Mandatory overtime - should I be happy or sad? 6

[cedarbluffranch]

We had a big meeting at work today and I found out that they are going to require mandatory Saturday shifts for the engineers working on my program. The company estimates that the mandatory Saturdays will last for 4 months, though it could easily last longer than that.

I'm happy about it. I work at a place that pays overtime (1.2 times straight time) so I'm not working for free. I anticipated this coming for a while so it's not a surprise.

A lot of people are upset about it, though, since they already make plenty of money and don't really care for overtime.

What would you think in my situation? I'm curious, and if you're willing, please put your age or number of years experience to compare.

(By the way, I'm really not wondering what I should feel. My real question is what is your opinion.)

 

[btrueblood]

When I was a fresh grad, my first job was working a NASA contract, and (in the wake of Challenger) we were on mandatory 54-hr. weeks (5x10 and 4 on Saturday). It got old very quickly, as there was actually little for us to do (our particular device performed very well in flight, and NASA heads did not want to change things for fear of fixing what ain't broke), and -- not yet having a wife -- things like laundry, food shopping, bill paying, car maintenance, etc. etc. still had to get done in the fairly small amount of evening/weekend time left over (note that the schedule nicely overlaps banking hours, DMV hours, etc. etc.). Finally had to schedule a "leave w/o pay" day (to new to the company to have earned vacation yet) to get down to the DMV and get my drivers liscense for the new state I was in. Which put me into another state altogether.

 

[casseopeia]

ctopher,

I read the link and I have to say that as an exempt employee (licensed professional working in a learned or artistic profession), I am very proud to be in the same column as 'sheephearder'.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[BigInch]

Be sure to check your OT tax bracket before you start smiling. Whenever I worked OT in the States, the higher tax bracket pushed all of it into the withholding column. Wound up working for it for far too few bucks/hr to make it worth the effort.

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers (1879-1935) ***************

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[KENAT]

BigInch - while it's probably worse in the US as you have a lot more tax brackets people used to say the same in the UK. However, while a much bigger percentage of it did go to the govt I still got a fair chunk out of it.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[SLTA]

If you're young, not married, and no kids, do whatever you want.

I have a husband and two kids. There's no real way that would work for my family right now.

Of course, being unemployed would be worse...

 

[ctopher]

cass,
A 'sheephearder' is good.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[spongebob007]

"Working some O/T for free to learn something or to meet a deadline is one thing, but consistently donating large amounts of YOUR time to a profitable company is idiotic. It's preventing the hiring of others who could be helping you. No amount of self-sacrifice you make on behalf of your firm will be refused. Not necessarily acknowledged, or even noticed, but it won't be refused...Never forget that! "

Star for this one!


"Finally had to schedule a "leave w/o pay" day (to new to the company to have earned vacation yet) to get down to the DMV and get my drivers liscense for the new state I was in."

This is what pisses me off most about uncompensated overtime. If things are busy my boss can demand that I work overtime, but say if it is a nice Friday afternoon and things are slow, I can't just cut out after lunch and only report 36 hours on my time sheet.

I keep overtime to the bare minimum. It is rare for me to work more than 40hrs a week.

 

[GregLocock]

My overtime rate is 1.5x the median pay for my grade.

That is less than my standard rate.

Guess how much overtime (as opposed to flex time) I have worked in the last 8 years!

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[SomptingGuy]

I can guess. About the same as me! We had our grades "reorganised" so that I can no longer be paid for overtime. They'll nick flex time next. Then I'll travel.

- Steve

 

[proetools]

as a contractor of the past I would never work anywhere without overtime and overtime pay.

Bart Brejcha Chicago
DESIGN-ENGINE|EDUCATION

http://www.proetools.com

surfacing and Pro/CABLE training

 

[nuche1973]

Cedar,
OT for 4 months is not that bad...it could be worse. Where I am at there are those of us who work what is required to get the project out and there are those who refuse to work o/t. Our company has not demanded that we all work o/t, yet, but life is harder because of those who don't work o/t. There's only been two months (February and March) where I've had my weekends free since I started in 2007. And, yes my family complains, but I am not a PE yet, so my options are limited.

 

[moltenmetal]

CCB1: what you're saying is that some people elect not to work the uncompensated O/T, whereas you do because you feel you have "no options". And you blame your situation to some degree on those who are not doing the O/T.

Are you really sure you have no options? What do the people who are not doing the O/T know that you don't?

 

[nuche1973]

Moltenmetal,
I get compensated for O/T (1.0x). However, what I am saying is that when a person asks for help and the reply is a "that's not my client, so I am not concerned about that project." The difficulty for meeting a deadline gets harder. As for options, I have several years of field experience in project management, but want PE status, before I go back into the field.

 

[dbooker630]

Here at my plant in OH it is 1.0X for overtime on any day, unless you are supervising hourly (union) personnel or if it falls on a holiday, then it becomes 1.5X.

 

[knight185]

I am a utilities engineer. I get 1.0 for overtime plus some kind of shift differential, which is like an extra $1/hour on Sundays, which is nothing considering my base pay is $30/hour. My normal work week is 8 hours per day but in certain cases we are expected to work up to two hours of casual overtime that is not compensated. The most overtime I work is during outages that last several weeks. I will work 6 to 7 days per week, 10 to 16 hours per day. Usually 12 hours per day. I like the extra money but 1.0x for overtime, not having a life, and the heavy taxes make the extra money insignificant.

 

[plasgears]

I have worked Sat OT for straight time, and it helped pay many bills. On top of that, we worked a regular 10 hr day, which totaled 14 extra OT hrs. The obligation is not to appear to be wasting time. This is the time to run repeated iterations, consolidate your accummulated knowledge, and organize your files.

On the other hand I have worked in rank organizations where it was an obligation to come in on Sat w/o OT pay. It turned out to be coffee and donuts and BS. Waste of time. It's nice to have a job, but keep the resumes circulating for better companies.

 

[abusementpark]

Is it not a law that you be paid extra for overtime?? Depends on the state?? I hear of a lot of people not getting paid for overtime.

 

[EngineerDave]

Don't get paid for overtime here either and have rarely received it in any job. Really helps when you do get it because it at least pays for the gas and food for that day!

The thing i hate about weekend work is that it kind of feels like detention in that if you've struggled all week to get things done in a timely manner and still have to come in on the weekend it's painful.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Overtime has its amusing side too. When I did the odd bit here and there, I saw it as "extra", something not factored into my cost of living.

There's a sense of satisfaction when you realise that you are being paid to go to the toilet, or to eat your lunch. Once I even worked out how much I'd earned to go out and buy lunch - more than what I'd spent.

- Steve

 

[KENAT]

Someone sent me a calculator software a long time back. You entered into it your pay, vacation and other relevant stuff.

Idea is that when you went off to go #2 you set the timer going and when you got back it had calculated how much the company had paid you to take a dump.

The figures were especially fun for the short time I was paid overtime.

There's a lot of big talk above about "not taking it" but I wonder what that translates to in reality and if it varies on circumstances. It's easy to be hardline on a relatively anonymous web site, is it that easy in the real world where you have bills to pay, job market is maybe sluggish and there are real consequences?

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?