How much unpaid overtime do you do?

[AiryFairy1]

I’m trying working out if I’m either being lazy / bad attitude to work, or I should stick to my paid hours.

I work 4 days a week for a small company, lovely colleagues, enjoyable work, but the pay isn’t that great (imho).

We are having a really busy period, and to be honest, I’m not getting to complete some tasks as the bulk of the day is spent in reactive mode, responding to queries etc. So the important but less pressing stuff starts drifting down the priority pile. And I rarely have a chance to be proactive about anything, so can’t really flex / develop those skills.

I could spend my non-working days catching up, but frankly I don’t want to! But the work is piling up and I know other colleagues are working longer hours to try and keep afloat (we’re ALL v busy).

So now wondering if it would show good commitment to the business to log in for a few extra hours periodically and get on top of stuff. DH says I don’t get paid enough to do that, which is why I’m asking here!

None.

I don't see why an employer should get my time and expertise for free.

OP I'm in a similar situation - 3 days a week (job share), really like my colleagues, small company, low paid, but we are over worked and understaffed at the moment.

I'm supposed to work until 5pm but usually don't get out until 5.30, at which point I give up and go home - stayed until 6.30pm one evening recently.

The problem is I feel guilty leaving too much in the handover to my colleague, so I stay to get more done, but really there is more work than hours in the day and it's stressing me out.

I have also come in extra days to do other work that we have been lumped with which I'm not happy about. It feels like management just want us to get on with it and don't complain.

I will probably end up leaving this job in the summer, as I'll have been there a year, as I can't deal with the stress of it.

20-30 hours roughly a week

No toil no overtime

Hours and hours every week.

Sounds like your employer needs a couple of temporary/agency workers to pick up everyone’s non essential admin. Or if it’s stuff that can wait to a quiet period then just leave it. No way would I work a minute without pay.

Zero. Wy would I work for free on my paltry pay, so the boss can take yet more time off for massive overseas holidays? If I work extra hours, they can pay.

I've had to make DH pull back as well. He was doing massive unpaid hours and it increased until it infiltrated our holiday. The bosses response when DH worked 40 hours on our beach holiday, but internet issues made it difficult... 'what, are you giving up?' I made him commute his leave to paid hours (legally he can) and advise his employer formally he won't be working outside his hours, unless agreed, for either pay or TOIL. Which they do, but didn't offer it until it was demanded.

Some employers will take the piss if given a chance.

I've always worked significantly over the hours I've been paid for. If work needs to be finished then I'll finish it. I've been self employed for the last six years or so and still don't charge for the hours I actually do. I've never been particularly highly paid but have always taken great pride in my work and could never have the jobsworth attitude that so many people seem to have nowadays.

I’d say I’m doing around an extra 5 hours a week at the moment. I wfh and I am starting a bit earlier and finishing a bit later. No one has asked me to. We
are in a tricky staffing situation at the moment so I’m just trying to keep all the plates spinning until we are sorted

I worked for a company for a number of years, and worked far too many hours. There were quite a few of us on my team and we were promised more staff, future promotions and pay increases but of course, that was never forthcoming.

Our team worked so many hours overtime that we could confidently justify 5 extra members of staff. The issue was, that was never going to be actioned because they already had a team that was going way above and beyond. Their attitude was why would they invest more money for the same outlay? They didn’t! They knew we would work as a team to always get the work done.

Quite a bit, but all teachers do!

Zero. Anything before 8am is double time, anything after 4:30 is time and a half.
the odd time I go in on a weekend for a few hours and get paid for a full day.

Absolutely not. I never have and never will do extra unpaid work. I also let the manager know who does it as I'm not being seen as a slacker by doing less work than the other colleague

Civil Service. Have a timesheet I complete daily. Manager is happy to let me build up a day a week of TOIL. So I could effectively do a compressed hours 4 day week. I don’t work a single minute for free.
I also don’t expect anyone else to. Some keen staff will want to stay on and finish tasks but I insist on logging any additional time so they can take TOIL. The pay is not sufficient to warrant working for free.

I start work at around 5-6am and finish at around 7-8pm most nights. Usually work through lunch but spend around an hour walking between train platforms etc during the day.

I get paid for 7.15 hours a day.

I once worked out that I made more per hour as a barmaid/waitress 20 years ago, once I included my tips.

Have. Strong. Boundaries.

I need to grow a pair and leave work at the door.

Zero, maybe the odd ten minutes to finish something off. This is the norm at my company, but rare in the industry and yes the salary is a bit lower as a result.

Would be interested to know the ages of those who do loads of paid overtime and those who refuse to do any. The ones I’ve seen with loads of overtime seem to have numbers in their username indicating they’re a similar age to me. Is this inability to put our own needs ahead of our company’s (who don’t give a toss about us) a millennial thing? Or is that a gross oversimplification?

Zero.

Good bosses / companies recognise that work is quid pro quo.

Zero. Unions are great.

I work full time 3 days a week and Part time on the other 2.
On the days I work a full day, I may work 20-30 minutes longer to finish a task, strictly voluntarily. On my part time days I log off on the dot otherwise what is the point of me taking less pay?
If we’re really swamped and we work extra we do log it and get toil or overtime but that needs to be agreed in advance.
If they are going to be flexible with me I’ll be flexible with them. Today I logged on an hour early for a call with Australia, but equally took that hour back as i had been requested to attend rather than me doing it off my own back.

I do a huge amount of overtime. My contracted hours are 22 per week. I probably work around 50.

When my job changed I chose to keep to my 22 hour contract as I like the flexibility it brings me.

If I do overtime I put in for every single minute of it. Absolutely no way I am working for free!!!

None. Don't get paid enough as it is. They aren't having my free time.

Absolutely loads of hours beyond a "9-5" workday in busy weeks, less in others - but I'm paid a lot for that flexibility. I wouldn't do that in a role that wasn't well paid.

Loads- I'm a teacher so it's unavoidable in term time. But the holidays balance it out for me.

Maybe 4 hours a week? So half a day. I’m an HLTA, but teach full classes for lessons I’ve planned myself. I don’t have class teacher responsibilities and so am paid less than them. I often have to remind colleagues that I’m not paid as a class teacher so I’m not going to do as much overtime as they do. As it is, I can’t get all the planning and resource providing done in the 2.5 hours PPA I get. Not to derail the thread, but no one could, and all the teachers I know do at least an extra 2 hours a day, plus more at weekends and marking/reports/ dealing with parents and admin on top of that. No pay/ TOIL for any of that.
I recognise it’s a choice, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen not to be a class teacher.