I posted this in a few other subs and thought you might be interested:
Hello everybody,
I am posting this to rant a bit about my current consulting position and to ask about your experiences. I feel like this job is not for me and after working in consulting for only 8 months, I have decided to quit and try to find another job. I hope to leave after I have completed my 1st year. The reason I am going to leave are mentioned in the title. I knew that long hours would be expected, what I didn't know was that I wouldn't get a nickel more for working overtime. I know big consultancies pay for overtime if it reaches a certain minimum (someone at one of the big4 told me so) but I work at a small shop and we only have 8 employees. Question: is it even legal to have a work contract stating 40h a week and then let people work 60+ hours without paying anything extra? I live in Germany btw and know that some professions are not entitled to overtime, I was wondering if consultants are one of those. I am honestly not putting up with this anymore, if I get paid for 40h I am not going to work 20h more for free. I am not doing anybody a favor, I am an employee, and want to get paid for my work. Is unpaid overtime normal in consulting? Why? And why should be put up with it?
Second thing is, unpredictable work hours, just yesterday I was at home, had already finished my work and at 8:30pm one of the partners texted me, asking to do something for a project…I was like wtf? I had someone over and didn't really have time for this, but did it nonetheless, took me an hour…same thing happened on Saturday. He texted me if I could spend 2-3h over the weekend on the project. I don't like this at all. I can't relax if I don't know if MAYBE I would have to work again that day. I need a more reliable schedule. Am I legally obliged to do these tasks when asked? What are your experiences? Is this normal in consulting or do I just work at a shitty company that doesn't know any boundaries? A coworker told me that one of the managers would call him regularly at 10:30pm asking to do something immediately. I am like wth? Can they do that? I know we have deadlines and sometimes we have to put in more work than we initially thought but am I supposed to be on call 24/7? I feel like my bosses demand so much but are not willing to give anything extra for it.
I don't want to work in such an environment anymore, so I am leaving the company for sure, just wanted to hear your thoughts and if you had any similar experiences?