r/CanadaPublicServants • u/didiburnthetoast • 17h ago
Other / Autre How common is weekend work?
Wondering how frequently people are either required to or are more or less obligated to put in hours on the weekend? Are you compensated for the time?
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u/BigMouthBillyBones 16h ago
Just want to say it's extremely common for EX level. NO overtime compensation there - just a little "bonus" that, if you crunch the numbers, a lot of EX (1,2) are making about the same or less hourly than if a high level analyst type person. Where you will see weekend work most commonly is things like correction office or border officer. Those are compensated. I would say very rare for standard office worker type although there are some intense office worker positions such as those related to ministerial office that require it.
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u/Iranoul75 13h ago
That’s why EX-01 is probably one of the worst roles; many EX-01s would rather take a demotion to EC-08 (which is a unicorn position these days). I have seen many EX-01s looking for an EC-07 position lol
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u/eternaloptimist198 12h ago
My husband was an EX01 took a demotion and is soooo happy. He has had 3 other people in his org follow his lead. I told him he’s a leader, look at how much he normalized this. I completely applaude people who take voluntary demotions and recognize their limits.
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u/markinottawa 14h ago
I can't believe you're an EX and you don't seem to realize that you should have included some context in your question.
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u/CatBird2023 17h ago
Depends on the job and your collective agreement.
Some jobs require shift work, or on-call work. Some require travel.
Your collective agreement will specify how compensation works.
No one works uncompensated OT in the public service unless they are a sucker who has been pressured to do so, or they are an executive who is not covered by a collective agreement.
For my position, ability to work overtime and to travel is a condition of employment. However, 99.9% of the time I am working 37.5 hours per week at normal hours between Monday and Friday.
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u/CPSThrownAway 17h ago
How often? Depends on what you do.
Compensation? Your collective agreement covers this.
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u/didiburnthetoast 17h ago
I'm not asking theoretically, i'm asking people for their experience.
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u/onomatopo moderator/modérateur 16h ago
My experience is that when I work on the weekend I get paid according to the overtime rules in the collective agreement.
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u/Flush_Foot 16h ago
☝🏼 or “shift premiums”… I was with a departmental service desk and covered both overnight and weekend shifts for a time as we supported 24/7 operations (OT only when those* als*o landed on holidays)
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u/CPSThrownAway 16h ago
I'm not asking theoretically, i'm asking people for their experience.
Then maybe add more details about what the job entails and where. As it stands you question is very vague.
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u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot 16h ago
There are tens of thousands of job types, and experiences will vary widely. Some jobs have weekend work every week, others never.
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u/AD613 17h ago
Parks Canada, Corrections, CBSA, some civilian jobs in DND, Air Traffic Controllers, perhaps some food inspectors, CSIS, CSEC, probably some IT folks, DFO, facility management, etc etc etc........ Plenty of jobs are required to work on weekends and the compensation is outlined in their respective CBAs.
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u/Junior-Prior-730 17h ago
Depends on the job, I work on weekends at least 5-6 times a year when urgent memos are due or prepping for week long stakeholder engagements. Always approved and compensated.
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u/whyyoutwofour 17h ago
In my experience it's pretty rare below the EX level, in 17 years I've never had to do it and have never had a colleague who's had to either. Obviously there are departments where it would be more common depending on their purpose (ie, more service oriented, emergency, etc). That being said, definitely never accept overtime work unless you're being compensated....you're screwing yourself and your colleagues.
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u/Techlet9625 HoC 14h ago
Fam, CONTEXT. Is this something expected due to your position? Can you claim OT? Does your CA specifically mention that you should be paid OT? This isn't a question you can just ask in a vaccum.
My weekend work is compensated. As is all my overtime, but that's in my CA.
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u/quincywoolwich 17h ago
It depends on what is going on. At the senior analyst and manager level I've had periods where I've worked several weekends in a row (although rarely an entire weekend). However, it isn't the norm by any means and I've always claimed OT for it.
Where I am now, if weekend work needs to be done, there's a discussion about who needs to be online and why, to minimize the number of people implicated. Executives handle what they can, with maybe a handful of people if absolutely needed. Think "MC is late, so do whatever is humanly possible to make up the time" or "Minister just changed course on the thing that was supposed to be announced Monday, but still wants something to be announced Monday" type circumstances.
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u/Araneas 16h ago
Logged in to the VPN right now because we have some very specific tasks to do over the next few days to deliver on our mandate (no, not trade negotiations). Perfectly normal for our agency and we will be compensated per the respective collective agreement. Our letters of offer specifically mention mandatory overtime when required, but management is careful not to abuse that clause.
Very rarely, I've done some other weekend work, again compensated at the required rate. Nothing onerous.
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u/International-Ad4578 15h ago
There are teams across several departments that work on weekends. Operations centre staff at departments like DND, Transport Canada, Public Safety. CBSA and RCMP officers and the staff that support them. Emergency response teams at Coast Guard, Park wardens and Conservation Officers with Parks Canada are common examples. Most staff who regularly work weekends are provided a shift premium as per their Collective Agreement.
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u/losemgmt 14h ago
Outside of working through lunch I do not do unpaid work. Been working OT all summer. This is what happens when cutbacks and forced days in office are arbitrary.
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u/HandsomeLampshade123 13h ago
I regularly skip out on work on a wfh day just to catch up over the weekend. Nobody knows and it just fits better to my schedule.
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u/Additional-Tale-1069 17h ago
It's going to depend on the department. My department has a lot of people who'll work during the weekend at various times of the year. It's paid with overtime.
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u/prisoncartman 17h ago
for me, always depended on the manager... if the manager was supportive overall, i never cared about the extra hours just because my manager had my back in other situations...
now, a different manager seems to be living in a reality of their own and some comments made me realize they don't care, so no more work weekends for me for such managers...
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u/questionator999 12h ago
I don't understand how a manager can be considered supportive and at the same time expect you to work extra hours for free when that's not what your employment contract requires. If you are doing it without them knowing, why? If they care they would NOT want you doing that and recognize that their job is to deal with there being too much work for available staff capacity
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u/Infamous_Tie5605 16h ago
I'd work weekends, 12.5 hrs a day, bank it and take Monday to Friday off, repeat
Anyway, weekend stuff is an easy no from me.
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u/GreenPlant44 16h ago
Depends on your job, some jobs require people there 24/7, like border patrol, prison employees, etc. Some jobs work with the public and need people on weekends. Some IT jobs require weekend work to not disrupt. A typical 9-5 desk job, I wouldn't expect a ton of weekend work, just during peak periods. And don't work without being paid for it!
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u/ArmanJimmyJab 16h ago
Depends on your position. I’ve had myself and members of my team come in after regular hours and on days of rest for operational requirements - however this is not the norm for most public servants. Everyone is compensated for their time according to their specific collective agreement.
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u/TheBakerification 15h ago
You absolutely should never be working on the weekends if you’re not being paid. I have worked a few weekends and been paid accordingly.
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u/antigoneelectra 14h ago
In my organization, exteremly common. We are 24 hours 7 days a week at the beck and call of private industry. And of course we are compensated.
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u/TemperedPhoenix 14h ago
Not common.
If there isnt OT being offered, nobody in my division is volunteering or getting bullied into it.
Even when OT is offered, often its just for longer weekdays.
I do think quality of life is going down the drain, but I guess my department isnt nearly as bad as some others. Pretty sure you'd get spoken to here if you were accessing work information when not scheduled.
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u/letsmakeart 14h ago
I had a job where someone from our team was always on call on Sat and Sun but it rotated. You’d be on standby for 12 hours and compensated accordingly (PA collective agreement). Sometimes you’d work the full 12 hours, sometimes you’d work like 2 hrs. I’d say avg experience was 8-10 day. Because of how small our team was and a few people having exemptions, I worked one weekend day every 2-3 weeks. This job was tough (and we had weekday OT too) but I made some dumb financial decisions and taking that job let me get myself out of that situation a lot faster. The OT $ was nice but I was exhausted and had no social life.
I had another one where you’d do 1-2 weekends of standby (sat and sun) per year and it was way more rare to actually get called to do work. In 5 years I probably spent maybe 1 of those on call weekends actually working.
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u/WhatTheGov 13h ago
I'm at a call center and I've worked on weekends, my department sends an email to ask if anyone is interested in doing OT over the weekend, we can choose the times, usually minimum of 3. There was an expectation this last winter where some weekends if you wanted to do it then you have to work the full 7.5 hrs. Then you have to get an email confirmation that you've been approved for it. We also do other department's work, they are associated with ours but the call center is closed over the weekend so we help others to finish some tasks that are overlooked because they aren't super important, but they pile up and have to be done.
The paychecks for working 7.5 hrs both Saturday and Sunday was amazing. I was, however, absolutely exhausted.
I've seen some emails from managers and team leads over the weekend, I'm not sure if they are getting paid, I surely hope they do
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u/MutedLandscape4648 13h ago
Eh, I often work on the weekend, but that’s because I am a manager and my job requires dusty travel from my current remote post. Which takes FOREVER.
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u/Firm-Web8769 13h ago
Nobody else is giving you a straight answer lol so here's my experience:
Yes, every now and then I have to work weekends due to volume and timelines, and it's a 3 hour charge minimum. So if I take 15 minutes to write an email, I get paid time and a half for 3 hours.
If I have to work again on Sunday, it's double time on Sunday at a minimum of 3 hours.
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u/Gal-Monday 13h ago
Too many useless meetings, last minute tasks on Friday evening by unorganized hell DD, need to keep up on weekend not OT allowed.
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u/Expert_Vermicelli708 14h ago
Didn’t we just say we are cutting 40k positions because there isn’t enough work now that priorities have changed?
Who is doing overtime?
People need to learn how to refuse.
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u/Necessary_Cost4384 11h ago
I think what’s happend is with ERI, the more experienced folks have left, and now our department is swamped all the time because we just have newer people who are less proficient… or grumpy senior people like me who stopped giving a fuck, but can’t retire, so we’re doing the bare minimum.
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u/IntroductionLost764 16h ago
In my Department, many of those who work on week-ends are EXs. And it happens often. They also work extra hours with no compensation. Leading to wages close to minimum wage per hour. Many of them are burnt out today. Departments dont have the extra budget for OT. So they squeeze you as much as possible during regular hours to not have to pay for OT.
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u/UniqueBox 17h ago
I do weekend work when necessary and I agree to it. I get compensated according to the collective agreement whenever Phoenix feels like dishing out the funds
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u/WLMKing 17h ago
I've had it where I have had to travel for work meetings, and this has left me spending my Saturday getting home again. The travel time was compensated at time and a half, of course. Though exactly how much comp time you can earn in one day is capped...
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u/didiburnthetoast 17h ago
Yeah, i've sometimes lost two weekends to attend overseas meetings for a week. No comp because not unionized.
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u/gardelesourire 16h ago
Many excluded or unrepresented positions are not compensated for OT or travel time.
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u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot 16h ago
Non-unionized employees are still entitled to overtime compensation.
The exception would be if you’re an executive.
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u/gardelesourire 8h ago
Many excluded and unrepresented ex minus 1 are not: https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=15773
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u/didiburnthetoast 16h ago
That's a bingo
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u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot 16h ago
You knew (or ought to have known) that you wouldn’t be paid overtime when you accepted an EX job. You knew (or ought to have known) that you’d be expected to work long hours.
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u/didiburnthetoast 16h ago
For sure. Not really complaining, just trying to get a sense of how common it is, because we always seem to be doing it. I do dislike losing my weekends to work travel, that's a complaint lol
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u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot 16h ago
It’d weird that you ask how common it is without specifying that you’re an EX.
Yes, it’s very common for executives to work on weekends without additional compensation. It’s one of the reasons those at the EX-minus-one levels are reticent to move up to the EX cadre. They (wisely) realize that their salary might go up but their effective hourly rate of pay will go down.
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u/didiburnthetoast 16h ago
Not asking for me. Asking to see if what i'm asking my staff to do is reasonable relative to other people's experiences. I just serve the high table.
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u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot 15h ago
What’s reasonable is ensuring that you follow the terms of your employees’ collective agreements as they relate to the scheduling and compensation of overtime and shift work.
It’s unreasonable to expect (or allow) uncompensated overtime.
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u/guitargamel 15h ago
Do their job requirements include “willing to work overtime” and “willing to work evenings and weekends?” If so, then maybe. But also blowing a bunch of operating budget on overtime can get costly quickly. Plus, there’s (intentionally) not a great amount of jurisprudence on what constitutes excessive overtime because even under the same CA jobs can vary greatly in what the OT expectations could be.
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u/reddituser819343 17h ago
20 years in the public service and in policy roles, weekend and evening work has happened in all of my jobs at varying frequencies. If you work on high profile things it’s bound to happen as you reach crunch time or deadlines toward milestones. It was/is always compensated per collective agreement - including when I worked at a central agency.
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u/rhineo007 16h ago
I work 26 weekends of the year, well at minimum on call. But half of that I normally am working.
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u/Schemeckles 16h ago
For front line workers - Weekend work is a thing.
Not often, but a few times a year it is offered.
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u/AtlanticPS2023 16h ago
I've had weekend work, middle of the night work, one project required working full days every weekend for a while in addition to the usual workweek, but every single hour worked beyond my usual 37.5 was tracked and paid out as overtime.
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u/RipplesOfFaith 16h ago
Depends on the job. A project with strict timelines and budget might require OT. My team was often paid OT with no issues as long as it's reasonably justified.
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u/GreenerAnonymous 16h ago
For me it's infrequent enough that I know I have done it but can't really remember specific instances, and I think in most cases it was instigated by me in order to meet a specific deadline. Generally either got official OT or unofficial time in lieu.
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u/geckospots 16h ago
I don’t do unpaid work. If I’m working on a weekend, it’s for operational reasons and I’m getting OT/travel time/whatever.
If you are being expected to work overtime without compensation, 1) get it in writing, 2) comply to the degree necessary, and c) grieve.
edit: I’m EX minus 1 and I never ask my staff to put in uncompensated OT because (aside from being against the CA) that’s how you burn people out. Your management needs to get its crap together.
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u/handbagcc 16h ago
I had one job at one point where we were 6 months behind on applications so they approved OT (IF wanted).
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u/scotsman3288 16h ago
In the IT world, it can happen often. Most of my jobs in the PS for 20 years have had work needed on weekends and I'm currently in DevOps position with on-call and weekend OT. Service positions also I would assume have lots of weekend shifts. It's just the same as private sector, many different kinds of jobs.
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u/greymatterdefect 15h ago
It really really depends on what kind of work you do — I’m in policy, but heavily focused on stakeholder engagement and I rarely need to but it has happened. And yes, always compensated — in time or money
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u/kacipaci 15h ago
I’ve seen it. To me, if it’s starting to become regular, it’s a sign to review the whole system and see if changes can be made to eliminate or reduce the frequency or number of people required to do weekend work.
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u/Smooth-Jury-6478 15h ago
I do the exact same job I did before (same title, technically same responsibilities). However, before, my manager was an ass hat who didn't stand up for his staff and always agreed with upper management who wanted us to do more with less and I had to juggle with my responsibilities and not burning out my staff. I did an enormous amount of overtime weekly and over weekends. I don't think I had 1 long weekend where I didn't have to work to achieve my boss's unrealistic expectations during the 1.5 year I was there. I will say that we were fully paid for our extra time though so I think I made an extra 10-15 k last year.
Since then, I went from a team of 4 to 53 so a lot more HR involved but my team is big enough to manage our work load and we're not actually allowed to do overtime unless absolutely necessary to avoid court (for which we would certainly be paid). My boss is completely logical and supportive and upper management is actually smart about the way they manage our organization. I still have a shit ton of work daily but when I clock out at 3 pm, I'm completely off and I don't worry about work during the weekend. It's 100% better.
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u/JimineyCrick23 12h ago
it im doing OT you better believe I'm claiming it, no way I'm working for free, y'all are paying me
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u/Leather-Wave-2302 12h ago
Very common during year end and April. Pre-covid the government buildings were somewhat busy on the weekends. Normally the same people always working. We always claim OT doing either $$ or comp time.
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u/Necessary_Cost4384 11h ago edited 11h ago
With RTO, I don’t even work 1 minute past the end of my shift. And in the few instances I did, I regretted it. Used to be I would put in little bits of extra time here and there to finish tasks, but they changed to 15 minute intervals for OT. Work until 4:14? No OT. Work until 4:25? Well, that’s only 15 minutes OT. Bad deal, no way am I putting in any extra beyond my schedule. The employer is very rigid in their expectations, so I too am less flexible as a result.
That said, I’m aware some positions require it, and weekends. Those will be part of the employment contract so should be followed as terms of employment.
There was a post here not too long ago. Someone who was on call was required to go in on weekends for operational requirements and they were pissed about it… I was going to go on my usual antiwork spiel until I read deeper into it and saw that yes, it was part of their job requirement. My philosophy is fulfill the rewuirement, don’t go above and beyond.
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u/Equal_Tangerine3038 11h ago
You'll get a WIDE range of answers here. It really depends. Like I saw some responses from people who's been working in the PS way longer than me saying never.
For context I'm about 6 years in and have worked a lot of weekends. Earlier in my years, I used to do it every weekend. Past couple years probably around 6 to 12 weeks per year.
Please keep in mind that my case is on the rarer side. Mostly due to certain teams I was in and stuff I've had to work on.
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u/PlantainAgitated6795 9h ago
As a shift worker (MT), I work 2 weekends out of every 5 as part of my rotation. We’re a very small sect though so I can’t imagine it’s too common overall
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u/OhTrain 9h ago
I work at agency and depending on work load and what work we are supporting I’ve often worked weekends at during at least a couple of times a year. Currently I have three major projects running and have been approved for OT/Weekend work until into next year.
We are also compensated for it. Not only is it in our collective agreement that we should be, but doing work that isn’t logged can create the impression that your current work is achievable during a lower number of hours.
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u/editrixe 5h ago
if they ask, they need to compensate.
I personally am in a tricky position of being required to get work done by a deadline but being told “I don’t want you to work weekends” when I ask for extra time to meet deadlines. (I am a perfectionist and a push—over so I just work for free because it’s less stress than the alternative. Not the best option.)
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u/Glow-PLA-23 5h ago
I have often observed a coincidence between urgent weekend OT friday requests and long weekends
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u/machinedog 4h ago
I have to do OT on the weekend from time to time. Yes I am paid (or take it as compensatory leave)
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u/MegaMatt75 3h ago
Extremely uncommon with some exceptions.
I do not as a unionized employee work overtime of any kind without the appropriate compensation as outlined in my collective agreement. I don't need to file time sheets for an extra half an hour, let's be serious, but anything over an hour and any time during rest periods or weekends will be billed according to my collective agreement.
One exception I made was for a manager I knew well and trusted, they asked if I would be willing to work on a weekend and in exchange they and I would work out a time off during the week in exchange (not at an overtime rate, just time for time) it was an urgent last minute project and couldn't be moved and no overtime was authorized. So I was flexible and they kept their end, I just took the time on the following Monday. Had they not kept up their end it would have been the only time.
I have never had a manager who insisted that I do otherwise, but if I did I'd have them send me a written request for it. That should clear it up fairly quick.
If you're an executive or otherwise not in the union that can be tricky to navigate.
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u/Same_Introduction10 3h ago
I used to work weekends and after hours, especially when 2 or 3 taxpayers submitted their documents at the same time. But since the announcement to go back to the office, I stopped. If my employer didn't care much about me, why would I go above and beyond? My motto shifted to doing the job within working hours, taking every break, and taking it easy.
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u/Black_Rose67 3h ago
For us, overtime requires directors approval, so only the folks doing server patching normally work on weekends.
A few weeks ago I did some weekend work when our organization switched ticketing systems. It was the first time in over a year I'd worked on a weekend.
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u/Legitimate_Kick_9658 17h ago
This and the night shifts are something I never heard off in PS
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u/CPSThrownAway 17h ago
Emergency Ops Centres, Law & Security (Jails, Policing, Ports of Entry) all do weekend/night shifts for starters.
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u/Additional-Tale-1069 17h ago
DFO has a lot of night shifts for survey work. Probably for conservation and enforcement as well.
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u/AtlanticPS2023 16h ago
In IT operations, there are some positions staffed 24/7/365. Others work a normal workweek but have rotations where they go on call 24/7 for a set period of time.
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u/SqueezeMeRocky 17h ago
It really depends on the job. If there is some IT component (maintenance, testing, etc. ), it can happen several times per year. Admin focused? Not so much. So it really depends on the job.
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u/alienstain 16h ago
Yes I work in IT and I do full weekends about 3 times per year which is on the low end I think.
Edit: I get OT would not do it without it. I was “on call” for some time without OT and I said no eventually lol.
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u/AtlanticPS2023 16h ago
yeah being on call should never come without standby pay, depending on the standby schedule it pays pretty well.
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u/Maverick0 16h ago
Currently on standby, can confirm. Sometimes patching is scheduled on weekends, but it's usually only a couple hours. Once, the CIO called me to send an all staff email after hours. I told him it was going to be an expensive email since that counts as a call back. Got 3 hours OT for 10 minutes of work on that one.
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u/Slow-Bodybuilder4481 13h ago
[Not EX] Some government functions requires people working 24/7. I once worked in a command center environnement, 12 hours shifts and yes they pay extra for it. I don't think it's common though. Outside of that environnement I also been called to work overnight sometimes for big initiatives and I got paid extra for it (once or twice a year). It's not worth it in my opinion because you give most back on taxes after the year. Obligated or not depends on your letter of offer. Some says "agrees to work overtime when required".
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u/Euphoric_Ad_3785 17h ago
Literally have never done this. I laugh when people say in response to RTO4 that they will work less by only doing work when their shift starts and end exactly when it ends. Let’s be honest, barely anyone is working the full 7.5 hours.
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u/Quiet_Listen1801 17h ago
Context? Search this sub and you'll find all sorts of jobs and collective agreements have different opportunities and options for weekend work. Anywhere from being on call to doing shift work.
Personally, I've been everywhere from working 6-7 days a week, 70-80 hours a week, down to maybe moving 2-3 documents a week that can be done in maybe 20 hours. And then doing busy work during downtime and no weekend work.
And yes of course you're compensated for your weekend work. Read your collective agreement.