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.
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.
Don’t think that exists anymore.
I have never been 9-5 with paid lunch and I’ve been in corporate world since 1998. 8-5 with an unpaid hour.
Sure, just depends on the business. Self-employed and small business are often much more flexible. I pretty much work 9:30 to 4:30.
The only places I’ve worked that were that strict were positions providing 24h coverage and you had to be there to do turnover between shifts (I’ve don’t both 8h and 12h). Thankfully those jobs have been a minority of my career.
Mostly I’ve had broad flexibility where the company would declare “core hours” from say 10-3 and allow employees to flex 3 hours in either direction (anywhere from 7-3 to 10-6).
7-5 is bullshit.
7-5 might be acceptable only if you get 2 hrs off (ex. 7-11, siesta, 1-5)
Officially I work 8 hours of my choice between 7am and 7pm with 30 minutes lunch.
In practice I work at least 8 hours (most often about 8.5), usually get a lunch, have to be at my desk at 8:30 for standup, and am always on call to some degree. If any of our infrastructure isn’t working then I am, but after hours stuff isn’t all that common.
I have a salaried work from home job with no defined working hours. As long as the work gets done within SLAs the hours me and my team work are irrelevant.
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.
That is 100% not how you framed your initial comment. It was very much focused on how the workers weren’t going above and beyond to work when they didn’t have to.
Sounds to me like they were reacting to a shit situation in the most appropriate way they could.
That is 100% not how you framed your initial comment. It was very much focused on how the workers weren’t going above and beyond to work when they didn’t have to.
That wasn’t my intent to communicate that, but on a re-read, I can see how you came away with that.
Sounds to me like they were reacting to a shit situation in the most appropriate way they could.
That was it exactly.
I mean… you didn’t say anything else, how else could you have meant it? You even complained that them leaving on time was inconvenient when someone else dumped something in their desk after working hours.
I mean… you didn’t say anything else, how else could you have meant it?
I was pointing out one part of the oddness of an office organization that chose to operate strictly from 7am-5pm. If you’re asking why I didn’t explain every aspect of every perspective, I’ll say it was a 30 second post on the internet, not a comprehensive peer reviewed study of workplace behavior.
I admitted my initial explanation had ambiguity that could lead the audience to arrive at an unintended conclusion. I’m not sure what more you want from me over that mea cupla. There’s no deeper motive on my part to mislead besides my admitted initial carelessness.
You even complained that them leaving on time was inconvenient when someone else dumped something in their desk after working hours.
Inconvenient to the organization, not to the worker. I was pointing out that the organization had created the situation working hours (strict 7am-5pm), yet was suffering because of how rigidly it enforced the rule. The org was shooting itself in the foot.
Do you work in IT and need to work off-hours to perform work requiring downtime until 2am?
Then you’re a chump for not doing it during business hours instead, rest of the company be damned.
Which is largely what happened, and it was very disruptive to the company, but again, their rules, their consequences.
They were still having 2 hours/day stolen from them, though.
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.
So you’re saying they should have worked less?
It wasn’t a statement about more or less, but more flexible. The PO that came in at 5:01pm should have been approved, and the management shouldn’t have been so hardassed about being seated at your desk at exactly 7am.
I mean… the PO shouldn’t have come in at 5:01 if they wanted it approved that day. That’s just rude.
I work in document control, so I’m sending documents between companies regularly. Often, at the end of the week someone will dump a 100+ document transmittal on us half an hour before the end of the day. And then they go home.
You bet your ass that shit is waiting til Monday.
Oh certainly! I’m not suggesting that its reasonable for someone to drop hours of work on your desk at the end of the day and expecting you to stay late to finish it.
This was more of a 2 minute task, and not even on a Friday. Office workers worked only the 7am-5pm, but hourly non-office workers had 3 shifts. So it wasn’t uncommon that large tasks for the non-officeworkers which might be done overnight went undone because the office worker didn’t do a 2 minute tasks. This had downstream impacts to deliveries and client reception.
In any other org I’ve worked in, the office worker would maybe stay until 5:09pm to kick the task forward for overnight completion and perhaps come in 10 minutes later the next day. In this org if the office worker came in 10 minutes later (even if they worked 10 minutes later) the office worker would be written up!
I’m technically 9-5, though I can choose 7 to 3 or 8 to 4 if I want. I usually work 7-4 and take extra breaks throughout the day (or a really long lunch). Granted, I work for a non-profit which has a LOT less bullshit to deal with. I also have the option to work 7-5 or 8-6 if I want to only work 4 days a week.
Outside of salaried jobs, I haven’t seen anywhere mandate 7-5 schedules for hourly employees (unless it’s a 4 day work week). Companies do not like paying overtime, so most I’ve dealt with will send you home the moment you hit 40 hours.
Flex time was one of the best parts of working in government. Being able to craft basically any schedule so long as it was 40 hours and not more than 10/day was really useful.
Flex time alone was worth the pay cut I took when I went corporate to non-profit. You can’t buy time, but flex time is the next best thing.
I’m salaried so I don’t have a lunch break. I work from home so I basically set my own hours as long as I can be contacted from about 10am to 3pm and go to any meetings I have scheduled.
Same, it’s glorious. That said, on the other side of the coin during go-live weeks I’ve worked multiple days in a row until midnight or later. So it balances out in the end.
My company was more flexible, but is getting less and less flexible over time. This correspondingly means I’m not going to be working late during crunches, by my own decision, since it’s not like they’re paying me for the extra time, or letting me take off a few hours here and there to make up for it the rest of the year.
I’m in a large company, 350k+, but our team of ~20 has different rules. The head of our team, my bosses boss, gives us a TON of flexibility to take comp time, take random days off and bill to the project (without taking PTO), etc. When my boss brought me on it was touted as a startup within a large company. I won’t say we can do ANYTHING, but outside of go-live weeks we can flex our hours a lot. Hell I cut out by like 2P or 3P every Friday.
Yeah. There’s always a chance that a customer could have an issue on a weekend and then I’ve gotta fix it. Once I was on 27 hours of conference calls over a weekend. But as I’ve gotten better at my job those sorts of things happen less and less.
Honestly the worst part of my job is doing my timesheets and updating weekly status, but when the weather’s good I do that from my hammock with a cold beer in hand which makes it suck less.
My current company is going to soon start expecting us to be in 7-5.
Before I start spazzing dignity and self respect.
Can you provide more context on how this was presented to you. Also your career stage? Junior?
As mid level, they can’t really try too much of this or I will just reduce my productivity to bare minimum and change jobs. I dont negotiate with terrorists ;)
Newish into the workforce, junior role
My current schedule allows me to work when I want, so long as I work 40 hours over the course of the week. I’ve settled into an 8-4 schedule and work while I eat.
We are now switching to a condensed work schedule where every other Friday will be off.
As a result we are expected to work 9 hour days (reasonable) but also required to take a 1 hour lunch away from our desk.
That sounds similar to my work, as long as you work 40 hours a week they don’t really care when you come in, I usually try to be in the office by 6 so I can leave at 2:30
Do you prefer the shorter day and eating at your desk, or the longer day with the lunch break?
Yeah, two four day weeks a month was some pretty big context to leave out.
That sounds pretty dope honestly
For the last 20 years, I’ve worked in smaller tech start ups (~10-50 people) and one larger more corporate tech place (~300 people), and they’ve all been salaried, 9-5. Since they’re salaried, it’s a paid lunch period.
8-430 and I get an hour for lunch. Works out to a 7.5 hour workday.
Salaried employment exists, and there are more jobs out there than they want you to think. The employer-employee relationship is a constant negotiation, and you’re always free to walk away.
We don’t know how much time we have on earth, and you’re selling some of it in exchange for money.
They are going to keep pushing to get more of your life from you, and you need to push back to keep as much as possible.
you’re always free to walk away.
Yeah, and die of starvation or exposer, which ever comes first…
Maybe take a look around at the reality most people face before giving such out of touch advice…If you’re really only able to work for one particular, shitty company. You might want to invest in yourself. Learn a trade or read a self help book.
If your choices are between working one specific job or starving then you owe it to yourself and your family to improve your marketable skills or value
I work 8:00 to 4:30 with a half-hour lunch break. Frequently I’ll put in a few extra hours in a week for some overtime ‘cause the job isn’t hard at all.
