Expected to work night shift

Thisishard

Hi,

There is talk in work of our team supporting an activity during the night in a few weeks time. We usually only work 9-5 and are on a set salary, no Flexi pay offered. Our contract says that we should be made available to work Flexi when required. Now we do during the week work the odd hour or so when required but it's never at night time we are needed. Now there is talk of us coming in to support at night during a manufacturing activity that they want us present for (7pm to 7am) They say it will only be one night but I know that if we do this it will be a continued expectation. We are not being offered any pay for this. Other teams that are going to be in get a Flexi rate on their salary but our team don't due to the nature of it.

Do we have any leverage here or are we set by our contract where it says should be available and flexible when required. An hour or two fine,but a whole night shift?? Just for context, we are not mangers and it's the pharma/medical device industry

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058310540/expected-to-work-night-shift

I assume you are getting two days off to work the one night, so 16 hours off for the 12 hour shift. That might be alright and I would bet that night shift will be a right handy number. You should just do it.

Victor

Just because you are expected to be flexible doesn't mean you have an obligation to be flexible and free. A 25% pay premium would be the minimum expected. What are the arrangements for food and travel?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058310540/expected-to-work-night-shift

Yeah been there, done that. It kinda sucks

Okay, first thing you need to be clear about is what your expected outcome is. You can always just refuse to do it or say you're busy, but these types of jobs are based on meritocracy and if you get a reputation for being unreliable then that'll show in the long term

Of course if you have a genuine reason you can't turn up then you should let your employer know immediately

If you want extra money or bonus time in lieu then you're free to try and negotiate it with your manager but expect some pushback. I imagine a conversation about how you're already on a generous salary will ensue

I think you need to clarify exactly what they're expecting if you. If there's a specific job you need to do that requires you to be on-site then that's kind of unavoidable

If they just want you on call then just go to sleep with your phone on and if they call you just deal with it and call it time in lieu

As for setting expectations, I'm sorry to report that working odd hours is going to be an occasional feature of many salaried engineering jobs

The typical deal is you get time in lieu, with some extra if it's a night shift. Maybe they'll be generous and chuck in some money in the form of vouchers

Since other teams are getting Flexi time there's some scope for you to argue for that as well. However those teams might be on shift already so aren't salaried

My general recommendation is to try to make it clear to your boss that you expect this to be a one off event and if it's going to be something regular going forward that you'd like some sort of compensation for your extra time

I would also try to be slightly holistic about it. As I said, it tends to be a feature of engineering jobs, particularly ones based around manufacturing because you need to work around production hours

If it's an occasional thing and you get some reasonable compensation then it's probably manageable. If your employer starts messing around and tries to create a workaholic grind culture with lots of overtime then that's a definite red flag

nachouser

OP, it all comes down to how happy you are in your day to day stuff in work. Have a chat with your manager, but I'd avoid the leverage stuff.

I do this sort of thing a couple of times a year at weekends. I'm there for support and it could be two hours work, all going well, or it could be twelve if things go awry. If it's two, I get a day off. If it's more than that I get three days off.

One extra day out of the 220 or so we typically work each year isn't the end of the world if you're in a settled job.