How much extra time do you put in out of hours?

I've been looking at several CMS systems for the staff and pupil intranets, and on saturday night at 21:00 I started installing server 2003 on a machine I'd borrowed from school so that I could try sharepoint services for myself without being harassed by staff and pupils. My wife asked what I thought I was doing, and was I being paid for this? I said it was research, and to a certain extent, it was. But it set me to wondering, how many of us spend extra time doing "research", either at home or in the office, without being paid for it? How many extra hours do you feel you put in to this? I think this has also been brought on by the fact that we're going through our job evaluations at school, and it's sort of concentrated the mind on what I actually do, and where the school would be if I didn't do it. I'm a technician, by the way, and not a network manager.
beeswax

I always have done piles of 'research' in my own time. From starting my job [4 years ago] I've commonly stayed on a couple of hours extra every evening, and then did what I could at home as well. Since this summer I got remote access sorted and in the first calendar month I clocked up 70 hours from home. I don't stay on site much extra now tho' - just about 1/2 an hour a day max.

I always put in my full hours too, and I have never yet managed to take all the leave i'm owed. I tried hard last year [year end Dec31st] but still had 8 1/2 days left, which i'm not allowed to carry over.

I'm nuts about the job and choose to put in the time I do. It's a bit of a strain now with 2 small kids [2 & 4] and my wife gives me grief for it.

I work my hours in the week and might pop in on an odd night to do an essential bit of maintenance and then I'll take an hour off or whatever to compensate for it.

Online research I do hours of at home but that's just because I'm a geek and love this side of things, finding new programs, tweaks, installation tips etc..., cool IP TV streams etc....

Plus being addicted to the Internet doesn't help.

Ben

Depends how you put it doesn't it :P

Indeed - the only way I can pick up new technologies is to tinker at home... I currently have a dual G4 Mac which will be getting turned into a server before it ever sees the school!

I don't mind putting in a few hours at home - after all I enjoy computing. I also try not to work longer hours than I have to (I find taking the time to eat in the canteen helps) but I tend to do maybe an hour more than my contracted hours in a week - simply by working an extra ten or twenty minutes here and there.

I do on average at least 2.5 hrs a week more than I should at work. That does not include the work that I do from home via remote access or general research. I don't mind doing a bit extra but the school doesn't seem at all apreciataive of this.

Courses...extra studying...about 20 hours at a rough guess per week (probably more my Wife would tell you) extra work after hours. Telephone calls, emails, reading..you all know the deal.

Richard is right though- schools don't seem to be appreciative of this in their IT staff. All they want is that holy grail of all IT- 100% uptime!

Paul

Lets turn this into a poll shall we? The results will be interesting.

Poll added (although options may need changing ;) ) - Ric_

Maybe it's my age kicking in but these days I do less and less work at home, some of the reason is personal study which is taking up around 3 hours a night (MCSE), and another couple of hours learning web technology just for the hell of it.

I'm afraid that after 22 years in the Army I feel I've done enough overtime to fill a lifetime - time to sit back and enjoy life :)

What i do is go hrough fits and stages of it basicly try to make an effort to go on time but if work needs to be done then it needs to be done

but i am school that see that so if i leave aerly one day as long as ask before hand they are not bothered as they know i do my hours...

Same as in special time like ks3 ict sats weeks and lead up i work longer hours but then weeks after i may leave early and so it balences out...


As for at home well yes do work at home sometimess need to but try to leave home for edugeek stuff and cpd.....

russ

I do my best to not do anything beyond my normal hours, if I do actually do anything extra, its usually research. At most, I would say 2-3 hours a week.

I think looking back over the last 8 or so years, I have progressively done less and less work in my own time. 8 years ago, I was doing alot of work in my own hours, and staying past hours at work. These days, 99.9% of the time I leave bang on time, and dont often do much in my own time thats related to work. Thats my gaming time !! :) At least until my kid is born in 2 weeks..then I guess even that will go heh

I generally do a little bit of extra work each day, along with a five minute lunch break etc.

Most of my research at home wil be reading.

Personally i dont mind doing this as the school appreciates what I do, I get a little overtime pay and they are flexible if I need to go off site some times.

Peerfect really.

In the long run the school gets free time from me as I do more hours than I should with no pay, but hey, I love my job, (most off the time).

Computers are my hobby/general interest as well as my job, so the two kind of overlap. At the moment I put in an extra 3 hours at work a week, but purely for convenience for transport and where I need to be afterwards - but you don't half get a lot done in school minus the pupils & teachers!! When I get home I'll spend 2 to 4 hours in total infront of the screen depending on what else I have on. At the moment I don't have the constraint of being a father or husband to anyone ;)