9-5 question

[Kitty]

This may be really stupid, but I'm curious..

So, everyone throws around the term "9 to 5." Do people actually work 9-5 AND get a lunch break? Most people I know are expected to work 8-5.

Just curious. When did this extra hour get tacked on?

[wordsmith]

I'm not sure. At my old job, I worked 10-6. I liked that a lot.

[Skyblade]

Yeah...I work 8-5. I've wondered the same thing Kitty.

[kitalyn414]

i work 9-6. they should bring back 9-5.

[pisces2473]

I have to work 7.5 hours in a day, not counting lunch. If I take 1/2 hr for lunch, I actually can work 9 to 5.

[blueyes]

I work 8 - 4:30, sometimes 5. But if I'm being slow in the morning (a lot of the time), I end up in at 8:30 and leave at 5.

All of that goes to crap, though, if I have field work. We've started at dawn - yes, dawn - and worked until we couldn't see our hands or equipment.

[Winter Storm]

W'ere expected to put in 7.5 hours a day and that is flexible. So I'm actually here from 8:20 - 4:20p with an hour lunch break. I'm home by 5pm.

I'm usually working between 10am - 3:30pm, with sporadic breaks throughout the day in addition to my one hour. Oh look, I just took another (hee hee).

[Media Guy]

I work 9-5. But then again advertising is not you usual office job. We also have 13 paid holidays plus, during the summer I can take off 6 Fridays plus, we close for about a week during Christmas/New Years. All of the plus the 3 weeks vacation time (3 weeks after working 2 years, not bad).

In total we have off about 45 weekdays.

[Bugsey34]

I work 9-6 and I agree we should go back to 9-5. If you look at new job postings everything is 8:30-6, blah blah, all of a sudden.

[labrat2111]

I work 7 to 3:30 unless I'm late getting in and then I have to stay and make up the extra time. In there is our half hour for lunch which is unpaid

[MetFanL]

I work 9-5, but it's the gov't so I guess that's to be expected. I'm salaried, though, so I don't get paid overtime, and I work my fair share of that, so the regular hours are more flexible as a result.

[shimmer728]

My editor lets me work whatever hours I please........but I'm usually working between 8 and 4, or 9 and 5, unless I have a night meeting I have to attend.

[Tayl405]

I work 9:30 to 5:30 and eat lunch at my desk.

I get 5 paid sick days, 2 personal days, and 2 weeks vacation, as well as 7 paid holidays.

[biodork]

I work 8-4, but its not that i HAVE to be in those hours, i come in whenever I want to as long as i get in around 7-8 hours, and get my work done for the day. Sometimes i'm in at 830, sometimes 9. My boss is lenient on me because I have to drive so far. I dont actually have a REAL position though, its more of an internship. But a lot of times my lunch break is like 15 min because i'll have something running where i can only take that much time. Or its just plain freaking COLD in the lunch room lol.

[coll214]

I work 8:30 to 5, w/ an hour for lunch. Unfortunately my office doesn't let my flex the time, at all... but i rarely have to do overtime so i really can't complain.

[mishl982]

I have never had a job that was actually 9 am to 5 pm. Not even in retail when I wanted a "9 to 5" schedule. In all my jobs it's been like 8-5, 8.30-5.30, 7-4, etc, and then my one job where I'd come in at 9, but leave at like 7 pm. I actually consider 9 am to be late to come into work.

[tina1979]

Just curious. When did this extra hour get tacked on?
From what I understand the hour that is tacked on is lunch. It is an hour that you aren't working so you don't get paid for it. If you only work a 8 hour shift they are required to pay you for a half hour break. I could be wrong, but I believe that is the way it was explained to me once

[steph78]

Yeah, I wish I had a 9-5 job! In my field, I am supposed to work 45 hours a week. That does not include lunch. That means that if I want to eat lunch I am here for at least 9.5 hours a day...and I also have to add some time on to compensate for goofing around on here and e-mailing friends. So my days typically stretch from 8:30 AM to after 6:00...and then you have to add my commute on to that as well! When I have kids one day this job is just not going to be feasible for me anymore, I wonder if they'd consider letting me stay on half-time?

[lawya girl]

My hours are:whenever I roll in (typically around 9:15) until everybody else gets their shit together enough for me to go home. That can be around 5 on slow days or the next morning. God, I love my job... :frustrate

[Morgan81]

I'm 7-4:30. Typically I work through luch and 4:30 sometimes morphs into 5 and even 5:30 somedays. My job goes in streaks, dead one minute, bombed the next. I wouldn't mind if I were constantly bombed, I would prefer that actually, but all of this dead time is just awful.

[cheshrcarol]

My scheduled hours are 9-5. It's 7.5 hour work day with 1/2 hour lunch. But a lot of the time, I work later (like yesterday until 7 :mad: ). Usually though, I think it's the perfect balance between getting to sleep in a little and not getting out too late. But if I could work complete flex time I would LOVE it.

[SmilesSoSweet]

8-5 with a one-hour unpaid lunch. My new job is the same way. Overtime when we need to work late. Right now I get paid for OT because I'm still hourly. I believe my new job I'm on salary which is fine because I'll be making more there than I already do here.

I don't know anyone that works 9-5.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

Yeah, I wish I had a 9-5 job! In my field, I am supposed to work 45 hours a week. That does not include lunch. That means that if I want to eat lunch I am here for at least 9.5 hours a day...and I also have to add some time on to compensate for goofing around on here and e-mailing friends. So my days typically stretch from 8:30 AM to after 6:00...and then you have to add my commute on to that as well! When I have kids one day this job is just not going to be feasible for me anymore, I wonder if they'd consider letting me stay on half-time?

Ditto. I am seriously thinking I may need to change careers before I have children.

[MollyMe]

I work 8-4. I don't "take" a lunch. If I do take lunch, I'll work to 4:30. My employer will let us work-out 2 hours a week. I should do that, but I'd have to go to the doctor for him to sign a letter.

[Tayl405]

You have to have a doctor's note saying you need to work out?

[MollyMe]

Well, to get off work early to work out.

[SolarPrincess]

Hey, anyone else here ticked off about how they manage your time when you're on salary? Salaried people, I'm told, get paid to "get the job done"--i.e. we aren't entitled to have comp time--if I work 9 hours one day, I don't get to work seven hours the next day to get my time back. We're not supposed to count the hours worked--just get the job done.

Of course, then they turn around and tell you your lunch hour is "unpaid" and you have to work an extra hour to make it up. So hours don't count if it benefits them, but they sure as heck do if they benefit you.

Just a peeve of mine.

[steph78]

Hey, anyone else here ticked off about how they manage your time when you're on salary? Salaried people, I'm told, get paid to "get the job done"--i.e. we aren't entitled to have comp time--if I work 9 hours one day, I don't get to work seven hours the next day to get my time back. We're not supposed to count the hours worked--just get the job done.

Of course, then they turn around and tell you your lunch hour is "unpaid" and you have to work an extra hour to make it up. So hours don't count if it benefits them, but they sure as heck do if they benefit you.

Just a peeve of mine.

Well, that's one thing they ARE nice about at my office - even though I'm on salary and work more hours per week than most do, if I end up working a bunch of overtime on a project late at night or on a weekend, you can bet I am going to roll in late the morning after a big deadline, or take off early on a Friday afternoon or something. A couple times when I have had to work weekends to make a Monday deadline, I have even had my project manager tell me I can take a weekday of my choice off in exchange. We definitely work hard, and clients can be very demanding about deadlines, but my managers are pretty reasonable about making it fair.

[SolarPrincess]

That's pretty fair, comparatively. You're lucky.

My job used to be extremely fair--they'd let me keep track of extra hours I worked, and then they'd let me take those hours off later on. This worked great for me because it meant if I wanted to get off early on a Friday, they'd be OK with me working late the Thursday before. Of course, I was always very flexible and willing to put in extra time, knowing I could take it back when things calmed down. I was ok with not getting overtime pay, as long as I could take the time back.

This was my first salaried job out of college, and I thought this was how it was usually done, having really only worked hourly jobs before then. So I probably kind of came off as having an "entitlement" attitude; I guess I just thought this was normal. The problem was that my boss left, and my new boss called me in a few weeks after she started to explain to me that I was not "entitled" to comp time, that I could essentially never expect to make up extra time.

So, any time they needed someone to stay late, guess who always had an emergency doctor's appointment or something right after work.

[steph78]

Yeah, it's funny how different supervisors interpret that rule differently. I once did work on a Saturday expecting to be able to take the next Friday off, but my project manager told me to check with another principal in the firm first before leaving, and when I asked HIM, he was like "whoa, you can't just leave - there's tons of work you could be doing!" so I had to stay and work on someone else's project. I usually only take advantage of this comp time in increments of a few hours now to avoid a similar confrontation in the future...

[The Fly]

Yeah, salaried workers get screwed. No comp time, no overtime... the company pretty much owns you until you get fed up and quit.

[uscuba2]

When I worked a normal job it was 8:30 to 5. Period. I was an insurance adjustor and hated it so much that I woke up, went work and looked out the window and out of no where I told my boss that I quit. Ohh, and the 8:15 train really did get me to work by 9.

[The Fly]

At least you had a window.

[shimmer728]

.....is totally illegal in Pennsylvania, but most employers (and employees) just look the other way. Personally, I don't mind it. I'd almost rather have the time off than the extra money for a few additional hours, most of which disappears in taxes anyway.

[mishl982]

On my timesheet I put that I work 8 hours each day to make it a 40 hour week, but sometimes I really work more than 40 and sometimes I work less (my boss is really lenient). It all kind of evens out over time. I don't get overtime and sometimes I get days or half days off if it's been a rough week or I'll take long or short lunches, but if I don't "clock in" 40 hours, that messes up how I get paid.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

we are required to be here 830 - 530, we have an hour for lunch in theory but not practice, whether or not we have work to do. Today for example, I have NOTHING going on, and may not have anything to do until about 2. However, I do need the face time... and I do need to look like I'm NOT sitting on my ass surfing the web while I'm here.

Of course, God forbid I work from home and if they need me for overtime, then I am required to be here until who knows when.