You are here: silicon.com > Management > Skills & Careers

Skills & Careers

Recession making techies do more unpaid overtime

Work a month for free

Tags: techies, tuc

By Natasha Lomas

Published: 27 February 2009 11:55 GMT

Overworked techies are putting in even more free hours than last year as the recession piles pressure on UK companies to do more with less.

One in three techies is giving away the equivalent of 34 days of unpaid overtime per year - an increase of two days on the year before, according to the TUC, which estimates these nose-to-the-grindstone workers do an average of five hours 48 minutes of free work per week.

The TUC says the recession has increased pressure on techies to clock up more hours: a third (33.8 per cent) of workers were doing unpaid overtime in autumn 2008, up 1.5 percentage points on the same period last year.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement: "The recession is bringing new pressure for people to work unpaid overtime, and even more IT professionals are doing unpaid overtime than last year.

"But not all unpaid overtime is useful work helping to overcome the recession. When people understandably fear for their jobs employers still have a responsibility to organise work properly and ensure their workplaces don't get gripped by a long-hours culture."

  1. Zones
  2. Management
  3. Networks
  4. Software
  5. IT Services
  6. Hardware
  1. Verticals
  2. Public Sector
  3. Financial Services
  4. Retail & Leisure

Mark Crichard Doing business with citizen developers: Beware the legal pitfalls Legal Eye: Make sure your business is protected from potential hazards

Tim Ferguson How CIOs can achieve post-recession success Q&A: McKinsey & Company on living in the 'new normal' business world


  • Jobs
Commissioning Engineer, HV Switchgear And Control

This role is commutable from Derby, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham and is paying up to 30k basic with OTE (overtime etc. The successful candidate will ...

SharePoint MOSS SPS Tech Consultant Yorkshire END USER 28-40K

By specialising solely in placing candidates in the Microsoft Dynamics market I have built relationships with most of the key employers in the UK and ...

SQL Database Administrator Oxford

The firm's unique culture of flexibility and innovation has allowed it to grow quickly and Winton now employs 180 professionals across five locations ...

Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.





Quick Sitemap Links: