I wish I could bring my work home with me - but only in the sense that I could work from home

Sometimes though it feels like I'm on call when someone from work phones with a computer problem...

+1

All well and good if someone wants to put extra effort in to help, to the benefit of the company.

But if the company will go under because one of its employees fails to spontaneously cover the workload of 3 others off their own bat for free in & their own time, surely something is disasterously wrong with said company? Surely, the manager doesn't look at the timesheet and think "Friday will be fine, nobodys on call but JWW009 will cover it, not that he's paid to, so I won't bother putting anyone else on call." Am I wide of the mark here?

EDIT: For me, work stays at work, except sometimes when I choose to try a little harder.

So far, mathematically adjusting for pie, it looks like about 50% of you totally leave your work at work. It must be nice.

The last time I could think like that was when I was cleaning dishes. Although I did rather enjoy that, I'm not sure I'd want to do it again and I was a student at the time so I always came home to a pile of work anyway...


That's not how it is. As I suggested in my opening post, if I hadn't picked up the call then someone else probably would have. I chose to do it because I knew I could resolve it most efficiently, thus providing the greatest level of customer satisfaction.

If no one had picked up the call, then in all likely hood the end user would have needlessly wasted half the weekend manning their office. I doubt they would actually have left anyone to die, because I expect they have contractual obligations concerning that sort of thing.

Some of you seem to think that providing customer service "above and beyond" the exact letter of the contract is some kind of crime against humanity. I see it as offering a personal service to a new customer to help them establish themselves in their new location, to differentiate ourselves above the competition and enhance the business relationship with the dealer concerned. Isn't that worth an hour or two of my time?

I know if I contacted one of our partners with whom we do not have 24/7 cover, then I'd be less impressed by the one that said "sod off" than with the one that helped me out. Thankfully, my experience of our partners has usually been favourable.

And they are now intent on destroying the employers... At least that is what it looks like from the outside.

The government has announced spending cuts and tax cuts for next year, all states must be self sufficient and have no debt by 2015 and we are in a recession, with most companies freezing pay or asking employees to take cuts in pay or in numbers of employees, yet Verdi want the government to give civil servants a 7% pay increase! I mean, wtf!

Their reason? They say that the extra spending power of civil servants will mean they will buy more goods. But if the state doesn't have the money and is looking to cut services elsewhere to try and get rid of debt, where are they supposed to find an additional 7%?

It was, despite the fact there were times when I was working full time there were days I was in over 14 hours and leaving after midnight. Never took my work home with me though aside from checking email for emergencies for the next day


That just means someone else would be in your situation


In my opinion, no.
If I offered 24 hour support with my services I'd make sure I could offer 24 hour services. Or I would commit to business hours service and not worry about 24 hours. I'm all for providing great customer service.... but not when it's at the expense of someone else. If I was asked to go to... Ipswich say I'd hope I was getting paid extra for it or at the very least additional pay/expenses.


Yeah because that is giving a polite response.
"Sorry no one can resolve your problem due to the public holiday"

The client is receiving cover they are not contracted for, they are getting free service.
Your client is taking advantage of the company and your company is taking advantage of you, you may feel you need to do it to keep job security, but you shouldn't have to take your contracted time off and use it for work because of an emergency1

I have seen clients push it a LOT, a certain very large one expected skins, UIs and full end to end systems to be made as well as in person support for when they had problems.... because they wouldn't pay for the training it happened a LOT. They got probably at least a few million £'s in services while I was doing my placement, and they had been doing it a while. Give a business an inch and they'll try and take a mile.

Thankfully, the lab shuts down for Christmas from the 24th to Jaunary 3rd, so I couldn't go in even if I wanted to, although I finished on the 16th and don't go back until the 7th. On my last day, I gave my boss my e-mail address "in case he needed anything". His reply was - "once you're on holiday, you're on holiday. Work stays in work".

Anyway, lots to look forward to when I get back

+1

If you don't nip these things in the bud how much leeway will both clients and employers take with employees having to give more and more for less and less?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not into jobsworths either, I always feel responsible for both my jobs and my employers. However, they have to be kept in check, for their good and for your own. If clients receive no-paid for services then it is both you and your employer that suffers.

What happens if, hypothetically, all of your on call, unpaid for time, ends up being used for people who pay for the service? Why should they come back to you if they hear some clients receive something for nothing and what would happen if you neglected a paying client for a non-paying one?

It's in the best interests of both employees and employers to formally organise this. Admittedly, small scale businesses have to be more fluid but the fundamental points remain.

Blimey.

I suspect that how dedicated an employee is to a company has a significant amount to do with the size of that company.
A freelancer (i.e. a one man band) has no-one to fall back on and should charge their clients an appropriate fee to cover any out of hours cover they provide otherwise they will make themselves ill for no good reason.

Small businesses with only a few employees are likely to have a very different approach to out of hours cover than a large company (like the one I work for which has over 1000 employees).

I do get the idea that a small amount of free overtime type work may be necessary for a company that is in danger of going under but such situations should be the exception rather than the rule otherwise the company is essentially screwed if it requires a lot of 'free work' from it employees on a regular basis. That's exploitation and anyone who finds themselves in such a situation would be best served by getting out as quickly as possible.

In my work my contract states that I'm expected to stay a few extra minutes at the end of the day as necessary to finish any essential work. Such situations do arise from time to time but for the most part I have finished by the end of the day. Anything that's going to take longer (over 60 minutes after the end of the day) must be planned for and I refuse to do it unless I get paid overtime or TOIL in compensation. If this sort of thing is routinely necessary then either their is a staffing problem or if the work simply takes longer than a working day then that must be recognised and either paid overtime for or a shift system is required.

Bear in mind that being pressurised to do extra work on a regular basis which isn't covered by your contract without compensation can be a form of work place bullying and/or discrimination, especially if your promotion prospects are harmed as a result.

Both good points.

You can be dedicated to a company without having to be bullied, pressurised or guilt tripped into doing so. Just because you may choose not to do something for nothing does not mean that you don't care about your job, your company or your clients.

I worked for a major consultancy, with over 15,000 staff in the UK. You were expected to do overtime and you were expected to be on call, if that was needed. Ops used to get call out money, but those of us on project work were expected to do call-out as part of the project, usually with no extra pay - although if they could get the customer to cough up, we'd get something.

Personally, I think it is more down to the employee and the employer/employee relationship than the size of the company. The old "company man" would do anything for his company, if the company looked after him. I am very much a company man, or was, when I was younger. I'm still somewhat a CM, but try and balance a life outside of work these days.

At the consulting firm, I used to regularly drive 15+ hours a week to work on client sites and then over 50 hours in the office, with on-call from time to time. My record was nearly 200 hours overtime in one month! (I did get paid for that.)

Currently, any overtime must be taken in TOIL, but I can only take 25 hours into the next month, I've been there 6 months and have been hovering around the 35 hour mark, but managed to get it down to under 20 for New Year - the company has to pay Customs & Excise for any overtime carried into the New Year!