Looking at one very narrow slice of the UK labour market, it seems to me that what's changed is this: in the old days, contracts said that employees would do "r

Looking at one very narrow slice of the UK labour market, it seems to me that what's changed is this: in the old days, contracts said that employees would do "reasonable" unpaid overtime, and on a 100% job you ended up doing perhaps effectively 120% or something like that. You knew periods in the year that would always be busy, and periods in the year where no-one cared if you went home a bit earlier except if there was an unplanned crisis (which happened, but was rare). Everyone knew the actual deal, and it mostly worked. Now, it seems like there's always a crisis, the definition of "reasonable" somehow went above 150%, and you're constantly being pushed to get more done with less. Also pay rises have been below inflation since around the early 2000s, and are definitely not keeping up with the current cost of living crisis. I don't blame employees for going, if the employer's definition of "reasonable" overtime is anything but, what about if I work the number of hours I'm contracted for and no more? Because the unofficial actual deal worked as long as both sides were ok with it.