When overtime is a coverage story
Paid extra hours often mark a hole in the rota, not a culture of enthusiasm. The calendar usually shows it first.
Overtime is often narrated as character: a loyal team, a hungry team, a team that “likes the extra.” The calendar is usually less flattering. Extra hours sit on the same weeks as unfilled slots, sick clusters, or a training day that removed a whole morning list.
In a Coverage and Overtime Reading we print two rows for each week: paid extra hours (or time-in-lieu granted) and vacant shifts. When the rows rise together, the story is coverage. When overtime rises while vacancies are filled, then we look at volume, mix of work, or a process change — still not at personality.
Managers sometimes worry that this reading will be used to scold people who stayed late. We refuse studies whose stated purpose is to name individuals for punishment. The point is to stop treating a hole in the rota as a virtue.
If Saturday is always expensive, ask whether Saturday is always short-staffed. The files already know.