As a manager I tell my team to keep a rough log of their extra hours worked during busy projects (2-3 months long) and tell me when they want to use their time in lieu and go ahead and just put their out of office on. I tell them I’m not their mum and I trust them to be on top of this extra time and to tell me, not ask, when they want it off. They find it weird that anyone cares, and have learnt to trust I mean what I say and I intend to keep it that way.
My own manager on the other hand keeps her lips zipped about my significant extra hours. I don’t tell her how I manage my team’s extra hours and I hope she doesn’t try to obstruct my method of keeping my team feeling fresh, appreciated and compensated through time for the hours they put in. On my own behalf I’m preparing myself to have a conversation along the lines of “the company doesn’t seem to have a clear policy on time in lieu, so I figure it’s a discussion between us. I’ve put in 30 extra hours last week so am planing to take x day off this week in lieu.”
I was going to give a reason but am too exhausted, the hours last week were beyond what I’ve seen over the project life (10-15 hours extra per week steady for the last 3 months which I will take as separate days off), but last week has smashed me and my family life and I need to regroup. I find it distasteful she doesn’t speak up about things like this.