Ever since I graduated, everywhere I’ve worked has been 8-5. My current company is going to soon start expecting us to be in 7-5.
How many of you here work a 9-5 with a paid lunch?
Productivity keeps going up but so do working hours.
Most high-skill jobs (e.g. software dev, engineering, research, higher education) are usually flexible with time. No one really cares when you come or go as long as you get the work done. People (read, good-for-nothing management people) are trying to make some of these more time-bound, but it’s usually counter-productive. Turns out when you want creativity from someone, you need to give them some freedom.
I saw a law office once in the early 2000s that was 9-5. And the entire office shut down for an hour, while they all had lunch together in the conference room. The phones all went to voicemail and everything. I was working on replacing a few of their computers that day. They made me stop and join them. Seemed like a great place to work.
That’s what happens when the business is structured as a worker cooperative (as law firm partnerships basically are).
That’s not uncommon for doctors offices and such
7? to goddamn 5? I’m not in at 7, and out way before 5, and if the boss don’t like it, then that’s not a me problem. 10 hours each day as in a 50 hour work week? That would be illegal in the EU, where you can’t work more than 48hours on average per week over a period of 4 months https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/human-resources/working-hours-holiday-leave/working-hours/indexamp_en.htm
Technically I come in at 7 and leave at 4:30, but it’s a 9 hour day (30 min unpaid lunch) and I get every other Friday off in exchange. Also most days I work from home. No way in heck I’d ever go in for something like that.
OP, start job shopping. Longer hours are a sign the business isn’t doing all that well and they’re trying to squeeze out some more labor. Or a sign they’re doing well but are not interested in taking care of people by hiring enough staff and would rather you burn yourself out.
Many of my jobs in software have been a sort of 10 to 6 schedule. Most of them have been pretty flexible about that so long as you attended all the required meetings and got your work done.
For the past 10 years or so, companies have gotten rather fond of 8am meetings.
I have a 9-5 job as a software engineer. Though really I can stop working whenever I’m done with my assigned work. I usually stop around 3 or 3:30.
Same. I am available 9 - 5, but I tend to be actually working 10 - 4. It fluctuates depending on how badly management wants things. And of course there’s the rotating on call schedule where sometimes I have to wake up in the middle of the night to confirm that a service my team owns is impacted by some other service’s outage. FUN!
Was literally going to ask this same question last week. Past three employers are expecting 8-5 m-f but only pay 40 hours.
I’ve just been coming in at 6 before the boss to look like a hardworking then leave at 2 so I only work what I’m paid.
That’s because you get a 1 hour lunch break. I would make sure to spend 60 minutes a day eating lunch.
I didn’t even know paid lunch breaks were/are even a thing. Most jobs I’ve been in had 30 min unpaid lunch.
I work 9 to 6 with 1 hour unpaid lunch at my current job. I don’t really do anything during my lunch besides sit in the office wasting time for an hour. Home is 30 min drive away, so I can’t go home. No parks nearby to walk around. Makes it feel like I am working a 9 hour shift getting paid 8 since I am sitting in the office for 9 hours…
Back when i worked an office job this is why lots of people would just go sit in thier car during thier break.
I started doing it to take a undisturbed nap. Also so people stop bothering me while I’m on break.
My mouth is full of food and I’m chewing in the break room. Why the fuck are you here to talk to me about work…
9-5 is definitely no longer standard, although traffic does get noticeably worse here after 8am.
That being said, what is their justification for 7-5? Unless you’re taking a 2 hour unpaid lunch, that’s mandatory overtime, which most companies aren’t super fond of paying.
they said the US so I’m assuming the company doesn’t really do anything properly and no one regulates it
…overtime?..welcome to the world of exempt employees where anything less than 45 hours requires “voluntary” salary deductions…
Lol. Overtime. In the US. Wage theft is the largest form of theft in the United States.
Can’t say for the US, but in NL, Europe, 9-6 with an hour mandatory break is the default for programming work. We hear the adults complain about 9-5 as students, we go to work, turns out its 8-5 or 9-6. Fuck.
Uneducated works tends to be 8.5 hours per day, instead of 9; only because half an hour breaks are the norm, there.
I worked at one company that was 7am-5pm for corporate office work. The company grew from a small retail parts company decades ago, but never changed the mindset. So even the office work was treated like shift work. Office workers wouldn’t even check email before 7am. Many times just hanging out in the cafeteria until 7 on the dot when they had to be at their desks. Further as soon as 5pm hit exactly, all the office workers would drop what they were doing and walk out to the parking lot with all of the other blue collar shift workers.
This resulted in things like Purchase Orders getting delayed by a day because it arrived at the approver at 5:01pm and the approver was gone. There was nearly no weekend office work, which caused its own problems.
It was such a strange place to work.
So… they knew the value of their own time and didn’t overwork when they didn’t have to?
Most office workers could probably learn from that mindset.
So… they knew the value of their own time and didn’t overwork when they didn’t have to?
This worked the other way NOT in favor of the workers. Sat down at your desk at 7:03am even though you’re not customer facing at all? Expect to be called into a conference room with your boss and your bosses boss about your attendance.
Do you work in IT and need to work off-hours to perform work requiring downtime until 2am? You better be at your desk at 7am on the dot or you’re going to get written up.
Have a doctors appointment at 3pm for an hour? You have to take vacation time for that.
There was this really odd notion that if you weren’t sitting in your chair typing, you weren’t working and would get questioned by bosses.
Most office workers could probably learn from that mindset.
Office workers would learn (or be reminded) about how hellish it was to work a minimum wage job with zero flexibility.
Strange that people only worked during the hours they’re paid to work?
Salary workers aren’t generally paid for hours, but instead for the job.
Seattle electrician here. My schedule is 6-230 with a 30 minute unpaid lunch.
Do you mean you’re available on-call from 6:00 to 2:30? 20 hrs a day is too much even for third-world country standards
2:30 pm or 14:30, that’s just an 8 hr day plus lunch.
Mine is 9-4 some days. I do automated QA for an enterprise application. Management budgets 2 hours a day for lunch and overhead (meetings, emails, chatting, etc.) for each employee. If I don’t hit that then I can get off early.
Naw, there’s only about 3 now. Being rich, being poor, and being a cop.
If you aren’t getting a paid lunch and two 15-minute breaks during your 8-hour shift, your employer is stealing from you.
I’ve never had a paid lunch. 2 paid 15 min breaks and then unpaid lunch is the law where I am.
my dumbass state has no requirements for breaks at all. one of my jobs has no official breaks. we’ve all mastered the art of looking busy while eating 💀
Unless you are salaried. Being salaried normally comes with flexibility but gives no guarantees for breaks and number of hours worked.
That works both ways. If you’re salaried and find yourself averaging more than 40 hours a week (including lunch/breaks), don’t.
Sadly 32-40 hour weeks excluding breaks is what you get paid here (NL, Europe)
So if you get paid 40 hours a week, they expect you to average 45 including breaks. You get paid 40, though.
It’s really shitty IMO
There are two types of salary, exempt and non-exempt (from overtime pay). If I am remembering correctly, you basically have to be management to not get overtime pay. Something like being over at least 2 people and having input on major decisions. May have been more to it.
The list of exemptions is a mile long at this point: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-A/part-541?toc=1
Basically if you’re an office worker who makes more than than 34k/year, you’re probably exempt.
You have to be either management or highly-compensated (which means fuck-all, since the dollar amount tied to it never got updated for inflation). That’s why a lot of non-management tech workers (for example) are salaried exempt, and should therefore walk out whenever they’re told to work more than 40 hours/week (including lunch and breaks).
My old job was oppressive clock watchers so everyone just strolled in as close to 8am as they could and left at 5pm sharp (people would be lined up at the turnstiles waiting to badge out). So why are they having you there for 10 hours a day? I’d rather come in an hour later than get a 2 hour lunch.
