Working overtime is a madman's choice. It's possible to work overtime but it's completely irrelevant. It's done mostly for politics. For example, you have small

Working overtime is a madman's choice. It's possible to work overtime but it's completely irrelevant. It's done mostly for politics. For example, you have small chances of a raise or a promotion if your overtime hours are small. Collecting overtime gives opportunity for under-performers to make progress in the company. I've been to more than 5 banks in Croatia and Austria (Most of the banks in Croatia are subsidiaries of Italian and Austrian banks). The contracts make overtime mandatory but one can negotiate to remove overtime completely. Most people that tell their wives and friends that they work overtime either do not work during the overtime hours, are unnecessarily inefficient for the purpose of collecting hours (unpaid) or have periods of struggle because most of the time they do not work and have no idea what's going on (so when they have to catch up, the stress and the lack of knowledge forces overtime). Some cases I encountered of people who complain about working too much in a bank are those that prefer the company of their coworkers more than that of their spouses.