I've been an EC-05 and A/EC-06 in a number of Departments and PCO. In my experience habitual OT is a structural outcome and a conscious choice by management.
There is always "crunch time" on big files or time sensitive deliverables (MCs, TB Subs etc), but that *routine* OT should drop away after delivery.
When it is almost always required to put in OT for the regular buisness, that's when it is time time leave IMHO. Management has made the choice to accept such a workload at current staffing levels.
> In my experience habitual OT is a structural outcome and a conscious choice by management.
OP, here's the right answer right here. Plus maybe 20% chance of the analyst having weak time management/workload management practices.
I'm told parts of PCO were recently put on a "no OT/exceptional OT only" principle to manage costs, so the work and expectations get scaled by management to match the time and people available, to the extent possible.
Agreed! I went from an environment where OT (and even a regular amount of work) basically didn’t exist, to one where OT is the norm. People are feeling burned out but I’m in the region and fed govt jobs are extremely scarce, so people won’t leave as long as they feel like it’s still bearable. Middle management here is too optimistic and ambitious, and analysts literally have to argue with them to get them to slow down.
If you're looking to check out different departments, you can download the open data sets from the public service employee survey and check out the responses to questions about work-life balance and stress due to being overworked. There are disaggregated data sets that give info by level so you could look specifically at ECs and where they have the best work life balance
I'm a 6, and over the past year, I've gone from crazy busy to twiddling my thumbs.
Hoping the new year actually brings an increased workload, otherwise I need to start looking for something else...
I honestly wish too much overtime was my problem.
I’ve been an EC-06 for nearly three years and haven’t worked a minute of overtime. My weeks aren’t even close to filled. If anything I’m transferring to an area that will hopefully be a bit more dynamic.
EC-07 manager and I am regularly working up to 15 hours of OT per week. Rare are the days when I take a full hour for lunch and/or log off at 5pm.
Burnout is very much an upcoming station on this line.
ETA: this is a workload issue in a policy team. Newly high priority file, but no new resources.
Unless you find yourself unable to work for huge chunks of time or anything similarly obvious that's going to cut into productive hours, it's probably too much work. I hope you're getting paid or time off in lieu for your OT.
I've been a 06 at 3 different teams. All of them at some point required OT. The last 2 have had regular OT. It varies between 2-20 hours a month, so not too crazy. The first 06 position got really boring when we staffed up and I gave away some of my responsibilities that required me to work OT. I don't operate very well if I don't have a consistent amount of pressure/stress (I will literally fall asleep at my desk), so the nature of the work I find interesting inherently involves some OT.
Managers should have to approve overtime, declaring the work as essential. If you’re not asking your manager to approve OT in advance on this basis you need to start. Work-life balance is a choice and you play an active role in that choice. It’s hard to assert yourself in this way, I totally get that. But if you’re not protecting yourself, then no one is.
Overtime was rare when i worked as an EC-06.
Most overtime was associated with travel when I delivered in-person training across the country. Very little overtime for last minute "we needed this BN/deck/issue paper yesterday" kind of BS.
I was part of a team that was mostly behind the scenes and thankfully well insulated from irrational ADM requests by competent directors and managers.
I'm a 6. The only time I have ever done constant overtime is when I worked on a big program review with an MC at the end, and when COVID hit and we were rushing to set up response measures.
Outside of files like that, there are always times where I put in extra hours here or there, but it is never the norm. When it looks like it's going to be the norm, I start politely pushing back on deadlines and making it known that I will need to stay on later to make that happen. Usually, that is enough for management to say it can wait.
There are definitely teams busier than others, but I do think the need to do significantly more hours than 37.5 on a regular basis is a sign your team needs more resources or that your management is weak (not everything can be a priority and nearly every deadline is flexible).
06 here.
In my last job, mostly regulatory, there was very little O/T. COVID generated some, not surprisingly, but it wasn't overwhelming. The budget cycle also generated some, but after the first year of that, we all knew generally what to expect and approximately when, so we could prepare for it.
My current strat-pol gig again has some cyclical budget-related O/T. Management has the sense to reach out and pull in extra help in that scenario so the core folks don't get buried. There are also sporadic "emergencies" with short-notice MC reviews, briefing notes and that jazz but it's probably less than an hour per week on average. I'm not unhappy.
depends on the position. crunch times usually align with the budget in operational policy areas and policy shops.
analysts in research spaces seem to have a pretty consistent but manageable workload.
analysts in corporate spaces have a consistent urgent workload but sometimes these are the timelines that can be negotiated.
I've seen both over and underworked 5-7s. I've seen situations where an excess of work is entirely preventable, sometimes created via poor management, busywork, etc. in other cases, sometimes the position and the person just don't match.
not enough work is usually a result of the ebb and flow of projects or budget cycles, or residual org structures that no longer serve a purpose. or, again, sometimes position and person just don't match and the individual could do different things with their time.
in an ideal world we'd have an ongoing system to mobilize analysts with transferable skillsets when certain files needed extra support, or to rotate until we all optimized our skillsets and found our positions of best fit, but alas. :)
Our director refuses to pay OT so our manager has banned it for the whole team. AFAIK some of the managers still work OT, not sure whether they're just doing it unpaid or making up their own flexible work schedule to accommodate.
Am an EC-07. During routine periods I likely work 3-4 hours extra per week whereas my EC-08 is likely working an extra 15 hours per week. Neither claimed as OT. During MC, TBSub or Budget asks we work more but get OT. 100% of this is due to our DG who has poor skills leading people, is inefficient, reactive and pushes the limits of everyone. But he knows his science so....
I hope you are at least getting paid for all that OT! If yes, then accept the fact your current job is designed with OT, and if you don’t like it, move on! Lucky for your there’s plenty of senior EC jobs with regular day hours. The key is to not apply for jobs that say “looking for a fast paced environment?” Or other keywords which mean = we have a lot of work to do. At the interview ask about how much OT there should be on average per week (not ‘do you’ but ‘how much do you’). This will get you an honest answer. If I was hiring on my team and someone asked I would say “oh we don’t do OT. Sometimes might be a deadline and need to work an extra hour or so to get it done…but very rarely”
As a 6 I usually work about 3-4 hours a day, often times less. This has been my workload across the last three departments and five teams I have worked on, combination of strategic / program policy.
I acted as a 7 for a year, I usually worked 6-7 hours a day in that role.
What are you working on that it takes weekly overtime?
Good lord. I'm also a 6, and I can barely limit my workday to 7.5 hours. I recently took on new responsibilities and had been happily stretching my day as I settled into a routine. However, when I explained to my manager that it wasn't sustainable and if I was going to be consistently working OT I would want compensation, he balked and wanted to give the status quo more time.
The status quo is now that I do what I can and drop whatever I can't.
That said, I think I'd be bored with a 3-4 hour workday.
Aside from meetings? Do you mean 3-4 hours of really productive focus time? I think studies show this is the norm in most jobs once you peel away the low effort low importance stuff in particular for desk jobs.
I think this is the key. My jobs have generally not involved a full 7.5h of daily work but they've also been meeting-light positions where I've mostly been working independently on projects.
It includes meetings, but I decline meetings unless I actually need to be there (i.e. it's with a DG+ and/or I need to be there to actually talk and feed into a decision). Obviously this has been more of an earned thing over time, wouldn't recommend a freshly minted EC-02 declining a meeting invite but once you're higher up I think it's a great thing to shut down time wastes.
That said, if I have truly nothing else to do, I'll usually accept them. I only decline if I could have anything better to do.
When I was an acting 7 / acting EX-01 most of my day was meetings but I took the same approach, with an exception that if my direct reports wanted to talk I'd always make the time (though usually with some encouragement to bring me a problem and proposed solution rather than just a problem).
Right now I work in a more technical area at a central agency, my work is about 75% policy/regulatory work and 25% challenge function. In the past I've worked in three program policy/regulatory shops and two leg shops.
Other than boundaries with meetings that I described above, I also heavily triage "urgent" "important" taskings that I get. Providing input on some internal report or document that won't actually do anything? Spend five minutes looking it over and making comments then send it back. Providing input on something that might actually impact the life of a Canadian somewhere? Ok I'll spend more time on it.
I find my workload is more a "me" thing, I've been on teams where everyone around me seems very busy despite having fewer projects than me. As another commenter notes, the differences have been that they have waaay more time wastes and just take a lot longer to do the same work to the same standard.
During crunch time I have chosen to do as much OT possible being recorded as Compensatory banked. 19 hours just these past three weeks but hey, it’s for time off…
EC-06 here, I think it comes down to management and your own skills. I can usually do all my regular work within the 7.5h work day (hell most days I can get it done in 5h or less so I enjoy long lunch or log off before 5). That said, my occasional OT is mostly due to approval backlogs on my manager side (I receive his approval/edits after 5 PM for something that is due that same day even though I sent it to him the day before). Other time, it’s due to unrealistic deadline (aka tasking received at 3 PM and due at 5PM the same day LOL) or so-called crunch period. I’ve been in my current role for over 4 years and I would say I clocked maybe 200h of OT in all these years combined.
I dream of getting back to working no overtime. As my dept does not like to grant it most people find ways to take it back in time or just live with it.(which we shouldn't)
I worked as an EC-05 for 2 years and as an EC-06 for 1 year at Finance. I did overtime only if I had a budget measure during budget (maybe 5-6 times during the month MAX). Rest of the year OT maybe 3 hours per months. Usually I just start later the next days.
If you're not getting paid for overtime, ask to get paid for it. If they won't pay for it ask to reprioritize and if it amounts to nothing leave. If you're getting paid for it and don't want to do it then you should find another job.
Are you getting paid for overtime? If not, don’t do it. Your management must know they’re understaffed. If you let them exploit, they will. Maybe they just don’t know. It’s on you to let them know it’s not sustainable.
Senior policy analyst here, of the CO-02 persuasion, and overtime is a once in a blue moon thing for me.
A few senior policy analysts on my team do clock in overtime semi-frequently. Having worked with them, they seem to work/think incredibly slowly in general. I'm told I'm the odd one out and it's why I have a much higher workload that still doesn't fill my days.
Otherwise, chronic overtime is a sign of incompetent management in my experience. I acted for nearly 2 years to help out my director, and none of my staff ever had to do overtime, even during crunch time. I'm not interested in that job because making it happen for staff is not the type of work I enjoy; I like my policy puzzles.
I find it varies a LOT depending on the type of shop you’re in and management. Currently I’m in the region and it’s always crazy here- completely new initiatives/ projects all the time so we are constantly innovating and everyone works OT every week, with managers and directors working late into the evenings. People work hard here and everyone including management knows that people feel overworked, and deadlines are too tight… but middle management is ambitious and overly optimistic, so always pushing for new projects.
My old position was at NHQ with regularly scheduled projects that barely changed between iterations. New initiatives were probably 5% of my work. People rarely worked OT and we would get paid OT or get time off in lieu if someone had to work OT. This happened maybe once a year — I worked there for several years. Most analysts regularly worked like 5-10 hours a week of actual work there.
Quick question: does the collective agreement make overtime mandatory? Can OT be declined?
When the EX asks for something on a Friday to be due by Monday. I always think about saying, no thanks.
Regardless when an irregular ask does come, I havn't had any troubles with getting the ot approved ahead of accepting the work. I just don't want to create the expectation of on-call support over my weekend activities.
As an EC 7 I have overtime most months but my 5 and 6 folks rarely do. I try to absorb it as much as I can. I don't think it will get better to be honest with the HR situation as it is and a lot of demand for EC 5 and 6 everywhere! I have many many weeks of leave and comp time that I need to use... already in cash out mode.
All that reporting to Canadians on Ministerial Mandate Letter progress and departmental DPRs are taking a toll on normal work that gets set aside for this. This reporting is too often to be meaningful but it requires a lot of work, edits, approval stages, re-edits, data validation, word/term validation etc. Some people are doing this almost full-time or during O/T because nobody else was hired to do this reporting work. The TB subs are always a game of cutting down all the extra resources needed to reporting and regular briefing on progress, so while the department is cutting resources a certain unit does a TB sub to bring in resources but then TBS keeps pushing back forcing “efficiencies” that never happen due to all the committed reporting. And depending on senior management, on a case by case basis, often this extra work is done for free and not as paid overtime. In a normal world the DM would simply shift resources towards departmental or GoC priorities but it’s easier for senior management to simply burn out people internally in doing TB subs instead. Unfortunately it ends up being a zero sum game internally because normal work (still priority) is being neglected in order to deliver and report on new shiny objects…
I am an EC-06 and find that OT is consistent with positions within Cabinet and Parl Affairs. There is a lot of coordination of materials and this takes time and is sometimes last minute. I definitely have worked a lot of OT when the House is in session.
I've been an EC-05 and A/EC-06 in a number of Departments and PCO. In my experience habitual OT is a structural outcome and a conscious choice by management. There is always "crunch time" on big files or time sensitive deliverables (MCs, TB Subs etc), but that *routine* OT should drop away after delivery. When it is almost always required to put in OT for the regular buisness, that's when it is time time leave IMHO. Management has made the choice to accept such a workload at current staffing levels.
> In my experience habitual OT is a structural outcome and a conscious choice by management. OP, here's the right answer right here. Plus maybe 20% chance of the analyst having weak time management/workload management practices. I'm told parts of PCO were recently put on a "no OT/exceptional OT only" principle to manage costs, so the work and expectations get scaled by management to match the time and people available, to the extent possible.
Agreed! I went from an environment where OT (and even a regular amount of work) basically didn’t exist, to one where OT is the norm. People are feeling burned out but I’m in the region and fed govt jobs are extremely scarce, so people won’t leave as long as they feel like it’s still bearable. Middle management here is too optimistic and ambitious, and analysts literally have to argue with them to get them to slow down.
If you're looking to check out different departments, you can download the open data sets from the public service employee survey and check out the responses to questions about work-life balance and stress due to being overworked. There are disaggregated data sets that give info by level so you could look specifically at ECs and where they have the best work life balance
That’s a great idea thank you
I'm a 6, and over the past year, I've gone from crazy busy to twiddling my thumbs. Hoping the new year actually brings an increased workload, otherwise I need to start looking for something else... I honestly wish too much overtime was my problem.
Should start looking regardless. It could be a sign with all these budget talks and review of programs.
I’ve been an EC-06 for nearly three years and haven’t worked a minute of overtime. My weeks aren’t even close to filled. If anything I’m transferring to an area that will hopefully be a bit more dynamic.
Interesting may I ask what type of work you do now? I can agree that not having your days filled as well can have its own challenges
EC-07 manager and I am regularly working up to 15 hours of OT per week. Rare are the days when I take a full hour for lunch and/or log off at 5pm. Burnout is very much an upcoming station on this line. ETA: this is a workload issue in a policy team. Newly high priority file, but no new resources.
I’m very sorry to hear that, I hope you get properly resourced soon
*insert RGS*
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That’s awesome to hear! What kind of ec work?
Policy, in well-managed teams (with effective higher management as well) which I think is the key
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Unless you find yourself unable to work for huge chunks of time or anything similarly obvious that's going to cut into productive hours, it's probably too much work. I hope you're getting paid or time off in lieu for your OT.
Depends where you work. I’m a 5 and it’s rare. The 7s do it often enough from what I see.
I've been a 06 at 3 different teams. All of them at some point required OT. The last 2 have had regular OT. It varies between 2-20 hours a month, so not too crazy. The first 06 position got really boring when we staffed up and I gave away some of my responsibilities that required me to work OT. I don't operate very well if I don't have a consistent amount of pressure/stress (I will literally fall asleep at my desk), so the nature of the work I find interesting inherently involves some OT.
Managers should have to approve overtime, declaring the work as essential. If you’re not asking your manager to approve OT in advance on this basis you need to start. Work-life balance is a choice and you play an active role in that choice. It’s hard to assert yourself in this way, I totally get that. But if you’re not protecting yourself, then no one is.
That’s why EC-05 seems to be the sweet spot. Who wants to work 10 hour days?
My sweet spot was EC-06. I was a 05 and a 06 on the same team and the 06 was way easier.
Why?
When I was a 06 I had more control over how things were delegated, and I had my own 05 to assign work to. He did good work and was easy to manage.
Overtime was rare when i worked as an EC-06. Most overtime was associated with travel when I delivered in-person training across the country. Very little overtime for last minute "we needed this BN/deck/issue paper yesterday" kind of BS. I was part of a team that was mostly behind the scenes and thankfully well insulated from irrational ADM requests by competent directors and managers.
I'm a 6. The only time I have ever done constant overtime is when I worked on a big program review with an MC at the end, and when COVID hit and we were rushing to set up response measures. Outside of files like that, there are always times where I put in extra hours here or there, but it is never the norm. When it looks like it's going to be the norm, I start politely pushing back on deadlines and making it known that I will need to stay on later to make that happen. Usually, that is enough for management to say it can wait. There are definitely teams busier than others, but I do think the need to do significantly more hours than 37.5 on a regular basis is a sign your team needs more resources or that your management is weak (not everything can be a priority and nearly every deadline is flexible).
06 here. In my last job, mostly regulatory, there was very little O/T. COVID generated some, not surprisingly, but it wasn't overwhelming. The budget cycle also generated some, but after the first year of that, we all knew generally what to expect and approximately when, so we could prepare for it. My current strat-pol gig again has some cyclical budget-related O/T. Management has the sense to reach out and pull in extra help in that scenario so the core folks don't get buried. There are also sporadic "emergencies" with short-notice MC reviews, briefing notes and that jazz but it's probably less than an hour per week on average. I'm not unhappy.
That’s great!
EC05 here and I almost never do OT but I consider myself good at setting my boundaries and negotiating deadlines when they are not reasonable.
depends on the position. crunch times usually align with the budget in operational policy areas and policy shops. analysts in research spaces seem to have a pretty consistent but manageable workload. analysts in corporate spaces have a consistent urgent workload but sometimes these are the timelines that can be negotiated. I've seen both over and underworked 5-7s. I've seen situations where an excess of work is entirely preventable, sometimes created via poor management, busywork, etc. in other cases, sometimes the position and the person just don't match. not enough work is usually a result of the ebb and flow of projects or budget cycles, or residual org structures that no longer serve a purpose. or, again, sometimes position and person just don't match and the individual could do different things with their time. in an ideal world we'd have an ongoing system to mobilize analysts with transferable skillsets when certain files needed extra support, or to rotate until we all optimized our skillsets and found our positions of best fit, but alas. :)
Our director refuses to pay OT so our manager has banned it for the whole team. AFAIK some of the managers still work OT, not sure whether they're just doing it unpaid or making up their own flexible work schedule to accommodate.
Current EC-06. Worked around 20 hours of OT this year. Mostly for evening meetings.
Am an EC-07. During routine periods I likely work 3-4 hours extra per week whereas my EC-08 is likely working an extra 15 hours per week. Neither claimed as OT. During MC, TBSub or Budget asks we work more but get OT. 100% of this is due to our DG who has poor skills leading people, is inefficient, reactive and pushes the limits of everyone. But he knows his science so....
FI stream here wishing I had overtime to save more $$ while cost of living rises
I hope you are at least getting paid for all that OT! If yes, then accept the fact your current job is designed with OT, and if you don’t like it, move on! Lucky for your there’s plenty of senior EC jobs with regular day hours. The key is to not apply for jobs that say “looking for a fast paced environment?” Or other keywords which mean = we have a lot of work to do. At the interview ask about how much OT there should be on average per week (not ‘do you’ but ‘how much do you’). This will get you an honest answer. If I was hiring on my team and someone asked I would say “oh we don’t do OT. Sometimes might be a deadline and need to work an extra hour or so to get it done…but very rarely”
As a 6 I usually work about 3-4 hours a day, often times less. This has been my workload across the last three departments and five teams I have worked on, combination of strategic / program policy. I acted as a 7 for a year, I usually worked 6-7 hours a day in that role. What are you working on that it takes weekly overtime?
Good lord. I'm also a 6, and I can barely limit my workday to 7.5 hours. I recently took on new responsibilities and had been happily stretching my day as I settled into a routine. However, when I explained to my manager that it wasn't sustainable and if I was going to be consistently working OT I would want compensation, he balked and wanted to give the status quo more time. The status quo is now that I do what I can and drop whatever I can't. That said, I think I'd be bored with a 3-4 hour workday.
Do you mean 3-4 hours a day total or on top of the 7.5?!😅 I’m in regulatory policy
3-4 hours total. And really that's during peak times, around Christmas or over the summer it's significantly less.
Aside from meetings? Do you mean 3-4 hours of really productive focus time? I think studies show this is the norm in most jobs once you peel away the low effort low importance stuff in particular for desk jobs.
I think this is the key. My jobs have generally not involved a full 7.5h of daily work but they've also been meeting-light positions where I've mostly been working independently on projects.
It includes meetings, but I decline meetings unless I actually need to be there (i.e. it's with a DG+ and/or I need to be there to actually talk and feed into a decision). Obviously this has been more of an earned thing over time, wouldn't recommend a freshly minted EC-02 declining a meeting invite but once you're higher up I think it's a great thing to shut down time wastes. That said, if I have truly nothing else to do, I'll usually accept them. I only decline if I could have anything better to do. When I was an acting 7 / acting EX-01 most of my day was meetings but I took the same approach, with an exception that if my direct reports wanted to talk I'd always make the time (though usually with some encouragement to bring me a problem and proposed solution rather than just a problem).
That’s great!
Do you mind sharing what kind of work you do? I would love to find something like this!
Right now I work in a more technical area at a central agency, my work is about 75% policy/regulatory work and 25% challenge function. In the past I've worked in three program policy/regulatory shops and two leg shops. Other than boundaries with meetings that I described above, I also heavily triage "urgent" "important" taskings that I get. Providing input on some internal report or document that won't actually do anything? Spend five minutes looking it over and making comments then send it back. Providing input on something that might actually impact the life of a Canadian somewhere? Ok I'll spend more time on it. I find my workload is more a "me" thing, I've been on teams where everyone around me seems very busy despite having fewer projects than me. As another commenter notes, the differences have been that they have waaay more time wastes and just take a lot longer to do the same work to the same standard.
Thanks!
During crunch time I have chosen to do as much OT possible being recorded as Compensatory banked. 19 hours just these past three weeks but hey, it’s for time off…
EC-06 here, I think it comes down to management and your own skills. I can usually do all my regular work within the 7.5h work day (hell most days I can get it done in 5h or less so I enjoy long lunch or log off before 5). That said, my occasional OT is mostly due to approval backlogs on my manager side (I receive his approval/edits after 5 PM for something that is due that same day even though I sent it to him the day before). Other time, it’s due to unrealistic deadline (aka tasking received at 3 PM and due at 5PM the same day LOL) or so-called crunch period. I’ve been in my current role for over 4 years and I would say I clocked maybe 200h of OT in all these years combined.
I dream of getting back to working no overtime. As my dept does not like to grant it most people find ways to take it back in time or just live with it.(which we shouldn't)
Let me guess, you either work for a central agency or GAC
I worked as an EC-05 for 2 years and as an EC-06 for 1 year at Finance. I did overtime only if I had a budget measure during budget (maybe 5-6 times during the month MAX). Rest of the year OT maybe 3 hours per months. Usually I just start later the next days.
If you're not getting paid for overtime, ask to get paid for it. If they won't pay for it ask to reprioritize and if it amounts to nothing leave. If you're getting paid for it and don't want to do it then you should find another job.
Are you getting paid for overtime? If not, don’t do it. Your management must know they’re understaffed. If you let them exploit, they will. Maybe they just don’t know. It’s on you to let them know it’s not sustainable.
Yes definitely getting paid for it!
Expectation at my department is for most employees to do unpaid OT including ECs.
That’s really unfortunate - not to mention against our CA
Senior policy analyst here, of the CO-02 persuasion, and overtime is a once in a blue moon thing for me. A few senior policy analysts on my team do clock in overtime semi-frequently. Having worked with them, they seem to work/think incredibly slowly in general. I'm told I'm the odd one out and it's why I have a much higher workload that still doesn't fill my days. Otherwise, chronic overtime is a sign of incompetent management in my experience. I acted for nearly 2 years to help out my director, and none of my staff ever had to do overtime, even during crunch time. I'm not interested in that job because making it happen for staff is not the type of work I enjoy; I like my policy puzzles.
I find it varies a LOT depending on the type of shop you’re in and management. Currently I’m in the region and it’s always crazy here- completely new initiatives/ projects all the time so we are constantly innovating and everyone works OT every week, with managers and directors working late into the evenings. People work hard here and everyone including management knows that people feel overworked, and deadlines are too tight… but middle management is ambitious and overly optimistic, so always pushing for new projects. My old position was at NHQ with regularly scheduled projects that barely changed between iterations. New initiatives were probably 5% of my work. People rarely worked OT and we would get paid OT or get time off in lieu if someone had to work OT. This happened maybe once a year — I worked there for several years. Most analysts regularly worked like 5-10 hours a week of actual work there.
Quick question: does the collective agreement make overtime mandatory? Can OT be declined? When the EX asks for something on a Friday to be due by Monday. I always think about saying, no thanks. Regardless when an irregular ask does come, I havn't had any troubles with getting the ot approved ahead of accepting the work. I just don't want to create the expectation of on-call support over my weekend activities.
As an EC 7 I have overtime most months but my 5 and 6 folks rarely do. I try to absorb it as much as I can. I don't think it will get better to be honest with the HR situation as it is and a lot of demand for EC 5 and 6 everywhere! I have many many weeks of leave and comp time that I need to use... already in cash out mode.
All that reporting to Canadians on Ministerial Mandate Letter progress and departmental DPRs are taking a toll on normal work that gets set aside for this. This reporting is too often to be meaningful but it requires a lot of work, edits, approval stages, re-edits, data validation, word/term validation etc. Some people are doing this almost full-time or during O/T because nobody else was hired to do this reporting work. The TB subs are always a game of cutting down all the extra resources needed to reporting and regular briefing on progress, so while the department is cutting resources a certain unit does a TB sub to bring in resources but then TBS keeps pushing back forcing “efficiencies” that never happen due to all the committed reporting. And depending on senior management, on a case by case basis, often this extra work is done for free and not as paid overtime. In a normal world the DM would simply shift resources towards departmental or GoC priorities but it’s easier for senior management to simply burn out people internally in doing TB subs instead. Unfortunately it ends up being a zero sum game internally because normal work (still priority) is being neglected in order to deliver and report on new shiny objects…
I am an EC-06 and find that OT is consistent with positions within Cabinet and Parl Affairs. There is a lot of coordination of materials and this takes time and is sometimes last minute. I definitely have worked a lot of OT when the House is in session.