Last Minute Clients

[insertNameHere]

Lately I have been working at a help desk, and it ALWAYS seems some miserable fucking prick calls in 5 minutes before we end for the day with a problem that takes 15-25 minutes to resolve, and it is always absolutely mission critical and they knew about 4 hours ago.... Now it is my emergency to get finished because it will be my ass if they can't get their last minute project done.

I would be totally fine working over IF I was allowed to, as I understand it working over is HIGHLY encouraged as is working through lunch breaks... but don't submit that extra time on your time sheet.

Can't understand the part where they want me to work 40hours, and if actually show up and work 40 hours it somehow like I'm undermining the upper management by not putting in "extra" effort. Sort of glad this is a temp job, no way do I want to make a career on the front lines never getting a real break.

[wolfie]

I would be totally fine working over IF I was allowed to, as I understand it working over is HIGHLY encouraged as is working through lunch breaks... but don't submit that extra time on your time sheet.

Time to bring that one up with your boss:

"It's my understanding that under Federal law, it's ILLEGAL for me to work 'off the clock', but that if resolving someone's problem takes me into what's supposed to be off-duty time, the company strongly discourages listing the extra time on my time sheet. Should I:

A) Resolve their problem, extending into off-duty time, and list the extra time on my timesheet? or

B) Stick to my defined start/stop times, and tell the person with the problem that my on-duty time has ended, and I'll be back to work on their problem when I come in the next business day?"

[Peppergirl]

Your company is a more miserable fucking prick than the customers themselves.

I don't always applaud my company and some of its asinine policies, but one of the decent ones is that most of us work 37.5 hours a week, so when these last minute assholes hit, we don't go in to OT most times. Sure, it's better to always have 40 hours but shit like this is a pretty decent argument against the staight 40 hour rule.

Your employer sounds awful, I'm sorry to say - and I'm pretty sure it's all kinds of illegal to do what they're doing to you.

[AdminAssistant]

My husband's company (software tech support) solves this two ways: 1) Everybody is on salary, so no overtime. As long as the call log is being handled, you can take breaks whenever is convenient. 2) After 5, there's only one person there, to log West Coast calls. And that's all they do. Someone calls in it's, "Okay, we'll give you a call back first thing tomorrow morning." The tech might actually take a call, if it's a quick, simple issue or an actual emergency, but generally not. Their boss is really good about about standing behind them, and has fired more than one customer for being abusive toward the techs.

[insertNameHere]

Also, should mention a lot of my stress is compounding from my personal life. Had a quick bitching out today that I need to take calls till 5pm from a coworker.... Going to speak with my boss about if I can get OT or use it as an excuse to come in a little late... which yeah that ain't probably going to go over well. Probably would help if I told my boss I needed to be out right at 5 due to an appointment at 6 an hour away hence why working over not good.