8 hours for work, 8 hours for yourself, 8 hours for sleep. Work-life balance is important.

Part of the reason why I’m about to change jobs is because my current boss expected crazy working hours from all of us, refused to hire when we were blatantly understaffed, bitched about me to other staff for the heinous sin of booking an 8pm flight on a Friday evening… not a word of thanks and not a cent for the extra hours. Think I’d rather take my chances elsewhere – new job starts in early July.

If there’s a quid pro quo relationship then fine – I’ll be flexible on working hours if you (the employer) don’t send snotty staff emails about people coming in at 9:30 versus 9 (when my actual work doesn’t depend on being in a specific place at a specific time)

And employers should too!!

I agree that there are times when people need to put in a few extra hours in order to accomplish certains tasks and perfrom their duties to the best of their ability. I don’t believe that this should become a routine and abused by employers who just want to reduce their labour costs by not employing additional staff, however the government play an important role in changing policies regarding social welfare for part-time staff, and employers PRSI contributions. If it was made easier to employ a person on a part-time basis (based on number of hours per week, rather than days) then more people would be employed in Ireland right now, plus a reduction in employer PRSI would incentivise companies to do it more so… all great ideas, but would fall on deaf ears as these changes would just mean more work for the public sector & administration :-(

They’re called “working hours” for a reason.

If a conpany expects someone to be available outside their contracted hours then they should expect to be billed for any time volunteered by an employee outside those hours at an overtime rate.

It’s what you get done in your time in work that should be focused on, not how much additional time you can volunteer.

Why not employ more staff if there is more work? just a crazy idea..

My partner regularly works 12 hours a day, even though she only has to work 8, because it’s expected of her. She receives no additional compensation. My last two roles regularly required me to work late, very late. One was civil service and I was paid overtime, while one was private sector and I was not. I don’t see the problem with working late ‘to get the job done’ and to help out the team, but when companies begin to expect this as a matter of course, then there’s a problem. Especially when it’s not recognised. Many a time after accruing the equivalent of a few weeks unpaid overtime one would ask for a day off and get “Why? What are you doing, is it important?” or “No, we’re too busy”. Or on the odd occasion if you leave on time you get “Oh, half day for some people?”
Fair enough, stay back to help, to climb the greasy pole etc.. but when a company expects you to do it routinely, then that business isn’t managed efficiently.

Are they having a laugh….once or twice yeah but when you expect someone to work for free is a joke….just because you employ some1 dosent mean you own them…

i work in private sector…each shift we are required to start a half hour earlier and leave half hour later due to handover to and from nightstaff….which is unpaid….its a joke…

No. You should only work for what you get paid for. nIt’s a ridiculous system that people feel they have to go above and beyond their normal hours to keep their job. It sets employers up to be near above reproach cause id you challenge the system you most likely won’t last long. nIt’s a huge lack of integrity by employers that they would expect people to work for free while they make a profit out of it.

“Should employees be *expected* to work…”

The Buddha said “All the pain in our lives is a result of our expectations”

No, i used to do this then got bit in the ass by my employer (not being paid compassionate leave for 2 days when a close family member died)

At the end of the day an employer will screw you over given the chance so why “go the extra” mile if its not reciprocated?!

Working outside normal working hours is called overtime and should be paid at the appropriate rates. Employees shouldn’t be expected to work for free, even during a recession. Unscrupulous employers are exploiting workers, pure and simple, whether by putting them under duress by threatening their job, or preying on their loyalty.

Don’t think all this free work will get you that promotion. It will just show your employer how much more s/he can get out of you without having to pay extra for it. Do it enough and it becomes the norm, setting a dangerous precedent for other workers.

At this rate, we’ll all end up on permanent Jobbridge “internships”.

Goes around, comes around, nnMy boss often turns a blind eye to taking time off here and there but also expects that I stay back if a job is running behind… nnI see it a bit like taking on extra studies, your employer may not expect it but if you do it they benefit as well… That said you may be studying to get he hell of there …

No, work is work, home is home.

Whatever happened to that 3 day working week everyone was promised decades ago.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the point of working outside of normal hours because you, simply, choose to. I’m sure there are others just like me who enjoy their job and actually take pride in achieving a high standard of work, whether its for career progression or not. In saying that, it should not be expected from an employer.

…outside their working hours? Well the question is what else will come? ALL jobs are only INTERNSHIPS where they get your skills for FREE even you have to pay on top to work there and then they get a new Intern….. so now its time for Employees to have rights!!! Just looking for a job a bit frustrated right now…but its disgraceful. Idea of INTERN is good to stimulate enmployers to employ you to try you out and then employ you but not that all the normal jobs dissapear suddenly and DANG back as an INTERNSHIP! If I get paid well I will work outside of my hours I will consider it, but enough milking workers for minimal wages and playing their desperation to get a job!!!!!

Sitting at home logged into pornhub
Boss “You Busy?”
Me “Yup, kinda got me hands full here boss”

It’s people who do this that are losing workers the little rights they have.

We are very very rarely asked to work extra hours, which means we don’t mind when we are. I work in release cycles, so there are busy periods, but this is matched with flexibility outside of those periods.

However, there are some exceptions:
1) I often take calls with customers or collaborative partners overseas after-hours – I think this is reasonable flexibility, given the nature of my role
2) Regularly enough, I log on from home or stay back to do something for a colleague who is under pressure. While the company benefits (in reality I’m doing it for the team and by extension the product and the company), in my head I do this for a peer, and they will likewise do the same for me on occasion. While this is no different to being expected to stay back, there isn’t a culture of expectation, so nobody minds.

How you view extra hours mentally is down the company, people and processes around you.

Should employers be expected to pay employees for extra hours not worked?

Depends on the job. And where you want it to go. And how many timezones your role crosses.

I think Ronan is on the same page as me.
If I am working extra hours over what I am paid – which is every week, guaranteed – I am not happy about it, but the only reason I do it is for the team, definitely not for the company.
Obviously it is the company that benefits, but it’s a tough situation – do you go out of your way to work your 40 hours only, down to the minute, or do you go the extra mile(s) to help out your colleagues?

Talking about this with someone earlier on, I agreed that as long as the company rewards or even acknowledges their employee going above and beyond the call of duty, that I wouldn’t mind doing it all that much.
But as it happens – all too often – it is taken for granted, and used as a tool against people, putting them under undue pressure and stress.

Expected to? No!
If they want to then thats up to each individual themselves depending on their job and the level of commitment and urgency of getting things done required in the job. Some jobs more than others may require working outsided normal paid hours of work and its part and parcell of that type of employment.

In my own profession I regularly work 9-13 hour shifts with no breaks and under quite an amount of pressure. At the end of the day it’s what you sign on for. If you’re not happy, then move on.

Jaysus the unions have destroyed this country financially and morally. They have brainwashed the working people into thinking they should be compensated for every little extra effort. Its disgusting the attitude of some comments on here. If one has no pride in their job then they should leave and give it to someone who would. Its called work for a reason.

Average of 8am to 8pm? I somehow don’t believe that

Employees working overtime for free? If an employee decides to do so, because there is nothing better to do, why not? However, if that is expected/forced upon the employee, in my opinion that is a crime. The only way how this would be fair is if all the unpaid time an employee spends working is recorded and the employee gets compensated somehow at some point. The compensation does not necessarily need to be monetary, but anything that would benefit said employee (vacation time, shorter work day when that could be afforded, etc.).

In the end, there should be equal compensation to the worked overtime hours. That would be a fair solution to this issue, because there are predatory employers just like there are low-morale workers out there. To expect that an employer would notice and reward free work is naive to say the least. In the end of the day, most of us work to live and don’t live to work, right? As we say where I come from “one can never finish all the work once and for all so there will always be work left over for tomorrow.” Yes, putting extra hours in would get more accomplished today, but why does that have to be free of charge? Would employers agree to consistently let their employees leave work earlier than the end of the work day and still pay them for the whole work day? Not a chance! Get my point?

What’s “normal working hours”?

Unions is this country are dead.Golden opportunities for employers to employ cheap labour and hire -fire as they see fit.Return of Victorian days.Sadly.

Personally, I left the house at 9 this morning and got home close to 8, that’s a long ass day! I don’t think there is such a thing in this country as a work/life balance, and if there is I’ve never really experienced it!

Work is the curse of the drinking classes

It’s quite disappointing reading the majority of comments here. After posting my vote and seeing that the majority would have no problem helping their employer out, I was expecting an appropriate selection of comments. At the end of the day we are in difficult times as it is. With issues like cash flow problems and consumers not buying, every little bit you do for your employers means a great deal to them. They don’t want to get rid of their work force but unfortunately at this current time they are forced to. Showing the ability to be flexible will garner you rewards in the future, be it a raise or sadly one of the few that he is willing to not let go.
We are not living in the Celtic tiger era anymore. People need to work with their employers instead of working for. We need to be flexible and sometimes that means getting an order filled off the clock before the post heads out or heading into see a customer on your day off.

People on the dole do mixers so what’s the argument

if staff would accept a wage cut much shorter hours could be possible and extra staff could be employed.Of course this could not work in all businesses but could be very appropriat in many cases. Nurses have to do 12 hour shifts, obviously they get overtired in this very responsible job, shorter hours for the doctors too would help keep the patients safer .

If their job entails it then they should work outside for as many hours as needed to perform their duties. You can’t fix a road sitting in an office, you have to eventually go outside or it will never be fixed. Simple logic really.