Why are you giving up £5000 a year?
Are you one of nearly five million people doing an average of more than seven hours overtime every week for free? All that unpaid overtime is worth £5,000 a year. If you did all your unpaid overtime at the start of the year you wouldn’t get paid until 22 February. The TUC has named this date “Work Your Proper Hours Day” in your honour.
If you are an senior IT professional or IT manager, it is even worse. You are working an average of nearly 10 hours additional time each week, worth up to £10,000 a year.
On this day, take a stand by arriving for work on time, taking a proper lunch break and leaving on time. If you’re a manager, why not thank your staff for all the extra effort they put in at work.
In the UK we work the longest hours in Europe. Here's why:
- the law that protects against very long hours is weaker in the UK
- most people don't know about the laws we do have, and they're not enforced
- more and more people do the kind of jobs where overtime is not paid
- and we've just got into the habit where employers expect, and staff are prepared to work, very long hours. It's the dreaded “long hours culture”.
Long hours are not good for us; they cause stress; they're bad for our health; they wreck relationships; they make caring for children or dependents more difficult; and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business.
It doesn't mean that we should turn into a nation of clock-watchers. Most people enjoy their jobs and find them fulfilling. But there's a need for give and take at work. Putting in some extra hours when there's an emergency or a sudden increase in orders is one thing. The problem is when it turns to all take. Long hours become the norm, not the exception, and even longer hours are needed when a real crisis comes along.
There’s more information and advice on our web site, where you can:
- find out whether you have a long hours problem by taking our quick quiz
- help us to find the best and worst bosses across the country for managing long hours
- post a message on our Work Your Proper Hours rant blog. We’ll publish the best stories on the site.
Get real - 99.99% of those employed waste several hours of their employers time each day:
personal phone calls, reading personal emails, and many other personal tasks.
Maybe the employer should deduct £5000 per year from each worker for wasted time unless they do overtime....
Posted by: Dave Walker | Tuesday, 19 February 2008 at 11:37 AM
Hi Peter, I am afraid that it is just expected in many places though. When you are on a fixed monthly salary, rather than paid hourly, then it is next to impossible to request overtime pay just for finishing the workload. If there is an expectation of 'getting the job done' then people end up having to put in that extra time. I don't like it either, but I think it is very hard to change...
Posted by: Mark Kobayashi-Hillary | Tuesday, 19 February 2008 at 05:33 PM
The Company I work for don't pay overtime and getting time off in lieu is next to impossible, so when it's the end of the day - I go home! If my boss wants me to work longer than my contracted hours then he will have to pay for it.
Posted by: Keith Woollacott | Friday, 29 February 2008 at 09:50 AM
Dave Walker, speaking for yourself?
I think it is you who needs to "get real" - "99.99%"? ... "waste several hours of their employers time each day"? ... Please!
*Some* under-motivated, low-skilled workers in *some* job-types may waste a fraction of their employers' time but this certainly is not true of most of the highly-skilled, highly-motivated people working in the IT industry today. We work very hard to meet deadlines and whatever time we *may* spend BRIEFLY personal phone calls or email checking (less than 30 seconds and only when it is important) is more than made up by the extra *HOURS* we put in each day to get our work done.
I think you are perhaps an employer who now fears having to pay for all the *free* hours of labour you have been getting all these years.
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Posted by: Sam | Monday, 13 October 2008 at 01:42 PM