Genuine question. Most of the people I know are salaried and don't get paid any overtime. They are contracted to say 37.5 hours a week.
However I know a lot of people on such an arrangement who regularly work well in excess of that. Take my previous line manager for example – professional office environment, paid a decent wage, but zero for any overtime. In work every day at least 45 mins before due to start, and the same in the evening – so about 7.5 hours additional a week “free”. Almost seemed to brag about it and look down on people who did leave on time. And I see it in a good number of my friends – “oh yeah, I never work just 37 hours a week, always do far more”.
Usually the reasoning is that they “have too much work” or “not enough time in the day”, however work is a perpetual thing – if you clear a load then you just get a load more coming in.
If a piece of work can't be completed within the working time available then as a one off, fair enough, but if it's a continuous thing then sorry but that's the companies problem, not yours. Your manager should either be adjusting your workload, priorities, or hiring someone else to help.
I'm not promoting “silent quitting” and doing the bare minimum, however working the equivalent of an extra day every single week of the year out of choice just seems madness to me!?
Anyone do this and can shed some light on the motivation??