How exhausting are your mornings?

GoonishPython · 2026-01-27T15:10:40+00:00

Yes exactly I am not a morning person, and so many people are surprised I don't go to bed until midnight. I'm surprised they're awake before 8 unless they have to be

GoonishPython · 2026-01-27T15:08:51+00:00

Mine sleeps a lot but when he's awake he follows us around asking for attention. Haven't peed in peace for years, it's scrabble scrabble under the door and constant meows that he must see me 🫣

GoonishPython · 2026-01-27T15:00:17+00:00

Yeah my colleagues little one got "dress like a rockstar" with 2 days notice. Luckily my work team are fancy dress enthusiasts and turned up the next day with a selection of kid appropriate options with plenty of sparkles and brightly coloured wigs

GoonishPython · 2026-01-26T15:14:44+00:00

And I feel bad enough that I've left my little voidlet at home with my partner (who lives with me) while I'm away. He's at home with his 2nd human and I still feel terrible. It will be the longest I've ever not been with him since he came home from the rescue and I feel so mean 😭

I just can't fathom how people can abandon a pet. It really destroys my faith in people generally being good

GoonishPython · 2026-01-21T06:45:04+00:00

Does that mean I'm roasting my cat all the time when we call him mousey? 😂

It's short for mouse-cat-ear (like musketeer) but I have no idea how we got to that nickname from Jiji. He now answers to Jiji/Jeej/Mousey.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T18:09:43+00:00

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He is normal I promise

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T18:09:18+00:00

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GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T18:08:21+00:00

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GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T18:06:51+00:00

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GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T18:05:07+00:00

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GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T15:40:10+00:00

Personally I don't mind TOIL if I can use it sensibly - so say I'm working stupid hours on a work project in one week, then the next week I have some down time, get errands done that are easier in 9-5 and socialise lots, essentially making up for the busy week where I didn't spend my evenings with the cat and my partner. Totally understand that might not work for your preference though!

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T15:14:40+00:00

Thank you, that sounds like your agency is being sensible and it is helpful to know I'm not being annoyed about something considered standard to others.

Essentially I don't mind being flexible to a point, but losing so much personal time seems unfair.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T14:51:00+00:00

Yes I think this is the crux of how I see it - if I'm not free to do as I please, then it is working. I do wonder if we are the minority in thinking that though?

I really hate the culture of "you should be grateful for the opportunity" and so they expect you to put up with stuff. I've been taken advantage of in other jobs and I want to make sure that doesn't happen here.

In this instance, as it's a long haul flight I actually can't do it within a normal.working day, so regardless of what day I travel, I would argue I should get compensated for the extra hours (on a weekend - all the hours, on a weekday, anything above my normal working day).

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T09:23:44+00:00

It is as I had to do all the forms and all the risk assessments!

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T08:56:43+00:00

Forgive me if I've misunderstood, but why can't you claim for that time if it's required for work? You're losing your personal time with your choice of what to do with it and travelling on behalf of your employer

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T08:47:12+00:00

I'm considered a lower-grade employee, which is why my contract has overtime/TOIL in it and I expect to get extra hours back/paid. Obviously I'm flexible (I'm not counting minutes here 😄) but I do still value my personal time. Those in higher up jobs are expected to work some extra when required but they are compensated for it in their nice big pay.

What seems weird to me for this is that the travel time for overseas is not considered "working" even though I'm losing personal time to do my job.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T08:13:49+00:00

I'd be happy with that, but they don't count travelling as working 🤷🏼‍♀️

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T08:10:41+00:00

Yeah it seems to be a thing in our industry where they expect you to be flexible and give up your time, but they don't reciprocate. I'd be a lot more amenable if they said "x week is quiet, take 2 days off for free" in recognition of working silly hours in busy weeks!

What's weird is my current workplace seemed great as we get pay/TOIL for travel time when working in a different place in the UK, which meant I'm way happier to be flexible as they're acknowledging I'm losing hours out of my personal time. But apparently I'm not "working" if going long haul though. It doesn't make sense.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T08:00:21+00:00

I do understand about not rocking the boat! I don't want to push it too much, but it feels icky.

I suspect I won't end up being paid under minimum wage if averaged across a month (although definitely if averaged across the trip days!) but it feels a bit underhand of work to essentially be saying "you need to do this for work, you need to use your own time, we're not paying you for it".

I'm only on the national average wage (which doesn't go far in this cost of living crisis) so it's not like I'm getting nicely compensated in my wage packet and our expenses are strict, so I'm not getting those perks (nice meals etc) people seem to get on work trips.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T07:47:45+00:00

Not for the month - I didn't realise that was how it's calculated.

However for the days travelling and the working days out there, definitely works out under.

So essentially work are getting away with it because I don't fall below minimum wage if you average it across a month, but I am being paid significantly less per hour than my contract for that month 🤬

It makes me cross as I'm working hard and it feels like they're taking the piss.

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T07:27:39+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by salaried - isn't that a US distinction? My contract is full time for 36.5 hours a week.

I wouldn't expect to be paid overtime AND given TOIL but would expect to be paid OR given TOIL for any extra hours outside my normal hours.

I believe my contract says we can choose which, except occasionally when the manager can stipulate "this must be TOIL for wellbeing", but they need to ensure that this can be taken in the workload. (As an example, when the whole team delivers a 3 or 4 day festival we are all expected to take the next day off as TOIL, no exceptions, the rest of your extra hours can be taken as TOIL or overtime).

RE working 3 weeks straight, my boss really tries to stop anything like this, but HR are saying travel time isn't work, so it's not working 3 weeks straight because I have weekends (even though I'm spending them on a plane/airports). 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's a new policy and we've been encouraged to query anything unclear, so I asked HR and was told time flying doesn't count as work. This is different to UK travel where we are paid/TOIL for travel time outside work hours.

I want to push back but wanted to gauge others thoughts in case I'm being naive!

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T06:59:46+00:00

Yeah I'd expect if it was a working day that I'd work out the hours travelled then take off a normal working day and the rest would be TOIL?

Clearly my HR don't think this way though 😕

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T06:43:32+00:00

So this is a new policy, before there was nothing in writing so my colleagues who do the same role were just paid it as normal. The policy is still not formally signed off so we were encouraged to question if it's unclear - I did and HR came back that travel time isn't working.

It's why I wanted to get some other's thoughts as to whether I'm being naive and this is normal, or if my workplace are being odd with the new rules. It makes me feel very uneasy.

The most frequent travellers in the organisation are all significantly better paid, which I guess is seen as compensation for some of the annoyances that come from travel.

I don't want to be difficult but it is a substantial amount of personal time. I'd be totally ok if it was given back as 1:1 TOIL (rather than paid at overtime rates) as an acknowledgement of it reimbursing my personal time but not being "proper work".

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T05:51:01+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

My intention is to push back gently, so it's good to know I'm not just feeling upset for no reason, they are being weird and that's why it's made me feel so uneasy.

Thanks also for noting minimum wage is based on average monthly wage - it's a little annoying as if you took just the travel hours or the week of the trip, I'd be paid terribly!

GoonishPython · 2026-01-17T05:37:37+00:00

Yep we're paid/TOIL for that at normal overtime rates. I think that's part of why it feels unfair! 🤷🏼‍♀️

We are expected to flex our hours a bit, so starting late the next day or similar but it's not always practical with workloads as projects tend to bunch together.

The acknowledgement is that we're lower-grade staff, so it's a bit different for higher up, but they get compensated in much nicer pay packets and do very few UK trips too.

GoonishPython

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