Crunch is normal; unrecorded crunch is the problem
Nobody minds a late night before a launch. What hurts is when the same three people work every weekend for two months and nobody notices until one of them resigns. Punches already show who stayed late or worked a weekly off, and ZeniaHR detects overtime from them every night, with a 30-minute minimum and rounding down to 15 minutes. Looking at those numbers once a month tells founders which team is stretched, often before the team lead says so.
The legal rate and who it covers
The OSH Code caps an ordinary working day at eight hours; anything past the prescribed hours counts as overtime, needs the worker's consent and is paid at double the ordinary wage rate. Whether a given role is covered depends on the rules, so check them for support, operations and junior staff in particular. Senior and managerial staff in a startup are more often handled through comp-off and pay decisions than hourly overtime. Keep every multiplier you set in ZeniaHR at 2 or higher, and read the working hours and overtime rules.
Worked example: a launch Sunday
Ankit is a support associate with a monthly gross of ₹26,000. On a 26-day basis his gross day rate is ₹1,000, so his hourly rate is ₹1,000 divided by 8, or ₹125. He works 8 hours on Sunday, his weekly off, to handle launch-day tickets. With the weekly off multiplier set to 2, he is paid ₹125 x 8 x 2 = ₹2,000 on top of that month's salary. If the policy gives comp-off instead, 8 hours earns one full day off, credited with an expiry date so he actually takes it once the launch settles.
Caps, approvals and burnout
Put a monthly ceiling on overtime hours in the overtime policy. When someone reaches it, the answer is more people or less scope, not a higher cap. Keep approval switched on so the team lead confirms each entry before HR, which in a startup may be a founder; after a launch weekend, HR can approve the whole batch at once. Where your policy allows, let employees choose between pay and comp-off; people early in their careers often prefer the money, and senior people often prefer the day.
How to set it up in ZeniaHR
- Switch on the overtime policy and count overtime after shift end for support and operations shifts.
- Enter pay multipliers of 2 or above for normal days, weekly offs and holidays, and leave the 30-minute minimum in place.
- Choose comp-off, pay or employee's choice as the payout, and set comp-off expiry so the days are actually taken.
- Set a monthly cap that matches what one person can sustain, and look at who reaches it each month.
- Keep approval on, so team leads approve overtime in My Team before HR approves it.
Read more about overtime in ZeniaHR.
Roles this applies to
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Do startups have to pay overtime?
Where the overtime rules under the OSH Code apply to a role, work beyond the prescribed hours must be paid at twice the ordinary wage rate, with the worker's consent. Being a startup does not change that. A common split is comp-off for salaried product staff and paid overtime for support and operations roles. Write down which roles get which, and apply it consistently.
How do you calculate comp-off for weekend work?
Decide how many hours equal half a day and a full day, then credit comp-off from the hours worked. In ZeniaHR, approved overtime paid as comp-off gives half a day for 4 hours and a full day for 8 hours, and HR can also credit comp-off when someone works a weekly off or a holiday. Every credit carries an expiry date.
How can founders prevent burnout during a launch?
Plan the crunch with an end date, record the extra hours, and give comp-off or pay promptly after the launch. A monthly overtime cap per person makes overload visible. If the same people reach the cap every month, hire or cut scope. Recognition helps as well: praise with a badge costs nothing and people remember it.