Overtime and not meeting goals and boss mad about overtime. What to do?

Here it is Wednesday night and I already have 14.25 hours of Overtime.(Last week it was 12 hours) I was at the office until midnight Monday. My co-workers are working the same amount as well. And we are having trouble meeting the goals our manager has for us. And now he is bitc*ing (excuse my language, I rarely use that language, but I don't know of any other word to use) about the OT we are working. Three of use have talked to the Executive Director but nothing changes. and they are not hiring any more help.

We got a nasty gram email from the boss today. We are not meeting our goals, which is unacceptable, and he wants us to email with a response as to what we will implement to meet our goals. I can't, but what I want to do is tell him the way I am dealing with it is my resignation will be in Fridays email because I can't meet his goals so he will have to find someone who can. All this junk goes on our reviews as "failures" to do our jobs.

I know the stuff has to be done by the end of the year and the three of use are working our butts off, but we don't know how to respond to his email. Any ideas? Actually for now, we are ignoring his email.But I don't think we can do that much longer.

Have you met with your boss one on one?

I would do that first, with all your ducks in a row, as to how efficient you are and how many hours you are working and that some picking and choosing has to be done to determine what your own personal goals will be for the rest of the year. Ask for the bosses help in setting priorities.

And look for a different job in the interim. Better to look for a job while you have a job.

Who sets the goals?

Sounds like your boss is unwilling to accept reality of situation. Time to look for a new job. I do not make this advice lightly. Changing jobs is never easy and something one should avoid when you are trying to get out of a bad situation. Normally you should only change jobs if there is a better opportunity in the new place. However, there are exceptions. Your situation is one of the exceptions.

Is he aware that three of you are putting inordinate amount of overtime. Are you in a situation where this is the norm like trying to make partner in a law firm and routinely a junior lawyers are putting in 100 hours a week. Or are you in a job where the overtime is a rarity. If your manager is unable to properly allocate work load, the problem is with him. And it sounds like this is the case. You are not going to change is bad management.

The important question you have to ask yourself is that other than the overtime, do you like your job? And do you want to be spending so much time at work for the overtime pay? How has the overtime work affected your personal life? more money so you can do things otherwise not possible? or do you have enough without the extra from the overtime where you feel financially comfortable? do you consider your work, your life?

You need to ask these questions and see where you stand.

I wish you peace and a good closure to your situation,

I guess I mainly needed to vent.

We've all met with the boss one-on-one. In fact, we have one-on-ones every other week. He hasn't had time lately though. He asked us at the last staff meeting if the overtime we are getting paid for was making us happy even though we had less free time. Yeah, guess what we told him.

I really love my job and I don't think I could find something I would like better. On top of that I think it would be hard to find a job seeing as I am 60 years old and too near retirement. I also have 5 weeks of vacation now that would be hard to give up. I could afford to retire now if I could get medical insurance. Unfortunately, I have pre-existing conditions that prospective private insurers always find a reason not to insure me.

I am very fortunate to have an understanding Significant Other.I have no one else at home either. One of my co-workers is 27 with four children and a husband. It is hitting them pretty hard. And she hates the job. We have kind of flex time and she is killing herself with weird hours so she can have time with her family.

So I guess I will have to hang there for the next five years. Maybe, like he says, we will get caught up. He actually asked us if we could take on some more responsibility from another department. He wasn't too happy when said, "NO"!

I worked another 4 hours OT today. Ugh.

FWIW, I am a Minnesota resident and retired early, without retiree health insurance. I bought through the Minnesota risk pool which provides insurance to people who are otherwise uninsurable. It is probably the best risk pool in the nation. If you ever are interested in pursuing that option pm me and I can give you a bunch of info.

What kind of boss is he normally?

Is he under pressure from his higher ups?

Do you think he believes in the goals, or is just passing them on from up above?

I 'm interested in what kind of job this is.
I would last about a minute.

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Originally Posted by goldfinch

FWIW, I am a Minnesota resident and retired early, without retiree health insurance. I bought through the Minnesota risk pool which provides insurance to people who are otherwise uninsurable. It is probably the best risk pool in the nation. If you ever are interested in pursuing that option pm me and I can give you a bunch of info.

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FWIW, I don't think I'd let go of private insurance and rely on the risk pools until I knew whether they will survive the election. :( :(

IAE, don't you have to be uninsured for six months before you're even eligible? Granted that depending on what the pre-existing conditions are, it could easily be more economical to self-pay for six months than buy insurance on the private/conversion/COBRA market ($2000-3000/month). But it's still taking the risk that something catastrophic won't happen. :(


kajero, hope you get something sorted out. Sounds awful.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

I 'm interested in what kind of job this is.
I would last about a minute.

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Ditto.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

FWIW, I don't think I'd let go of private insurance and rely on the risk pools until I knew whether they will survive the election. :( :(

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This is the Minnesota risk pool and was not part of health care reform. It has been around since 1978 and is well respected in the state. If health care reform goes in the toilet this risk pool will survive. If health care reform is not trashed the risk pool may not be necessary.

For the Minnesota risk pool you do have to go on COBRA first and use up that benefit and cannot have a period where you are uninsured. In contrast, the federal pools required that you be uninsured for six months before you get on the federal mandated pool. Which stinks and is one of the reason the federal pools have not done well.

This is all rather complex because under HIPAA, which predated the current health care reform laws, each state was required to have a plan in place for (most) people who are leaving a group health plan and who were insured the prior 18 months. Each state could design its own solution. Some had risk pools. Some had conversion plans. Some had special insurance plans. There was no regulation on cost and often the cost was so high that next to no one used the plan. There also could be significant coverage limits. Long before HIPAA came into effect Minnesota already had a risk pool and it has some of the best coverage and lowest cost of any such pool in the nation. :)

The big problems with state solutions were cost of coverage and often states did not provide any guaranteed plan to people who were uninsured and not coming off of a group health plan. Hence the work on health care reform.

Is your manager always like this, or has it just been lately? I once worked with a manager who was like this, and it makes me wonder whether yours is getting a ton of pressure from his higher ups. Even if he is, that's no way to motivate his team.

For me, when there was too much to do and not enough time, I've had 1:1s with my old manager and talked about the priorities. For his personality, it helped him to see a list of all the things that I was working on and my expected time frames to be able to complete each item thoroughly and accurately. If your team is feeling rushed, pressured and overwhelmed, then there is a good chance something won't be completed properly and then it needs to be redone and therefore wastes even more time and resources.

So...hopefully your manager can be reasonable (although it doesn't sound like he is). List out priorities and your expectations on how long it will take to get that task done correctly the first time. If he can respect his team's abilities, he should be able to help manage the priorities. If he isn't willing to step back and listen to reason, then as others have said, it may be time to look elsewhere or grit your teeth and do the best you can. Best of luck!