Working for Free

This article on the BBC website strikes a chord. When I was promoted into the management grades in the rail industry, my new contract of employment required me to work as many hours as necessary to get the job done. Having an on-call commitment meant that I could be called out after a full day’s work and work through the night without rest – something that I was forbidden to require my staff to do. Protest merely brought the response that it was part of my contract.

Being me, I did protest. As I gained confidence in my abilities, I also learned how to say no without actually saying "no."

I recall on one occasion the supervisor in the signalbox calling me in the early hours of the morning. Naked and half asleep, I staggered into the other room so as not to disturb my wife and took the call.

"The contractor has failed to send a handsignaller out to Chipping Sodbury and we can’t get things moving."
"And what would you like me to do?"
"Can you get out there and flag the signal?"
"I see. So what exactly are we paying the contractor millions of pounds a year to do?"
"Well…"
"We have paid for this service, haven’t we?"
"Well, yes."
"So what you are really asking me to do is contact the contractor’s on-call manager?"
"Er, well, I guess I could do that."
"Excellent idea. Let me know if you have any difficulty."

Eventually, people got the message that there were things they could call me out for – management issues relating to the running of my signalboxes, where it was an imperative. For trivial stuff, they learned not to call me.

Back on track, though, the problem with the use of unpaid overtime – whether voluntary or whether subtle coercion is used, is that it creates a culture where excessive hours of work eventually damage both the employee’s health and welfare as well as their efficiency. So, ultimately, it damages the business using the pressure in the first place.