#64

Exactly! If there’s too much work for them then the business will adjust, but they are fucking it up for everyone else by establishing a new normal

Mug

4 Likes
#65

Poor him!

1 Like
#66

He’s also got a motorhome so there is some joy.

#67

Motor home sounds like a better hobby than going to work for the man

He should do that more

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#68

Yeah. That seems a bit longer than what my mate was saying (working weekends solidly doesn’t seem to be that much of a thing) but it depends on the industry/company doesn’t it.

#69

Annoying thing at my work is we have ‘budgets’ for each project, if too many hours are booked then we go over budget which is frowned upon, but there is no real incentive to book hours accurately because we don’t get paid extra for those extra hours (due to the toil system being so rarely used). So all the data they have really underrepresented how much overtime people do, whenever this is raised the official line is everyone should book hours accurately, but they know there is a complete imbalance of disincentive/incentives to do that, I suspect they are in a situation where they can’t really address it as they have become reliant on unpaid overtime to do the standard business

#70

Fucking hell! Ridiculous that we have got to this - that’s just obviously a completely stupid and toxic way of living

1 Like
#71

I have come across three reasons people work habitually long hours (as opposed to occasionally when there’s a rush on). Most common first

  1. Ambition / wanting to impress their bosses to get promoted
  2. Avoiding an unhappy home life
  3. Love what they’re doing and time just disappears

The last one is fine as far as it goes as long as it doesn’t spoil things for everyone else by setting unrealistic expectations. There are times when I really like work. It’s not the concept of working for a long time either (I’ll quite happily do 10-12 hours of DIY in a day when I get into it), it’s just the idea that you’re obliged to do it to enrich other people that I object to.

#72

I think this is more common than is realised, sadly :frowning:

2 Likes
#73

I think you are missing

  1. Fear
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#74

Totally agree. In his case he was one level below some kind of megabucks stock option deal, so he and all the other people on his grade were all competing in a nasty Darwinian way to get promoted to the next level, which was ‘retire after 5 years’ type money.

I only lasted a year in that job because there was no way I could feel like I was doing a good job unless I worked 10hrs a day.

1 Like
#75

Yeah, that’s a very good point actually. Big oversight.

I possibly sound like I’m suggesting everyone should simply refuse to work longer hours which is not very empathetic. I realise that in many cases people can’t because fear of losing their job or being bullied is very real.

And it’s an even bigger deal in the US because employment law is weak (you can be sacked with no notice) and everyone relies on their job for healthcare.

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#76

Yeah! I get why people do it, and why some feel they don’t have a choice, it’s the businesses that are at fault more than the employees

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#77

And the Range leaders.

#78

A colleague of mine’s four year old made him a Father’s Day card at nursery this year, which contained a sort of “Daddy biography” where the kid answered questions about their dad and the assistant filled in the blanks.

We laughed pretty hard at the bit where she’d said that what her Daddy liked doing was “go to work”. We assumed that the four year old logic was “well he must really like work, otherwise why would he be doing it all the time.” We certainly agreed there were no other indicators of him liking going to work.

3 Likes
#79

Something we have here which I think is quite good is capped flexi-time. So if you do over your time it gets logged and you can then have time off in lieu, but you can’t log more than 14 hrs, so it kind of encourages you not to constantly work over your hrs

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#80

I am contracted to accept overtime, as operationally required, and i don’t get paid for it. It’s part of being a responsible person for the role.

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#81

:face_with_raised_eyebrow: :thinking::no_mouth:

#82

Not all jobs/professions are created equally.

2 Likes
#83

I am a senior engineer working to support a major pharmaceutical company produce medications. It comes with a lot perks outside of remuneration, and the overtime/nights are rare.

It is a total change from previous places where I got paid dime and dollar for every hour I worked, but there were basically zero benefits.

1 Like