Are men under more pressure than women to work long hours?

Wanderer2010

Im looking for people to give their opinion on this issue: Basically, im on salary in an office, hours are 9-5 with "occasional overtime" as stated in my contract and I do the odd weekend or extra 3 or 4 hours during the week if a project is demanding or to help a colleague but it wouldnt be the norm for me. I can go about 5 months without doing an hour of overtime (thats the nature of work here, it gets busier in cycles). As far as Im concerned my hours are 9-5 and most times im gone at 5 on the dot. Lately i get the feeling managers see this as an annoyance and that I dont really have an "excuse" not to stay late as I dont have kids to collect etc.

But to me thats totally irrelevant, I have a hobby which requires practice twice weekly plus i only get the chance to meet one of my mates during the week as well. Plus of course the main reason is im not a "company" person by any means and just see work as a paycheque because i have a life to tend to outside of this. I feel that men get a hard time over doing this whereas women always have the home or kids card to fall back on. Is it a similar situation in your workplace?

Stheno

In my experience it's not a gender issue more a kids vs no kids issue

meeeeh

I would agree with that. Because women are primary carers pressure on men probably is bigger.

That being said if someone who doesn't have any demanding external obligations is not prepared to work overtime then you know they won't be any more accommodating when they have them. You balance that with how good is someone at what they etc. I hate the idea of doing overtime just for the sake of it or because you don't want to go home, but you do appreciate if someone is prepared to do overtime when you are stuck.

bee06

I don't have kids and have always worked in places where most of the staff haven't had kids either and never noticed a difference.

A former manager did point out something that I found interesting based on her experience of being a working parent. She said that women tend to do the collecting and men tend to dropping off in the morning. So women are in early which nobody sees because no one else is in and then men don't have the pressure in the evening of having to leave because the kids are waiting at crèche or wherever.

Mrs OBumble

I'm child free, but do have some obligations around community activities, some of which involve other people's kids.

I've never felt pressure to stay when I couldn't, but on the other hand I'd see working only 9-5 as pretty much part timers hours.

Wanderer2010

Just out of interest Mrs O Bumble, why would you consider nine to five part time hours when there are thousands of full time jobs out there with those contracted hours and staffed by people who are perfectly capable of doing their job in that time slot? I don't understand your statement.

Cuddlesworth

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I'm child free, but do have some obligations around community activities, some of which involve other people's kids.

I've never felt pressure to stay when I couldn't, but on the other hand I'd see working only 9-5 as pretty much part timers hours.

I hope the wages are obscene.

Stheno

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Just out of interest Mrs O Bumble, why would you consider nine to five part time hours when there are thousands of full time jobs out there with those contracted hours and staffed by people who are perfectly capable of doing their job in that time slot? I don't understand your statement.

I've never had a job that worked 9-5, that's only a 35 hour working week.

Usually it's 9-6 or 9-5:30 or a variant on the two.

Within an IT environment it would be pretty rare for people to purely work within those hours however, due to deadlines, stuff going wrong etc.

caviardreams

Stheno wrote: »

In my experience it's not a gender issue more a kids vs no kids issue

This. It seems to be very acceptable to leave early or not work late/out of normal hours because of "family commitments" - and if you don't have kids, there is a greater expectation to take on extra or be more flexible imo.

Lux23

If 35 is part time, what is full time? If you can't do you job from 9-5, perhaps you should get a job more suited to your skills.

Eoin

Lux23 wrote: »

If you can't do you job from 9-5, perhaps you should get a job more suited to your skills.

I've a sneaky suspicion that the amount of work that one has to get done might also be a factor.

Stheno

Lux23 wrote: »

If 35 is part time, what is full time? If you can't do you job from 9-5, perhaps you should get a job more suited to your skills.

I've only ever worked in IT and indeed have commuted from the midlands to Dublin for several years.

I think Bumbles point is that having a firm cut off of five o'clock doesn't work in some industries, such as IT.

Example, I work onsite on a customer site one day a week, from 8 - 4:30

At 3pm that day, an issue came up internally in the organisation, and I didn't want to leave without updating my primary contact there.

I meant to leave at 4:30, couldn't get hold of the person I needed to speak to, and so hung around until 5:15 until they were free. It was past six that I left, and it made a huge difference in the outcome.

They won't get billed for it, but some day when I'm supposed to be there until 4:30 I'll head off early and that will be remembered.

That's my take on it anyway