So today I had a discussion with my manager that I have been working unpaid overtime everyday (close to 5 hours overtime). She responds with saying that I am quite young (24) and these are my golden years of learning and I should be working overtime for atleast 10 years of my life during the start of my career to learn stuff because I will regret it later. Idk how am I supposed to react to that. She maybe correct, and I do work overtime sometimes out of my own interest but this is getting way too much and pushing it. any suggestions about how do I deal with such a manager?

Don't work overtime.
Depending on the country and laws surrounding overtime get to know them.
If it's not overtime unless documents are signed, request them signed before working overtime.

Fuck your manager.

I hope you're looking for a new job

That's bullshit. All your manager wants is getting free overtime from you now and over the next few years.

I'd say work overtime if you want to (and it's within healthy limits), as long as you're paid to work overtime. Are these your golden years, they say? I'll spend them partying and travelling around the world, you tell em

Fuck that.

25 hours unpaid a week. fuck her. Work on your own software for 25 hours a week and learn even more that way...

She is full of shit. Her aim is to exploit you and your efforts

As a manager: fuck that, she is bullshitting you as per directives from the company you guys work for, or she just does not want to make the case for you getting the monetary reward you deserve.

In my institution we do not get overtime because of our job classification, we are fine with it as long as we get to apply certain rules e.g if someone from my team stays late, then next morning they get back that time, shit like that.

Saying that you should do it to learn and because of your golden years is absolute horseshit

There is a thing called reasonable overtime - unpaid.

25 hours a week is NOT reasonable in any sense of the word, 5 hours / week would be a stretch.

Check your local laws about overtime, and bill the bitch for the extra hours or have it as time-in-leu.

Which country are you in? I'll go find the legal overtime for you.

What market are you in? I moved from DC to NY, in my twenties and was also continuously propositioned until I became surly thirty something, that was tired of pointing out that unlimited vacation is actually a scam. The reasons varied, but they usually resolve to some form of guilt: the rest of the team is putting in the extra effort, or you are part of the $company family and blah blah. I relented, like most other young/engineers and ended up working 60+ hour work weeks at times. It was fun, but also depleting, burning the candle at both ends. I am now a very tired 40-something, with an amazing family that I wouldn't consider spending even one hour away from, lol, especially at work. The takeaway: companies purposefully strategize means of getting free time from their employees, wether they are conscious of it or not, because they are incentivized to do so. They are not family, they don't really care about your golden years and unlimited vacations are a scam.

They should definitely pay you for your work. Working overtime is voluntary and should be paid with an extra rate if agreed to. Do you have that conversation in writing? You could show that as an evidence that the employer has asked you to work overtime. 25 hours a week should about triple if not quadruple your regular salary.

Take a piss in her Versace hand bag, the one she bought with her pay rise from getting you to work a 7 week month and be paid for 4. You should take some responsibility for being a dick head for doing it in the first place.

She's a major asshole.

In a sense, she's right : the more you learn in your early years, the better you'll become in the future.

But this is something that you *choose*, not being forced in.
Basically what she tries to sell you is "you should learn as much as possible (valid), so do it for us for free, it is a favor we give you (sociopathic bullshit that should be punished by law).

Stop unpaid overtime RIGHT NOW (seriously), and start working on a project you genuinely like. Open source exists for a reason 😉

That's bullshit your manager saying to you. If you work for them you shall get payed.

Wait... Is she a wife of my ex employer? Same attitude.

@johnmelodyme did your ex employer have many wives?

@electrineer Yeap.... And also mysterious.

This is shit.

@intromatt I think is even worst than shit...

It sounds like your manager's best skill at her job is controlling her gag reflex.

Sounds like someone I used to know.

We called her bitchtits for a reason.

@johnmelodyme yuuup. I was being nice.

Your manager is an idiot and you should tell her to fuck off, maybe by going elsewhere.

I EXPLICITLY tell my team that, except in the case of production issues, I DO NOT want them working overtime. They honestly still do, and every time I notice I remind them that it's not expected nor encouraged. If you think you need to work overtime to meet dates then the dates are fucked and need to be adjusted.

Work-life balance is one of those things that you don't appreciate early on in a career but it's the one thing you should definitely come to terms with as quickly as possible. To be clear, if you WANT to work longer hours then, by all means, have at it. Some people truly love their job and that's great. But it shouldn't ever be expected because it's frankly a failure of management if you HAVE to do it on any sort of regular basis (again, emergency situations are all-hands-on-deck, so that's an exception).

Bad manager my friend. She MIGHT actually mean well, but still bad.

There's a huge difference between carrying because you've got momentum going or you'd like to learn and constantly having to do it. Besides that, what she said makes no argument in favour of not paying you

@nibor I am, and I am hoping to get an offer soon. maybe this or the next week. could not take anymore though I joined the organization about 4 months ago

@C0D4 I'm from India. Well, I have started giving interviews and am hoping for an offer maybe this or the next week. The workplace has become chaotic and I could not take it anymore. I made up my mind when I was expected to work on the weekend last week. The problem with the current organization is that the upper management is not mature enough and make every damn task a high priority request

@johnmelodyme nope, but she is pretty close to the relative of my employer

@electrineer nothing in writing. infact, there is a statement that includes, that I am expected to sometimes work outside the normal working hours and will not be paid working overtime because I am a FTE and not a contractor.

@saiyah007 you might need to extend on this, but from what I can find, a typical working week consists of up to 50 hours, but I think point 27 is pretty obvious in this PDF.

http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadDat...

27. There shall be paid wages at the rate of twice the rate of wages in respect of overtime work, where a worker works in an establishment or class of establishment for more than such hours of work in any day or in any week as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government and the period of overtime work shall be calculated on a daily basis or weekly basis, whichever is more favourable to such worker:.....

I highly suggest you learn your local laws on the matter and throw them under a bus with it!
I know India isn't the greatest place to try and throw them under, but hey, laws are laws right 😏

Golden years spent with grinding on the job? Sounds kinda ironic to me!