Hello,
I work for one of the big 4 consulting companies and recently have tried to stand up against these unpaid overtime requests with very little notice. Unfortunately, I was the only person on my team of 5 to do so, (the other 3 are fresh new grads very eager) and said yes to working most saturdays and sundays when asked. I rejected a weekend work request one time because I had a ski trip planned and they gave me 2 days notice for the weekend work. I understand big deadlines and such but I just cant bring myself to work a lot on the weekend. Very bad for my mental health as well.
Fast forward 2 months and had a discussion with my coach/manager who pretty much said I am not getting the promotion this round and cited the dark horse culture of grinding out on weekends and he said “were not asking you to sacrifice your personal life” to which I interrupted him and said “No I'm sorry, that's exactly what you are doing when you ask people to work unpaid on weekends with no notice”
So it seems futile if most people will always say yes to work weekends, I will always look bad if I am the only one that says no. Perhaps this is just the consulting culture but I hope others out there stand up against this and it's not just me