- Overtime assignments often come into play for managers or supervisors. Some potential pitfalls that managers should avoid when assigning overtime are:
– Assigning overtime just because people don’t accomplish what they should during normal working hours.
– Using overtime as a reward or punishment – as this can easily lead to discriminatory issues and/or perceptions of favouritism.
– Scheduling that doesn’t consider the particular wants and needs of employees.
– Often, there are enough people who want overtime to fill overtime requirements without imposing on those who don’t. However, when overtime demand requires a manager to juggle the schedule, here are some guidelines to help.
– Using a rotation is a good way to ensure fairness.
– Don ‘t rotate for the sole purpose of rotation if you have plenty of people to fill overtime needs and some who don’t want overtime.
– Allow workers to fill in for each other as long as you are kept informed.
– Don ‘t allow overtime unless the appropriate amount of work is being done during regular hours.
– Don ‘t allow overtime to become an expected entitlement (if it is not part of the routine or the job description).
– Post overtime schedules as far ahead as possible.
– Whenever possible, try to accommodate workers who will be inconvenienced or burdened by overtime.
– When overtime is a normal part of the job, ensure all applicants are aware of this.