It’s Only a Few Extra Hours… Right?...

Sitting on a plane, preparing for my interview tomorrow for a job in a new city, I was filled with anticipation about the possibilities of a new job, new coworkers, and new challenges. I learned the history of the company, read the online reviews, and studied their financial reports. I was excited to meet the team. 

I woke up early and took my time getting ready. I drank my coffee as I reviewed my notes again. I asked myself mock interview questions. I was ready. 

I went to the restaurant, and my first meeting was breakfast with the general manager. We had a nice chat, and my excitement grew throughout the meal as he listed the challenges they were facing. I knew that I could jump right in and help solve some of them. That’s what I did. I solved problems. We ended breakfast on a high note as the GM led me to the Controller’s office. 

“Good morning, Anne. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about the work you’ve done.” A lot of people think Controllers are mean because everything comes down to the bottom line. Controllers aren’t mean; they have a job to do. This Controller was no different. He wanted to do his job really well, like most in his position.

I sat down and answered the questions he asked me. I thought I answered them perfectly. Then he asked, “Tell me about your proudest accomplishment at your last job.”

I love this question. I get to highlight the successes I’ve had and talk about the impact on the company. In my prior job, I was proud that I reduced overtime by 50%, saving the company almost $200k in that year.

“Ooh, that’s significant. How did you achieve that?” he inquired.

“It was definitely a team effort. I met with managers, and we discussed the unnecessary overtime expenditures on each payroll. Overtime was to be approved before payroll, but the managers had gotten lax about it. They recommitted to approving all overtime before employees worked it. I coordinated Financials for Managers classes with the Director of Finance. We worked hard throughout the year to bring overtime under control.”

“Sounds like an achievement to be proud of,” he said. He asked me a few more questions, and we ended the meeting. He escorted me to the Director of Operations office and left. I continued the day of interviews with other managers and finished the day at dinner with the GM. 

It’d be a long day of interviews, and I met a lot of wonderful people, and I was even more excited to join the team. I flew back home and waited to hear about the job.

A few days later, the GM called me and told me they had hired someone else for the position. I thanked him for his time and said I understood, and I wished them the best in the future. 

“How did I lose that opportunity? What did I say that made them choose someone else?” I wondered. What could I have done differently? I asked my friend who worked there for any feedback, and she said that the Controller didn’t like my response to his question about a proud accomplishment I’d achieved in the last year. “What?”, I wondered. How could he not have liked that I cut overtime by 50%, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars? 

She thought about what to tell me and replied, “He said all you told him was you met with the managers.”

“Yeah, I did meet with the managers. And we worked together to cut overtime.” It was my lack of detail in answering the question that I lost the job. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t do a lot to work with the managers to cut overtime. I sat with that for a long time. Because I had done so much more than just meet with the managers. I just hadn't said so.

Here's what I did to achieve 50% reduction in overtime:

Step 1: Understand what you're dealing with

Overtime isn't inherently bad. It's a tool meant for short-staffed situations, unexpected callouts, or a department that needs to push through a crunch. The problem is when it becomes a crutch, when managers schedule light and backfill with overtime, when nobody questions it because it's always been that way.

Before you can fix overtime, you need to distinguish between necessary overtime (someone calls out, work still has to get done) and unnecessary overtime (poor planning, lax approval, habit).

One more thing business owners often miss: overtime carries hidden costs beyond the hourly rate. Payroll taxes, benefits calculated on hours worked, increased burnout risk, and a higher likelihood of safety incidents. The $200k we saved was real money, and the downstream benefits were just as significant.

Step 2: Know what the law says about overtime

Non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek are entitled to overtime pay — full stop. You cannot opt out of paying for it just because it wasn't approved. What you can do is hold employees and managers accountable through your disciplinary process for working unapproved overtime. The key distinction: unapproved overtime can be a policy violation, but it still must be paid.

Step 3: Build a policy with teeth

We reviewed and tightened our overtime policy. Ours required pre-approval before anyone worked overtime. Managers were accountable for their department's numbers each payroll cycle. Unapproved overtime led to a conversation, and repeated violations had consequences.

A policy nobody enforces is just a document. Consistency across departments was non-negotiable. If one manager got a pass, the whole effort fell apart.

Step 4: Give managers the tools to manage

This was the piece I hadn't fully articulated in that interview. I didn't just meet with managers. I helped them understand the financials behind their scheduling decisions — P&L basics, cost control, and how to build a labor budget that didn't depend on overtime to function.

We partnered with the Director of Finance to run Financials for Managers sessions. These weren't punitive. They were eye-opening. A lot of managers genuinely didn't know what their overtime was costing the business. Once they did, most of them wanted to fix it.

Step 5: Review, celebrate, and keep going

We held regular payroll and budget review meetings to spot trends early and course-correct before a bad week became a bad quarter. When a department had a strong payroll, we said so. We celebrated the team and the efforts. Publicly. 

I’m still proud of the accomplishment. I reduced overtime, and managers learned more about effective management practices, like scheduling and budgeting. We increased communication and knowledge. Managers became more proactive. Fewer employees called out because of burnout. We increased safety awareness. A lot of good things happened when we reduced overtime. It’s surprising, I know. You would think employees would want overtime. By reducing unnecessary and unplanned overtime, we were able to pay everyone a little more and offer better benefits. It was a win-win-win.

I’ve seen how quickly overtime can shift from occasional to expected. The good news is that it’s usually more manageable than it feels once you understand what’s driving it.