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.

Overtime in the NHS???? Fuck I’d better tell DH he’s been missing out!

Funeral Director/Embalmer 8am start and 8pm finish usually, however dependent on documents needed in urgency/ travel ,it can mean earlier starts and late night finish. I try to break the day up to have dinner with DH and DC, homework, bedtime.
DH works from home and often starts at 4am as he works with overseas Music Producers/artists. He often works late nights too.

Just because it is not your reality does not mean it is no one's.

DH works 12 hour shifts - 18:00 - 06:00. Meals are eaten while working.

He works on a 28 day rotation, his longest stretch is 7 days straight.

That is what working 12 hours means.

During the Christmas season, I'm in my studio from 6am until around 1am.
Take an hour's break for the kids breakfast and getting them to school, then a 15 minute lunch, then about 3 hours for picking kids up from after school club, dinner and their bedtime. Then back to work. So that's what... 14ish hours of working, with 5 hours of sleep. Don't have to travel as studio is at my home but if I didn't work like that for 5 days, my business wouldn't get through Xmas and days off with the kids.

I've been at my desk today. Started at 6.00am, just finished. Had an hour out to grab something to eat & drop DS at a friend. I work 7 days a week

All too common in city law firms - get in at 9.30 in the morning but then there until 2.00 am - repeat all week. No overtime but compensated by high salary, hopefully a bonus and career progression. We are all required to opt out of the working hours directive.

I'm a lawyer. Don't do 12 hour days every day but it's not very unusual for me to do 9am til 9pm (or later) with lunch at my desk.

You've lived a very sheltered life if you don't know anyone who works these shifts!

OP is either very naive or this is a wind up.
Teaching, NHS, hospitality, creative industry. Long hours, tons of unpaid overtime.
What job do you do OP?

NHS, sat at a desk from 7.15am - 7.15pm. Or any emergency services...

On duty at 0700 , off duty at 1900 hours if on days , 1900 on duty , 0700 off duty if on nights , assuming not having to stay on . Up to 6 days in a row . Eat on the hoof if I’m lucky , but will probably get scowled at for daring to do so. 100 mile each way commute so about 2.5 hrs either side of that before I get home . Collapse into bed , do it again the next day .

I know lots of people who work these kinds of hours (and I do at busy times), but I do wonder about productivity Vs hours at work. I tracked my working time once while trying to work on time management, and I found that if I actually stopped the clock when I was chatting to a colleague, quickly checking the news or going for a cup of tea I could put in 50 hours a week at my desk but only really clock up 35 productive hours. It may be (and I'm sure plenty of people on this thread will say) that I'm unusually indolent, but watching colleagues (who may also be unusually lazy, I suppose!) I don't think many people can actually do 12 hours focused, thinking work in a straight stint, or even 8.

Very typical in consultancy. 8-8, not including commute, no overtime.

I don't do those hours regularly anymore, but the nature of my job means that once or twice a week, I'll have to work 9am-10pm.

The great NHS OT is hilarious!!!! I need that poster to please inform my boss as she has clearly been unaware of this

I work 0730-2100 or 2030-0800. However I get 3-4 days off a week.I reckon I work around 10 hours on average a month unpaid. I also attend lots of training courses in my own time, unpaid.

Will all be worth it I guess when I get this excellent pension a pp spoke of except I will probably be dead by then

My OH used to work 12 hour shifts. That mean starting at either 7am or 7pm and finishing at either 7am or 7pm. It was a round the clock operational environment. Sometimes there would be time for breaks to eat and drink sometimes it would be a case of a quick coffee and back to the coal face. The shift pattern was something like 4 on then 4 off.

These long hours sound so awful! I don't understand when you get time to see your family or friends, have leisure time or do chores etc.

Creative industries, - totally normal to work late. Difference is with laptops and everything in the cloud you can work from home in the evenings and weekends. So I'll generally be in 9-7, as a typical day, but not uncommon to carry on working when I'm home

I do get paid very well now, but did longer hours when more junior and getting paid much less than I do now. Was still on £30-50k though - which is more than many working longer hours for much less, so I can't complain

These long hours sound so awful! I don't understand when you get time to see your family or friends, have leisure time or do chores etc.

Weekends

@MargaretCavendish - I totally agree. I am training to be a GP and whilst a day in gp can be very intense and long, a 13hr day in the hospital can feel vey intense as I hardly get to stop, but it gets to a point where you are so fatigued that you are not working at your best. I probably get far more achieved in a slightly shorter day in gp working in an efficient system than I do in a laborious day in the shambles that is hospital medicine, with the added bonus that I get at least some time for hobbies and spending time with my children... 🤷🏻‍♀️

When I was teaching it meant on a standard week day -
Start preparing classroom 8.00am, morning meeting 8.30, pupil contact (lessons, registration, supervision in assembly etc) from 8.50 until 12.30 (break of 15 mins twice a week, other days duty with children, (i.e. no time to even go to the loo or get a coffee, straight on to yard or wherever) 15 mins break to sort class and get coffee three times a week.
4 and half hours
Lunch in classroom whilst sorting classroom ready for afternoon classes and writing up some of the morning evaluations. Pupil contact 1.15 to 3.30
3 hours
write up more evaluations and tidy classroom, check / make resources for next day. Phone parents, meet with colleges for joint planning. Leave school at 5.30.
2 hours
After dinner at home, children to bed etc: (this is not counted as working) Then complete lesson evaluations, Mark books and fill in mark book, plan and prepare lessons.
3-4 hours - longer if it's report time or prep for parents evening etc needed
Total 12 hours + on standard week day.
Only did a 7 hour day planning and marking on Sundays and about half of the "holidays".
Yes, full on working a 12 hour plus day was very normal. That's why so many of us burn out.

I start at 7am and finish at 10pm but I work in supported living.

I tracked my working time once while trying to work on time management, and I found that if I actually stopped the clock when I was chatting to a colleague, quickly checking the news or going for a cup of tea I could put in 50 hours a week at my desk but only really clock up 35 productive hours.

While I get your point, I'm not convinced that greater 'efficiency' necessarily works to make people significantly more productive.

Particularly if the work is creative/problem solving. You can't necessarily steam through that kind of work, head down.

Sometimes it's the 10 minutes when you're getting a cup of tea that the key idea falls into place, or you figure out how to best frame your argument. I find that this kind of work generally refuses to be hurried.

DH is a policeman help does 12hr shifts. At the station ready to hit the road at 6am works until 6pm. Or conversely 6pm until 6am.
So yes 12 hr shifts, away from home roughly 14hrs a day

The fact is that many careers and employers demand these hours from people, but it is not sustainable nor compatible for good mental health, good work/life balance, or family life. If I was ever an employer I would never design a Rota in which an employee works more than 8 hours a day. It is just inefficient and not sustainable. It is ironic that most people who design these Rotas are usually in a nice comfortable 9-5 desk job. Or in doctors case politicians like Jeremy Hunt, who I doubt even others to clock 40 hours.

Long hours aren't great but mortgages/bills don't pay for themselves nor does the leisure time you mention