 7:30-3:30pm. I do work long hours when I need to travel overseas, but I get time off in lieu for additional hours or travel/ work on weekends which I use for covering school holidays

Similarly paid role, I probably did approx 10 hours unpaid overtime per week. Varied across the month though (finance based).

Earn a lot less teaching adults. And tons of unpaid overtime. I often muse whether this is "normal" for a profession or if I'm a mug.

None

I earn more than that and don't do any unpaid overtime unless there is a crisis or a major project happening.

If you are senior management and regularly working weekends you need to manage your time better and delegate. If you don't focus on spending your time on the important things you will soon get into a habit of working late and at weekends and while it may seem the easy option it is not the best one.

Thanks for all your replies, it’s reassuring to know I’m not completely unreasonable in expecting to not do too many unpaid hours x

DH earns £59k for 35 hours but almost always works 40 hours. He will also answer quick emails if he is on holiday leave. He likes his job. I'm hoping he will go part time once he reaches 60 as he can draw some of his pension then but who knows.

I think it depends where you are happy with where you are or wishing to progress further as well. My motivation to put in the extra hours (more than occasionally) has been to do the "added extra" to make the impression needed to make the next jump. It's always paid off. But I can imagine later in my career I might be much more cautious about how many extra hours I put in

A week?

How did you come to that conclusion where nearly everyone said it was expected?

none

In my company unpaid overtime is expected from grading at 30k+

However it's the exception to work that way rather than the rule. To get a project over the finish line would be acceptable.

Anything else would mean scrutiny about staffing levels vs work stack.

I don't so that much at the moment. I used to do about 5-7 hours a week at that level in my old role, and then the same til fairly recently in my current role. In busy periods it could be anywhere from 12-25 or even 30 hours a week for a period of up to a couple of months.

10 hours per week and perhaps the need to check emails at the weekend.

£48k no overtime, if I work evenings or weekends I take TOIL.