the day the word "overtime" lost its magic...

Yesterday the word "overtime" lost all its positive and desirable connotations.

I had been confused because I'd done 32 hours of "overtime" back in August (hoping to offset the radical drop in my hours in moving from Crewe Library to Congleton Library). I was also hoping to have a nice healthy paycheck for buying things in America!

When my paycheck arrived on the 18th, I was really stunned. It wasn't anywhere near what I thought it would be, and on top of that, the hours listed as my cover for Alsager weren't paid at time & a half, as I thought they would be-- my perception of "overtime" meant those hours were worth time and a half rather than just regular pay time.

Last week I did another large batch of "overtime"-- in the span of the 5 working days, I went to 4 different Cheshire libraries--- Congleton, Crewe, Wilmslow & Sandbach. So I wanted to make sure that this time the "overtime" was paid correctly-- and wanted the August hours corrected-- I spoke to my boss' boss and she made some phone calls looking into it.

The result is that I had it all wrong. The only definition of "overtime" for Cheshire County Council is that it means you worked more hours than you were contracted for, and you don't get any different wage than usual unless it was a Saturday, a Sunday, or more than 37 hours in one work week. My "overtime" was none of the above.

Can you just imagine how disappointed and tricked I felt after having that news?

Gutted.

Absolutely gutted.

Felt like a big sheepish gob for having been taken advantage of. But in all fairness, they hadn't taken advantage-- I'd just not clarified what I'd be receiving at the end of the day. Because I'm a big trusting-thinks-the-best-of-everyone dodo. I believe there's a phrase for me: people-pleaser. Can't say No, (not without major guilt and second thoughts anyhow!)

To add injury to insult, just minutes after hearing that news... I got a papercut that is STILL stinging.

Posted by kristen at October 8, 2004 7:16 AM