Is working off the clock becoming a habit for you?
Always on, always connected, always available, always tired. Does your job or career require you to be available and working even during your off-hours? And if so, are they properly compensating you for your time?
As a gadget guy and an all around technology lover, I am almost always online, or at least available to be online. The availability may be through my home internet connection, a mobile broadband card, a public wireless hotspot or even my iPhone — but in short I am almost always available.
For better or worse, I will fully admit that I choose to make myself available in this manner, but even with a commitment on my end, there are times when I just want to leave the grid. In my particular case, I work on a freelance basis so being available and having an almost constant connection means more work can get done, even with a few minutes here and there, which in the end means more money in my bank account.
That sounds good for me, and as long as I do not let this constant connection intrude on my family time, it is also good news for my family in financial terms. Of course, as a freelancer I may be in the minority as to always being available and still having a smile on my face.
These thoughts have come to me by way of a Wall Street Journal article in which they mention how a few employees in the US have recently sued their employers due to having to work after work hours.
It seems that with all of the connectivity options there is a growing trend of companies expecting people to work overtime and not always get compensated for their time.
Now, my first reaction was that is crazy, anyone that works overtime surely must get their proper time and a half pay but I think there is a little more to that. What I mean is that the extra hours may not always come in the form of a solid brick of time and that just seems to blur the lines between work time and personal time. After all, it may only take 10 minutes to answer a few emails or take a phone call, but those few minutes here and there can add up really quickly.
In other words, these extra hours are increasingly not always in the form of the employee staying an hour or two later in the evening, or picking up a few hours on a Saturday. Instead these extra hours are coming incrementally in the form of a few minutes here and there, and I would say that way may be the worst way to be putting in extra hours.
Thanks or no-thanks to technology, workers are more often being outfitted with smartphones such as a BlackBerry or a notebook computer with a mobile broadband connection and in turn are expected to be available and handle certain tasks like email or phone calls during their off hours.
What should we be doing to fix this?
In reality that should be a simple answer, leave those devices at the office, or consider putting a schedule of availability together in cooperation with your employer. Unfortunately, I am not sure that is always an option.
It seems that in many instances these employees are not always as willing to work, but instead they feel they have to work in order to keep their job and in the end I think plenty of people would rather do a little extra work for free as opposed to lose their job. Of course, that does not make it acceptable for an employer to require work without compensation, regardless of whether that time is “implied” or “required.”
Bottom line, I do not think there is any easy answer here. Lawsuits may in fact work for some, but in the end I think that will end up helping just the few that chose to pursue that path.
I will say that anyone who works, or is ready to work at all times (myself included) should reconsider their decision, but in the case of someone doing it because they feel they have to, that may be worse then someone doing it by choice.
How about you, are you required or expected to handle work related tasks in your off hours without proper compensation?
Try being self employed, If I am not arround to answer a call, my clients get upset, because I should be always there… Even on New Years day, or a sunday.
Robert is self-employed.
Unless you are providing 24×7 service it is reasonable to be unavailable at certain times of the day and week. Personally, I think it’s reasonable to have a polite voicemail on your work cellphone that says you’re be out of the office and will be available on Monday or whenever. Otherwise just let it go to voicemail and call them back on Monday and say you had a more urgent issue to deal with.
I don’t know what alternate universe you live in, but “anyone that works overtime surely must get their proper time and a half pay”?? I have worked in technology for 20 years, and it is not unusual to work an extra 10-20/week overtime on top of the regular 40 hour work week without additional compensation. Salaried employees do not get overtime pay. I once put in 60+ hours at week on a project for almost 2 years for 45K a year. The expectation is that you do it, and without complaining, or you loose your job. As I work in Canada, I will also point out that IT salaries aren’t great here. Much lower than in the US. IT companies are very exploitive of their workers.
Middle management people are expected to work whatever is required from time to time, from project to project, however their team members (non-management workers) are seldom required to do so. However, when asked nicely and in advance, the members of a team are usually pretty cool…overtime paid on the clock, or from extra time off later, bonuses, or recognition through any avenue (awards, promotions, compnay events) are just common sense. If you are not pretty relaxed about being flexible to step up when your company needs you, then try for a gov’t job.
I am part of the not-so-proud majority that works maximum hours for minimum wage. I am an evening/graveyard worker at Tim Horton’s. At 17 years of age, and in grade 12, i am averaging 48 hours a week. I get paid no overtime, and frequently get called in on my days off. At this particular moment in time, I am on my first day off in 12 days. I get paid as the average teenaged worker does – minimum wage – and yet I am expected to be a supervisor, be able to run the whole store (drive-thru, soup-and-sandwich, and till) by myself for hours on end, and work for weeks at a time with no days off. I realize that such is to be expected from a food-services job in an oil town, but I still feel that it’s a touch on the ridiculous side. However, I find myself taking it in stride. I have reached the point where I no longer know what to do with my days off, as I am so accustomed to always working. Not only adults are taken advantage of by their employers.
Cool site, love the info.
I have a coworker that, in spite of being told NOT to work off the clock, continues to do so–up to 2 hrs a day.It’s not because we have a demanding job, but because she is so slow and ignorant of her job requirements that she can’t get the normal work load done in the time allowed. Our immediate supervisor knows she does this, but continues to “not see” her here late.Her numbers look as good as mine, but takes longer to accomplish.. Any suggestions on how to get this to stop?