How do I address my team about excessive overtime?

★★ signal-medium r/smallbusiness · ↑ 62 · 💬 73 · 2025-09-01 · kw: too much time · open on reddit ↗

Tool

none

Issue

Hotel housekeeping team deliberately working slower to accumulate overtime pay (~1.5 hrs/day + 40% premium for missed day-off), costing manager ability to control labor budget despite hiring additional staff to prevent overtime.

Cost

$1,500–$2,000/month (implied: cost of 1–2 extra maids' wages vs. overtime premiums; manager states 'with that amount of money I could hire an extra 2 maids').

Recommendation

Shift compensation model from hourly to per-room or per-room + quality bonus to decouple hours worked from pay; set room-cleaning quotas with approval gates for overtime; implement incentive bonus instead of overtime pay (disputed: one commenter suggests firing and replacing staff).

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anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

Small Seasonal Hotel owner here. So here's my issue, we have a seasonal hotel that currently employes 18 people over the summer (March to October). I took over as a manager 3 years ago and tried to address some of the issues regarding employees welfare. In that regard I observed that the housekeeping team (made up by 3 ladies) was exremely overworked so much so that they would work 7/7 in the busier months of July and August and accumulate a lot of paid overtime ( around 1,5 hr per day + a full payed day for the lack of day off, which in my country is payed with a 40% increase of their regular hourly pay). With that amount of money I could hire an extra 2 maids. After addressing the issue (and acknolwleging that is illegal to work 7/7) with them and telling that I would hire and extra maid they didn't seem too pleased, but I did it anyways. After hiring a fourth maid I was able to warrant them a day off a week and to distrubute their workload in a way that they would still get their standard hours without the overtime. The first season went great. The second season I realized that they were struggling in the busier months (July and August) and were again doing overtime in a few instances. I believed that was beacause it had been a particularly good season and so this year I came prepeared: I hired the four of them for the whole season and hired a temporary worker for the months of July and August to help them out. Still I find myself a lot of overtime to pay and I'm quite concerned cause the extra maid that I hired, which contract terminated today, told me that the 3 orignal maids have been pressing her to work "slower" in order to put in more hours. Now I really don't know how to address it with them, They've been working here since way before I was manager and I think they are great at their jobs, still I feel back stabbed... I pay them well above minimum wage, give them bonuses, I value their work and I think I'm a good "boss". I don't know how to address it, i really wouldn't want them to leave but at the same time I can't just "gift" them money.

Top comments (5)

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[score=62] FlerisEcLAnItCHLONOw

I'm going to take this in a different direction than other commentors. Your employees show up for a paycheck. It is in their best interest to get paid the most they can. A way to get your interests and their interests to align would be to change the compensation package. Allow them to make the same amount of money but work fewer hours. Something like a per room fee, per room + quality bonus, salary + per room + quality. Something that disconnects them working more hours at the same output = more money.

[score=207] 130510

You need to understand their motivations. They want more money and they are paid hourly. The quicker it takes to turn rooms over, the less they make. As the other person said, develop metrics - number of rooms cleaned per hour, number of rooms cleaned per check out. I’m sure there are others. Also, consider a bonus incentive instead of overtime. Use the standard number of rooms cleaned during slow period as a base, then set something in place for the busy season. Other option is to fire the 3 older maids and bring in new ones who don’t think like this and think having 4 or 5 is normal.

[score=38] rankhornjp

So they went from making $1,000 a week to $400 a week and you are confused why they work slow?

[score=9] RayanneB

This is a hotel, so most rooms are similar in size and amenities. Set realistic time budgets for cleaning each room. Fill the schedules accordingly. If overtime is needed, require approval and determine the reason for not meeting their daily room quota. Provide incentives for exceeding the quota without compromising quality. No one wants to stay in a dirty hotel room.