Hmm maybe chase them for a refund on your ticket cost then, as they clearly weren't upholding their end of the deal?

Seeing some of his plays performed by top actors is a minor revalation. It can turn what I used to think of as dreary, not funny, boring plays into a fascinating spectacle.

I have seen Patrick Stewart in Macbeth, as well as him and Mr Tennant in Hamlet and you can tell they are actors at the top of there game!!

You can't, so don't.

I don't know what your work and contractual situation is, but it strikes me as unreasonable to expect anyone to do 100% extra work for no extra pay.

It's weird. Back in Sun people would work late at night and sometimes over the weekend with no pay, now in the MoD people won't to anything unless they get paid for it...

Bunch of slackers in the MOD, that's why.

At Sun if the manager asked people to bend over the desk and lower their trousers did they do that too?

If I do overtime I expect to get paid for it, unless I voluntarily agree otherwise. End of.

I've lost count the number of times I've found myself in an office with 3 other people (often the boss) working until 8,9,10pm for no extra money.

now thats commitment ,I think .

They seemed to do it because they liked doing it...Many of the engineers didn't have families, so that didn't matter, and I guess some of them probably had more company in the office than they did at home...If they did go home then they'd be online and doing some sort of work...Nobody told them they had to...
I put in a few weekends because I had nothing better to do...My boss wasn't happy when he found out because he couldn't pay me extra

Most employers expect "a reasonable amount of overtime" to be done by their employees. They pay a bit above the going rate for the standard contractual hours, but if y project needs you to work for a few days until late into the night, then you are expected to do it.

Here, I'm on a time clock for the first time in my life and we have a union presence. If I work overtime, it is recorded and I am supposed to be able to take the time off in lieu.

I usually turn up to work early and go home after the contracted time, I'm not a clock watcher. I'll do a reasonable amount of overtime, but if it becomes a regular thing, then I expect to get paid for it.

E.g. if coming up to the end of a project, I need to work until 10 every night for a week, I'll do it, the same if I need to reboot a server out-of-hours. If I'm expected to work regularly until 10 for months on end, I expect to get paid for it.

If I was a salaried employee then I would agree with you Big_D. As it stands, I currently get paid by the hour.

I think it really depends on how your contract is written.
Any expected level of unpaid overtime should definitely be included. It is also significantly dependant on your rate of pay.
Someone on minimum wage should not be working a jot more than they are paid a pittance for. Someone being paid a lot more would be expected to do a certain amount of 'unpaid' overtime as it's essentially included in their basic salary.

I always remember that, at the most basic level it is a companies managements job to get the most amount of work out of the smallest number of employees for the least possible amount of money. Conversely it's in the employees interest to get paid as much as possible to do as little as possible. Neither position is tenable if a business is to survive so a mutually beneficial accommodation on both sides is desirable. Unfortunately it frequently doesn't work that way and the credit crunch is tipping it further in the direction of management.

I don't mind too much putting the hours in because everyone I work with is. It's just that there's a blanket-ban on placement students being paid overtime like everyone else.

Here at the Kremlin it has been decided to dispose of paying overtime and offer time off in lieu instead. We used to get paid time and a half for overtime but we get straight time off now - that's fair eh?

And they wonder why people are reluctant to work overtime

Al

As a salaried employer I don’t get paid for any overtime. The contract stated that there would be a requirement “from time to time” to work outside of the core hours

As a Project manager I find that toward the end of a project I have to do a few late nights / early mornings

Having said that my Boss is quite good about letting me “work” from home sometimes if I have done some extra hours

So long as both sides don’t try and take the P*ss to much then it works. It only falls down if one side does

In previous jobs I was paid by the hour and so got overtime ( or time and ½ off in lieu) so generally didn’t mind doing it. I remember once having to supervise some builders for the firm I worked for ( Co policy was a member of staff had to be in) and as the Servers needed shutting down and re-starting I did it. I took in a camp bed and my PC, I started at 9 am Sat and finished at 9 am Monday. I slept at the place, played games and ate expenses paid food and racked up 48 hrs of weekend overtime – that was a great pay packet for doing basically what I would do at home