beeswax Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 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
MkII Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 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.
plexer Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 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
Ric_ Posted January 9, 2006 Posted January 9, 2006 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.
Guest richard Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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.
kingswood Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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
Dos_Box Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 Lets turn this into a poll shall we? The results will be interesting. Poll added (although options may need changing ) - Ric_
alan-d Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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
russdev Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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
Jake Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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
alexknight Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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).
webman Posted January 10, 2006 Posted January 10, 2006 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
ITGURU Posted March 16, 2017 Posted March 16, 2017 Studying, research and updates out of school working hours so quite a bit.
3s-gtech Posted March 16, 2017 Posted March 16, 2017 @mark's children are now teenagers, so your epic thread revival has some context! 2
tinca492 Posted March 16, 2017 Posted March 16, 2017 Same as Mole ...diddley squat. Change of head and attitude of "Bursar" not conducive to giving my time free, used to be give and take but now just take!!! Staff here are deducted pay of even 1/2 an hour (about £5 for some) when attending unforseen appointments etc. I was deducted half a days pay for atending a funeral of a close relative, this was the last straw for me so its now overtime or i dont do it. When I worked in the real world I was salaried at a level where " a reasonable amount of overtime is included in the salary" any significant work say replacing companies telephone system at weekends etc was remunerated via one of bonus. Here I am paid the bare minimum for the work that I do so dont see why I should then give my time free. Having said all that, I am of course willing to work for my current package as i am getting close to retirement and mortgage free, but it still irks me the lack of people skills that the seniors have. They simply do not get it that if you treat your staff kindly then they will more than make up for it by being more flexible saving money in the long term. Sorry that was a bit of a rant.... couldnt help it.
hardtailstar Posted March 16, 2017 Posted March 16, 2017 I study and research for my personal development but dont do school stuff unless i am paid for it.
Lonix Posted March 17, 2017 Posted March 17, 2017 Glad this one was revived, interesting seeing 27% do 5+ hours. I'd be very interested to see what everyone is doing now compared to a decade ago. I'm certainly 5+ hours extra a week, back in 2006 it was probably 1 hour a week if any non paid over time.
unixman_again Posted March 17, 2017 Posted March 17, 2017 Now I'm doing zero extra hours. A decade ago, I was doing zero extra hours. Twenty years ago, I was doing zero extra hours. Thirty years ago, zero extra hours. I have always believed the 5 o'clock whistle is going home time. If you can't get your daily work done in the allotted time, something is wrong - either your not suited to your job (highly unlikely) or your employer needs to get some some assistance (very probable). I started work in Australia, which is very relaxed. More than once I've been talking to a very important client on the phone about a problem they were having. It got to 5 o'clock and the client would say "Well it's home time, I'll call you in the morning and we can carry on." In the summer, we'd finish work at 5:30pm, be on the beach by 6:00 and stay there until 10:00. 2
HBPS Posted March 17, 2017 Posted March 17, 2017 None i used to at my last place then it was just expected. Can you do that tonight..... Emails texts and phone calls at 10pm all over weekends. getting called in on my paternity leave daily, Not having that again. so i do no extra bit of light reading or research that's all.
mthomas08 Posted March 17, 2017 Posted March 17, 2017 Now I'm doing zero extra hours. A decade ago, I was doing zero extra hours. Twenty years ago, I was doing zero extra hours. Thirty years ago, zero extra hours. I have always believed the 5 o'clock whistle is going home time. If you can't get your daily work done in the allotted time, something is wrong - either your not suited to your job (highly unlikely) or your employer needs to get some some assistance (very probable). Maybe some of us just enjoy what we do and don't like the idea of turning up Monday morning with 60 emails to go through first thing Having so much work to do isn't necessarily down time capability, at times (again like me) I just give a damn about my work place. It's not just a job to me and will never be - otherwise I'd truly be unhappy.
kennysarmy Posted March 17, 2017 Posted March 17, 2017 Lets turn this into a poll shall we? The results will be interesting. Poll added (although options may need changing ) - Ric_ Is the poll the number of extra hours you do without pay or those you do and then take time off in-lieu...?
MkII Posted March 22, 2017 Posted March 22, 2017 @mark's children are now teenagers, so your epic thread revival has some context! Haha! 14 & 16!!!! Glad this one was revived, interesting seeing 27% do 5+ hours. I'd be very interested to see what everyone is doing now compared to a decade ago. I'm certainly 5+ hours extra a week, back in 2006 it was probably 1 hour a week if any non paid over time. Moved jobs a couple of times since. Back in a school now... spend 8 1/2 hours on site daily and think nothing of remote working into the wee hours. Still don't take all holidays.
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