To not be certain what people mean when they say they work for 12 hours a day.

[topcat2014]

Now, I get that we are busy - but here is my question.

If people say they work 60 hours a week (say), then do they really mean:

At my desk from 07:00 to 19:30 with a half hour for lunch, every day - or

Leave the house at 07:00 and arrive home at 19:00.

I have never worked anywhere where staff are sat at their desks from 7am to 7pm, so not quite sure.

I used to do 24 hours shifts in a care home - lone worker, 7 residents. We were only paid £20 between 10pm and 7am too as that was sleep in hours. The other hours were just above minimum wage. It was hard going if they had us up all night as nobody to take over until the shift ended.

Toilet, food, drink all had to fit around the residents.

I previously worked a 7pm to 7am shift with a 30 minute ‘lunch’ break. My contract was for 3 days per week (36 hours) but overtime was available for the other 4 days and often paid at double rate so many people did do 6/7 days in a row. I occasionally done 4 or 5 days a week but you do burn out quickly doing so many hours, particularly on a night shift.

If I work a 12 hour day it’s from 8am til 8.30pm with a half hour break.

"My company is currently desperate to hire more people with a particular profile but can't due to the skill set in question being in very short supply."

So you should be in a good bargaining position for better conditions?
Exactly the opposite to where Gertrude works it seems.

"It’s a great work life balance. 50h week at most"

You think that's great work-life balance!!!

"If you're aiming for a promotion - it's not going to happen if you're doing the bare minimum."

Working your contracted hours isn't doing the bare minimum though.

"
That's simply not sustainable for a company to over staff a project and absorb the costs for their billable time. It would go bust if it did this routinely "

Bananafish - it's done in other countries,

It was so sad going to the People's History Museum and reading about how things got a bit better for every generation in the past. What a struggle it was to get an 8-hour day and here are people voluntarily letting to of our workers' rights. God knows what will happen to us after Brexit.

*Gwenhwyfar

"If you're aiming for a promotion - it's not going to happen if you're doing the bare minimum*

I've been promoted 4 times in 8 years by doing a 37 hour week.

I've been promoted 4 times in 8 years by doing a 37 hour week.

Depends on the industry though. It wouldn't happen in a city law firm, consultancy, banking.

its done in other countries

Not in my industry. We compete for projects globally and everyone is in the same boat.

I worked a job once that three times a week I had to do 7:30-21:15. Doctors (esp gps) can definitely work 12 hours a day or more!

I've been promoted 4 times in 8 years by doing a 37 hour week

Depends on the industry though. It wouldn't happen in a city law firm, consultancy, banking
Of course it does. That's why it is particularly daft to come up with broad sweeping statements as if they are fact!!

I don’t know anyone who works at a desk.

Not one.

I don’t know anyone who works at a desk

Not one
I know dozens!
I don't get your point

Really PurpleTraitor?
I find that difficult to believe.

My GPs work at desks. Teachers and Lecturers work at desks {doesn't mean they spend all their time at them, but they have them and do work at them}. Admin staff work at desks. Receptionists work at desks. Lots of engineers work at desks {again, not all the time}. Call Centre staff work at desks. Estate agents work at desks. Solicitors, lawyers, Accountants, accounts clerks all work at desks. HR people work at desks. Managers in many, may, many industries work at desks. We could go on and on.
I find it hard to believe you don't know anyone who works at a desk.

its done in other countries

Not so in my industry. It's a global sector, we work with global clients, and are competing with firms in other markets.

A company that decided to over-staff the same project with double the headcount just to provide a buffer in case of the times it might get extra busy, and absorbed those costs directly (because they couldn't bill them to the client) would go bust very quickly. £100k billable hours but staffing with £200k worth of hours - simply not sustainable

Where does the money come from to resource the same project for the same money with 50% extra staff?

If a supermarket suddenly puts the prices up by 50% for the same products, and everywhere else is selling them for the same, you're going to switch supermarket.

If the supermarket decides to switch from selling everything at cost, to giving away 3 for the price of 2 on everything, without passing on any of that cost to the customer, they'll go out of business fairly rapidly

So you should be in a good bargaining position for better conditions?
Exactly the opposite to where Gertrude works it seems

I'm in an excellent position to bargain for more money. Supply and demand.

The more in demand your skills, the higher the salary or day rate you can command

I do use it to bargain for better conditions. I insist that my terms are my day rate and a 4-day week. They can take me part time or leave it. They take me on because they value what I do and the contribution I make. But there's no question that my being part time makes life more difficult for my colleagues. And that if I were to decide to insist on leaving the office at 6pm as well - regardless of whether the work is done - thereby causing the team to miss deadlines, then my skillset becomes largely irrelevant if the company loses the client's business as a result

9am to 9pm for me sometimes.
My colleague often does 7 to 7.

Depends how busy we are. I Did 9am till 2am recently with two half hour breaks (ish)

As a teacher I used to get to school around 7am/7.30am, work through lunch and break, stay until 4.30 or later if having a meeting/parents evening/open evening/training, etc, then often work an hour or so at home and at least half a day at the weekend. Would definitely be 60+ hours in total.

I do 8-8 overnight. 1 hour break unpaid.

In healthcare, I will add.

My old career regularly had 16-18 hour days. It was in the entertainment industry and long days are the norm. Thankfully, I don't do those hours anymore as I changed career. It's pretty normal for many people to do upwards of 12 hours unfortunately.

I went into a school for a mentorship program in a very low income area and very few of the parents were working. The ones that were working were not sitting at a desk as the jobs were manual unskilled roles. I'm sure there are people who don't know anyone who works at a desk.

As an auditor of registered broker dealers my work hours as an auditor were brutal. You have two months after year end to audit the balance sheet when the books close the 3rd week of January. From Jan 1st I worked 7Am - past midnight until all entities were issued. Bank entities have their deadline a month later then run straight into Q1 review for issuance mid may.

Of course I was put on two clients with all the same deadlines stacked one after another. I also had to do the regulatory filings along side the first issuance round.

DH works 12 hour shifts. He's a paramedic.

went into a school for a mentorship program in a very low income area and very few of the parents were working. The ones that were working were not sitting at a desk as the jobs were manual unskilled roles. I'm sure there are people who don't know anyone who works at a desk

But they still know and see regularly teachers, doctors, nurses and receptionists, people at the job centre, who work at desks.

Before my DH retired, he worked in the NHS and worked a shift pattern in which the nights were 8 pm to 8 am.

"its done in other countries

Not so in my industry."

France has a 35-hour week. They can work more as long as all the hours built up are later taken as holiday, but the limit for the average over the year is 35 hours.