To think that an 8 hour work day is actually quite short?

[AllDayBreakfast]

I've been listening to various discussions on the radio about how we could be just as productive with a shorter work day.

As a hgv driver I work a minimum of around 10 hours a day and it's not at all unusual for this to sometimes become a 12 hour day if I get stuck somewhere waiting on POA (period of availability - basically being paid for waiiting).

When I was in sales a few years ago I'd also have to regularly spend evenings and sometimes weekends working on drafts of proposals, getting the pricing, formatting, wording sorted, etc (100+ page documents).

Whilst I'd love a 6 hour day, i can't help but feel that we're becoming a bit soft as a society. I don't really like the idea of the 60 hour week that many blue collar guys work, but trying to lessen a 37.5 hour week seems a bit lazy to me!

YANBU about people being lazy though. Like when people say I work really hard from 9 to 5 five days a week. Lol, they don't know what hard work is most likely.

I agree that people should recognise their privilege, I don’t think that aspect of your post came across in your OP. It read as though you were saying that as some people work in industries that necessitate longer hours, people who could potentially cut their working hours with no cut in productivity shouldn’t do so as it’s lazy and unfair.
FWIW I only ever moaned in my 9-5 when it actually turned out to be 8-7 plus commute, plus answering emails on my laptop all evening at home. Which was most days!

@AllDayBreakfast

Yeah YANBU. An 8 hour day is WAAAAAAY too short. Should be 12-14 hours at LEAST, (not including travel time of course....)

And a 10 minute lunch break only. And two 3-minute breaks - one mid morning and one mid afternoon. And on these breaks they have to use the loo. If they need to go for a pee in between breaks, they will have to hold it.

Also, make the week longer - 6 days a week. 78-80 hours a week of work ain't gonna hurt anyone. Make those bastards earn their money - lazy cunts.

.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am taking the piss.

But how can you decide what working hard means? Is it physical work? More mental work? What makes something hard work surely varies between people. Do builders work hard? Yes. Do retail workers work hard?Yes. Etc. Some 9-5 jobs can be very hard work just cause someone isn't working unsocial hours or long days didn't mean they are not working hard. I had a 9-5 job a few years ago it was hard work, I wasn't lazy in any way.

Thank you Racecardriver!

This wasn't meant to be a rant or an admonishment in any way. I'd never go back to office work, but I've had my eyes opened as a middle class guy who's moved from a decent office job to a better paid but unquestionably blue collar job.

It's tdultopened my eyes to 'how then other half live'. There are so many people earning a pittance for working ridiculous hours and yet most of the whinging I've experienced has been from my professional friends.

I'm just saying that a lot of people are blind to how huge numbers of people in our society live on a daily basis - I'd imagine this comment could be applied to a lot of demographics.

Allday it's not a competition.

Presenteeism is idiotic and very prevalent. In a lot of office jobs (and other jobs like teaching actually) senior management set too much store by hours on the premises rather than work done.

Often someone efficient getting all their work done properly and taking their lunxh break and leaving punctually is seen as a shirker, while someone who sits gossiping, surfing the net, eating at their desk etc all day and stays til 7:30pm to catch up on work they could have done in the day if they'd applied themselves, and to avoid pulling their weight with children and the domestic load at home is seen as a "team player" at work.

It's ironic and destructive.

A shorter working day is often more productive.

IMO a good job is one with a good work life balance, not one where presenteeism is rewarded or your employer is too stingy or too close to going under and therefore cant or won't employ sufficient staff for the work load and expects to be employees' priority outside their contracted hours.

I am a freelance. We work a "professional" day. We get paid for 8 hours, but in reality we probably do 9 or 10. If I am in the office I stay at hotels as it is too far to commute, so am teased for my 5* luxury lifestyle, but I also have the luxury of working at home, so it balances out.
My only issue is that when I have time to do things, like the garden, the weather usually scuppers me.

I think your class observations are different to mine (as that is what you are implying). DH used to sometimes work 12 hours a day, with a commute on top. My dad is a builder and works 8-4pm, with no more than a 15 min commute ever.

I definitely don't think people should more longer hours. As a society we work WAaaaay too hard and this has a detrimental effect on family life and society. Do people ever wonder why this is? It's so we can have more money to buy more stuff, otherwise our economy would collapse.

DH has now given up his job and works very part time. We have a LOT less money. But we have more time as a family and we are happier. It's actually better having less.

I think YABU.

*more longer? One of these words would suffice....

EXACTLY blueskies I do often find the people who come in early, (8am,) get their head down and don't piss about and chat all day, and leave at half three, are most productive workers. Just coz someone is there 10 hours, that doesn't mean they are working hard.

I know/have known some real fucking 'salaried slackers,' and I have spent many a week/month carrying the fuckers. I do/have done EASILY twice as much work as them, in less time too!

Someone working more hours does not necessarily do more work.

@AllDayBreakfast YABU - and you are talking gibberish.

Cakecrumbsinmybra my ex boyfriend was a builder and his dad a welder. Both were home at 4pm without fail.
My dad worked in management consultancy. He worked away for the vast majority of the year in places like Saudi Arabia. I barely saw him. DH works for a bank and is often working until 11pm. His work email is pinging constantly.

I worked in a physically easy job. Well not easy but not a fireman climbing up ladders. My hours were 9 to 5 but with the commute it was 7 to 7 more often than not. (traffic an utter nightmare and often there a bit early and left late)
I've also worked 12 hour shifts.

I don't get your point. What is wrong with whinging you've have had to work extra hours when that six o'clock finish means you get home past your kids bedtimes.

Or is it only office staff who need to 'toughen up'

Lorry driving is a job which requires you to be absolutely on the ball but it's no harder than many other jobs out there.

Intend to agree . If you include commuter time I do an 11 hour day most days

The world has changed and this is the norm for our industrialised society

And - it sucks

No time for me , no time for kids

Just work

OP, the more you post the more you sound jealous of other people. People who work shorter days and earn a good salary for that. And then you make out that you aren't, but you clearly work harder/longer than they do.

Believe it or not, some of us are shattered from working in offices, because that can be mentally tiring, just like driving a lorry can. I don't like shift work, I like routine, and I've worked had to be in a career that pays me well to work 7.5 hour days in an office environment. The longer my day goes on the less productive I am. This is also why I work from home, work get way more out of me for 7.5 hours at home than 7.5 hours in the office. Just because people don't do exactly the same thing as you do, doesn't make them incapable of it.

butterfly

Actually that has been my last week . 74 hours work plus two hours travel either side in 6 days . I’m bloody knackered . And I’m now spending my two whole days off before I do the whole shit show again , catching up on the jobs that have gone to ratshit in the last week . Great .

Well Brexit is coming, you lovers of long days may get your wish!

You’ve totally missed the point. I work 8 hours a day, 4 days a week and get as much done as I did full time. It’s measurable - I have sales targets. In fact my sales have gone up cos i’m Happier and more focused when I do work.

My issue is should we be expecting those who are whinging their work life balance is being ate into when it's less than ours to toughen up as you are or should we be working towards a decent work life balance for everyone.

I say that as someone who's entire family as military or coal and tin miners for the men and cotton factories, ammunition factories or surgical nurses for the women and all worked stinking hard physically and often mentally.

No-one ( well maybe excepting Steve jobs) lay on their death beds saying ‘I wish i’d Seen less of my kids and family and spent more time at work doing spreadsheets for’Susan ‘ - and as for Steve Jobs, when his Big biography came out one of his kids said he was looking forward to reading it so he could see what kind of a person his father was. And he envied the biographer who got to spend lots of time with Steve...

OP, you recently changed to a more physically demanding job with longer hours and it's opened your eyes to how easy you had it before is basically what you're saying. And you think no one else here is as woke as you so you thought you'd come and lecture tell us?

Is it a competitive misery type thing? I work harder/longer/dirtier than you? And you people shouldn't complain about your own hours or working conditions or indeed seek to improve them because you don't know how lucky you are?

Eat up your dinner everyone because there are starving children in Africa.

Working 9-5 is not the doddle you make out!!!! Factor in family, pets, household and you are not left with much. Oh and by the way try working 9-5 in a mentally exhausting position, it's not just physical that wears you out!!!

It's perfectly possible to be just as consumed by stress over a 9-5 Mon-Fri job than it is over 12 hours at a time of driving a bus. The mental load can be immense from any job.

Why don't you have reversing lights?