[mistersquid]

You mention you worked"at one job(unpaid overtime,[...]", and this is a variation of the very first point, but as I'm coming to see it's really not a question of unpaid or paid overtime.

I am currently with a company that pays overtime at 1.5 and commensurately accelerates vacation accruals during overtime hours.

But the problem is that now we're working overtime at a higher rate. To put it another way, imagine a higher salary but with unpaid overtime. It's the equivalent of a job with unpaid overtime and better vacation accrual except that if you don't work overtime your salary gets docked.

So the problem with overtime is not the pay but that you don't have time to live your life, and this is particularly a problem if the management has been given carte blanche to pay overtime to its employees. (That is, management has no disincentive to pay its workers overtime.)