I’m not sure I’ve ever technically worked overtime in my life. Keyword: technically. At least, not the way most of the contractors/technicians reading this article have worked overtime (because I would like to believe that I am that hard of a worker and at one point in my life, though not tracked and compensated for, I have exceeded a 40-hour work week).
Sure, I have often worked more than 40 hours a week, but as a salaried employee, it does not change my compensation. That’s because the Department of Labor (DOL) would classify people like me as an executive, administrative, professional (EAP) employee — the types of employees who are paid on a “salary basis,” many of which are exempt from overtime rules so long as they meet the salary requirements determined by the DOL.
But that’s not the point of this column. The point of this column is to look at how one specific contractor I’ve spoken to handles overtime, and how it’s working out. After all, at one point, overtime was the exception to the rule — something more or less forced upon technicians. Today, things are a little more worker-friendly. So much so, that some contractors aren’t enforcing overtime at all.
Could this be the secret sauce to retaining/hiring techs?
At Oakland Heating and Air in Indianapolis, it sort of is. There is no overtime policy that forces their technicians to work nights and weekends. The company does, however, demand a solid 40-hour work week to maintain employment, and encourages technicians to work overtime when and if they can.
“Although I was trained by and still look up to the older generation, today times have changed, and the American worker seeks a healthy work-life balance,” said Josh Buhler, owner of Oakland Heating and Air and president of Hoosier Trade School. “As a (somewhat) new father of two beautiful girls, I know how important it is to be home to help my wife raise them and to spend as much time as I can with them while they are growing and learning. I want the same opportunity for all who work at Oakland.”
Buhler achieves this by never requiring techs to work over eight hours a day, and enforces no penalty for techs who choose to stick to that required 40-hour work week.
“Instead, we do discretionary bonuses, and working overtime helps an individual in that respect,” Buhler said.
How are Oakland’s customers affected? They really aren’t. They’ve never known any different. It’s not like Oakland is telling their customers they don’t work nights or weekends.
“But at times when we cannot get a tech out on a Saturday, we say our schedule is booked and we will see you Monday,” Buhler said.
In the event it’s an actual emergency, like if the heat were to go out in freezing temps, Buhler will message the technicians asking if anyone can step up. If not, he heads to the job site himself.
If I’m a technician and Buhler is my boss, I’m pretty happy about this. Knowing that when it hits the fan, my boss will be taking matters into his own hands instead of forcing me to — that feels like a major incentive for me to stay at Oakland.
“Most importantly, it gives our employees the opportunity to enjoy their evenings and weekends,” Buhler said. “Nothing in life is more important than family.”
No More OT
For contractors to employ something similar to Buhler — to stop needing to enforce overtime — they have to adopt some strategies in order to better balance staffing effectively, in order to minimize the reliance on overtime.
“The best thing we can do as a company is make sure our techs are happy and feel taken care of,” Buhler said. “From the office side, planning is crucial to be as effective as possible inside of the 40 hours a week. Also, vehicle inspections and encouraging/demanding truck stock ready for daily-use parts helps keep an eight-hour job from bleeding into OT, or a second visit the following day which starts to back up a schedule.”
This way of running an HVAC business might not seem attainable for every contractor out there. But it could be. Buhler said contractors have to prioritize, and decide what they want for their business. Are profits your main concern, or your people?
“If your people are happy and feel taken care of, you will surely see healthy profits,” Buhler said. “If you focus solely on profits, you may see the company becomes a revolving door as the techs get burned out.”
And for those contractors who have technicians with small children, providing a healthy work-life balance becomes even more important. It’s the responsibility of those contractors to make sure those individuals have quality time to spend with their families, Buhler said.
“I used to love being at my sports games and looking up to see my parents there for every play,” Buhler said. “We as business owners need to make sure we don’t forget that there are things in this life more important than making money. If work demand is too high to accomplish without forcing night and weekend work on the employees, then you need to hire.”
Don’t let all of this fool you, though. Buhler is business-minded, and he is here to make money. There is no doubt about that. There’s a part of him that would love to reach retirement, and have a number of awards and accomplishments for the most business completed and the most money made in HVAC.
“But more important to me than that is to know when I exit this industry, I can hold my head high, knowing anyone who worked for me was made better in their life — both inside and outside of work,” Buhler said.
Eliminating mandatory overtime is a way of doing just that.
