With modern business capabilities like e-commerce coming to the fore, the need for overtime in the office has grown exponentially in recent years.
More often than not, you may find that there’s still plenty of work past hours, or even that these are your most productive sales times. As such, it’s essential to have someone around to both answer client queries and make sure online sales run smooth.
Yet, when you shout out for overtime, you find that no one takes you up on the offer. Before you know, you’re alone in a dark office with a never-ending pile of work.
As can be seen from queries like this one on www.nolo.com, U.S. law is on your side if you wanted to start enforcing overtime. Sadly, doing so can cause unhappiness and even increased workplace turnover, neither of which you want.
Still, that doesn’t mean you need to keep coping with overtime alone. Instead, consider the following reasons why your team might be refusing you in the first place.
#1 You expect workers to stay and complete jobs which aren’t in their remit
Often, overtime tasks are those jobs no one takes care of during the day. It may be small things like accounts or larger tasks like IT repairs. Either way, these jobs aren’t always delegated to members of your team, which can make securing overtime tricky.
Why should team members stay behind for a task they don’t think belongs to them? To overcome this, you could add jobs like these to workloads. Or, you could outsource them using outside accounts and IT companies like www.egistech.com.
That way, you can focus overtime on tasks which team members were unable to complete during the day, and are thus much more liable to stick around for.
#2 You aren’t flexible
If you never give team members any time off or allow them to work remotely, why should they give up their evenings to stay behind?
This is very much a ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’ situation. If, for instance, you allow employees the option of remote work when they ask, you can bet they’ll be more open to staying behind, or even working once they get home.
But, if you always say no, you can bet that they will too.
#3 You always take an inch when they give you a mile
Most workers are happy to work some overtime during an urgent situation, but you shouldn’t take advantage. Assuming that a team member will always stay behind because they did so once could stop them from ever helping you out again. So, never assume, and try not to ask the same people to stay every single time that overtime rolls around.
Remember, too, that you mainly want to avoid overtime where you can. This should be an exception and not a rule, as downtime is vital to help employees avoid burnout. If you always have unwanted overtime hours on offer, then, it might be time to assess your delegation methods.
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