can I ask employees to stay late during busy times?

by Alison Green on January 22, 2025

A reader writes:

I own and operate a small business. The workflow is typically manageable within a 40-hour work week. However, occasionally an important project comes in with an especially tight deadline and usually affects a different person each time.

I have difficulty asking employees to go the extra mile for that day or two when needed. I’m not even sure what constitutes a fair request. What are the “rules” about this? I almost always decide that I will take on whatever extra work is necessary myself, rather than ask for any extra push from employees. My logic is that I will “save it up” for when something is really critical. Of course that day never comes. Taking on the additional work from employees in this way has become distracting from my primary job.

Hiring an additional person is not an option because the extra work does not always pop up in the same operational area, and typically the work overflow requires deep knowledge of a particular project. (Also, all but one of my employees are salaried exempt.)

Under these conditions, is it appropriate to ask for an occasional extra push? If so, how do I go about asking for that?

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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{ 61 comments }

{ 61 comments… read them below or add one }

  1. Honoria Lucasta*

    I know this is an old letter, but in case someone is reading it today who is in a similar position: don’t forget that it’s easier to ask your employees for this if you are not nickel-and-diming them on their time during normal 40-ish-hour weeks. (It doesn’t sound like this is a problem that OP has!)
    If you get upset about employees arriving 3 minutes late, you’re teaching them to regard the hours quite strictly and they would be reasonably upset about being asked to stay 30 minutes late. But if you have people working a little bit of extra time when a big crunch comes up, and then they know they can take a longer lunch when their sister is in town or they can walk in 5 minutes after 9:00 without getting raked over the coals, it’ll be much easier to get buy in for crunch times.

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    1. A Simple Narwhal*

      This 1000%! If a company is going to be stingy about their time, I’m going to be equally guarded about mine.

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    2. Jennifer Strange*

      Yup. My first job was at a place where I got accused of being a clock watcher because I had a habit of “leaving exactly on time” (I was hourly, so I had years worth of timesheets showing that wasn’t the case). It never made me want to go the extra mile when I was able to. My next job was the exact opposite: no one was scrutinizing me over mere minutes, if I needed to head home early one day for an emergency situation it was fine, and I was allowed to track my own time, so long as I completed things. With that job I never had a problem staying a bit late or coming in on the weekend in an emergency situation (assuming I was able to).

      You get what you give!

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      1. Tradd*

        To be honest, if you’re hourly at a place that requires approval for *any* OT, you probably will be clocking in/out exactly or pretty close to it. I had that in my first few jobs in the 90s.

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        1. Jennifer Strange*

          Oh, I was told it was okay for me to work OT :) Like staying late was a gift (which, yes, I got paid for it, but that doesn’t mean I was always able to do it!)

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        2. Elizabeth West*

          Yeah, I’ve always been hourly and very few of my job have ever approved overtime. And then only if it can’t be avoided.

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      2. Macropodidae*

        I’m hourly but I come and go as I please, work from home when needed…heck, once I accidentally showed up in slippers after a particularly hairy morning with my kids. My boss just laughed at me. But if my boss needs something outside of normal hours, I AM TOTALLY ON IT. Because I can show up to work in slippers and he doesn’t care.

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    3. NoIWontFixYourComputer*

      The other thing is to make sure that YOU are there when they are, if they have to work over. It shows that you are also making the sacrifice.

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      1. TechWorker*

        I’m not sure this is always viable though! If there’s some big push that needs the whole team, sure stay with them. If this is more like 1 person needs to do 2-3 extra hours of work then the manager always needing to be there doesn’t give them any less work at all! They’re still having to do the same amount of overtime…

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        1. TeaCoziesRUs*

          I think it’s more that you very visibly and obviously share the wealth… AND the pain. Let your employees know when you’re doing the extra hours, share them around so it’s not always on the office singleton rather than parents, etc. If you know something big is coming down the pile, gather your team and talk about how to divvy everything up so that everyone is sharing the burden.

          Basically treat them as the respected adults you have hired and value greatly, and they’ll do the same in return.

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          1. TechWorker*

            Yeah no disagreement with any of that, just the idea that good management is always being there when your team is. You can share the load without a presenteeism thing of literally making sure you arrive first and leave last. That’s likely to lead to burnout and this particular manager seems burnt out already :)

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        2. Turquoisecow*

          Oh yeah if the boss says “sorry about this last minute project can you stay late this week,” but then skips out early or on to dot on time I’m gonna be a bit resentful and feel like I’m being dumped on so they can take time off.

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      2. Sneaky Squirrel*

        Exactly this. I had a manager who determined that we always had to be onsite and available in rough weather situations, when most others would reasonably close the office or do work from home. Funny how this never applied to the manager who couldn’t ever be available in those situations due to their personal life situations.

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    4. Specks*

      This. I’m willing to do months-long intensive periods working almost double hours, but that’s because I know some other months I’ll be working half hours to make up for that and no one will say anything. It has to balance out for your employees unless you’re in a field with very high hours and pay set as an expectation.

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    5. Ama*

      Yup — my jobs where this has worked best is when there was a culture of trusting employees to manage their own time, whether that was working late when they needed to or being able to have a bit of extra ease when they weren’t busy.

      This also meant if an employee was struggling with knowing when they needed to work late and when it was okay to leave early their manager was handling it with them directly and not making some blanket policy that punished people who weren’t an issue. I’ve witnessed an employer completely tank morale by switching from a culture of trust to “we all have to abide by the same restrictive time policy so people don’t take advantage” and be completely mystified why all their top performers (many who had been at the company for 5-10 years) left within a year.

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    7. Palmer*

      Exactly.

      I’ll also add that this employer would do well to at points send people home with pay on slow days. It’s very cheap to give folks some hours off, but it has huge motivation and productivity benefits.

      “Hey, today is a slow day and I feel confident in sending you home, so if you’d like, you can take off 2 hours early today and be paid for them. Thanks again for going above and beyond when you put in more than the normal hours.”

      Have a rotating schedule of who gets to benefit for those slow-day benefits to ensure it isn’t lopsided.

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      1. wordswords*

        Yes! That or just giving them flexibility to cut their day a little short, take a long lunch, etc. on an individual basis during slow times (unless you have coverage requirements or other reasons that won’t work). Generally, if people have to work longer hours during busy periods — especially if they haven’t been doing so in the past — then feeling like they can balance that out at other times goes a long way to offset it.

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    8. AF Vet*

      Yup! One of my spouse’s recent jobs had him traveling roughly two weeks of every month, plus more often as natural disasters arose. A great deal of his job was the travel, networking at locations, etc. When he was home, he was either coordinating travel, updating training, or catching up with admin tasks. His office made it a point that when he was home, he wasn’t expected to work past 3 unless it was NEEDED. They got enough out of him on the road.

      It’s still one of the organizations I’d be thrilled for him to go back to.

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    9. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      Exactly this. Currently, I’m in a job where my management is generally as flexible as they can be. They recognize that we’re all human beings and human stuff happens.

      Because of that, when we have been in crunchtime, I have even offered to come in early or work a weekend day so we can make a deadline (in exchange for lieu time). They’ve been good to me, so I’m going to be good to them during the *infrequent* times when the only way to pull something off is by working a bit extra. (The infrequent part is important, too. I’d probably feel different if it was happening all the time.)

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    10. Tiger Snake*

      It is why flexitime is such a wonderful concept: when you feel like you don’t know how to be accommodating without being a pushover, you can instead look at how to give structure to BEING flexible.

      “You are expected to work 40 hours a week, but we allow for occasionally leaving early one day and finishing another day” can feel so nebulous, but “You are allowed to track up to +/-3 hours discrepancy each fortnight, which will be reviewed on your timesheet. If you are over that discrepancy limit, or aren’t equalled out again by the next fortnight, then you will be given a warning.” gives a very clear expectation about how quickly someone needs to make up time AND makes it easy for a manager to decide whether a situation requires overtime or not.

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      1. Daughter of Ada and Grace*

        It’s not required, but I don’t know of anyone who’d turn down extra money just because they’re salaried exempt. I’d also be happy to get a bonus, or comp time.

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      2. MollyGodiva*

        “Work overtime but I won’t pay you more because I don’t legally have to.” is a great way to kill moral.

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        1. Happy meal with extra happy*

          I don’t know any exempt employee who works t a decent company who would expect overtime, so it that kills morale, that would be bizarre.

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        2. Melicious*

          I’ve always been salaried exempt and have never seen morale issues around no bonus or overtime pay. It’s just not standard or expected. The appropriate and expected compensation for occasional overtime is time flexibility in the other direction.

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      3. Kevin Sours*

        It’s not required but not forbidden. And comp time — formal or not — is pretty standard with exempt positions.

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    2. Archi-detect*

      unless they are exempt, in which case let people have afternoons/whole days off without PTO when work is light

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    3. Percysowner*

      That or comp time at time and a half. Money is nice, having extra hours so you can leave early or take a long weekend is also nice.

      Reply ↓
  3. Chad H*

    You can ask for anything you like. What matters is how you ask, what incentive you’ll offer, and how good you are at accepting a no.

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    1. Jennifer Strange*

      Ask. But do not insist.

      This. I’m fine with, “Hey, I know it’s short notice, but would you be able to stay a bit late today to help finish up [important project]?” so long as I’m not going to be dinged if I can’t do it (which, sometimes I really can’t!)

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      1. Bast*

        This is important too. If this is a job that is going to require some OT, I would like to know in advance. While there are some days staying over is no big deal, there are others where it would be a serious inconvenience (or outright impossible) and would require me having to attempt to move around other puzzle pieces. The courteous thing to do, when at all possible, is to provide as much notice as you can so arrangements can be made.

        Reply ↓
  5. Alicent*

    I think balance is the key here. You can’t micromanage their hours and prohibit flexibility during slow times and then demand extra work during the busy times. My last employer tried that and half his money making staff quit at once.

    An extra hour here and there is one thing, but asking people to give up their days off or stay hours late for days at a time is also not really a great way to encourage loyalty. I don’t stay at employers who want me to work Saturdays and doubly so without compensation.

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  6. Nomic*

    Ask. If they do the work then give them a Friday afternoon (or if it was a big crunch, the entire day) off as a thank you, and a quid pro quo.

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  7. blupuck*

    Agreeing with the comments above. I have no problem staying late or giving a little extra as long as the same flexibility is given to me. Let me take an occasional long lunch or an early departure without complaint and staying late to pitch in during crunch time won’t be an issue at all.

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  8. L-squared*

    I think a big thing is notice.

    As Alison said, giving ample notice about a busy period, or a project that needs to get done is ideal.

    Telling people on tuesday they need to stay late tomorrow is not. People know when they typically get off, and they plan around that. I’m usually fine with staying late given some notice. But don’t expect that I can always do that on demand.

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    1. Blue Pen*

      Yes, I agree. I know sometimes it can’t be avoided, but the more notice the better. Even if employees do want to stay on and help, sometimes they actually can’t due to daycare pickup times, volunteer board meetings, etc. Don’t hold this against them.

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  9. SundanceKid*

    Agree with Chad H and 1234 above — it’s absolutely best to have a plan for compensation. Calling it “overtime” might be off the table for the exempt people, but comp time is awesome. Was it a particularly egregious week? Add a few extra comp hours.

    Speaking for myself, I have two kids, and it’s honestly hard to work more than 40 hours most weeks. If I scrape to make that happen for work, I expect work to return the favor.

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  10. TexasLisa*

    I think in certain situations, asking for *volunteers* to work extra hours, in exchange for some kind of reward, could be really helpful. Some employees (non-exempt OR exempt) might just jump at the chance, maybe just to earn goodwill or experience. Some may appreciate the OT, others (salaried) may be motivated by a bank of comp time. Open communication and asking the impacted employees could pay dividends.

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  11. Dido*

    You should be upfront with them during the hiring process that the role will occasionally require late hours (in case they have obligations like picking children up from school), and be flexible with them and allow them to leave a few hours early the next day if there’s no urgent work to make up for it. And let them work the extra hours from home if it’s possible

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  12. Tradd*

    When you’re in international transportation, there are definitely times where it’s busier than others. Years ago I worked at a place where we didn’t often have to stay late, but when we did it wasn’t a huge amount, maybe 30-45 min a day, and not every day that week. We were hourly, so we got time and a half. But there was one person who refused to stay, ever. Refused, even with OT. Their refusal to stay extra put more work on coworkers. And what would you know, when layoffs happened, that person who refused to do any extra was the first to go.

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    1. Annie*

      Yup, we had a guy who I worked with who refused to stay a multiple times when extra time was needed for a deadline, and he would’ve gotten time and half. He left, and then later he wanted to come back and he applied for the same job he was in before.
      Needless to say no one wanted to hire him back.
      I honestly was young and was late more than I should have been, but I was willing to stay late and pretty much always stayed at least half an hour late to make up my time and work late for any deadlines.

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    2. anon for this*

      My ‘refusal to stay’ is due to medical issues that I don’t care to share unless forced. If pressured, there will be lawyers involved. Maybe folks with hard boundaries have similar issues.

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      1. Tradd*

        That’s a lot different from someone who always did the bare minimum and pushed as much work as possible onto other coworkers.

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  13. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

    When I worked onsite, if the boss were asking for more than 1-2 hours, providing a meal meant a lot. Pizzas, grinders, entrée salads, etc; easily delivered foods.

    I agree on comp/flex time and leaning into the “it’s the work, not the hours” mindset for salaried/exempt as well.

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    1. AF Vet*

      Yup! If you’re a boss, grabbing a veggie platter or fruit tray to add to a meal is great, too. We’ll get free pizza for staying late… but we’re still expected to maintain weight standards. >.<

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  14. Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender*

    If you can swing offering comp time to exempt employees, that could go far. Certainly, you don’t *have* to, but it could b productive and morale boosting. I used to seek out opportunities to earn comp time when I was at a job that offered it.

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  15. SqueezedInTheMiddle*

    Give employees as much advance notice as possible when asking them to work evenings. My spouse and I are caring for a sick family member in our off time, and I need to leave on time in order to get home for my spouse to leave for work on time. We both need advance notice in order to find a third person to pinch hit.

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  16. kiki*

    I am really curious how this would go over with employees who had been working exactly 40 hours per week for a long time because it does seem like a change in expectations for the role. Not a huge or unreasonable one, to be clear, but still a change. Some people put a lot of value in always being able to clock out at 5pm.

    I’d make sure folks feel well compensated and appreciated for the extra time (bonuses, etc.)

    Reply ↓
  17. An Australian in London*

    If an owner wants the staff to care as much about the business as they do, they can share the ownership.

    I know this is from years ago so in case any other owners are pondering this: would •you• act like an owner if you held zero equity? Then when should anyone else?

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    1. Kotow*

      I don’t think this is a fair take. The OP doesn’t say anything indicating they would be unreasonable, but occasionally additional time is needed. She states that she shoulders all or almost all of the extra burden right now to the point that it’s distracting from her primary responsibilities. If the owner cannot function in her primary role or gets burned out because of trying to do too much for too long, then the employees are eventually not going to have jobs because the business will no longer exist. The next employer they go to likely will not be this generous. Occasional extra hours are the norm in my professional fields. Alison’s guidance is good that if it’s a regular occurrence, there needs to be an evaluation of why that’s the case. But an occasional day or two here and there is a reasonable request and is not asking employees to act like owner.

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  18. Can't Pass Again*

    I think when I’m asked to put in extra effort/time, it’s really important to me that I’m provided the maximum amount of flexibility to prepare that additional work. If I’m provided a range of time to complete, as well as the option to complete remotely, I am certainly much less likely to get salty about it. The worst is when I have to pay out of pocket for childcare arrangements when I get very little notice about work that MUST be done at a specific time/place.

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  19. NCA*

    If you’re able to offer comp time, depending on the social circumstances, that might be a very useful thing. I’ve been burned before by informal ‘oh we need a bit extra for a few weeks, but you can make it up later’ type arrangements, where I put in the former (and it was more than a bit and for more than a couple weeks!), but the ‘later’ was never allowed. It also can help cut off any arguments on the other side if someone is taking “too much” leeway later after doing the OT

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    1. sofar*

      Yes, my old job had a very busy month (November) with long hours. We were asked to track the extra time we worked, and we got it all back as comp time. Leadership was super gung-ho about us using it, too, as long as it was by the end of the year. Some folks used it by hour and took half days. Some people took more time off at Christmas. It worked because there were no strings attached to how we used our comp time as long as we were fully IN during the busy time and used our comp time by end of year.

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  20. Mrs Kung Pao*

    I echo the sentiment of getting dinner/lunch or some small effort of good faith and care – that can really go a long way.

    On the flip side, I had a boss who overused this ask – frequently there was no difference to ask us to stay late to get something done by 7pm when in reality, if it wasn’t turned in by 5, the product would sit there until the next morning and could have been worked on in the AM and amount to maybe a non-critical difference of being turned in at 10am instead of 9am the following day. Sometimes our work did genuinely need to go late into the night and would matter, and sometimes it did not – it was frustrating when stuff fell in the ‘did not’ category but was an ask anyhow.

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  21. Claire*

    You can offer comp time, so that on average people are still working 40 hours a week. The flexibility should go both ways, not just in the employer’s favor.

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  22. Raida*

    I would firstly look into the employment laws in my area.
    Then, based on those, I’d ask the staff what they would prefer:
    Overtime Pay
    Stayed Late Worked Long Bonus if overtime isn’t applicable
    Stayed Late Worked Long Bonus x 1.2 for Last Minute Request
    Time In Lieu
    Time In Lieu at 1.2x or 1.5x hours
    EOFY Bonus calculated at 1.2x extra hours worked
    Fruit Basket
    Movie Voucher
    My Shout for a couple of drinks after work
    Dinner with partner/friend
    Quarterly Pizza Party
    Mentioned by name to Client

    Then, hey if everyone wants the same thing great – I have a policy.
    If not, I’d detail the couple that are wanted and apply them to the appropriate staff. I would only do this at a small business level where it’s not that much overhead to manage.

    The important thing would be to present the concepts, then have a meeting the next week to discuss so that everyone can do the maths, come up with questions. If I could get a calculator going for them to figure out what it means for them specifically, even better.

    Obviously, the earlier in the project the better to allocate more resources. If it’s Friday and there’s a new thing that’s come up, well shit nothing can be done. If it’s a one month contact with a deadline, we should know each week’s goals.

    Also – This would be an opportunity to get feedback from staff on how to minimise the need for A Couple Of Long Days, how to uplift to maybe need just an hour but a few people, what we can crosstrain to get more coverage.

    The idea is that at the end of the process everyone would know why it happens, how it happens, what is considered a reasonable amount in time and frequency, how they are compensated.

    Reply ↓

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