Work Life Balance

There are a couple of employees where I work that have taken it upon themselves to earn as much money as possible while employed there. Unfortunately, the pay is hourly. So if you want more money, you need to be there longer. To that effect, they've been working up to 60 hours - in 3-4 days. That's around 20 hours a DAY. In a single DAY. Keep in mind, while the pay isn't sky high, it's not like it's unfair pay. It's simply a low level job with requires little qualifications. So one alternative if one wishes to be compensated better, would be to find other work at a more agreeable rate. Anyway, there are at least 4 people I know of that have done that in the last month, and one of them has a little girl at home.

I don't know if my intent at the beginning of this was to make this a formal blog, wherein I pose a problem and suggest a solution, or if I just wanted to vent about how insane that is. The thing is that, legally, they're doing it purely of their own volition. But at the same time, maybe not. One girl's shift finishes in the middle of the night, so she opts to stay back a few hours so she can go home in the sunlight. One woman is trying to make ends meet for her kid. If there were mechanisms in place to support these people so they can feel safe walking home, so they do not feel forced to work obscene hours to pay rent or get their kid braces, if there isn't as much pressure from a severely understaffed department to pull overtime, maybe they wouldn't work 20 hours a day.

At the end of the day it really does make me sad that people have to choose between enjoying life and affording it. I've been quite fortunate in that I've lived a frugal life and know how to make due with even the smallest paycheque, but my lifestyle is certainly not for everyone, especially not ones with dependants. What is most disturbing is that we are not paid minimum wage - we're not even unionized, so our cheques are far higher than they could be otherwise, even if we just work the minimum.

It's days like today when I'm reminded why the minimum wage is in place. That said, perhaps the Labour Board has it wrong when they only require written approval to work longer than 60 hours/week. Even to bring it down to 55 would make a difference, in my humble opinion. And perhaps requiring that if someone is leaving the office late in the night, they receive some kind of escort to their car or to the bus, especially since there is enough legal precedent that if something were to happen while they're getting home, the employer could easily be liable.

Sometimes it can be frustrating to know what we know as HR professionals.

/rant.