Overtime

We all see the emails at work.  There is overtime offered this weekend or if we don’t have enough volunteers for overtime, we are going to have to make it mandatory.  So do we have a choice of being able to volunteer or “volentold” that we must work during hours and  days that we designate for our family and friends and all for what a few extra dollars in our paycheck or to let the boss know that we are a team player and that we want to put our hat in the ring for that next big promotion that is coming.  All of those are noble pursuits and possibly good ways to get that promotion and possibly more money but let’s really look at what you are getting when you work overtime.

1.  You can get mentally burned out by your job.  I always thought that if I worked a little overtime that it would show the boss that I’m “the go to guy” when all it did was burn me out quicker.  When I was a deputy sheriff, I always volunteered for overtime.  I would work court security on my days off.  The money was nice, and we did enjoy having the extra money, but we could never enjoy it because I was being called into work to cover other shifts or other things.  After time, the job mentally burned me out and I lost passion for it.  It also did make me “the man” in the eyes of my superiors.  Other people were getting consideration for projects and other things that were building their resumes while I could show that I could be a slave.  In another job, I was processing applications for a state agency, and because of the toll the job was taking on me, I had to be hospitalized for a mental break down.  Working overtime did not make better in the eyes of my superiors, it just showed that I was a good slave and that I was at their beck and call.
2. Not really making any more money.  I was always thinking, the more I work, the more I must pay the government in taxes. Like a lot of people, I don’t think the government should get rich from me.  If I want to make more money, I need to find a higher paying job or take a hobby and maybe get paid for it.  If I’m gonna make more money, I would rather do it doing something I love rather than something I hate or strongly dislike.  I also look at as that I’m making my employer more money because he is making a deadline or trying to show the client that they can produce.
3. Robs you of time with your family.   I have heard the saying “when we are making a living, we fail to make a life.  Your family is counting on you to put a roof over their heads or to put bread on the table, but when we work that extra hour or two of overtime a day, is it really worth missing your children’s soccer game or that evening out with our significant other.  Our children grow up so fast, and some of those precious moments that we have with our families we can never get back.  Our tombstones should never read that “they were a superstar in the office, but often absent in their family life.”
4. There is something wrong with the process.  When I used to process applications for the government, it always seemed that we never made a dent in all the applications, and that we always had the same problems with quality but never quantity.   We had mandatory overtime weekends, while we made a dent in the number of applications, we processed we always seemed to have many mistakes.  You always asked yourself in the back of your mind “are we that stupid or is there something wrong with the process.”  The contractor I worked for could not deliver on its promise to deliver a quality product and we were always being penalized for it.  A lot of that lead to people leaving the company because they were tired of all the negativity from the bosses.  So whenever there is a lot of overtime being offered, should we ask, is that we have an abundance of work because we are good at what we do, or is it because the system is broken.
5. If your salaried or work in an administrative job, overtime is not really for you.  Most salaried workers are supervisors or managers, and they are salaried, so working overtime is not beneficial to them.  They don’t get that benefit of working overtime so most of the overtime money goes to those working the overtime.  And working overtime may not be as beneficial as once thought because the employers will set the base wage so that they will take overtime into account when workers work overtime, so employees are not seeing the benefit of working overtime.

So the next time that email comes out for overtime, ask yourself, is this worth the burnout or my sanity because the system at work is flawed, is it worth taking time away from my loved ones,  and am I really getting the benefit of benefit?  Is working overtime really getting you over that economic hump that we all want?