Can't handle the excessive hours

LegacyUser

Working in a bank. It's a good job, dealing with people with people all over the world.
Offical hours are 9-5:30. In the past you'd get finish around 5:50 at latest so that was cool.
But it's getting worse and as example I was in 8:20 this morning and I finished today at 10:30pm. I've not left before 9pm all last week either.
Between 1:30pm and 10:30pm I never left my desk once. I didn't go the toilets, go for a walk, grab a coffee, anything. Seating in one seat for 9 hours is ridiculous.

I know you will say it's my own fault so but it's so short staffed and dealing with large sums of money that if anything goes wrong, then god help you.

There was 6 on my team. In the past two months, 3 have left for a combination of being unhappy with the hours or going on long term sick leave. One walked out.
Only two of us today doing the work of 6 people and twas madness and I just know money will be lost as I can't keep up. Maybe someone better then me can keep up but I can't.

I like my job, want to stay and get better. Other workers are fine. I'm there 2 years and one of the more senior people in the department. Gotten ok annual reviews, not great, not bad.

But one day I'm going to walk and I sometimes type up my notice on an email and then delete it. Lose the head and shout on phonecalls sometimes but if you meet me I'm actually very quiet and softly spoken.
I asked about being so short-staffed and staff are being hired but it'll be months until people can work with my team.
So staff are being hired but in the meantime I'm working 14 hours days.

Any advice?

IRISH RAIL

best advice I can offer you is at 530 get up and walk out the door.
a guy I used to work with was like that from 8 in the morning till about 7 every night he eventually lost the plot.
I walk out every day at 5 on the dot those are my hours thats it,
if you dont look after yourself you will go crazy, if the company complain about the workload stacking up tell them they should have gotten staff in quicker. its not your fault everyone else left or got sick.

jmcwobbles

Yeah my company is like that too, a lot of people after leaving and everyone left behind working crazy hours to make up for it - what IRISH RAIL says is the best advice, just stick to your contracted working hours. Make your manager aware that jobs (a) (b) and (c) aren't going to get done because you are only one person and don't have the time. You can't ever sacrifice your personal life, health and sanity for some job - would you consider looking elsewhere yourself? There is certainly no shortage of banks around, and with 2 years experience surely you could go somewhere else...

AARRRGH

Do you get paid overtime for this?

I think you need to talk to your manager. If he doesn't understand, you need to leave.

nesf

dublindude wrote: »

I think you need to talk to your manager. If he doesn't understand, you need to leave.

+1

For a short period of time (say while they are trying hard to replace a person who left suddenly) it's acceptable but people who sign on for a 9-5 can't be expected to keep up longer hours for any extended period really. There are people out there who do and can work very long hours but they sign up for that and get paid well for doing it. If you didn't sign up for such long hours then you really need to let your manager know that it's become a problem. He/She should be able to empathise with you if they've any sense. Long hours are something people can either deal with or they can't and really it makes no sense for a company to have people "playing against type" in situations like these. If these hours will be necessary for a long time it makes no sense having people in there who can't handle them.

Perhaps look for an internal transfer or something if the situation can't be resolved quickly?

SoupyNorman

Its often common, as in almost everybody will be called upon to work an extra hour here or there (except our Public Sector workers of course )

But you OP are being exploited in the extreme. I understand how people can say 'Just leave you foolish fool' but things are never that simple...NEVER.

Some examples which may be relevant to you:

You can have intimidating managers who make you feel like there is no way out or refuse to give you a good reference.

Leaving can make conditions worse still for fellow colleagues whom you are friendly with.

You may not have a job to slot into and further still you dont have time to organize and apply for jobs and attend interviews.


However, you really do have the power here. You must start laying the law down here. With all your extra hours your salary must be working out around 2 dimes/hr!
Also, do not kid yourself about the management Hiring new staff any time soon.As long as they have you guys slaving away they WILL hold out on hiring staff for as long as possible. Why should they hire more people when your getting the job done (at all hours).

I could keep going but I'll boil it down here,

Firstly, request to speak to your manager one on one. Explain your concerns and that you may have to consider leaving if things dont improve vastly very soon.
Secondly, leave on time, leave on time and leave on time. You are under absolutely no god damn obligation to stay past quittin time, this really gets my goat. I'm often asked to stay on a few extra hours here and there and its mostly not paid for as Im on a salary however our manager regularly takes us for free beers and that makes all the difference. The gesture!

Have you any update on your situation?

nesf

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Secondly, leave on time, leave on time and leave on time. You are under absolutely no god damn obligation to stay past quittin time, this really gets my goat.

As far as I am aware there can be clauses in your contract that require you to work extra hours (ie generally it's there for when there's a deadline looming and everyone needs to pitch in a few extra hours or similar). It can be reasonable/rational to work extra hours sometimes and it's reasonable for an employer to ask you to do it occasionally. Being the kind of person who never stays late can come back to bite you if you're unreasonable about it.

SoupyNorman

nesf wrote: »

As far as I am aware there can be clauses in your contract that require you to work extra hours (ie generally it's there for when there's a deadline looming and everyone needs to pitch in a few extra hours or similar). It can be reasonable/rational to work extra hours sometimes and it's reasonable for an employer to ask you to do it occasionally. Being the kind of person who never stays late can come back to bite you if you're unreasonable about it.

Well Ive addressed your concern in my post.

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Firstly, request to speak to your manager one on one. Explain your concerns and that you may have to consider leaving if things dont improve vastly very soon.
Secondly, leave on time, leave on time and leave on time. You are under absolutely no god damn obligation to stay past quittin time, this really gets my goat. I'm often asked to stay on a few extra hours here and there and its mostly not paid for as Im on a salary however our manager regularly takes us for free beers and that makes all the difference. The gesture!

nesf wrote: »

Being the kind of person who never stays late can come back to bite you if you're unreasonable about it.

The OP is being called upon to do outrageous extra hours for no thanks, as I have said, I work extra hours a minimum of day a week, however its often more but its appreciated and rewarded. What gets my goat is the expectation that you should disrupt your life in order to cover for complete mis-management and/or plain old exploitation. Fair enough if there was a bout of smallpox in your workplace and you happened to be one of a few who didnt contract the disease. Then I could envisage being in the situation the OP is in.

leeroybrown

I think it's pretty clear that the OP needs to take this matter up with their manager first thing tomorrow. If that doesn't go anywhere they need to take the matter up with HR or more senior management. The funny thing is that OP and his co-worker will probably be blamed/censured by the bank should a serious problem occur.

On the side point of unpaid overtime, I don't mind putting in some extra hours when the need occurs as I've got pretty good working conditions and I know I'm not just saving the price of another required employee.

homeOwner

bankingmisery wrote: »

Working in a bank. It's a good job, dealing with people with people all over the world.
Offical hours are 9-5:30. In the past you'd get finish around 5:50 at latest so that was cool.
But it's getting worse and as example I was in 8:20 this morning and I finished today at 10:30pm. I've not left before 9pm all last week either.
Between 1:30pm and 10:30pm I never left my desk once. I didn't go the toilets, go for a walk, grab a coffee, anything. Seating in one seat for 9 hours is ridiculous.

I know you will say it's my own fault so but it's so short staffed and dealing with large sums of money that if anything goes wrong, then god help you.

There was 6 on my team. In the past two months, 3 have left for a combination of being unhappy with the hours or going on long term sick leave. One walked out.
Only two of us today doing the work of 6 people and twas madness and I just know money will be lost as I can't keep up. Maybe someone better then me can keep up but I can't.

I like my job, want to stay and get better. Other workers are fine. I'm there 2 years and one of the more senior people in the department. Gotten ok annual reviews, not great, not bad.

But one day I'm going to walk and I sometimes type up my notice on an email and then delete it. Lose the head and shout on phonecalls sometimes but if you meet me I'm actually very quiet and softly spoken.
I asked about being so short-staffed and staff are being hired but it'll be months until people can work with my team.
So staff are being hired but in the meantime I'm working 14 hours days.

Any advice?

Banking is tough. Its not a 9-5 type of job. The higher you go the worse it gets. Having worked in that type of environment for most of my career I can tell you no one gets rewards without putting in the hours. WHen the going gets tough and people are leaving its the ones who are left and dig the team out of a hole are the ones who are rewarded. You've been there two years and seem to have a good degree of responsbility already. If the team expands they are going to need someone to lead it when the current mgr gets promoted or leaves, that person will either be you or the other guy who didnt complain.

If you are not interested in a senior job in your field and getting promoted then it serves you no purpose to stay and put in the long hours. Honestly its not worth the hassle. You can get a 9-5 job in a less stressful part of the company.

If you are interested in this company and getting ahead then there is no avoiding (sometimes long) periods of hard work and long hours.

You need to decide what you want.

The_Conductor

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Its often common, as in almost everybody will be called upon to work an extra hour here or there (except our Public Sector workers of course )

Thats simply not true.
I'm a civil servant, while we have flexitime, its viewed as a privilege, and not an automatic right. If work needs to be done- we stay until its done. We are normally escorted from the building by security at 8.30PM though, as thats when they lock up, but a 12 hour day from 8.30AM to 8.30PM is not unusual at all. The family friendly policies only apply to those who have children- everyone else carries the can for them

SoupyNorman

smccarrick wrote: »

Thats simply not true.
I'm a civil servant, while we have flexitime, its viewed as a privilege, and not an automatic right. If work needs to be done- we stay until its done. We are normally escorted from the building by security at 8.30PM though, as thats when they lock up, but a 12 hour day from 8.30AM to 8.30PM is not unusual at all. The family friendly policies only apply to those who have children- everyone else carries the can for them

Escorted from building is it?, Family Friendly was that? You wont find those luxuries in el Private sector. Anyway Im not in the business of splitting hairs over public V's private (wh00t).

Are you paid overtime for your extra hours?


Fact of the matter is we are all called upon to work extra hours here and there (In both sectors!!). But the OP is suffering from excessive, abusive and illegal conditions.

The_Conductor

bravestarr082 wrote: »

Escorted from building is it?, Family Friendly was that? You wont find those luxuries in el Private sector. Anyway Im not in the business of splitting hairs over public V's private (wh00t).

Are you paid overtime for your extra hours?


Fact of the matter is we are all called upon to work extra hours here and there (In both sectors!!). But the OP is suffering from excessive, abusive and illegal conditions.

The OP needs to talk to his manager immediately, and to be honest, were he to resign would have a decent case for constructive dismissal.

No- we do not get paid overtime in the civil service- you are expected to work extra hours, if work requires it. You can theoretically work up 10.5 hours time-in-lieu every 4 weeks (if your manager agrees), in practice you'd work more than this amount of overtime every 3 or 4 days, never mind 4 weeks.

We are all expected to work overtime in both sectors- what the OP is experiencing is oppressive in the extreme and needs to be tackled immediately, for the sake of both his physical and mental health.

Having a much reduced number of people to undertake the same workload is never easy- and should not be accepted. Unfortunately HR/Personnel will often argue that they simply cannot afford to employ more people- but the inverse of this is can they afford to loose all their experienced staff and have the business go down the toilet?

S./