What is the most amount of hours you've done in a month?

Hi Josh, sorry I didn't make myself clear when I started this thread. I'm not proud that I work overtime, and its certainly not a badge of honor in my eyes. I've had to work a lot of overtime this month because I'm gearing up for a career move within my company so I've had a lot more work to do making sure my successor can hit the ground running and have all the information they need on the contracts I cover, my teams roles and responsibilities, previous performance reviews etc.

I started the thread because I was shocked at how much overtime I've clocked up this month and wondered if others had done the same. I'm not proud of my hours this month because its time I could have spent with my girl and little boy plus I'm big on the whole work/life balance concept. That said I haven't done this many hours in a long time so I'll be taking the 3 of us away to Greece in the summer with the extra cash.

Sorry mate I'm tired and waffling. I suppose there's a big difference between those of us that choose to do overtime and those that are pressured to do it. Some people have little choice (little choice not no choice) and I'm interested to hear yours and others views on the number of hours they endure.

Jim

 

Hey fergal, are you a civil servant? My mate's got it exactly the same as you

 

Ah no probs mate, I hope I didn't sound defensive, I just felt responsible because I started the thread. I agree with you tho, overtime isn't anything to brag about. I do feel lucky to get paid for the hours I work over my contracted hours, not everyone is so fortunate.

Incidentally a good friend of mine gets a good deal. He's a network admin, £40k, 30 days holiday like me but any hours he does from home or overtime, he gets the same amount of time off instead of overtime payments. A few hours from home a week and he probably gets 40 days off a year! Very good WLB

 

Dunno what the most I have done in a month is but my record over a week was 110 hours which included sleeping on a server room floor when a server was being restored from tape.

Definitely not a badge of honour thing but just part of IT, unfortunately.

 

Well said, me too

 

Well, came to this party late

It's a thread newbies should have a quick gander at though, especially if they think their shiny career in IT will become a well-paid walk in the park one day

Overtime has never been a badge of honour to anyone I've known, but it does become a necessary evil in some departments. My highest clocked up month though ironically is still when I was working as a forklift driver and labourer - me and a buddy had a "race to 80 hours" each week (he always won). Clocked up 340 hours that month.

The scope for long days at my place is large at the moment - I could end up doing a Dubai shift (4:30am start in t'office) and if we are short staffed I could volunteer to work through (to 5:30pm) and if it's First Line that's short staffed, I could be on call (which is availability til midnight).

That's only happened once though although there have been a few times where I've ended up working through. But I do get OT, and have a manager that's more than understanding in letting me have time off at short notice if I'm knackered. As it turns out, doing some work from home today!

Fergal sounds like the most sensible one of the lot of us, I have to say!

 

Currently overtime, only with prior agreement with upper management and then only on certain projects. Otherwise it's a bit of give and take ("flexi" if you will).

-Ken