If overtime work is normal, something is abnormal

Our department manager forces people to do overtime (OT) work at an average of two hours every day. He justifies this one-year-old policy due to lack of workers. Is there a cure? — Glass Sparrow.

OT cannot be imposed as a permanent operating model without legally justification. Some exceptions include emergency situations, urgent work to prevent loss or damage, when the work is essential to the national interest, or to meet peak demand.

OT is regulated by labor laws, and while it can be required in certain situations it is not meant to be routine even if the workers voluntarily do for it for additional income.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know that regular OT is like a fever in an organization. Perpetuating is a sign of disease, most likely a dreaded one. That’s the trouble when some managers who normalize OT justify it as part of “how things get done here.” If that’s the case, then they’re not solving problems. If you’re asking me about a cure, let’s talk first about the reasons behind regular OT.

BASIC PRINCIPLES
The key word is necessary — not habitual, not managerial laziness or incompetence, and not even if it’s beneficial for the workers who want to increase their income. Even if it appears to be pro-labor, management can’t simply allow it to happen. Otherwise, it becomes a productivity issue and potentially illegal.

Since you claimed that it has been going on for one year now, your organization must immediately review the policy along the following lines:

One, absence or lack of proper planning. Ensure that your management has properly understood the importance of demand projection. You can’t simply take a number from thin air and make it the sole basis for overtime decisions, staffing levels, budget allocations, and long-term operational commitments.

Two, inefficient and wasteful processes. You may not realize it, but management could be to blame for requiring redundant approvals, performing manual tasks that could be automated, or repairing something due to quality errors. If your current system contains irrelevant and wasteful steps, OT becomes the bandage solution.

Three, poor work schedule or time management. The issues include having meetings which could have been e-mails. Or when people start their tasks late due to the tardiness of others. Most of the time, you’ll understand that it’s not the volume of work, but how the day is structured by managers.

Four, refusal to delegate or pass on the task. This happens when some managers perform staff-level work due to workers lacking the qualifications or not being sufficiently trusted. Also, it happens when managers drag their feet in making decisions. On the other hand, ordinary workers could also refuse to escalate certain issues or consult their bosses for fear of being blamed.

Five, work performance gaps. This happens due to lack of clear and actionable standards. Sometimes, people are given work assignments despite their lack of qualifications, absence of training, or failure to identify and propose solutions to problems. In certain cases, work that takes an average of three hours is dragged out to six.

Six, irrational corporate culture and tradition. Some organizations unwittingly promote a “last to leave wins” policy. That’s how and why they glorify OT work. Most of the time, they’ll tell you — “if you’re not tired, you’re not committed.” This often results in making regular OT work a “badge of honor.”

Seven, poor or lack of incentive pay. If employees rely on OT pay to boost income, they will allow inefficiencies to persist. Some incompetent managers allow it as a way to appease militant workers, even to avert the formation of a labor union, which is wrong. If the issue is incentives, then focus on rewarding outcomes, instead of hours. 

Eight, never-ending firefighting. This happens all the time when managers refuse to define and eliminate the root causes for the volume of work. That’s when the same workers solve symptoms, instead of correcting the system. This is where Kaizen and Lean thinkers would ask: Why don’t we focus on solving the recurring problems as the priority?

NOT A STAFFING ISSUE
If you fully understand all these basic principles, you’ll readily understand that a regular OT is an issue that can’t be ignored. While staffing may contribute, deeper systemic issues often sustain habitual overtime. Usually, habitual OT work is caused by one or all of the following things — process failure, leadership failure, or discipline failure. Therefore, OT should be the exception rather than the operating model.

Japanese management philosophy, popularized by the Toyota Production System, teaches us that problems should be exposed —  not concealed. Regular OT conceals them. And when management continues to allow regular OT, they’re saying they “prefer fatigue over fixing the root cause.” When normalized without root-cause correction, overtime signals leadership failure.

It happens all the time when the boss asks “who can stay late?” rather than asking “why are we late in delivering it?” There’s one major difference between the two questions. The first one builds dependency while the second builds capability.

When management pushes workers beyond their physical capacity to work, the result often leads to low productivity, quality issues, and higher overall costs. In other words, eight hours of focused work can outperform 12 hours of fatigued labor.

Join Rey Elbo’s March 27, 2026 public workshop on “Managing Difficult Workers: Practical Strategies for People Managers.” For details, e-mail [e-mail] or via https://reyelbo.com.