Whatever happened to the "9 to 5?"



  • It seems to me that the days of the "8 hour workday" are gone.  Is this because companies no longer pay for the lunch break, or because employees take longer lunch breaks than ever?  At my workplace it is assumed that if you get in at 9 AM you can leave at 6 PM, because lunch is one hour and unpaid.  I try to eat at my desk to circumvent this because with the commute I spend way too much time away from home.  Is this just a DC/MD/noVA thing?



  • I think it depends on the culture at your work.

    We're expected to work from 8:30 to 5:30.

    In reality, some of us work 9:45 to 6:00 



  • Used to work in a place where we did 9-1800. Lunch would be an hour unpaid and we would move from one office to another to have our food.. you couldn't leave the place anyhow coz the phones needed attending..  if your call would be time consuming tough luck. And don't be surprised if the  boss calls it quits 45min into lunch. I found out thats what they meant by casual working environment...



  • My current job requires us to take a full hour lunch, while my previous employer didn't really care.  The employment standards in the province of Alberta require the employer to give a one hour break (paid or unpaid) for 8 hrs of work.  This doesn't mean that the employee has to take the break though.  That part is up to the employer to decide.  But, good lord, it gets awful boring trying to do something during that hour.  Especially when it only takes me 15min to eat my lunch.

    Including my commuting time, it's a 10-10.5 hr "work" day.  (And yes, I am aware that my 40min commute isn't nearly as bad as my brethren down the in the larger US cities.  Sorry guys...)



  • My boss had a joke about commuting in Los Angeles (although I'm sure it applies to about any metropolitan area).

    You had to leave your house at 6:30 to get to work by 8:00. If you left at 6:15, you'd get to work at 6:30. 



  • There's a major company in Cleveland I used to work at that also did the "one hour unpaid lunch".



  • [quote user="R.Flowers"]

    My boss had a joke about commuting in Los Angeles (although I'm sure it applies to about any metropolitan area).

    You had to leave your house at 6:30 to get to work by 8:00. If you left at 6:15, you'd get to work at 6:30. 

    [/quote]

    Interesting story. I wanted to have an earlier shift where I work so I could leave early.... Well, this is what I've found. 

    If I leave for work at 7:30, I get there at 8:30.

    If I leave for work at 8:00, I get there at 8:45.

    If I leave for work at 8:15, I get there at 8:45.

    If I leave for work at 8:30, I get there at 8:45.

    So odd.... 

    I never leave for work before 8:30 anymore. It's just a big WOT 99.9% of the time. 



  • I guess at my work i have it lucky, i'm on a salary and i'm allowed to pretty much manage myself as long as the work is quality and delivered on time.  but ironically this means i hardly ever actually work for just 8 hours it usually ends up being more like 9 or 10 hours.  I'm not much of a morning person so i'd rather get there a bit later so as long as the boss sees i'm still there when he leaves it seems to be fine.



  • My working days are the boring 9 to 5

     

    But I only get 2 (that's two!) 20 minute breaks, in that time your supposed to have a cigarette, lunch and a drink

     



  • Hmmm.. I'm in the DC area also.  My company does 8:30-5:00, although the start and end times are fairly flexible.  Lunch is only a half hour, (also technically unpaid, although I think everyone's on salary), although I'm not complaining -- I'd rather take a shorter lunch and go home sooner.



  • Bah. 9 to 4:30 here with a half hour lunch. I find a full hour boring, and much prefer to have extra time at home than at work, so opted to cut the lunch break and go home earlier. Combined with a 5 minute to/from work journey, it really increases your effective £/hour rate compared to people to travel for an hour or so each way and have a full hour for lunch. :)



  • I'm from Switzerland and I usual work from 8-5 with 30 minutes to 1 hour lunch break if we have a lot of work, else it is usual from 9.15 - 5 with 1-2 hours lunch break. Unfortunately we have about 9 month nothing to do so I use this free time for learning, reading blogs or do whatever I just feel like. You may wonder how this company can survive? Frankly I don't know and don't care as long it pays the bills and my education.



  • It seems to me that the days of the "8 hour workday" are gone.

    No they ain't. :)

     
    *gets back to work*
     



  • We use a complex methodology called "get your work done". When it's slow, that might mean my normal work day of 9-4 with an hour lunch. When it's hectic, it might mean working 9-4 at the office and then 6-10 at home. Of course, we stay late if there's some production issue to support or a prod deployment.



  • [quote user="webzter"]We use a complex methodology called "get your work done". When it's slow, that might mean my normal work day of 9-4 with an hour lunch. When it's hectic, it might mean working 9-4 at the office and then 6-10 at home. Of course, we stay late if there's some production issue to support or a prod deployment.[/quote]

    That's the work methodology I would like to have.  It really would make a person stay efficient so they can get out of work early (or avoid staying late all the time).  But, more often than not, this kind of work methodology is usually just a flowery term for "forced, unpaid overtime."  Such a fine line there, it's tough to know before you walk into a job like that, as managers wouldn't be very forthcoming with info like that in an interview


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