Overtime vs Flex Time

[magnet18]

What are the mustachians thoughts on overtime pay?
Do you work and take the money? Or leave at your 40 and spend the time with your family?

I am offered straight pay for my overtime worked, no real upper limit, but I also get to flex time and leave as early as I want when i get my 40.

For example, this week I will hit 40 hours today.  I can either work 8 hours tomorrow and take about $300 extra, or email my boss and say "hey I've got my 40 in do you care if I take tomorrow off" (he won't) and go spend time with my wife/work on grad school/learn new skills at home.

I often tell myself I'm gonna work lots of extra hours and put it towards X (paying off the car, nowadays), but then I close in on the 40 hour mark and remember I generally hate sitting at this desk and I could die tomorrow, and I end up going home.

I'm aware this is just a time vs money value decision only I can make for myself, I'm just curious what the other mustachians thoughts are

[rugorak]

As you said this is a decision you have to make for yourself. But I would say look at it in the following order:
1. Mentally do you need to get away from work or not? If you do go home after 40 hours. If not go to the next item.
2. Do you have something you should or need to be at? If yes go home. Otherwise moving on.
3. If you are enjoying what you are working on, or at least in a zone accomplishing a lot, do not have anything else you should or need to be doing, and are not burned out, sure take the money and put it towards debt/FIRE/hobbies/etc.

But if you don't get paid and only get flex time make sure you only stay when absolutely needed and if not, go.

[FIPurpose]

I have generally found that I can't do much beyond 40. Maybe it depends on the job, like maybe a blue collar job is easier to do more than 40 on. I don't know.

For me personally, overtime is possible for a few weeks, but I feel it after a while if it's consistent. For myself, I'll only take overtime if it means more pay than normal or more vacation (government jobs usually comp time over 40 hours instead of paying overtime). So one way or the other, you need to have time to destress. Either through affording your own vacation (time and a half) or having that time comped.

[jlcnuke]

I'll finish this year with ~750-800 hours of overtime if nothing changes from the current plan. If I had a wife and kid at home, I might be less hesitant to accept the OT, but as a single person, I'll take the 50% bump in pay per hour (OT is 1.5x normal pay) and the extra company 401k matching over spending a few extra hours watching TV or something in the evening during the week.

I'll ALWAYS take OT when traveling for work, where I don't even have my normal hobbies/friends/family around. 

[magnet18]

Thanks for the input, yall are making me feel much more normal

I know lots of people that don't get paid overtime that tell me I'm crazy for not working 50/60 week, but mentally I can't seem to bring myself to.
DWs parents all work crazy hours, and I'm pretty sure my parents both put in more than 40.

I know many people here that work way too much overtime, one guy worked 80 hours every single week for 2 years and effectively doubled his salary, i think it went towards paying off his house, but damn, spend some time with your kids man.  I don't have any kids, but time together is really important to DW. 


Not do detail my own thread, but is "unproductive time" a requirement for a brain based job?   I work 40 and am maintaining all As in my full time masters of engineering, but I feel like such a slug since i spend at least a couple hours a day watching YouTube or something similarly mindless with DW instead of being productive.
I could "easily" work 45 hours per week and lifes schedule should be pretty much unchanged, but I feel like as soon as I hit 40 I just hit a wall.  DW says I'm overworking myself, I'm still feeling pretty lazy since I know I have so much other stuff I "should" be doing.

[magnet18]

I'll finish this year with ~750-800 hours of overtime if nothing changes from the current plan. If I had a wife and kid at home, I might be less hesitant to accept the OT, but as a single person, I'll take the 50% bump in pay per hour (OT is 1.5x normal pay) and the extra company 401k matching over spending a few extra hours watching TV or something in the evening during the week.

I'll ALWAYS take OT when traveling for work, where I don't even have my normal hobbies/friends/family around.

I take OT when traveling for sure

Are you one of those people thst actually loves their jobs, or are you just grinding it out to FIRE?

[NextTime]

I'd take a combination of both. 

[dcheesi]

There's a time to work, and a time to rest; both are necessary to maintain ideal health and productivity. If you're working full time and going to school, then I'd say your plate is pretty full.

I know the feeling, but try not to feel guilty for "slacking off" in your free time; some downtime is absolutely essential, both for your mental and physical health and for the health of your relationship.

[jlcnuke]

I'll finish this year with ~750-800 hours of overtime if nothing changes from the current plan. If I had a wife and kid at home, I might be less hesitant to accept the OT, but as a single person, I'll take the 50% bump in pay per hour (OT is 1.5x normal pay) and the extra company 401k matching over spending a few extra hours watching TV or something in the evening during the week.

I'll ALWAYS take OT when traveling for work, where I don't even have my normal hobbies/friends/family around.

I take OT when traveling for sure

Are you one of those people thst actually loves their jobs, or are you just grinding it out to FIRE?

Just grinding it out. Don't dislike my job, but can't stand my boss. Fortunately I don't normally have to interact with the boss regularly.

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[mm1970]

My spouse gets paid straight time for overtime.  He works it when it needs to be done (deadlines), and doesn't otherwise, because: life, kids.

[JLee]

At straight time, I'd probably take the time off (especially if I could bank it and take it off later).   At 1.5x or double time, I would probably take the money.

[OtherJen]

I know many people here that work way too much overtime, one guy worked 80 hours every single week for 2 years and effectively doubled his salary, i think it went towards paying off his house, but damn, spend some time with your kids man. 

This. ^^^

My father worked loads of overtime when I was little; 70–80-hour weeks were normal. When he was home, he was stressed/crabby or sleeping. Many kids have lots of memories of their dad. I don't. Almost all of my memories involve my mom, who stayed at home until I was in middle school and largely raised me as a well-supported single parent. My parents fought a lot. I heard the word divorce several times and know that one of them filed at least once. Sure, I appreciate that I had more material support than I needed and my undergrad college tuition was paid, but in retrospect I would rather have taken out loans and had my dad around more. We didn't have a good relationship until I was well into adulthood, mainly because we were largely strangers.

Seriously, money is great, but there are other great things in life. I think both parents should be involved in raising their children beyond providing financial support.

[cats]

I had a summer job once where we were paid by the hour and there was about a month where there was a LOT of work to do, so OT was offered.  I worked a stint of 60 hour weeks, but at the end of it I rolled through a stop sign and got a traffic ticket, cancelling out a good chunk of my OT.  Maybe I would have missed the stop sign anyway, but I definitely think my brain being fried from the OT was a contributing factor.  Lesson to me there was that sometimes it's fine to pass on extra money--you might pay for it in another way later.  These days, I do occasionally put in extra hours but most weeks I feel totally comfortable leaving for the day when I've put in a day's work.

[magnet18]

Thanks all
I've been feeling burnt out for awhile, and like a dead man walking for about 2 weeks now, and a 36 hour power trip cross country  and back to get a supplier straightened out didn't help

Boss encouraged me to take the day off tomorrow to study (final exam Saturday)

My boss kicks ass

[spicykissa]

I did lots of it awhile back to pay off debt. Nowadays I'll only do it for a bonus on top of 1.5x pay (which is offered pretty regularly in my field). I would not do it for straight time unless I really needed the money.

That being said, I have no debt except a reasonable mortgage, max my 401k/HSA, and put extra in investments every month. The calculus depends on your financial situation. FU $ = freedom!

[DoNorth]

I work 7-12 hour shifts every two weeks so I always end up with about 4 hrs of overtime, sometimes 16 if I do 8 shifts, but I also get night differential, holiday double, and sunday premium pay etc.  I don't have a choice with the overtime since I have to physically be at work, but it doesn't materially affect my time with my kids since I work 3 days on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, 2on , 2 off and the quality of time we spend together during my off time is better I think than when I used to do a standard 40 hr M-F schedule.

[bugbaby]

I can't get out fast enough, plus mine is straight time.

There was only a 3-month stretch they offered 1.5x and I did a bit, but months later I'm still fighting payroll to get paid (even with clear documentation. ). . .they truly suck.

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