To think a 2 hour lunch break is excessive?

[MsMarvel]

Having parkung space issues and need to talk to someone at the housing association office. They take a 2 hour lunch break from 12-2pm every day. And then close at 4pm.

This is excessive isnt it??

YANBU. Unless they are carrying out other work (i.e. admin) during part of lunch and after 4pm?

They will be spending more time at work than they are available to the public, although it is silly that they are not available at lunchtime, when I would have thought demand was quite high.

That's an unnecessarily huge lunchbreak.

They may not actually be taking a lunch break for that time

In my last job working for the council, I had 2h earmarked as a lunch break (so anyone that needed me was told I was in my break) but actually I was returning calls, in meetings etc

It was just a slot of time booked everyday that meant I could schedule things like this

But surely lunch time in a public facing job is quite an important time to at least have the office open and someone manning the reception desk? Could they not stagger their 2 hour admin/lunch breaks? There are at least 8 people in the office.

Its just frustrating that i normally dont get home till after 5pm so no chance of catching them before 4pm. So today I only have a half day for work and get home at 3 minutes past 12. But cant get to speak to anyone until after 2.

Do you have to talk to somebody specific, or are you saying there is NOBODY available between 12-2pm every day? If the latter, that is ridiculous.

Honestly, YABVU, when else are they supposed to go on MN?

Seriously though, that seems very unreasonable, when other people will be juggling work and other commitments in order to try and ring them. Can you ask for an email address and contact them that way?

There is NOBODY available between 12pm and 2pm. As in closed sign on the door, office all locked.

It's clearly to discourage people from coming to speak to them.

I do understand that they will perhaps limit times available for actual customer contact so that they can conduct other duties, but to limit the that available time exclusively to times of day when the vast majority of the working population will be working is a bit off imo.

They're probably not on a break for all that time, it's just when they 'close shop' to allow them to catch up with other work (paperwork etc) that they can't do while they're customer-facing.

Or maybe they're trying to save money and employees are paid for working 4 hours a day, but splitting up the hours so there are some in the morning and some in the afternoon?

Either way I'm pretty sure they're not out having five-course banquets every lunchtime! Agree it's annoying though.

It doesnt help the frustration that the office is astoundingly incompetant.

Managed to lose paperwork i submitted TWICE which is one of the reasons that ive been needing to try and speak to them pretty much every day for the last week or so. But can only manage to get in and speak to someone twice.

I agree with you it is frustrating and is quite possibly the only time of day when people who cannot make personal calls from their own workplaces will be able to call - especially as they close at 4pm.

I also agree it probably isn't genuinely a lunch break for at least one of the hours, just phrased that way for easy communication with the public.

Would be better to shift it to 11-1pm or 1-3pm so people had some chance of calling on their own lunch hours ... but probably a bit of a no win situation.

You should try living where I do (abraod, countryside) - the bakery shuts for a 3 hour lunch break - the bakery! Took me ages to remember that, although the bakery sells lunch products and has a seating area, you must buy your lunch before 11.30 or after 2.30pm Sorry that is a flipant comparison :o The local shop also shuts for the same 3 hours, and all afternoon (from 11.30am) on Wednesdays, and every afternoon in July and shuts down totally for all of August... The town hall (where you get everything from passports to parking permits to every sort of official business) is only open Monday-Wednesday mornings (closing at 12) or Friday afternoons only (opening at 2pm)... And we have to take our own plastic recycling to the recycling centre (fines if its found in the bins) but the only recycling centre is only open 4 hours a week, and it is technically not allowed to use one in another council area...

Hope you get your problem sorted OP! They are being U and should juggle their available to the public slots more helpfully!

Our doctors surgery won't answer the door or phone 12-2pm. Utterly ridiculous.

It is designed to make them unavailable. I'd love someone to investigate these housing associations, they were forever 'losing' my paperwork or 'sending it to another office for scanning' on application or readjustments so that my benefit was delayed month after month. Was impossible to get an appointment. In the end I sat in the office with all my copies and begged them to sort it out!

Ihope - were you returning calls to people who had called during your break the day before?!

The only reason im starting to get somewhere with the parking issues is because a couple of weeks ago i managed to get home before the office closed, went in and refused to leave until i either had a parking space, or something in writing to confirm that paperwork had been lost on sote twice and that it needed to be dealt with as a priority.

Funnily enought they managed to assign me a parking space (that may or may not already be someone elses...)

Its getting to the point where i want to just start banging my head against a wall.

I remember when I lived in France queuing in the post office for yet another dreary administrative reason. As soon as I got to the front, the guy closed his shutter and said "sorry, it's lunchtime!". I was