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!

I'm paid 37. 5 but have worked 40 already, have still got tomorrow to go and am working on call Sunday from 8am to Monday 8am. I'm well paid but am effectively devaluing my salary by around 20% in light of the extra unpaid hours

I do some. We get TOIL but there are restrictions on how much time off I can take back each month and how much I can carry over to the next month. Last month I lost nearly 20 hours because of that. January is always manic in my role, so that was quite extreme. There are days when I am not that busy and can clean the house between my meetings (when wfh). Judge me all you want, I see it as a healthy balance for times when I work longer for nothing. I can also take time for appointments, longer lunches, school stuff and anything else, so it’s a bit of give and take. If the flexibility ever disappears, I will not do an extra minute for free. I’m also on what I consider a decent pay (not MN high six figures, far from it but very good for my role).

I work overtime generally, but I also am allowed to claim that time back to an extent. But I don’t mean working hours. Found out last week a member of a team I work closely with was given a dressing down for her overtime hours, because they make her manager look bad. 50-60 hours a week at times. And this is not a slacker, she puts in a days work.

I often work on my days off as I just can't fit all the work in my hours. Also though, I feel slow due to peri so feel I need to do more to keep up.

Probably about 4 hrs a week (not loads but about 20% extra time). Any more and I take toil.
Public sector, no bonus, and no where for promotion.

So far this month, I have done
four hours at 1.5x
Two hours at 2x
And one call out on a Saturday where I went into work for 2.5 hours but I will get paid for a full day so eight hours
Full day =164
4x 1.5= 123
2x 2= 82

369 in total this month for not a lot spread over the month is a handy top up.

I don't get paid overtime, I generally work what is needed but that could mean one day I work 8-6 then another I'll have a slightly quieter day and can finish at 3 or 4pm. It evens it out. Some periods are busier than others so I work more, when it's quieter I can ease off a bit.

I've never really thought about it as overtime as I don't have a set start and finish time. I started at 8 today as I had a meeting at 9,I could finish at 4 but then I could have work come in that I need to do before Monday so could be working until 5 or 6.

My answer is: fucking loads.

I've stopped keeping track.

I don’t do any. I work flexible time so any extra time I work is my choice and I take it off another time to balance my hours.

If varies greatly, but when we have project deadlines 10-20hrs extra a week, or covering cutovers at weekends is not unusual. Then when it is quiet we can take time off, anything from 1/2 days to full weeks as long as the work is covered - they trust us to manage our own time and work it out between us.

None. It actually really annoys me when people work extra. If you're paid for a role and number of hours that's what you should do, not feel guilty for not giving time or skills away for free. The more people stop giving free labour the more it stops being a general expectation.

None, we dont get paid overtime or time in lieu so i wont do any overtime.

We are not paid very well either, and we have to have professional exams to do our job, but if the National Minimum Wage went up anymore i would get a payrise, thats how poorly paid my "professional" role is.

We also dont get any bonus, but plenty of the higher ups do.

None. I’m often late finishing work ( nhs) but I take back as toil.

I reckon 25-30 hours normally. Also a teacher.

To those who can clock off on time - what jobs you do?!

And do you worry about job security? If you’re not that busy the job can’t be that important.

Just because someone clicks off on time doesn’t make them not busy! My day is so busy but if i can pick up where I left off at 8 in the morning then i will. Theres the very odd time that I stay on to finish a Job. And when I do…I get paid overtime.

'@Greentrees2024

To those who can clock off on time - what jobs you do?!
And do you worry about job security? If you’re not that busy the job can’t be that important.'

Odd comment.

Doing your contracted hours only does not mean that you are not 'busy' or that you don't do your job correctly.

It simply means you have healthy boundaries and value your life outside work.

I worked a job once where I was working 70 hour weeks but being paid for 37 hours. And it was only £23k at that! It was quite physically demanding too. I was always told by my boss that it's "part of the job" and "someone has to do it&

I quit that job and got a much better one where I work maybe 20-30 hours a week but paid full time.

Have you reported all this to your manager. It's unsustainable, they are understaffed.

This is why I left care.
Apart from the 15 minutes each shift that was for handover and unpaid in every care job I've had (paid shift 8-2, 2-10 or 8-10 then nights 10-8, but you had to be in handover 15 minutes before the shift and it wasn't optional).
There was the staying back to complete paperwork, especially if a fall or incident had happened - it took at least an hour but there was no cover to ensure care continued uninterrupted and the paperwork got done, so a lot of the time you had to wait for the next shift and then do your paperwork.
And that's without the residents needing something 5 minutes before the end of your shift that's going to take way longer than 5 minutes to do, or accompanying people on hospital visits etc.
If we mentioned it we just got told to manage our time better 🤷🏼‍♀️.

I do a bit now, up to 5 hours a week maybe more some weeks, but I have flexibility in turn, can start late or finish early if I need to for some reason or take an hour during my shift to attend an appointment for example. If that went then I'd be out the door on time. Customers often expect me to 'just' do this or that despite having my coat on ready to leave - and for the most part I'm happy to, but if the flexibility towards me stopped then my flexibility and being happy to do that would stop to. And I'm not in a professional role.

None.
Occasionally there are weekend events that we are asked to attend, not mandatory, and if we do them we get the TOIL and expenses - I don’t mind doing them as I can always use the time back in school holidays but I don’t always say yes.
But working more than I’m paid to for nothing? No, I don’t do that.

Why does clocking off on time mean we aren't busy? Why would you have so little self worth that you gladly give up your own personal time to work for free for a company who would get rid of you as soon as blink if they needed to. If a company is that busy that people have to do hours and hours of unpaid overtime regularly (not as a one off deadline), then they need to get more staff, not have mugs like you doing it all for free, whilst you probably moan how busy you are all day, and questioning why they don't get more staff. Let me tell you, they won't get more staff while you give it to them for free!

Civil servant. Pretty much a job for life.

my job is busy and I’m worth every penny that I’m paid, I just have boundaries and the kind of work that you can put down and pick up again the next day.

DO NOT spend your non-work day catching up. If you cannot do it all in the hours you are paid then they are understaffed. Let things fail.

I say this having previously worked hours and hours of unpaid overtime.