Blog Fabulous

Overtime

by Christine(Yuna) on February 1st, 2006

I made plans this evening to purchase a car so I have to leave office by 5pm in order to get back to Denver on time. I submitted the following request to my project manager:

“Hi, I am leaving early today at 5pm. In case there are meetings scheduled, please let me know so we can discuss at another time.”

And yes, I got a formal approval to take half day off by leaving at 5pm today.

Don’t laugh! I am serious! Leaving at 5pm is considering as half day off here in my working environment. I know I know, this is just plain sad.

During my travel years, quite a few flights got canceled because the pilots and stewards had reached maximum working hours. There are also laws to protect hourly workers to get overtime pay. However, in the IT field, there is neither overtime law nor overtime pay for the salaried professionals.

I found an interesting article that talks about the current overtime issues within the IT industry and the negative impacts of OT.

Well, I know very well with first hand experiences what kind of damage the extensive amount of OT could do to a person. I started out as a married person with a nice home to … well.. practically nothing now. I have no home, no family and I am just about to buy a car this week to start all over again. I was having lunch with my team yesterday and mentioned that I need to set up a home before I start my new job. It was funny that one of my new co-workers asked me this question,

“Christine, how come you’ve worked for this company for 10 years ,yet you don’t even have a home?”

Anyway, here are a few highlights from the article if you are interested:

Current overtime laws
Presently, federal and state laws limiting overtime don’t apply to most tech workers. The distinction comes down to semantic twists regarding employee classifications of “exempt” and “nonexempt” to overtime regulations. While definitions vary nationwide, most states recognize exempt employees as those in management or supervisory positions.

How many hours does the technical staff work?
Golden said technology workers likely work more overtime than the general average U.S. worker. Using analysis from the 2000 Bureau of Labor Statistics, he estimates that the average U.S. technology worker puts in nearly 52 hours a week–and that’s just a baseline.
“Forty hours is a really short week, regardless of the profession you are in,” said Neusaenger. “Beyond 50 [hours], it does begin to wear on employees for extended periods of time,”

The impact of OT on workers

Most corporate leaders realize that extended overtime does take a toll. Academic research cited in the “Time After Time” policy paper provides further evidence.
Quoting a 1999 survey by the Institute for Workplace Studies, the paper notes that when people work more than 50 hours a week, family conflicts jump dramatically. The paper cites research that correlates excessive overtime to increased risks for accidents and injuries on and off the job, as well as diminished quality of goods and services. It also states that overtime impairs an employee’s attention span and his or her performance in executive functions.

Overtime does physical damage as well. Work-related stress can raise blood pressure and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. It’s no small matter if you consider that job stress costs the insurance business $150 billion per year in absenteeism, health insurance premiums, diminished productivity, compensation claims, and direct medical costs.

Full length article here.

Share This

Related Stories

Middle America Economic Reality
Lesson #1: Learn To Say “I Can’t Do It”
A New Job A New Life
Motherhood - paid nothing, worth nothing?

POSTED IN: Fabulous Work Life Balance