The Importance of Working Your Contracted Hours

Let me begin with my current scenario.

In May 2021, I thought I had landed my dream job in Human Resources. Considering I had absolutely minimal experience in the department, I had been considerably lucky and performed extremely well at the interview. At first, I didn’t even get the job, but it turns out that the candidate who was initially offered the role turned down the position.

Looks like I’ll be moving to London!

In London, the full-time equivalent working hours are 35 per week in comparison to those working outside of London where they tend to be 37.5 per week. Additionally, when you work inside of London you get an additional few thousand pounds as the capital city is very expensive. So, that’s fewer working hours, more money and I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future.

Perfect.

At least that’s how it was at the start. During my first few weeks at my new job, I had been expecting to be told to just get used to how the organisation works, meet new employees, and get used to the basics of the role. I sign in at 9:00 am and log off at 17:00 pm, just like my contract told me I would.

After the first few days, I had noticed some emails had been sent to me outside working hours. 6 pm, 8 pm, I even saw one for 11 pm. What? Why is my team working so late? I had pre-warned before I started my job that it is considerably busy within the department right now, but just how busy is busy?

During my virtual meeting with my line manager, I had asked why everyone is working so late. He told me that due to the recent re-organisation of the department, which involved many jobs being cut and people with a lot of knowledge choosing voluntary severance, things are currently busier than normal. My line manager informed me that at my level and due to my newness in the organisation, going above and beyond was not expected of me.

The shared mailboxes were full, emails were going in and out every second. My colleagues were not logging off at 5 and were online before 9.

I should have picked up the signs from the start. My contracted hours were not going to be my real working hours and above and beyond wasn’t even the start of what was going to happen.

Working overtime is not an issue for me. In my previous job, if there was extra work to be done or if it was a busy time period for us all then I had no problem staying to work longer. The time I had spent working past my contracted hours is usually given back to me in TOIL (time owed in lieu) or I can opt to have it paid into my bank account as time and a half.

After my first week was complete, my colleague had gone on annual leave. My workload was already starting to build up, my mandatory training had not even been completed and I had not even found time to read through the department policy.

Guess what happened? My other colleague got sick. In fact, she was sick for the next three weeks. What perfect timing. My line manager and I worked very closely together and I had been assigned tasks that would not normally be assigned to as an assistant and especially not a newbie.

During the next few weeks, all of my team kept swapping which weeks they were on annual leave. I reckon they were so busy they couldn’t take any time off and when I had joined the team they thought I would be capable of managing things within the team. Left on my own less than 6 weeks into the job? No thanks. Hardly anyone was around to give me proper in-depth training.

As time goes on, I’m finding myself working till 6 pm nearly every night.

My work-life balance crumbled

You would think that working from home would be easier to have a schedule put in place, but this wasn’t the case.

The plan was to work out at lunchtime, but I couldn’t work out because I barely took an hour's lunch and when I did find some time, I used it to go for a walk and escape work.

Plan B was to go to the gym after work — which is round the corner from my house — and then come back before 7 pm. However, because I was so shattered after work after putting in so much effort, I would decide to take a ‘nap’ and find myself awaken when it was 9 pm. Great.

After my first breakdown which involved tears and a hug from my mum, I decided to flag this to my line manager. Ultimately, his response was “I think everyone is going through something similar”.

My healthy eating went out the window

Due to not being able to go to the gym, I didn’t really have the motivation to eat healthily. Most lunchtimes I would order Uber Eats or Just Eat because I had no time to make a proper meal and because I was so hungry. A McDonalds’ Chicken Sandwich is the healthiest thing I would eat in a day because it contained lettuce.

After about two weeks, I noticed I had put on weight around my stomach. A woman’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, I still haven’t managed to shift the excess weight but I have managed to sort out my healthy eating.

My workload and stress levels rocketed

The amount of work I was given obviously doubled as no one was present in the team to take anything forward. As I mentioned, my manager was assigning me tasks that do not even fall within my job description.

As I was new to the team, I didn’t really understand what was a priority, let alone how to manage everything with no proper supervision. Many mistakes were made as there was no one to check my work thoroughly.

Stressed wasn’t the word to describe how I was feeling. Doubtful, regretful, sad, unhealthy, and unhappy also come into mind.

So, that’s my scenario and it’s not a nice one.

You may be asking why I allowed myself to be another capitalist slave. I can give you the following reasons;

There was too much work and I didn’t want it to pile onto the next day.

I care about getting the work done and pleasing my employees.

I feel like I had to as everyone else was.

After three months of working in this role, I’ve decided to leave. Luckily, I managed to find a new job after one interview and it’s walking distance from my house.

To anyone who is currently working above and beyond their working contracted hours, you need to put things in perspective. How is the organisation going to reward you for all your efforts? A promotion? Time owed in lieu? Being paid time and a half? Or are you just being given a pat on the back?

A pat on the back is not reflected in your CV and will not be recognised in your next role.

Did you know that 8% of British employees work 20 hours or more over their contracted hours? Further research found that 45% of 2000 people surveyed, worked extra hours because they have too much work to do. Over 20% of those surveyed said they felt that this extra work has negatively affected their health and family life and over 40% said it caused them to feel more stressed.

Citizens Advice highlight that your employer can’t make you work more than 48 hours a week. However, my colleague mentioned that she had figured out that she’s been working an entire extra day for free. Sounds like it’s time to seek legal advice!

My colleague mentioned to me that if we all started working our contracted hours, the work would pile up but it would be a true reflection of how hard we work and how much we are unrealistically expected to go above and beyond.

Perhaps it’s about time you started to work your contracted hours.