Mandatory Overtime
I wouldn’t mind my job as much if my employer wasn’t forcing us to do mandatory overtime. I work at a factory and the busy season is coming up. Every year around this time we do mandatory overtime each week.
My normal schedule is four 10’s. I work Monday-Thursday 2:30PM-1:00AM. With the OT, I also work Friday’s. It’s thankfully only 8 hours. So, including lunch and the time I’m there to not be late clocking in, I’m at work at least 50 hours every week.
I know there are people who do more hours weekly and I know the company needs work done. However, I have never understood why they don’t try for voluntary OT, but rather they start with mandatory OT. They’ve done voluntary before, but they normally never offer it. 95% of the time, that’s not offered first. And the thing is, when they have offered voluntary in the past, I’ve never seen them have an issue. There are always enough people wanting to work. They have never had to resort to mandatory when they offer voluntary.
I work in a factory. It’s mainly a packaging factory but most areas require repetitive heavy lifting. I’m just so tired of the OT. I don’t mind the four 10’s - it’s the OT that kills me inside. I’m burnt out. So tired. I have a 2 year old that gets up at 7:30 every morning and I get to be right around 2AM. 3 days of the week she goes to daycare and I can go back home and sleep another 3-4 hours but many weeks I have errands and don’t get that opportunity. There are days I throw up at work from being so sleep deprived.
And the shittiest thing of all - mandatory OT doesn’t have a cap. Employers can force you to work as many hours as they want without any repercussions.