To think working 6hrs without a break is a little excessive ?

[fourfingerkitkat]

I know that by law you can work 6hrs continuously before your employer is obliged to give you a break, but don't you think this is a bit much ? Have just started a new temporary p/t retail job and working 6hr shifts. I was surprised at this as I'm sure when I worked as a student (15yrs ago right enough...) you got a break after 4hrs ?

We do a 14 hour shift with no break away from the workface, we eat our meals with the people we care for. I'd love to have a break after 6 hours to be honest but it just doesn't happen.

H can often do 14 hour days and although legally he should have a couple of breaks, as his employers have cut his wages budget back to the bone he never does as there is no one to cover him.

Just because it should happen, doesnt mean it does and it seems to be a major loophole in the legislation.

I always thought it was 4 hours before a break too and was shocked to find out that it wasnt.

DH does not actually get time to eat lunch, at all. And despite working in a kitchen for a restaurant cooking delicious food, he is not given lunch, or a lunch break. He could bring his own in, but it never gets eaten, and by midnight he is no longer hungry/past hunger, grabs some crisps or something when he gets in, has a beer instead.

I was a police employee for a few years, worked 10 -12 hour shifts. Our breaks were scheduled by the team leader at the start of every day and I would frequently be down to work 6-8 hours before being given a break. Couldn't even leave to make a cup of coffee and would have to sign out in order to go for a wee, and such breaks were timed then added up, and at the end of the month, if you'd spent 'too long' on toilet breaks, you'd have to attend a meeting with your line manager to explain 'why'. Fucking ridiculous. I left eighteen months ago so this wasn't happening in the Dark Ages. They just didn't give a fiddler's fart for employment law or the comfort or happiness of their employees. Horrible place.

Christ it's only 6 hours.

I work in HR and i often get calls from our managers asking what the bare minimum of break times they have to give their staff. (often nhs contracts). I have to advise the legal min which is 20 mins for every 6 hrs worked - usually in the middle of the shift if possible. I always think they sound really mean, but it is at their discretion.

One had an employee asking for a 15 min break mid morning and avo as well as their lunch, and sadly they were very disappointed. We also have managers asking if they really have to give pat leave, and can they force their employees to prove they have had a baby on the date it commences. Just in case they are trying to take it a day or 2 earlier than the baby actually arrives (despite them still taking the same amount of time, so i never saw what the problem was really even if they did).

And i would need food (which i eat at my desk) and toilet breaks in 6 hours - especially when i'm on my period. I would need the loo every other hour and i have to eat every 3-4 hours otherwise i faint.

smeg also, there is the 'law' and there are employers who break the law. Yes you could do something about it, but would there be a job for your DH for example if he made a fuss? For DH, he has worked there less than a year, so will be fired for some made up reason if he caused a fuss. In a few weeks he will have been there over a year, more protection, but it is amazing how easily they just don't have enough hours to offer everyone, and on a zero hours contract he would quickly find his hours cut to hardly anything.

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman ...well that certainly shut me up

Well I've worked in retail for 18 years and can't say that I've ever had a problem going 6 hours without a break. If I'm at home I'll have 6 hours between lunch and dinner so I don't know why I would need to eat more often at work.

As a carer I did 14 hours without breaks, it just had to be done because I didn't have enough time to get things done.

i'm in the same boat as curbyburr

The problem, as has been highlighted by a PP, is that people are so worried for their jobs that they will do anything, legal or not in order to keep them.

Because it is a fact that if you wont do it then there is someone out there who will, and that is allowing employers to break the law in breathtaking fashion. My H was told he needed to "consider his position" when he refused to do a 12 hour shift 6 hours after finishing the previous 12 hour shift. He said that he would do it but his main worry would be if an accident happened because he was so tired. Once they had worked out the implications of that they found a relief manager....funny that

kitkat I think it's fairly common practise in care type settings to not get a break, I was surprised when I first started as I came from a setting where people moaned like mad if they were 2 minutes late for their lunch break.

laluna I read your post and then saw your name and it made me smile, I used to have a lady come to me who was a midwife and she said when the moon was full it was always more push push pant pant at that time of the month - is your name related to this experiance?

reading all this I am lucky. In my job we can take a break to get a cuppa, talk to a colleague, go for a cigarette if we smoke (i don't), go to the local shops to grab a sarnie, pop over to the coffee shop for coffee (on the condition we get on for whoever else wants one), whenever we feel we need to. And going to the loo, well we just go. As long as our work is done to a high standard, in a timely manner, we are treated like adults who are entirely capable of doing the jobs they hired us we can do without rules being rigidly enforced.

I do this just about every day, it goes with the job.
So do teachers!

Pavlov I think we are saying the same thing!

Luckily H is salaried, but his staff are all on zero hours contracts which he hates as he knows how shit it is. Being salaried carries its own set of problems though as his employers push him to cover all of the shifts he can and only use the other staff when absolutely needed, it can easily lead to a 70 hour week.

But as you say, what would happen if he kicked up a stink? Probably "concerns" about his performance and then dismissal, despite him having impeccable appraisals etc.

Spuddybean - I was actully thinking of how I'll feel when I'm on my period too. I don't have a proper locker at the moment so am having to lock my stuff in the cash office which is then locked by one of the managers who are often hard to get hold of. As I'm not allowed to have any belongings on the shop floor I'll need to leave my sanitary towels in the locked office, go find a manager sometime during my six hour shift, leg it up to the toilets, back with my bag to the office and then back to the shop floor.

GoldShip - Glad you feel that way but from some of the replies you can obviously see that some people don't share your opinion.

That's what drove me nuts about my job, pavlov, that they didn't treat us as adults. We were all highly educated, professional people, doing a high stress, professional job, but we weren't trusted to get on with it without having the managers breathing down our necks and timing our toilet breaks. When I was eight and a half months pregnant I was told that the number of toilet breaks I was taking had 'raised eyebrows' but that 'this time' they would put it down to my 'condition'. (Damn right, the bugger sat square on my bladder during the final six weeks).

I work in retail 9-3 so a 6 hour day with no scheduled breaks. I'm the only one in the shop and some days i don't stop for the whole 6 hours. However otherdays its relativly quiet so i get time to make a cuppa havce a bite to eat. I find it hard to believe that someone in retail is so busy everyday for 6 hours that they can't have a loo break or a drink.

pavlov that's great but not exactly practical in a shop or restaurant where customers expect to find staff available to serve them. I can imagine through threads on mn now if someone had to queue because a member if staff had popped out for a coffee and a fag.

Not sure many people would appreciate nurses, cares and midwife having breaks whenever they fancy either.

Put your ST's in the toilet in a bag with your name on it at the start of your shift, that way you just need to go to the loo and not worry about getting an office unlocked to get your ST's etc.

It is sad when employers treat their staff to the bear minimum - then they act all surprised when they don't get loyalty and wonder why...

I work in a very, very busy retail environment too, fourfinger. We get a break of 15mins sometimes during a 6 hour shift, 8 hour shift it's 45 mins. Like you say it's sometimes just nice to clear your head and have a glass of water, it's very different than sitting at a desk where you can have a drink when you want, have no need to 'rest you feet' for a few minutes..

A desk job is also tiring - I've done both, but running around a huge store, up three flights of stairs every ten minutes or so to collect things for customers within a time scale set by your manager is tiring in a totally different way.

You will lose weight though! Oh, and time does go quickly. You will get used to it, pretty quickly.

smeghead DHs boss's are salaried too, and they regularly work 70+ hours, and I think they don't get why DH would not want to bust his balls too. At least when DH does have to cover ridiculously long shifts and does not finish when he is meant to, and does not have a break, he gets paid for the time he works

As a sole charge nanny to small, young children/ babies with severe special needs. When would you suggest I hae a scheduled break? It's not at all illegal as I work in a home environment for private individuals.