USA. Been working 20 years. Every job has been 8 to 5, unpaid 1h lunch, 2x15min paid breaks. :(
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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The last time I worked hourly was the late 90s. We got a paid 15 break per 4 hours worked. If we worked more than 6 hours, we also got an unpaid 30 minute lunch. I got no benefits because I was part-time at 37.5 hours per week.
37.5 hours
part-time
crazy, in my world that's pretty much full time
I had a job where I was working 80 hours a week without breaks and my boss told me I was part time
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That's wild that it wasn't full time. IRS now defines 30 as full-time thankfully
Imagine being that guy scheduling people for 39.9 hours thinking you're a goddamn genius.
The "genius" was the IN state Congress that made it law that 37.5 and under must be considered part time, even for minors. I was working exactly that every week while also going to high school when I was 16.
Not to mention commute time, time spent getting ready for work/bed, and time spent sleeping. I don't consider any of that to be free time.
I work 10 hour shifts, so once you factor in all that stuff, I get about two full hours for myself each day to do whatever I want, before I have to start the process all over again for tomorrow.
Having worked in a couple of European countries, I thought 7.5 hours of work plus a half an hour lunch break is the norm everywhere in the western world. So the 9 to 5 did totally make sense to me. I was honestly surprised reading all these comments.
Here in America I work 7.5 with two 15 minute paid breaks and a half hour unpaid lunch. So it’s really more like 8:30-5
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Everything changed. You're not crazy. If you watch movies made before the 2000s about office culture, including the movie 9 to 5, you can see that the hours included a lunch break. Which was paid.
Yes, those of the older generation had it easier in every way.
Is this a US thing? Do you not get paid for your lunch hour? That's wild.
Most people don't. So, for an average employee, it would be 9-530 to account for their unpaid 30m lunch required by law.
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In the US, you're lucky if you get paid for the hours you work. And many don't get all of their hours paid.
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You get paid for lunch? Where is that? We don't either in Switzerland
In Spain, if you work more than 6h you have at least a 15 minutes break that almost always is paid. But people usually work 5 or 6h, 1 or 2 hours for lunch (not paid), then the rest.
Ah that's interesting, thanks.
Here in Switzerland if a shift is longer than 5.5 hours it needs to have at minimum 15min unpaid break for lunch by law. Longer than 7 hours means 30min unpaid lunch and longer than 9 hours means an hour unpaid lunch by law. Additionally if the split is uneaven such that the period before or after lunch is over 5.5 hours, then you recursively get another break following the above rule by law. But these are all unpaid and do not count as hours worked.
The usual reality for typical 8.2 h/d office jobs is that people take half an hour to an hour of lunch, unpaid, and companies allow two 15 min paid coffee breaks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, despite not being forced to by law.
The unpaid break is also the same in the general work law (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) but professions get extra laws that apply to them (convenio del metal, convenio de farmacia, etc) where they can go better than the general law, and most ‘convenio’ pay for that 15 min break. Lunch time? Never paid unless you agree directly with your company, but some nice companies (I don’t have numbers but in my experience in the IT industry may be around 30% of them) give you 10-12€ a day to help pay your lunch or they have cafeterias where you eat for 4 or 5€.
Ah yes we have some general contracts for whole sectors as well that ususally contain better conditions (called Gesamtarbeitsvertrag GAV).
My workplace, also IT, also gives 180 Swiss Franks a month to help with lunch (much appreciated in Zürich, shit's expensive). There are some tax rules concerning workplaces either offering cafeterias or lunch subsidies. I believe 180 is the most they can give you before it counts as a separate form of reportable income that needs to be taxed. I think this is common for office jobs, but I also don't have hard numbers.
I live in Canada. We get a half-hour lunch that isn't paid in my province.
Also, if you take more than 3 sick days a year, your boss can fire you. And the 3 sick days are unpaid. The government lowered the number from 10 to 3 shortly before the pandemic, and didn't raise it again! Oh, and to count, your boss can demand a doctor's note. Which cost money to the patient.
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Those old tv shows where they casually eat breakfast before work make more sense. They weren't up at 6, rushing to get to work by 8. They had a whole hour more.
They also had someone to make it for them. One income was enough for the household.
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You're thinking small-time, like an hourly worker. Good office jobs are generally salaried positions and the idea of clocking in and out is... not a thing. Some days you work more, some less, whatever needs to be done. The idea of 9-5 is just a general time frame. And no one gives a shit when you lunch or break. In a real profession the yardstick is, are you getting it done or not?
I'll catch grief for saying that, so I'll preempt by saying, if your job isn't like that, you likely have a shit job.
Gentle reminder that without "small time", hourly workers doing real labor your easy, sweatless, office job would disappear overnight. Perhaps some gratitude? Maybe even some solidarity?
As a former IT professional turned baker, I dislike the condescending attitude too many white collar workers have toward the actual wheel turners of the world.
"doing real labor" "easy, sweatless, office job" "the actual wheel turners"
"I dislike the condescending attitude"
It never ceases to amaze me how often people see and hate shit in other people that they epitomize themselves.
And honestly, my experience has been the opposite and I see the condescending attitude, at least more openly, coming from blue collar workers more often.
I was waiting for the /s the whole time, that comment read like a joke but I think it was actually sincere...
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I've done it all, from shoveling asphalt to dishpits to customer service, all that and a dozen more. Guess what? Those were shit jobs. Doesn't make the person doing those jobs shit.
Some of y'all are so eager to be offended it's ridiculous.
If you want solidarity you need to stop shitting on office workers first. You're lambasting your own behaviour with this comment. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
Lolol what kind of fantasy world do you live in? Salaried worker here and although my job isn't 9-5 strictly if I don't work at least 40 hours a week my pay will be docked. So I get to choose between 8-5 or 9-6 or I can work while I eat and get that cushy 9-5 life. Or if I miss work I can make up those hours by working at night. It's a real luxury to be able to do that compared to shift work, but the hours are still being counted.
Also stop being so entitled. Most of your life necessities come from industries (groceries, power plants, gas stations, hospitals, etc) where people work on a timecard/shift basis so don't you come out here and pretend timecard or shift work isn't a "real" profession.
the hours are still being counted
Refer to my last sentence. And you will note that I didn't denigrate anyone's work, only that if they're on the clock, the job probably sucks.
Me laughing in salaried 9-5 with clock in and clock out. Pay deduction if i forget to do clock in or out even if everyone know i work that day. Got paid 50% less than people who did the same job same position who didn't need to clock in/out.
I have a shit job and the only thing that keep me going is the job close to where i and my family live so i can check on my sister (found out that she do self harm once and I'm scared to go faraway from her ever since).
Desperate people make a good cheap employee.
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Tell me more about this "some days you work less" concept. It's completely foreign to me
Those would be Fridays at my last job. Swear to god no one did anything unless absolutely necessary and most were gone by mid-afternoon. LOL, which sucked because that's when I was often jamming along and no one was around to help, question, etc.
If your job has you grinding non-stop, that's no way to live and a good employer recognizes that.
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I am 51. When I started working my job was 9-5 with a one hour lunch an unofficial 30 minute coffee break and about four unofficial ten minute smoke breaks.
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if someone tried to dictate the amount of work hours that I put in during the day I would just start puking and shitting
Hour long mandatory lunch, no pay. Switzerland.
Switzerland is more like 8-11 12-18. Atleast for me. So more 8-6 than 9-5.
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Yes. And if you interview for an 8 to 5 job, you tell them that it sounds like a crock of shit and you don't want the job.
So sick of that shit. Fuck any employer who pulls this shit.
I don't WANT your crock of shit job! I'll go live on the streets!!! I'll give blowjobs for $20! And hey.....you want a blowjob? Got $20?
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As a guy with an actual office job. It's usually 8-5 or 9-6 with an hour lunch, plus whatever time you spend on coffee or whatever.
It's pretty standard, and it's been that way for a couple decades at least.
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