Uncompensated Overtime 7

[spongebob007]

Am I alone in not understanding why I should be willing to sacrifice my free time "for the good of the company"? It seems like from what I have read in many posts here and the attitude of many of my co-workers at my current employer that if you have chosen the field of engineering then 60 hour work weeks just come with the territory. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy engineering but when it comes right down to it, I work to live, not live to work.

Now as a salaried employee I realize that means that uncompensated overtime will be required, but I guess where I depart from what everyone else is that I feel it should be the exception and not the rule. Yes, I realize that stuff happens and in a crunch I might have to work 50,60, or even 70 hours a week to get through the crunch, but I don't feel like I should be expected to put in these kinds of hours every week. I do have a life outside of work you know.

I changed jobs a few months ago. When I was looking I was seriously in the running for another position besides my current employer. I wanted the other job more, but the money wasn't there (They really wanted to hire me but I think they also were really looking for a less senior person to work for less money), but the real tie breaker my current employer sold me on was the four day work weeks. Since I was giving up four weeks of vacation, I figured having every Friday off would make up for losing two weeks of vacation. After all, I looked back over the years and I usually only take one full week off. The rest of my vacation time went to taking long weekends throughout the year. It seemed like a deal too good to pass up.

So I took the job and quickly found out the off Fridays were a benefit that management really doesn't want engineers to use. We are already putting in a ten hour day M-Thurs. Management has repeatedly told engineering in department meetings that we are expected to work a MINIMUM of 45 hours a week. I really don't want to work 11.25 hour days to make it happen (frankly I'm not going to get 11 hours worth of work done anyway, my attention span just isn't that long.) The only real way to get the hours done in a reasonable way is to work on the off Fridays like many of my coworkers do. This aggravates me because they sold the four ten hour day work week as a benefit at my interview, but then basically tell me that if I want to keep my job I am pretty much going to have to work five days.

The reason is clear: My firm direct bills our customers for our hours. If I work 60 hours this week, the customer gets billed 60 hours, but I get paid for 40. The more I work, the more profit the company makes. Now why the hell should I care? I just don't see what it in it for me. My impression of corporate America is that when times are good the fat cats in upper management take more than their fair share, and maybe, just maybe if you are a good little worker bee and sacrifice your life to the company, you might get thrown some table scraps from the feast, but when times are tough, it is the employees who are expected to make the sacrifices. To me it seems very one sided, I can give 150% but yet be walked out the door tomorrow simply due to a corporate takeover or the whim of some know nothing bean counter looking to boost margins.

 

[GTstartup]

Not to turn this into a political thread, but since you bring it up, I am not aware of any solid information that claims that Spitzer's "daliances" were funded by the taxpayer. I could be wrong but I haven't heard that anywhere...yet.

 

[SomptingGuy]

I'm about to experience another form of uncompensated overtime. I have to spend the next two weeks in our Chicago office. Even though I have managed to arrange most of my travelling to be during business hours I will have to work on Easter Monday, even though it is a holiday here in the UK :-(. Time of in lieu? No chance.

- Steve

 

[EngineerDave]

Amazing isn't it? I also have worked many salary jobs and even if we weren't exceptionally busy for the week, we were expected to be there during normal business hours

Than other weeks it wasn't uncommon to work 60+ hours.

This past week in my current job was a great example. The first 3 days I worked 11 hours each day. I had over 40 hours in by Thursday and on Friday I cranked early on and finished everything I needed by early afternoon.

Even so as I left work a tad early on Friday I felt guilty and as I carry a pager I fully expected to be paged.

Not sure what the best way to do it is, but our boss knows we work long hours.

I'd honestly prefer if more people were good about getting out of work on time and just worked harder during the day.

I have posted about a lazy co-worker before. He will stay there for long hours but gets very little done. I think he knows this and likes to send emails late at night.

I don't want a life like his with no family in town, little social life and very poor work ethic. I'd much rather work incredibly hard in the hours I'm there but try to limit it to not a lot above 40 hours!

 

[Ztrain1985]

Kind of an old post, but I figured Id add this:

My friend works at a place where during the summer (their busy season), they know that employees are itching for their weekends so they work 8.75 Hour days M-Th, and then a 5 hour friday.

What they dont say, but is written in the contract, is that employees are still expected to work fridays till their normal hours if needed, otherwise the hours not worked on friday come out of their vacation time if they made plans for that "supposed" time off.

Basically he describes it as a way to force employees to work a lot of extra time if needed.