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.

Hi - my daughter recently shadowed a GP in the south coast. They were sitting at their desk at 8am, taking consultations all day (drinks at desk, quick bite between consults, visiting patients and wrapping up at 9.30pm) ...so a 13.5hr day. They worked 3/4 days a week as the hours are so intense.
DH is a company boss and works from 8-9pm most days. He often has to take work on hols and he also works sat from around 10-12.
So yes, it's very real for lots of people.

Slippermaiden: “Nurse... start work 0715, finish 1945, if I'm lucky. Unpaid 1 hour break”
Is that your standard daily hours

That's standard for nursing but 'full time' 37.5 hours a week is supposed to be 13 shifts a month to average out at this and any shifts above this should be paid as overtime/extra hours but whether it actually happens I don't know.

I used to be a nanny and worked 7am-7pm (often longer as parents would get in and want to chat etc). Nannies don’t really get breaks so if I was lucky I could grab 20 minutes for lunch inbetween chores during nap time!

My DH works 12 hour shifts as an engineer in a food factory but it’s a great pattern - 2 x 12 hr days + 2 x 12 hr nights then 4 days off.

Most people don’t count their commutes unless they’re working on them; but lets be real, most train commuters into London, able to avail of wifi, work their commute.

So I take my train at 6am, work for an hour to London, chill out in the 30mins via london underground, work until 6 or 7pm with an hour for the gym (lunch gets eaten at the desk), then on my way back I might take a meeting after the underground portion of my trip.

I also monitor my emails on the weekends to ensure I can respond to urgent issues. But I work in Investment banking where long hours are a given; the differentiator between companies is flexibility. I don’t have to work in the office!

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

See, I think this is why you are getting confused, assuming everyone works at a desk! I used to work 48 hours a week, 4 x 12 hour night shifts. OK, so we would get a break, but if the emergency bell went off, or the bells got too busy, we would have to respond, so were never really off duty.

Frequently in the office from 8am till 8pm. Often later when particularly busy / against a deadline. Eat at desk (no real lunch break as such). Standard in my industry. Commute is an hour each way on top. Often work 6 or 7 days on the trot too.

I'd never count my commute as working time.

On a set of on-calls I'd arrive 8am and leave 8.30pm. Entitled to two paid 20 minute breaks in that time, generally taken "flexibly" so no set time. 1 hour commute each way. Healthcare.

I can't really imagine sitting at a desk for a full 12 hours though, I imagine it's really difficult to stay focused on the same type of task for that length of time if you're not doing something physical as well so I suppose I see what you mean.

Police officer and I do 12 hour shifts minimum every weekend set.

Hahahaha poisonousSmurf - good one. For some - maybe. For teachers / healthcare workers / others, working 60 hours means ‘getting paid for 37.5 and doing a LOT of unpaid overtime as that’s what’s needed to do the job. Lots of people in retail / hospitality might be on MW. People do it because they need the job.

NHS: arrive for work 07.15, shift starts 07.30, shift finishes 20.00, leave anytime betwee n 20.00 and midnight. Reverse the numbers for a night shifts, obvs. And as we swing between nights and days in the same week, plenty of non-work hours are used trying to adjust one's body clock sufficiently to work without being a danger.

3-4 shifts a week. Days, night, weekends.

I do this many hours and my dh does too.
We have a business, I'm employed and currently setting up a new business.
That's without domestic chores too.
People are busy, it's surely not that difficult to comprehend.

I almost always work a 60hr week, often 80-90hrs. That doesn’t include my (relatively short) commute.

I don’t just sit at my own desk all day, I’m in and out of meetings, visiting clients etc. I eat while working, whether in the office or at a business lunch/dinner. On a quiet day I maybe spend about 15 minutes on personal calls/emails and another 15 on personal conversations with co-workers. The rest of the time I’m working. I’m very senior and have total flexibility, so there’s no reason for me to hang about doing nothing. If I’m at work, I’m working. When I work 60 hours it’s all at work. When I’m getting up to 90, 10 or so of that is paperwork completed at home.

Not everyone works at a desk, manual labour when the weather is good and the days long my husband works 7am - 9pm with a short break

Shift work in social care here.
Usual shifts are 15 hours, so 8am - 11pm. Often though I will start at say 8am on a Monday, and finish at 8am on a Wednesday (sleep in's required in my role) then be back for an 8:00-23:00 on Thursday. We don't get 'breaks' as we eat etc with service users, although we can nip out for 5 minutes for a phone call or cigarette if you smoke.

When I started teaching I regularly worked 70 hours a week, sometimes 80 (no overtime)

I worked from home in the evening and at weekends. Most teachers do, and I am sure many other people.

My commute used to be quite long. Boarded the train at 6.15 am, in at work about 8 am, leave at 5.30 pm, commute home, grab some dinner then be on the phone or to our US office until 10 pm- 11 pm.

Paid for 9-5. Told any extra hours were my choice, and my choice alone (never mind Washington didn't come online until 3 pm London time and that's when my day officially started).

So, my boss would have said I worked 35 hours. I would have said rather more than that.

It would be actual working hours. Commute not included

Nurses: I get that the shifts can be long. And therefore intense and stressful. But if you’re only doing 3-4 a week then it kind of equates to a standard Full time job in terms of weekly hours?

I leave the house at 0700, start work at 0800 and finish at 2100. If I'm lucky I get a 30 minute break. If we're busy, I barely have time to go to the toilet.

I used to work from 8.30 to 10.30. Those were the hours I was paid for, minus an hour's break.

I used to work in a job where busy periods meant a few months of 7 am- 9 pm days Monday to Friday and then a full day's worth over the weekend. Was fortunate enough to get a job with better work/life balance for when children came along.

I've a lot of admiration for those working those sorts of hours on this thread and fitting it around families and making it work.

A lot of this sounds crazy! So many people working such long hours and yet so many people unemployed.

*@PoisonousSmurf *
So many people working long hours. You must be loaded! Why else work such long hours?

Have you heard of the NHS?

My DH is out of the house at 7am and rarely ever home before 7pm, the odd day at 5pm, sometimes out as late as 10pm. Though its not just solid working, it's driving around to different jobs, going to meet customers and some actual graft mixed in. He owns his own business so its always busy making sure jobs are finished and new jobs are ready to start. Some days he'll come home at 7pm and tell me he's not actually done any 'work' himself (he's a tiler - so not done any tiling) because he's been so busy with phone calls or meetings or making sure the lads are going their job right - still just as tired though!