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!

I tend to agree with you, OP. No, working longer hours is not desirable, that is not the point under discussion. I hear people saying, 'Oh it is such hard work!' if they have to use a broom and hand shovel instead of a vacuum cleaner. Or what hard work it is to cook from scratch. I agree that the concept of really hard work (no washing machines, tumble dryers, walking everywhere and carrying heavy shopping home, etc) has somehow gone. I'm not bemoaning that. But I wonder how it is that women 100 years ago (no birth control either) managed their housework and how country women chopped 6 or 7 tons of wood for the winter. Yes, affluence has made us soft, which means that if hard times come we are less equipped to deal with them.

polly nurses wouldn’t want 8 hour shifts - they wanted the 12 hour shifts so they could work 3 day week, and then be on the bank for private sector as well as nhs for lucrative overtime. The 12 hour shift was not imposed on them, they wanted it.

@Seniorcitizen1

I'm a nurse. I don't know any nurses who want to work 12 hour shifts, nor any who were consulted about it. My NHS overtime is time and a half, which I'm fairly sure isn't "lucrative", it's standard for overtime in most jobs.

Also, only working 3 shifts a week sounds good, but if you're getting up at 6am (jet lagged cos you just finished nights), leave the house for 6.30am, get on the ward for 7am, and then work until 7.30pm (at the earliest) and with little or no breaks, get home for 8pm (though more often more like 9-10pm), 3 - 4 shifts of that a week is more than enough for most people!

polly nurses wouldn’t want 8 hour shifts - they wanted the 12 hour shifts so they could work 3 day week, and then be on the bank for private sector as well as nhs for lucrative overtime. The 12 hour shift was not imposed on them, they wanted it

We actually wanted 12 hour shifts so we weren't forced to finish Monday night at 10pm and start work again at 6am Tuesday morning.

The Priory and my nhs trust pay £14.50 an hour bank FYI. £1 an hour more than my regular nhs contract. I would hardly call that lucrative 🙄

Toxic those women probably weren't also working a 40 hour week at work plus going home doing housework.. their work was housework so not much different to going to work then coming home to chores..

I'm a nurse I work 12.5 hr shifts but they class it as 11.5 as apprently we have a 1 hr break. Never happens. Never go home on time either and on occasions I work a bank 8 hr shift it flys by as I'm so used to more than 12 hrs. Hardly great pay though at just under 16 quid an hour and I'm a sister