I'm a supervisor in a cubicle farm here in the Midwest. We are production based and often have to work mandatory overtime. During one-on-ones with my team members we not only talk about performance, but how life is in general. Finances are a big topic that comes up. Before I started in this department 4 years ago they were averaging around 8-10 hours a week in overtime, but we have been working on efficiency and it has helped us reduce our overtime that we need on a regular basis. I hear the following on a weekly basis. "I can't afford to pay my bills if I don't work any overtime", which is usually followed up a week later with "We aren't busy can I leave early?" I find an odd since of joy in reminding them of what they said just a week early. They don't get it and the cycle starts all over again. I should start a spreadsheet and track how often each person on my team makes these statements.
In the past, I have had groups of employees, numbering from single digits to fifty or sixty, who I was responsible for physically handing a paycheck to. Due to union rules in the construction trades, it was required that the employee be handed a physical check by the end of the work day, mid-week. Occasionally, there would be an issue, things like a courier stuck in a traffic accident, and the checks did not arrive on the job site by the end of the day. At that point, the majority of the workforce would walk past me, in my usual spot, on the steps of my office trailer, expecting their check. I would casually say, "your check is stuck behind a truck wreck on the freeway, I have to wait until it gets here, but you do whatever you want". The vast majority would give me some version of, "no worries, I'll see you tomorrow". There was always a few who would throw a fit, and demand that I resolve the issue, STAT!" Without fail, these were the same clowns who would not show up on a regular basis, or claim that the desperately needed that check, then take a few days off the next week.
Overtime was another entertaining situation. Often, on a large project, deadline panic would set in, and large amounts of overtime would be granted to stay on schedule. As the crisis tapered off, overtime would cease, and the same chucklenuts would be in my office, bitching about how they "need" overtime. Wait, let's review. These are some of the highest paid tradesmen on the continent. There is no expectation of any overtime, ever. It is never mandatory, and never a reliable source of additional income, and YOU can't live without it? Damn, it sucks to be you. My all time favorite was an industrial job where there were huge deadline issues and you could work unlimited overtime, if you wanted it. There was also an agreement that volunteering to drive a big passenger van, from the remote parking lot, to the plant, would pay an additional half hour. I had a guy in my office bitching that he was robbed of his half hour of van driver bonus. He had physically worked 24 hours and wanted the other half hour. I was laughing as I asked him how I could possibly input 24.5 hours into his DAILY timesheet? He was convinced that I was trying to rip him off, yet in one day, he had earned nearly 80% of a normal week of pay.
I can't even express how glad I am that that crap is now in the rear view mirror.