Do you accept extra hours at your work should your work ethic be based upon the state of the economy

Person In my experience, I work at a retail store which is the of a non-traditional job. The hours varies depending on the week and it is very possible to be working  26 out of 40 hours in just the weekends. Is it fair without compensation? In an extent. Job descriptions and further research on it should be enough for an employee or future employee to be informed of what to expect from the job concerning the working hours. On the other hand, non-traditional jobs should allow their employees to review their schedules and voice their concerns on committing to the said schedule. For example, my job requires me to have open availability on the weekends, however I don’t always work every Saturday and Sunday  of the month. I believe the acceptable amount of extra hours that an organization should expect from their workers are 26 per month; apart from the Monday to Friday’s 40 hour/week. Also, even thought one might work 9 hours a day, we waste around 1 hour and 30 minutes per shift; so in reality we do not work exactly 40 hours per week. YOUR RESPONSE HERE: I agree that in any organization, an employee must be informed of the actual expectations and responsibilities demanded from the job. Like in retail stores, whatever extra hours that need to be rendered should be paid for as overtime pay. These are just to ensure that employees’ rights are protected and employers comply with the regulations imposed by the Labor Department. Person #2 While I may not completely agree with the demand, I don’t think that it is completely unfair. I believe that this subject is more of a gray area because of what each individual and each company would consider as being reasonable. If you are expected to work extra hours on a regular basis* (i. e. 2 or more extra hours per day) at the same salary, I feel that this is definitely unfair. Looking at it from a personal standpoint, I know that I would feel used and underappreciated. Employees are the key factors to any company because they give the company a face. More customers/clients encounter the sales team or customer service representatives than the CEO. If the ones who are helping your business to succeed are being ill-treated, what kind of treatment can your consumers expect? *This is my strong opinion, but at the same time I realize that there may be significant exceptions such as special projects or very important deadlines that may call for extra time. These I would not put under the umbrella of ” a regular basis”. YOUR RESPONSE HERE: Yes, I also agree that demand alone should not be a deciding factor to impose employees to work more hours without pay. Extra hours rendered should always be compensated as overtime pay. By doing this, employees would be more motivated to work, even on extra hours, as long as they are duly remunerated for it. Person #3 This is a hard question to answer, just like what’s the purpose of life; if the person thinks a career can satisfy his/her dream, maybe that person will think live is about to work; other person maybe view his/her life is about that work is just to make a live. In this economy, millions people has lost their jobs, maybe most people will think about ” live to work” more than ” work to live”, but we need to find a balance in order to survive physically. YOUR RESPONSE HERE: I share the same conviction that we need to find a balance to make life worth living. As there must be time allotted for work, there should always be time for personal life and for one’s family. Other organizations even give options and benefits to balance their careers with family life. Person #4 I feel it depends on the type of work.  Many people do not mind working on excluding days of the week such as weekends or holidays and many do. If you have a passion for your job than in most cases people do not mind but in some cases people do not have a choice, such as doctors. My opinion is that if you are being paid a salary to complete a pacific amount of work in a given time but are allowed flexibility, than it may be alright. If an employer is not compensating you for your work and asks that you complete your task, unpaid, and beyond a traditional work week- then I find it unfair. An acceptable amount of hours in my opinion are 40-45 hours a week, and not going beyond that amount. YOUR RESPONSE HERE: It is true that the ability to accept the need to work more hours depend on one’s preferences and values; as well as how one is genuinely interested in the job. But still, people must be paid for working extra hours – as both employer and employees benefit from this. PART TWO Should your work ethic be based upon the state of the economy? In other words should the fear of losing your job make you work harder? Answer I believe that ethics is grounded on right conduct and good moral whatever the state of the economy or of a situation that calls for making decisions. Ethics in work is just applying the standards for decisions that are in the workplace. Fear of losing one’s job should be evaluated on the rationale for the fear. If the fear is due to manifesting marginal performance and not being effective or complying with the expected compliance, then, one must indeed work harder – otherwise, there is a great possibility for losing the job due to low performance. If the economy is in trouble (just like the recent financial crisis that affected global markets), losing one’s job is deemed a possibility to save the organization – but should not, in any way affect one’s work ethic. If a person works to the best of one’s ability, regardless of organization, situation, or economy, then; more likely, the exemplary performance would be recognized and the fear of losing one’s job would never even happen.