

Developers should not be allowed to work overtime - techdog
http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/03/developers-should-not-be-allowed-to.html

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chris11
I really agree with this. I had the good fortune of getting an internship at
an engineering firm that was managed really well.

Management did not seem to assign overtime work needlessly. It was an
engineering firm set up to work on long term construction projects. So the the
work load was cyclic. My boss mentioned that there were times that there was
almost nothing to do. So people ended up taking vacations around those times,
and sometimes worked less hours. But during crunch time, people would end up
working 6 days a week, and longer hours. It seemed like it was appropriate
though. The increased work load had a defined reason, and people knew that
once they got finished with the majority of the contract, they would work
less.

Management seemed to be of the opinion that overtime was a symptom of bad
project management. Some of the technical areas where very specialized, so the
available work force was small. So they were stuck with overtime. But all
overtime request had to be approved by senior management (vp of finance if I
remember correctly). And employees were compensated time and a half for all
overtime. So management had an incentive not to work overtime.

That firm showed me that I really don't have to accept unpaid overtime, there
are jobs where it isn't a problem.

