It’s only Tuesday, but I’m exhausted. These long days at work add up.

I wish I had something interesting to add. but I don’t.

People keep asking me why I’m putting in so many hours. I don’t have to. It’s not required. But things need to be taken care of. This is our busiest time of year for support. So I stay and do what needs to be done.

But there is more to it than that. This time last year, my co-workers and I got overtime if we stayed extra. It was a nice perk, but really our jobs had no right to collect overtime. You won’t find many IT departments that offer it, especially to their higher level employees. The powers that be came to that conclusion, and made us exempt salaried employees. This means no over time. To make up for this, we got nice fat raises.

My coworkers, for the most part, have responded by leaving promptly at the end of the day and/ or showing up late for work.

This is not how it is supposed to be. When there is stuff that needs to be addressed, we should be there, taking care of it.

And I am. Think of it as a statement.

I’m not sure if anyone notices, but it is a statement nonetheless.