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.

Sochef- Can’t go for a walk at lunchtime as I have to be on site to attend emergencies. I’m not even supposed to walk to the canteen as it’s to far to run back! Also can’t just up and leave at 5.30, their are patients still to see, if I left there care wouldn’t be up to standard. So many complaints about the nhs here. A complaint to the gmc could ruin me. And I care that people don’t come to harm.

I do get lots of exercise running around the hospital so that’s good.

Sorry Gwen, I misread the tone then.

If all the workers got together and worked to rule it wouldn’t make any difference really as the demand for jobs far outstrips supply. We have 1000+ applications for 10 internships. There’s plenty willing to step into our shoes.

Care.
14 hour shift, 10 hr sleepover.
But of course everyone works in an office Monday to Friday Dont they 🙄

I used to work in hospitality - I would pull longer shifts with 45 minute breaks. Sometimes I would stay overnight then do a shift in the morning. I left because I had no life - never saw my family.

Husband used to be in banking - not unusual for people to come in by7 and not leave till 7/8pm with a sandwich at their desks. Have a friend in corporate law - works 7-7 then has client evenings.

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

That's assuming those extra hires even exist. 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.

As a cook for an old peoples home I started at 7, had two hours off 1-3, then left at 7.
Working in pubs I'd often open up at 10, have an hour off where I could and close at 11.

I work a 37 hour week on shift work including weekends.

Some days I will work 12/11 inclusive . Due to the nature of our work we don't have break time and lunch times so o that shift I have worked 11 hours and only have 26 to do. We just take a break when we need it or when it fits in. The advantage of doing a long day like this means that we get 3 days off a week. I only live 10 min drive to work so I wouldn't include that as part of my working day.

My OH starts charging his customers when he leaves our drive. So a day like today when he'll be gone from 5.45am to probably 8pm can be typical, it's not difficult when he often has to work a weekend (on call) to rack up 60+ hours, sometimes he can go several weeks without a day off at all. When prepping for the Olympics and while they were on in 2012 he worked 3 months of 7 days weeks, some days he was only home about 5 hours a night/day (worked some nights too).

Haven't read the whole thread.

I'm not in the uk but about to start a job with the emergency services where for the first six months my hours will be - 4 days of 14hr 6min shifts, (nights) followed by 4 days off, then 5 days of 12hr 15 min shifts (days) followed by 3 days off. The next lot of shifts is reversed, same hours but days then nights.

It's not uncommon as an EMT.

This has captured it beautifully:

*(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. *

A bit and c leading to the worst burnout, and basically either people being crushed and leaving or (if they can't quit, primary breadwinner) a mixture of bullying (mostly for men I've seen in this position)... Or the mummy track (seen as a joke, taking up a good job!).

In our profession, 70 - 80 hours a week is normal (at least in central London) and that means chargeable hours in the office, with commuting on top.

Police officer: regular 12-20+ hour shifts!!

It's a lucky day if you get an uninterrupted lunch.

You certainly don't get a lunch break. You just eat if you can. Which is normally a five minute scoff in your car parked in a quiet road. Or on the way home. And it's always on your first bite of food when you get sent to yet another call!

And no assigned breaks. You'd be laughed at if you said you were going on a break!

Depends where you work though.

And then you go home and see a photo of yourself on the news eating said sandwich in your car with a predictable headline like 'Lazy police officer avoids work blah blah blah'

When you've just spent the past 21 hours trying to function on a single sandwich.

The ambulance service are pretty much in the same boat though, if not worse.

I'll stop moaning now! I'm not bitter

Haha, I bloody wish I was loaded PoisonousSmurf
Despite working at least 45 hours a week and sometimes as much as 86 (I think my record was 370 hours in one month, with one half day and one full day off, every other day I worked 12+ hours) some weeks I can't afford to heat my home and my grocery budget is £11.25 per week.
I have an expensive commute, but can't afford to move, because I can't save, because I have an expensive commute and I live in an unemployment hotspot (I went for an entry level job that had 450 other applications just last month - ex mining town) finding a new job just isn't possible though I try my very best.

I've only just replaced my primark shoes, which had holes in after 14 months of wear (what do you get for £4).

FFS @Hilltoptea, how dare you expect uninterrupted refs!! Don't you know we pay your salary, you're all lazy and corrupt, why are you stopping speeding motorists and not catching real criminals!? Etc etc etc. (Can you guess where I used to work?)

for you. In fact, and would be better.

SooChef: 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!

Fantastic idea. Next time I'm at work and it hits lunchtime and I'm peckish, I'll just ignore the 15+ patients that are due medication, the old lady that is crying for someone to help her to the toilet, the doctors that need my help to get on with ward review, and the mountain of paperwork I need to fill in and just pop off the ward for an hour to get a sandwich. and some fresh air.

Seriously are people really so blinkered that they don't realise we don't all have office jobs?

Seriously are people really so blinkered that they don't realise we don't all have office jobs

People making comments like that are probably the same people who say that being a SAHP is the hardest job in the world, claim that going to work is like 'having a rest' and imagine it to be a bit of light admin work interspersed by drinking hot coffee and taking part in intelligent conversation with other adults in a world with no pressure, no deadlines, no unreasonable bosses or clients, no travel etc etc.

I am quite often sat at my desk in my office for that amount of time and sometimes longer, less a couple of quick toilet breaks and no lunch hour. I wish I was exaggerating

This thread is depressing. Even if the salary was very high, I would not work 60/70 hour weeks on a regular basis. I would find it intolerable. I understand the long shifts x3 per week which I think is acceptable but 12 hour days 5 days per week sounds really relentless and awful.
Maybe if you love your job then it is different. I work 15 hours per week over 2 days 7 to 230 and my dh works Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and I think that's too much!

In the last 12 years (when I've worked in the jobs with the anti social, long hours), I honestly haven't done my jobs for the money. I mean, obviously I've needed the money but I could have made similar for many less hours.

But my work is more of a vocation than a job. I'd do it for less. I hate missing birthdays and Christmas, and having annual leave cancelled but I'd hate to do anything else. And it's certainly not 'competitive busyness' - I know very few people who would want to do the work or hours I do.

I work 15 hours per week over 2 days 7 to 230 and my dh works Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and I think that's too much! how many hours WOULD be acceptable Princess Sheffielder?? Your DH works a basic week!

When I worked two jobs I'd do 9-5 every day then 6-9 three nights, but at least I got a 30 minute lunch break and the hrs gap was food and commute so fresh air (bus air!!) and looking back I don't know how I had the energy, let alone doing 60 hour weeks.

Thing is if you want to do certain jobs then that's either the shift pattern it the expectation. Most everyone with a less career orientated shit shift pattern is just trying to play the bills. Some people are workaholics and would do these hours regardless but its not a good sign when so many can only afford to pay the bills by working crazy hours

I think what you find depressing depends on your perspective - I think 50 or 60 hour weeks in a job you find stimulating and interesting is a lot less depressing than spending 40 hours a week doing something you hate and are bored by.

To all those people saying they "couldn't" or "wouldn't" work long hours... You do know that it's people working those hours that enables your life, yes..?

Bin men aren't getting up for a morning yoga class when they start at 4:30am (I live on the first route around here). Doctors who you struggle to get an appointment with, if they did less can you imagine what it would result in. People staying after shop closing to tidy up by half an hour even on late shop nights. The 24hr plumber who's working on call allyear because he needs to establish his business and your boiler packs in but you complain he can't get here until tomorrow afternoon. The arts student ending up in a creative job working for an industry prima Donna who says rehearsals go on until 1am if needed because you demand a good show for a good price and that Industry runs on the blood of underpaid staff.

And so on...

I work 12 hour shifts, nurse in private setting, I'm in sole charge of unit so can't leave the building.
I grab lunch etc but that can be interrupted at any point & pretty much always is.

DH worked 6am-6pm 5 days a week for over 7 years. Out of the house by 5.20am often not home until nearly 7pm.
Now he 'only' works 40 hours and it's amazing. It feels like we all have so much more time together.

Leave your desks at 5/5.30pm and spend some time with your partners and kids!

That'll hold up in coroner's court. "Yeah sorry people died because I left my shift two hours early, someone on MN told me to leave my desk and spend time with my family".