So my agency says, "work as much as you need to get your work done"
So my company says, "make sure you bill all your hours worked"
So my prime say, "all overtime must be pre-approved" (which they rarely do,as the Fed doesn't want to pay overtime)
and the Fed says "it's a federal offense to lie on your timesheet"
so what it one to do?
That is what leadership is for. We had a similar issue (I think all contractors run into this). My boss just punted it up the chain, and asked for guidance in writing. He also pointed out to them that with 100 employees that if the written rule breaks federal law someone is bound to report them. We then spent several months working 40 hour weeks, and keeping detailed records of what we did for those hours, and why we did not get everything done. Every once in awhile approved overtime came down so we could catch up. Some projects that were considered important became not so important. Eventually our leadership was able to use the detailed time tracking to get the customer to approve more people.
-Otanx
Yep, detail everything and make sure you have emails to document your details.
Either work for free or advise people you can't / you're not working unless the overtime is pre-approved (I've had to do this).
You might be able to get special pre-approval if you're working on a project that foresees occasional overtime.