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’ve never done a purely desk job, I can’t comment on office workers I always assumed their hours are more regular and a bit more cushty, 9/5 no weekends etc sounds dreamy xx"

I have a 9 to 5 job. On the rare occasions I have to do a bit longer, the boredom is almost unbearable. I would have thought the time went quicker with a more active job like in the emergency services, although really tiring.
I bet there are loads of people currently doing 3 x 12 that would complain if those hours were spread over 5 days to make it 9-5 as some people like compressed hours.

When I was working it could either mean a shift from 8am to 8pm with a half hour lunch break or a split shift of two six hour shifts with a few hours in between.

The latter are horrible because though it's twelve hours working it could mean leaving the house at six and not getting back until 8 at night.

My mum is a nurse and used to regularly do three 12 hour night shifts. 8pm-8am

"it's unlikely you'll progress if you expect everyone else to pick up the slack because you're a prima donna. "

Wow. You call someone working their proper hours a 'prima donna'. And people say we don't have a long hours culture!
So basically it's about pressure from colleagues and getting promoted?

Before baby I did 10 hour shifts but legally I had to get 2*15 minutes and a 30 minute break

I would have split shifts as well Billy. Quite a few people in southern Spain seem to work 8 to 12, half four hours for lunch and then 4 to 8 and I think that's pretty awful as well, especially if you don' live close enough to home to go there in your break.

Today I have to be in my office for 8.30... I will then work until 9pm.

I am a teacher. I teach a night class tonight after a full day.

Working 12 hours means exactly that, IMO. I have a 12 hour day but only 9 spent working, the rest commuting.

My husband sometimes works actual 12+ hour days - I am truly grateful I don’t. I can feel my productivity drop off after about 3pm.

"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"

People are talking about working weekends also!

As a self employed person married to an emergency services worker we'd love a 12hr day...

I've just had my first day off in wks and DH just started a 14day long stint.

It's really not uncommon at all unfortunately

TuTru - dispatchers and EMD are purely desk and same shifts, 12hrs

For me it would beb12 hours including the 30 minute break. I'm still.expected to read circulars etc if I'm sat in the staff room.

On a typical week I do 9 - 5 at my desk, leave to get the kids/do bedtimes etc and then on two nights of the week I work again from 8 - 12.

Wow. You call someone working their proper hours a 'prima donna'. And people say we don't have a long hours culture!
So basically it's about pressure from colleagues and getting promoted?

I don't work somewhere that 12h days are a daily occurrence

But it's not wildly unusual and when it happens, you are expected to do your job to meet the deadline

If client feedback comes in, or some of the code just isn't working, or the design isn't right, and you decide you're simply not going to do the work that's required at that particular time, then the company is going to miss the deadline and face the consequences of not delivering for the client. The company could lose the account. People could end up getting laid off if that happens. That's unlikely to happen based on one failure to deliver, but if it kept happening consistently because one team member refused to do the work, that could have ramifications.

It's being a prima donna if you simply refuse to chip in to do the work needed to meet the deadline at crunch time.

If it was every single day, day in day out, then that would be the case that the job in question wasn't for you if you wanted a straightforward 9-5.

@Gwenhwyfar (You have changed your name OP?)

Would you get sacked if you didn't or is it something you choose to do?

The NHS is still running due to the good nature of it's staff that will not leave until their patients care is either complete or fully handed over to the next member of staff.

Potentially getting the sack doesn't even come in to that decision. Our professional registration is far more important a motivation.

At busy times I can easily be at my desk at 6.30am and not even thinking about leaving until 7/8pm. And you can also bet that I've eaten at my desk, so no lunch break either

Only a student midwife here but during placements we’ll do at least 3 long shifts (12.5h) and a short shift a week, and depending on shift patterns you sometimes end up with 4 long shifts in a week (although that’s usually only a couple of times a term so can’t complain).

Up until about 5 years ago, I frequently used to work more than 60 hours a week! Monday to Friday, I would arrive at my desk at 8.15am and leave at around 8.00pm, often having eaten a sandwich at my desk at around 12.30 while I worked, so no proper lunch break. I would then also go to the office and work a further 5 to 8 hours on either Saturday or Sunday. All the hours above my contracted hours (of 37.5 hrs a week) were unpaid.

I look back and wonder how I did it. I certainly couldn't (and wouldn't!) do that now.

all this competitive busyness!

Stop eating a sandwich at your desks and get up and go for a walk. Leave your desks at 5/5.30pm and spend some time with your partners and kids!

My core hours are 9.30 - 5.30 with an hour lunch, before last week I’d had a run of about 3 weeks just working those. Last week I did 8 - 8 every day with no lunch (including my birthday ) and I’m just about to get started again today. We have a big project due Wednesday and after that it should go back to normal for a bit. Agree it shouldn’t be standard but sometimes you just need to get stuff done.

Can I ask people why you do it?

Because often the whole industry is set up as such and it's difficult to go against that culture. If client work is consistently not delivered on time (and that's often pretty well impossible to do in contracted hours) then yes, you would get fired.

Extra resourcing can be difficult to get within the business, you're fighting others for it, so often it all falls to you. To be fair, some people are better at securing adequate resources than others - and you get better at this with time and seniority.

Wow. You call someone working their proper hours a 'prima donna'. And people say we don't have a long hours culture! So basically it's about pressure from colleagues and getting promoted?

You make it sound as though it’s about greed. It’s not. There’s too much work to be done in the normal working day. If you leave it then:

(a) you generally have more to do the next day, and the next, until it becomes intolerable;

(b) if others have to pick up after you, you are adding to their already too heavy workload;

(c) there is a cultural expectation that you will stay late. No-one leaves at 5.30;

(d) in a service industry, clients and customers complain if their work isn’t turned around very quickly. Email has made this so much worse. People start chasing within hours, sometimes minutes. If you delay doing the work, you are harassed by email and phone. If the clients are unhappy it can lead disciplinary issues and certainly inhibits promotion.

Basically, working longer hours is the norm in many sector and is often less stressful than trying to work to rule.

Junior doctor. Part time now I have a baby - average now only 34 hrs a week but some weeks are 70hrs and some 0 - they use your annual leave when then avaergae our the hours over 16 weeks so your holiday weeks bring the others down. Payed half what ft colleagues get. Work 8.45-1800 normal days, 8.45 to 21.30 longs and 2100 to 9.30 nights. Work 1 in 4 weekends on either longs or nights.

Hour and a half commute so on nights I’m out the house 15 hours. I don’t see my daughter those days. Studying for exams at the moment so 1-2hrs study after work on short days. We don’t get paid for our admin work like writing clinic letters or preparing presentations so that’s another hour or two a week as well. Unlike nurses out breaks are paid but we are expected to answer our bleeps in them and attend emergencies so it’s rare you get a full break.

I have a horrendous commmute as my job moves every 6 months to a year to a different hospital and I just couldn’t face moving her childcare again. Hoping for a shorter one in August - still don’t know where I will be working.

Why do I do it? Most of the time I’m not sure, but my speciality is very short of doctors. We are always being asked to do extra shifts, often with serious guilt trips and threats of GMC referrals. Before I went part time it felt like if I quit then people would die - someone has to do this shit so that people have healthcare!

Soochef what job do you do that allows you to “Leave your desks at 5/5.30pm”? What happens to all the excess work you are leaving behind? Do your clients and customers not complain?

If not, sounds like you are working in a completely different industry to lots on this thread.

Gertrude - I didn't say greed at all. I said a long hours culture, which you agreed with in your point c.
I think it's disgusting that someone who works their proper hours is called a 'prima donna'. That doesn't mean I think people are greedy.

When you talk about disciplinary, would the employer say 'you're being given a formal warning because you've refused to do hours and hours of unpaid overtime' or will they try to avoid saying that and just say 'because the project wasn't completed on time'.

" if others have to pick up after you, you are adding to their already too heavy workload;"

Yes, but if they all refused, the employer would have to hire more workers. This is how it works in some countries.