#PandaPounds: How do ecommerce Professionals Really Feel About Overtime?

In part 1 of our overtime panda-series, we revealed that 93% of our ecommerce salary survey respondents worked overtime on a regular basis. While some did a few minutes here and there, over 50% told us that, on average, they do at least 2 hours of overtime per week. So, how do these ecommerce professionals really feel about overtime..?

Who's doing all of the overtime in the ecommerce industry? We know that the majority of our ecommerce salary survey respondents work overtime, but what do all of these people do? Are they department heads or executives? Are ecommerce assistants just as likely to do overtime as ecommerce directors? (from our results, by the way, the answer to that question is: yes)

In our pandabulous pie chart, you'll see a breakdown of the people who work overtime by seniority. From our findings, it seems that those in executive, manager, senior manager and head of jobs are more likely to work overtime than others.

How do ecommerce professionals feel about overtime?

In our 2016 ecommerce salary survey, if a respondent stated that they regularly work overtime, we asked them to tell us how they felt about it; were they happy about it or unhappy? Or did they not mind?

The results are in, ecommerce friends… 9% of respondents who work overtime said that they were happy about it, 20% were unhappy and 61% didn’t mind. The remaining 10% provided us with a variety of responses, most of which can be categorised as:

1. It’s just part of the role (particularly the case for senior-level ecommerce professionals selecting 'other').
2. Don’t mind doing it if it’s for a good reason and not just a.) for the sake of it or b.) because others are disorganised / unable to complete the job etc.
3. Okay in the short-term, but when it’s constant and there’s no end in sight, it starts becoming a burden.

Does being paid for overtime make you happier?

It’s clear that the majority of people don’t really mind working overtime … that is, if it’s helping them and their team achieve something great. Is it possible to change ‘don’t mind’ to ‘happy’? Is paying people for all of the hours that they work the secret to creating happiness?

While only 5.9% of our respondents who work overtime actually get paid for it (quite a small sample size!) we thought we’d throw caution to the wind and delve a little deeper into the stats that we do have. Here’s what we discovered.

Paid overtime: happier professionals?

Of the people who get paid for working overtime, 43% said that they were happy about doing extra work, 14% were still unhappy about it and 36% said that they didn’t mind. The remaining people selected the ‘other’ option, with many of them revealing that they have control over when and if they do overtime, making it much more enjoyable (but not quite enough to make them truly happy).

Unpaid overtime: is it all bad?

And now, on to the people who don’t get paid for the extra hours of work that they do… According to our salary survey results, 7% were still happy to work overtime, 19% were unhappy about it and 64% said that they didn’t mind.

As for the remaining 10%, responses generally fell into the ‘somewhat disgruntled’ range, with comments such as “I’d be happy if it was paid” or “I don’t mind sometimes, but I would like to be paid for it”. Recognition for going above and beyond wasn’t mentioned at all, so is it fair to assume that the right rewards for working overtime are monetary in nature? And that question, ecommerce friends, leads us to the next little piece of insight …

Does unpaid overtime 'earn' you more work benefits?

If it’s not just cold hard cash that motivates people to work overtime, then what is it? A lot of factors probably come into play here – many of which are no doubt tied to job security, success, personal achievement, personal beliefs (i.e. when you're a manager, overtime is 'a must'), a focus on career progression, and so on, but what about benefits… are people who work unpaid overtime receiving a whole load of great benefits?

We looked at all of the people who said that they do some form of overtime and divided them into paid and unpaid segments and this is what we discovered ...

The most popular benefits for people working unpaid overtime include:

1. Contributory pension (42%)
2. Company laptop (39%)
3. Private medical insurance (28%)
4. More than 25 days holiday (28%)
5. Company performance related bonus (27%)
6. Personal Performance related bonus (24%)
7. Team outings (24%)
8. Discretionary bonus (24%)
9. Flexible working (22%)
10. Travel benefits / allowance (22%)

From the above, it seems that working unpaid overtime doesn't necessarily lead to a whole host of monetary benefits, however there does seem to be a trend towards providing these superstars with great long-term benefits (contributory pension, for example) or extras that help them save money and make working overtime a little easier (i.e. company laptop).

More on overtime... Don't let the fun end here... discover more #PandaPounds insights