If you work 9-5 and book half a days leave, what time do you finish?

[EmmyToo]

Gosh this is such a non issue but my brain can’t compute it.

I work 9-5, 7.5 hour days with a half hour break.

I want to book half a days leave, so assumed I’d be working 3.75 hours (= 3 hours 45 minutes) and taking 3.75 hours leave. So finishing at 12.45.

But because I don’t get my half an hour break, I have to work 4 hours 15 minutes. So can’t finish until 1.15.

I get it, it makes sense, but my brain doesn’t like taking half a days leave and the result being that I’m working more than half a day.

Also… this is the first time this has ever come up in 10 years at the same company. Just a new line manager.

What do you do? Is this standard?

I usually leave before my lunch break starts.

otherwise they’re getting half an hour of ‘free’ work off you that you aren’t being paid for, and I’m not in the business of working for free.

Alternatively you can say you’re happy to work until 1.15pm but presume you’ll be getting paid for 4hrs 15mins of work.

Morons.

The detail is in the op - she works 9-5 but gets paid 7.5 hours there for half hour break is unpaid.

Your female manager is being horribly unsupportive of you, making you calculate down to the last minute. You'd think she would cut you some slack given it's related to childcare. How petty and unpleasant.

If your manager wants you there till 1.15 you make bloody sure that you stop working at 12.45 and have your half lunch break.

But OP works 7.5hours 9-5 so that presumes the lunch break is unpaid.

@daisychain01

Contracted 7.5 hours a day. Want to take 3.75 hours leave. So I get that maths… if I finish at 5 then taking 3.75 hours brings us to 1.15. (5pm minus 3 hours and 45 minutes is 1.15.)

The “argument” is that I don’t get half an hour unpaid break for half a days work.

The op put this in her post therefore as it states the lunch break is unpaid - thats what Im going on

Yeah this. This is ridiculous, you count from when you start the day not end it!

can you do what I did and just tell your manager you're going for your lunch break at at 12.45 and leave, never to return that day?

It worked for me that way, my manager seemed to get his head round it if I told him I was going for my lunch on a half days annual leave

A full day's pay is for 7.5 hours work.
So a half day would be 3.75 hours work.
I agree with how you've calculated it.
Your manager is effectively saying you have to work half an hour extra which can't be right.

If you took a week (5 days off work) would you have to go in and do an extra 2.5 hours work to make up for the lunch breaks you "didn't need"? No!!!

If she won't be sensible ask HR to confirm.

We do 9-5 7.5h days with unpaid 30min lunch. I only work a half day on Tuesday and Friday and finish at 12:45. You don't have to stay for your unpaid lunch break.

I run payroll & our standard hours are 8.00am - 4.30pm with half hour unpaid lunch.

I would expect someone who had boked half a day off to finish at 12 noon, if they worked later I would pay them for working through what would normally be their unpaid lunch.

I leave anywhere between 12-1 but we have flexi time. If you start at 9 leaving at 12.45 is correct as you have done 3.75 hours ( half a day) . Lunch breaks are unpaid so shouldnt come into it at all. Otherwise you are working 4.15 hours so have accrued 30 mins flexi / overtime.
If they insist on 1.15 I'd be tempted to take lunch 12-12.30 before leaving at 1.15!

Take your lunch out of the equation so 7.5 hours reduced to 7. Divide in half. Work the half and leave.
Do not calculate an unpaid break into it. You are not paid for that hour so you don't need to deduct it from AL or work it! You won't get paid the extra 30 minutes.
So 3.5 hours you need to work.

It's a legal obligation to provide a lunch break 🙄
If the company paid for the OP's lunch break she'd be on payroll as working 8 hours a day. She's not. She's pay-rolled on 7.5 hours!

I never book a half-day of leave, just rearrange the calendar so I finish when I need to that day. But I accept that’s a privilege and most jobs aren’t as flexible.

This might explain the “how do you get so much annual leave” questions on the Holidays board you always see, if people are booking every hour not working their contracted hours as annual leave then I can see how it can get used up quickly. If I need to catch the Eurostar at 4pm on a Friday, I sure as hell am not booking 2pm-5:30 as annual leave!

Have you pointed out to her that if you work until 1:15, you'll have done four and a quarter hours?

This!

Half of 7hr 30minutes is 3hr 45 minutes
Start time of 9am then add on 3hr 45 minutes
Finish time is 12:45
This is not even a discussion it is fact.

Walk out of the door at 12:45 with zero fucks given.

Surely she realises that you are leaving before lunch so you go at 12.45 if you start at 9?

You don’t actually get any lunch that day paid or unpaid.

How has this never come to her before if she’s been there a long time?

You get to leave 3.75 hours after you commence work. It’s that simple. Incompetent managers really upset me!

user what job allows you to do that? I've worked in public and private sector and retail and leaving early like that (and not using annual leave) would end up with a written warning.

We are that flexible really, that’s the joke. I don’t even know if she tracks what hours I do. We’re WFH the majority of the time so I’m not sure how closely she monitors it. But that’s not the company environment generally. In fact, in all my years booking half a days annual leave, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me what time I’m starting and finishing.

You leave after working 3h 45m from your start time, your lunch break doesn't count.

Just escalate it to HR. Your manager is wrong, your finish time is 12:45.

Your day goes like this:
09:00-12:45 paid working time
12:45-13:15 unpaid free time
13:15-17:00 paid working time

As everyone else has said, she's wrong. You are paid for 7.5 hours per day so if you take a half day you work half of that - simples.

I'd bring it HR in a "I'm so curious to find the right answer to this troublesome question. What time should I finish at on a half day ? "