Abstract:

Overtime refers to the time worked beyond normally scheduled working hours. It is an important part of people’s working experience and daily life, affecting them in various areas such as health, productivity, work-life balance, and finances.

The aim of this study has been to understand all the ramifications and challenges that overtime work produces as studied by researchers and compare it to the Lebanese experience.

The sample under study was collected, through a survey questionnaire, from 207 employees working in different Lebanese industries, i.e., healthcare, banking, manufacturing, hospitality, security, education, administrative, technology, and sales. The survey questionnaire explored the different types of overtime work done, i.e., voluntary, involuntary or a combination of both and whether the employees accepted to work overtime.

It was hypothesized that certain factors, the “independent variables”, will have an impact on the employee’s acceptance of overtime work, the “dependent variable”. The independent variables have been found to be:
1.having a purpose for doing overtime work, i.e., show commitment, strengthen job opportunities, supplement income, avoid social problems (such as pressures from managers and peers), and accommodate the workplace.
2. Being impacted by overtime on a personal level, i.e., in mental health, physical health and in work-life balance.
3. Being impacted by overtime on a work level, i.e., quality of work and productivity at work.

Also, were studied the impact on overtime acceptance by a number of overtime work hours in a month and shift of overtime work; and a few socio-demographic factors, such as gender, age, education, marital status were included together with the type of work, and position in work of the employee.

Data collected were analyzed using statistical techniques, such as Regression analysis, ANOVA, T-Test, and Factor Analysis. The results of the analysis showed the following findings:
1. among the purposes to work overtime, strengthening job opportunities and supplementing income related positively with acceptance of overtime, and avoiding social problems, although related to acceptance of overtime, the relationship is negative here.
2. There is a negative relationship between the impact of overtime work on a personal level and acceptance of overtime.
3. Quality of work-related positively with acceptance of overtime, whereas productivity related negatively.
4. Gender-related significantly to overtime work: males were accepting more.
5. Age, education, type of work, job position, number of hours worked in a month, the shift of overtime work had no significant relationship with acceptance of overtime work.
6. Marital status had a significant relationship: the singles were accepting overtime work more than married employees.
7. There was no significant relationship between the voluntary unrewarded and the involuntary rewarded with acceptance of overtime, whereas the relationship between the voluntary rewarded and the involuntary unrewarded with acceptance of overtime was significant.

As a limitation of this study, we can mention that in-depth interviews with a significant number of employees as well as managers could have strengthened the explanatory power of the results. However, we can also mention that this study contributed to the understanding of this important topic, particularly in the Lebanese setting where we did not find thoroughly studied research work.

Keywords:

Overtime, employee, acceptance.