Comment by giantg2
5 years ago
That sounds nice.
I've found that if I only work 8 hours they will say that I'm not getting things done fast enough. It makes sense if they are comparing you to people who work more. I know one department where the tech leads all work 10 hours consistently.
I was once in a discussion about how to get to a senior dev position (after filling the role of senior dev for a year and tech lead for another year). I was told I had to work an extra hour per day. That's a 13% increase for a 7% raise and a role with higher expectations...
So a couple of things to note there.
First, a great deal of research shows that working past 8 hours of day for long stretches actually -reduces- overall output compared with working 8. Now, to be fair, the bulk of this research was done on physical labor, not mental, but interestingly, what research -has- been done on mental found the same thing, except the actual hours was more like...6.
Second, you're working at a place that actively -encourages- you to work unpaid overtime. That sees it happening and rather than saying "what can we do to prevent this and not risk burnout" instead says "good. Keep at it". If you're salaried, you're effectively getting paid a lower hourly rate for the work you're doing. So...not to beat this horse again...but...look for another job. It doesn't sound like the pay is great, it doesn't sound like the environment is great. The only thing keeping you there is a belief you can't get anything better; maybe that's true, maybe it isn't, but it certainly will be true if you don't at least look.
Get yourself on Linkedin. Find a tech focused resume writing service to help you with verbiage, both for your LinkedIn profile and your resume. Let recruiters know you're looking on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/67405/let-recr...). Start looking for roles in your area, and remote (and in any area you'd be willing to relocate to). That sounds like a better use of an hour a day than giving it, for the same price (free), to your current company, in the hopes of a 7% raise and higher expectations in the future.