The Problem is often the way work is organized throughout the day. The Plan changes, information is late, decisions are made, priorities are shifted from one task to another, and at the end of the day people are expected to make up for it all with their free time.
The worst is when overtime becomes so normal that people don't even ask why they're staying. In some companies, the atmosphere is that going home on time is almost a sign of irresponsibility. The man finishes his part of the work, looks at the clock, sees that the working hours have passed, but still stays because „everyone stays“. If an employee feels guilty about going home on time, the problem is not with them. The problem is in the system that created such an atmosphere.
I will never forget the scene from the beginning of my career. I had two little children. It was already the second hour of overtime and I decided to go home. My supervisor asked me, " Where Are you going?"“and then added: & # 8222; I'll ask you when you need to move forward.“ at the time, I understood very well what a company looks like in which overtime is treated not as an exception, but as a proof of loyalty.
A company where people are ashamed to go home on time has not created commitment. It created pressure. Commitment is when people know what they are doing, why they are doing it, to whom they are handing over information, who is making the decision, and what happens when a problem arises. The pressure is when every day ends with improvisation, lengthening work hours, and expecting someone to „pull the thing out“ because otherwise they can't.
There's always overtime. No one seriously disputes that. There are deadlines, emergency deliveries, malfunctions, changes of plan, customers moving requests. But if overtime becomes a permanent solution, then it is no longer an emergency. It's a way of managing. Then the company does not solve the cause of the problem, but passes the consequence on to the people.
When people have been asked to save the system for years with their free time, the company no longer lives on a good system. The company lives off other people's victims. And that is paid for at some point: through fatigue, mistakes, resistance, the departure of good people, a decline in quality, and executives who no longer run a business, but only put out fires.
It's not about who stays longer. The question is why work can't be organized so that people don't have to stay longer all the time.