Less than half of Canadians who work overtime say they are always compensated for the extra hours. [Photo © Jesselyn Cook]
By Jesselyn Cook
It’s 5 p.m. The workday is done, but for 56-year-old Lee Bond, the workload is not. She sighs as she skims through her email inbox brimming with dozens of unanswered messages, then returns to the report she’s been working on tirelessly. It needs to be completed in time for the following day’s meeting.
She waves goodbye to her boss, who nods in return as he leaves the office. After an hour, she packs up her untouched lunch and decides to finish her work at home. For Bond and thousands of other Canadians, working extra hours without compensation has become a routine. In fact for many, it’s a choice.
“I want to be a team player. I want to do a good job,” says Bond, who is the program co-ordinator for a student learning centre that serves over 60,000 students. She explains that missing a deadline means the programs she co-ordinates will not be properly executed. “I would be letting down the students, and I’d be disappointed in myself,” she says.
Last year, Bond started to log her unpaid work in a spreadsheet. She calculated that she worked five full weeks of overtime in one year, but chose not to report this to her boss. “I was never directly asked to work late, but I was told to get the job done, which required overtime hours,” she says. “I didn’t question it.”
When a co-worker left on sabbatical, her job description was modified to include more responsibilities, but her salary remained the same. “I had to pick up extra duties. My boss knew I would be working unpaid overtime regularly,” says Bond. “It’s an unspoken understanding.”
According to a recent study conducted by the Angus Reid Institute, half of working Canadians consider overtime to be a choice, and one-third indicated that having “more work than fits the day” is the main reason they do it. The study also reveals that one-quarter of working Canadians regularly work overtime hours, and 40 per cent do so on occasion. Less than half of all employees who reported overtime work say they are always compensated.
Individuals who choose not to report their additional work hours are “basically accepting that their employer is taking advantage of their time,” says David Vaughan, an associate with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP’s Labour and Employment practice group who specializes in employment law. “I think a lot of people believe their boss is going to hold it against them,” he explains, adding that many employees are hesitant to pursue legal action for unpaid overtime hours for similar reasons.
In Ontario, labour laws state that an employee must receive at least 11 consecutive hours off work each day. For Canadians in certain employment sectors this uninterrupted work-free period is difficult to achieve. Technology and digital communication tools make it easy, and in some cases expected, that employees will take their work home with them.
Bond often feels that she has no choice but to work from home and on weekends. “There’s an expectation that I’m constantly on top of my emails,” she says. “If I turn off my BlackBerry for the night, I can have dozens of emails waiting for me the next day. It’s just easier this way.”
Along with Bond, 40 per cent of working Canadians reported that technology has caused them to work increased hours, according to a separate Angus Reid study released earlier this year. Forty-one per cent say they check email outside of office hours, and about 30 per cent respond to some of these emails and/or call or text about work after hours.
“I never get a true break. I haven’t taken my holidays because it’s too hard to get time away from work.”
When her stepmother died last summer, she left work to attend the funeral in Missouri. “I had to work from the hotel Wi-Fi. I wasn’t being paid, but I knew I had to get it done.”
According to Vaughan, this tendency to work additional hours without compensation as a result of technology is a significant problem. “Companies and governments are still struggling with how to regulate that. It’s an area of the law that hasn’t been adequately addressed.”
Working too many hours can come at a cost to one’s mental and psychological state, notes Katherine Lippel, who holds the Canada Research Chair on Occupational Health and Safety Law at the University of Ottawa. “If the expectation of the employer is that you constantly respond to emails then that will be a big source of stress,” she says. “These people who have to sleep with their BlackBerry can experience a poor work-family balance and can potentially experience mental health issues.”
Bond suffers from anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure, which she largely attributes to her overwhelming workload. She was advised by a mental health professional to reduce her work hours, but does not consider this to be a realistic option. “If I could truly not worry or think about my job when I left the office, I think I’d be feeling much better,” she says. “I can’t get away from work. It just keeps piling up.”
