hah overtime doesn't exist. I do at least 2.5 hours of overtime every week (if I do 5 days) coz we have to be there from 8.30 to set up the day, but I'm not paid until 9. And then if I'm really unlucky we have to stay late (i.e. after 6) to get the store in shape. I'm currently hunting down a copy of the contract to see if it has a get out clause about the late hours and if not, I can tell my manager to fuck right off every night at 6.

/me supports Pev in sticking it to the Man

I love it when my employer tries to fuck me with as much overtime as they can get away with! Yay!

My employer (well, the state) can't fuck me over on overtime since we work with an electronic 'pinning' system. It's recorded up to the minute how long I work in a day and I can recover 6 days worth of overtime every trimester. The only time when my time isn't counted is when I do something for work at home, which is rarely at the moment.

I never really had bad experience with overtime hours. In my first job my direct superior was pretty diligent and trusting in granting us the overtime we had accumulated and even would order out for pizza on company budget if we'd had to do a real long evening as a team.

I taught me that if you're given trust and respect by a boss you'll want to repay that by working correctly and diligently (unless you're a complete asshole, of course).

ahhh, my experience is quite different.

My very first job, I caught our manager logging us out about an hour early every night. We were hourly employees, so we should've been paid practically to the minute... but no, they cheated in an attempt to save money. That was my very first job experience and it soured me to the experience.

Currently I'm salaried, meaning I get a set amount of money regardless of how many hours I work. The way that's supposed to work is that I have a job to do, and if I finish it early, or have to work late, I can do so without affecting my income. In practice, it means my employer can shovel as much work onto me as they want and, if I can't finish it all in time, they can demand I work later or on the weekends to complete it, all without any additional pay.

Wow your first manager was a total dick. Did anyone above him know he was doing that?

That's the way our management works. Problem is I'm stuck in between in my job. I'm not management so I don't get a salary and am paid hourly, but I'm not "just staff" either as I hold the keys and run shifts. So I'm paid a keyholders allowance. Thing is, my understanding is that the ~£40 every 2 weeks I get covers in case I get called to cover other stores (obviously harder to cover managers/keyholders than it is regular staff as there are less of us) and also alarm call outs and stupid o clock in the morning. My manager claims this allowance also acts like a salary though in that if something doesn't get finished during the 9-6 shifts, I have to stay until it's done.

40 pounds for potentially hours of overtime? Sounds lame. Then again, you're hourly, so I have a funny feeling he's talking out of his ass. UK labor law I'm sure is different, but when you're hourly, you're hourly... you get paid for every hour you work at your base salary until 40 hours, then 1.5x after that and 2x your hourly rate for working over 40 hours on a holiday. I loved working overtime on holidays.

Bleh, anyway, I hate jobs, not because I hate working, but because the employers violate federal labor law and no one cares, including the federal government. If working was how it's supposed to be (by law) I wouldn't have so many issues with it.

Is that Satis proposing a socialist system with worker protection? Sounds very...unpatriottic to me! Someone call Homeland Security!!

hah.... we left the laissez-faire world 100 years ago. There have to be worker protections, or the businesses behave like animals. Hell, they do already, but federal oversight keeps them from working people to death quite as frequently.

Slight update on my behalf...

"Job" [definition]: Pay, Opportunity, Structure, Organisation.
"Work" [definition]: Tasks, Strategy, Workload, Flexibility.

My job sucks ass, but the work is friggin awesome. Kind of grateful for that, but it also provides a dilemma:

a) Look for a well paid job and risk being stuck with shit work.
b) Stay in the same shit job, but at least you love the work.
c) Wait in the same shit job and hope an opportunity will arise.

d) live off welfare for slightly less than what you're making in your current shitty job and aim for super work by applying selectively

(not really)

Hey, I finally heard for sure when I'll get the boot - that is, when my contract won't be extended anymore. At the end of December, early January I'll be unemployed, living on the streets drinking antifreeze out of discarded shoes. If I don't find a job in the meantime anyway.

On the bright side, I calculated my welfare check and the first 6 months I'll be able to live off it comfortably as long as I don't go crazy with my expenses. It's actually more than I made working full-time at my previous job. Hahaha!

lolz, damn. Unfortunately, unemployment for me would be a gigantic drop in income. So not really an option.

e. Begin your own company and make enough money so you never have to work for some other motherfucker ever again.

My boss went to the middle east for the month of November, so I'm boss. That and the volume of work magically more than doubled. So yea, my job blows ass. Oh, and I have a Calculus test tonight. In about 40 minutes.

Wild guess: you're not getting paid extra for playing boss for a month?

haha, of course not. Plus I'm technically juggling 2 jobs in 40 hours, and when I complain that job #1 is keeping me too busy to accomplish anything in job #2, they tell me I should just work late (for free) so I can do both jobs fully. They can suckit. Maybe if they paid me overtime.

It's pretty telling that they feel like it's normal that they can tell you to 'just work overtime to work your two jobs for no pay'. I mean, wtf. Like the company is ever gonna accept the same sort of remark from an employee. 'Yeah, I think you should pay me double for no extra work'. They'd be like...is this guy for real? When it's exactly the inverse of what they're trying to pull on you.