Chasing the OT hours after a raise, or keeping the schedule chill?

I took a similar jump last summer when I moved onto a bigger framing crew for a high-end custom build. My initial instinct was the same as yours, though. Every dollar felt like it needed to go towards paying off the transmission on my old Ford F-150. We were running 55-hour weeks consistently, which made the overtime pay look like a dream scenario. But the reality is that the overtime doesn't pay for your sleep or your marriage. I spent nearly nine months grinding til I hit my savings goal, but by the time I finished, my back was fried and I had lost all sense of time. The raise, though, was huge. When you hit that new base rate, it changes the math entirely. You don't need the extra ten bucks an hour if you can negotiate the schedule to get the job done in standard time. My advice is to use the new raise to demand a more consistent schedule, not more hours. If the project manager keeps pushing for the extra eight hours just because they can, you need to be ready to push back. If you are consistently hitting the required output in a standard shift, you've already made a good investment in yourself by getting the raise and don't need to burn out on a project's timetable. Enjoy the better paycheck during regular hours and save your energy for when you actually want to be building things again.

I went with a middle ground after my last raise when I switched crews for the residential side. I realized the extreme end of the spectrum, wether it's banking a year of OT or killing yourself every weekend, usually leads to diminishing returns. My approach was to cap my overtime based on specific financial goals, not just the desire to stack cash as fast as possible. I kept my weekday hours solid but limited OT to a specific four-day a week schedule.

For me, the first phase was strictly about reaching a target balance in my emergency fund, not just the truck payment. Once I hit that ten thousand dollar threshold, I deliberately scaled back the OT commitment. It wasn't about being lazy, it was about ensuring the raise actually improved my life quality, not just inflated my bank account to a breaking point. My primary concern was maintaining my relationship with my family because working until I couldn't see them was never going to be worth the extra twenty percent hourly rate.

It feels like people talk about the pay like it's just another cash pile, but it's actually a trade. You are trading hours of your life for income. I decided to only go for OT when the math made sense for a specific, defined objective, like clearing a debt or hitting a savings milestone. That structure worked better for preventing burnout than just grinding forever.

Ran my own OT experiment back when we were doing hand-set scaffold jobs, no lifts, everything by hand. Made good money for about two seasons and then one Monday my hands wouldn't close right. Took months before I coud grip a hammer without thinking about it. One thing I'd check is what the extra hours actually do to your check once withholding kicks in. Some guys swear the OT gets taxed harder, and it's not quite true, but a chunk of it vanishes either way. Do the math on one big OT week before you sign up for twelve of them in a row. Also the old supers I came up under always said pace is everything. Guy who works four steady 10s beats the guy doing six 12s by August every time.

That idea about using the raise to negotiate a steadier schedule doesn't match anything I've seen on a jobsite. The super runs the schedule, period. You tell the PM you want consistent hours and you're the first name on the list when the crew gets trimmed. What I've watched happen instead is the raise quietly buying you a spot on the OT rotation whether you asked or not, because the new rate makes you the cheap-ish guy who just proved he's motivated. I got bumped a couple years back and my Saturdays went from optional to expected within a month. So the real question for the OP isn't whether to ask for better hours, it's how early you set that boundary before it gets set for you.

Update: took the middle ground approach one of you mentioned, tying OT to a set goal instead of just chasing every hour. Committed to two Saturdays a month until the truck loan is gone and it's been way easier to stick to than I figured. Still dragging by Thursday though. Does that wear-off feeling ease up once your body gets used to longer weeks, or is that just how it goes?