Do you work overtime? 1

[bradpa77]

So I have heard horror stories about some engineering jobs where you work 60+ hour weeks without overtime pay. I work 40 hours a week. No overtime at all. If I do get overtime it's paid for. If I were asked to do overtime, I would and I have in the past, but typically it isn't required of me .... at all. It's pretty nice. From stories I've heard from other engineers I would think that my situation is pretty rare.

So, basically I was just wondering how many of us engineers do work overtime, how much overtime they work, and if it's paid or unpaid.

If you have a second, everyone please post about your overtime requirements and habits at your job.

Thanks.

 

[Ussuri]

I used to work for a large consultant who actually required staff to work a certain portion of unpaid overtime on a weekly basis, particularly for staff at higher grades. The company knew that people came into work early and left late, so for all intents and purposes the company got those hours for free.

The staff tried to get a flexitime system but the senior management refused on the grounds it was not 'right' for the company. They knew people would start taking notice of the extra hours they worked so they could go home early on friday so the company would lose all that free work.

My current employer is a lot better. You work overtime, you get paid overtime albeit at your standard rate.

 

[tripleZ]

Hmm, Ivymike's post sounds familiar. I'm in traditional manufacturing in the states, and we are moving to VERY lean manufacturing in order to keep up competition with Chinese firms. Due to difficulty in getting operators at pay levels which are nowhere near competitive with the local automotive companies (UAW & USWA), our engineering staff spends a lot more time attempting to monkey proof things. Our staff is varied. Older guys tend to average 40/wk. Ambitious lads like myself are on 50-70 hr weeks, weekends as needed, and are on call for the line 24/day. If I'm in on an off-shift, that doesn't alot me comp time. Anymore, I pretty much expect to come in at least once a week for a few hours on third shift to deal with problems. If I want time off, I take vacation time (3 weeks isn't bad, but I wish they'd consider paying out vacation time).

 

[tripleZ]

Ooops, forgot to add, no OT. Straight exempt salary employee. If I want more I need to earn a decent bonus (bumps have been 3% or less across the board for cost of living...while the CPI has just risen about 4.2%) which is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of mgt.

 

[BelspringKen]

My first engineering position I got overtime pay. From time to time I would work 50+ hours in a week, but generally only 40.

My second engr. job I did not get OT pay, sometimes got stuck working a few hours extra... that and some other issues led me to my current job.

Now I get paid for OT, have worked 50 to 60 hours a week once or twice, but mostly in the range of 40 to 44.

 

[Beggar]

In six jobs, OT pay was only available at one of them and even that was only with special pre-authorization that wasn't easy to get and was limited to a certain number of hours.

I generally put in 44 hours since I figure I waste 10% of my time doing things like Eng-Tips. I have, on occasion, worked 70+ hour weeks for a few weeks but not often.

I do travel and receive no additional compensation for the 14 hour flights to China nor the weekends and evenings that I work while I'm there.

I do have some flexibility in my schedule on the front- and back-end of the trips.

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[Ron]

I have always worked in a salaried position and have never been paid, nor expected, overtime pay. When working for others, I would work as many hours as necessary to get the work done or make a considerable effort toward getting it done (the work was never done...that's why I put it that way!) I consider engineering a profession, not a trade, and as such, there are no limits to your work time! Yes, sometimes my hourly rate of pay approached that of burger flipping in the early days of my career. So what. We were competitive, young engineers who worked a lot for experience and pride of profession.

I work on my own, typically for an hourly fee just as I did when I worked for other consulting firms. I suppose I now get paid "overtime" since I bill for whatever time I spend and the fee comes to me; however, I still don't consider it "overtime" and don't embrace the concept.

 

[rhodie]

I put in 50-55 per week, get paid for 40, but consider myself blessed to be in a position to gripe about such things.

 

[EngJW]

1st job- half day Saturday whether needed or not, usually because the boss came in to get away from his wife. We came in early and shot the bull all morning, then he came in at noontime and we would leave.

5th job- engineers slacked off all week, found that on Friday they needed emergency overtime, worked 12 hour days on the weekend and got paid for it.

Thus, my low opinion of overtime.

 

[mog69]

I only got paid for o/t in my first job out of apprenticeship / college back in the '80s' - 1 1/3T weekdays; 1 1/2T Saturday; 2T Sunday (pretty rare). All employment since then has been flat salary and with the clause "or as many hours as necessary..." tacked on to the job description to cover demands for o/t. The next couple of jobs I worked way too much o/t (unpaid) because I was keen and in the hope of being noticed / appreciated / rewarded. In general that didn't work, so now I do whatever I have to do to get the job done in standard time and reserve o/t for unavoidable essentials like travelling to site etc. If only I knew then what I know now ......!

 

[PSE]

Except for when on holiday or vacation. Overtime is uncompensated unless it exceeds a set number of hours. After that you gain "comp time", essentially additional time off that you need to use (or lose) within a couple of weeks of returning to a more standard routine.

Regards,

 

[Comcokid]

Read this like a Jeff Foxworthy "You might be a redneck if . . . "

You might be working too much overtime if . . .

You run out to lunch, find the restaurant closed, and it takes more than a moment to realize that it's Sunday.

You work 32 hours straight, go home to shower and sleep two hours, go back to work for 18 hours while the plant is evacuated for a hurricane, then drive through the hurricane to get to a airport that is not closed, arrive at the customers site, and find you are suffering from jet lag even though you didn't change time zones.

You realize at 3:00AM Sunday morning on a holiday weekend while at work that the unexpected fixed-deadline project your boss threw at you has been designed and built completely on unpaid overtime, and only the company will make money from it.

That you never knew about historical world-shaping events until months or years after the fact because you were working so many hours at that period that you never saw a TV or had time to read a paper.

All of the above has happened to me, and not by choices I would have made willingly. The hurricane story is true, and while at that customers site, the same hurricane passed over the area!

 

[sms]

Comcokids post brings up an interesting corollary question. How many of your companies have a policy to limit hours on the job for safety reasons? Our standard policy is that after 16 hours you go home and you are not allowed back less than 8 hours later. So you are guarenteed 8 hours off every 24, none of this working 32 hours straight.

The last company I worked for also required that people as a minimum take 1 solid 24 hour period off every 14 days so the most you could work was 13 days straight without a day off.

I did a plant turnaround in France, day shift only, 35 hours a week, weekends off. It was really strange. In the US is would have been 16 hours a day, two overlapping shifts, 7 days a week for 6 weeks.

-The future's so bright I gotta wear shades!

 

[MadMango]

I work an average of 2.5hrs of overtime a week. This is because I like to get into the office early in the morning to go through email and other things before the crowds set-in and start hunting for me.

Some weeks it is more, but hardly ever exceeding 50hrs. If you work overtime at my company it is a given that extra hours off are made available at a later date. Just how much later is the problem.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
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[TDAA]

ewh, do you know the portion of the standard that discusses the 1.5 times multiplier? I am aware that OSHA sets some work time limits for safety reasons, but I was not aware that they were involved in compensation for employees.

 

[whyun]

TDAA, I believe 1.5 times the multiplier for overtime is in the Fair Labor Standards Act by the U.S. Department of Labor. It also establishes minimum wage, child labor standards, etc.

Some states may have modifications to the Federal Standards in favor of the employees.

I believe companies are required to post this information, typically found in lunch rooms...

 

[Ron]

Depending on your class of employment, you might not be covered by the 1.5x multiplier. Most professions are not.

 

[ScottyUK]

sms,

We don't have an actual policy limiting working hours for safety reasons so far as I'm aware, but I have been 'advised' to go home by the head of Engineering a couple of times after hitting the 20 hours on site threshold. I have had my car keys removed by the H&S manager and ordered to get a lift or a taxi home. My job frequently involves long hours and much of the time we are running on adrenaline. Once the task has finished the sense of deflation and tiredness sets in. If we must work those hours, then I am pleased that our management at least try to ensure our safety.

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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[ewh]

All professions are covered by the multiplier; it all depends on your classification. Many professions do not hire hourly or non-exempt salaried employees, thus avoid having to address the issue. If every employee is non-exempt salaried, then the company would not have to pay any overtime. Microsoft got into trouble by trying to classify employees into a catagory that should not have applied to them. Do a web search to find out how OSHA determines what is covered by each classification.

 

[corus]

Scotty, I think you were advised to go home by taxi as you were breaking several UK (or european) working directives by working a 20 hour day. Should you have been in an accident you could have sued the company for damages. I believe there are limits on the number of hours you can work at night, the time off between shifts, and the amount of time required during the day for breaks etc.. I think your manager is not only concerned about your safety but also about how you will spend your compensation money sat in your wheelchair, and how he will find another job.

corus

 

[GregLocock]

Worse than that, over here, if you were in an accident driving home after a 20 hour day your insurance would not cover you.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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