To think 45 hours a week is too much

[Letthebodieshitthefloor]

Monday to Friday 9-6 with a 30 minute lunch break.
I'm sure there will be people on here who say they do 70/80 hours a week but I just feel that even 45 is slightly too much. Thinking of seeing if I can cut down to 4 days and 36 hours.

@Classicblunder 🤣

I do 45 hours a week on average but no one is watching when I clock in and off. I get into the office about 10 past 9 after the school run and always pick DS up from school on Mondays.

At my desk until 6 on other days with usually a quick break for lunch. A couple of hours usually on the weekend and occasionally calls in the evenings. I have 2 DC (3 &7) and DH’s job is equivalent.

We outsource everything we can - cleaning, groceries etc - and childcare to a certain extent, although I do drop offs and we both do one pick up a week, plus I’d always make it to special assemblies, sports days etc

Not enough information to comment.

I often do more than that in a week but I'm self employed, and have been working from home the last two years. So I get to just fall out of bed and into the office.

It would depend on the length of the commute and whether it's one continuous journey or hopping on and off public transport, what type of work it is (ie, manual labour) and even how much of it is customer-facing.

@Classicblunder

I don’t know any other job where you use your lunch breaks to try and catch up on work

I have friends who do a variety of professional jobs. All of them regularly work through lunch. It really isn't just teachers!

Agree - we walk to the shop / heat up food in kitchen but rarely stop for lunch. Eat at desk etc. I do try and insist my team do stop for an hour on Fridays but not always possible.

@DeepaBeesKit

I’m a teacher, my contracted hours are 8:30-16:30 with a half hour lunch break but it is rare I’m not in work from 8:00 to 18:00 and some days I’ll get in earlier or stay late. Plus I take work home several evenings a week and weekends. I thought that was pretty standard for any professional role but the responses on this thread have been interesting as seems lots of people wouldn’t accept these working hours. Maybe I need to try and start leave at 4:30/5:00 more frequently.

I would do those hours if I got 12 weeks holiday vs the 5 weeks considered standard in most professional jobs.

Yes, I think that’s true. I usually find I am completely burnt out by every holiday, I am usually ill for at least the first few days of any break. I wondered how people manage working a full-time week when they only get 5 weeks holiday but hadn’t considered before this thread that my 50+ hour working week isn’t necessarily the standard and that others would see it as too long. It makes sense that others wouldn’t want to manage such long days when they also don’t have the same amount of holiday time to recover from it.

I agree that it is too much - I work 07.30 - 17.00 with a half hour unpaid lunchbreak and a 10 minute (paid) morning teabreak, outside, in all weathers, a very physical occupation ( horticulture). In addition I have a drive of an hour and a half each way to get there and back - all for £1/hour above NLW. It is grim, gruelling and soul destroying, but just cannot ( despite two years of searching!) find anything nearer home or better paid, in my sector. Thank goodness retirement is not far away now!
Yes, a 45 hour working week is, in my opinion, more than anyone should do - there is more to life than being at work for such a large proportion of one's time

I have friends who do a variety of professional jobs. All of them regularly work through lunch. It really isn't just teachers!

What jobs are these?

Most of my friends and family sit down and chat together or go to a cafe or gym in their lunch break but they seem to mainly be in shop work which I’ve done and don’t want to go back to or in offices which I don’t think I could cope with.

I had to have an emergency dentist appointment during my lunch break and it was awful because it completely messed me up and I got behind with work.
It’s just getting me down and I’m thinking life is too short to not be able to take 30mins to sit and eat and relax.

I do around 45/50 hours a week however my commute is very short, I love my job, my colleagues are great, I can afford a cleaner, I don't do the shopping or cooking and my family are grown and flown.

Education, (LA public sector) too and these are standard hours as a minimum in my role.
Unsustainable though.

I do 39 hours (as does dh) and that's enough. Im on 53k for that and dh is on 60k. If I do extra it's overtime at time and a half!

Depends what it is, what the pay is, the individual etc.

Yanbu to say it’s too much for you personally but yabu to say it’s too much in general.

@WonderfulYou

OP someone I know has recently changed their job to work as a healthcare assistant for the NHS. She works long days (12 hour shifts) but works 3 days a week so 2 days a week she is able to pick her kids up from school, have days to herself etc and she loves it.

Yes know people who have done similar, working 37.5 hours in a lower band is not too much net pay difference to working 30 or even 22.5 hours in a higher band but the number of hours you end up working will be less in the 37.5 hour HCSW job. Even more professionals would do so but many do love their job as they feel they are doing something that really makes a difference, unless they get to the point where they feel the stress is just having too much of an impact on their own mental health or family life

@WonderfulYou

I have friends who do a variety of professional jobs. All of them regularly work through lunch. It really isn't just teachers!

What jobs are these?

Most of my friends and family sit down and chat together or go to a cafe or gym in their lunch break but they seem to mainly be in shop work which I’ve done and don’t want to go back to or in offices which I don’t think I could cope with.

I had to have an emergency dentist appointment during my lunch break and it was awful because it completely messed me up and I got behind with work.
It’s just getting me down and I’m thinking life is too short to not be able to take 30mins to sit and eat and relax.

Doctors, lawyers, academics, social workers, scientists, civil servants, finance, accountants..

My contract is average 43 hours but often ends up being more with overtime when we’re busy. It’s not an industry where you can just clock off. I’ve already been saying when it comes to my next job I’ll definitely be looking at less hours/ 4 day week because it swallows up way too much of my energy and time. Don’t blame you at all, it’s too much

It’s all relative isn’t it. Some people have to work really long hours due to needing the money. Others don’t. I would prefer to be in the latter category. Once you are financially secure, I don’t see any benefit in working long hours.

Journalists.

I’ve never worked anywhere where people always take half an hour at lunch (well not since I worked in retail 20 years ago). In my experience people often work through but might take a longer lunch break to do errands or whatever if the day allows. I generally have a sandwich at my desk but could quite easily pop out for 2 hours shopping if I was on top of things 😳 (plus always tethered to phone and email anyway)

I typically work 8am - 6.30pm/7pm. There are no contracted hours really - well, there probably are somewhere in my contract but no idea what they are. This is typical in my industry and there will be times when you work 7am to midnight for days on end. When I started out, you were expected at your desk 7am - 7pm minimum, lunch was at your desk (still is), but I'm in investment banking, I get paid very well and don't really know any different, so it's fine for me. I met DH at work, he was a trader working similar hours so it's the norm for us.

Defo too much. I do 40 hours and there's no way I could fit in any more hours. Can't believe you only get 30min lunch!!

I have never understood this. If you are ' expected to do more' is it unpaid? Do you have to do more than you are contracted to? Is it all the time ir just occasionally?

I’m paid a salary to do a job. Sometimes because of the nature of the business, I do more than the contracted hours and don’t get paid for it, but equally, sometimes I need time off for things or sometimes I have a bit of downtime during the day with not much to do,

I do around 45/50 hours a week however my commute is very short

I think commute is a big issue.
I do 3 hours extra every day due to my commute (I live in a rural area) and it feels like you’re doing longer hours even though you’re not working.

If financially you’re able to drop to 4 days then absolutely do it but if not find somewhere else as close as possible so you’re mot doing any extra hours.

Also you may just be ready for a career change, rather than changing your hours.

It's not that much. Many people do 37.5 plus 2.5 = 40.
Today I started a new job, 30 plus old job 12 = 42. Not ideal, but I don't plan to do it for long.

I think most / many jobs do OP's hours.

I worked 50 hours a week on average last year (salaried so no overtime).

I have vowed to stick to less than 40 hours a week this year and take all my leave.

It is too much, commute or not, it isn't a great balance. I stopped going to the gym and going for a walk, all I did was work. Never again.

My aim is to drop a day a week by the end of 2023.

I think that sounds ok tbh but I work in professional services (and always have done) so culture is pretty long hours. I work a 40 hour week in a quiet week, mostly between 45/50 as standard (am contracted to do 35).

When wfh I usually start an hour earlier at 8ish, never have a lunch break and finish around 6.30. I do try very very hard to not work weekends though. If I'm in the office I do often have a lunch break if I can but only because me and my friends encourage each other to leave our desks and go for a walk.

But but but it's bollocks. It's too much and it's really getting me down. My role used to have more peaks and troughs so you would have a couple of months of 10 hour days then a month of 7 hours or early finishes. I would like to cut back or change roles but can't afford to for the next few years as this is a standard working pattern for this particular job.

I used to do those hours but it was pre kids and I only had a 10 minute commute. In my eyes it was more or less on par with a job with a 40 hour contract with a 30 or 40 minute commute. Now with kids I would definitely think twice about doing it. Since my son was born I only work 30 hours per week and I love having so much free time, I would definitely not go back to working 42.5 hours per week again ever.

I have never understood this. If you are ' expected to do more' is it unpaid? Do you have to do more than you are contracted to? Is it all the time ir just occasionally?

Yes, unpaid as in salaried. Education and teaching contracts have a clause with words to the effect of 'and as many hours as the service demands'. Mine certainly does and means that the workload is huge and we are expected to complete it.

It sounds entirely normal for professional roles - financial services, technology, management consulting, law.. No-one monitors your hours but equally there is a lot to be done.
Lunches away from the desk are a weekly thing as everyone normally just wants to get through the work so they can go home.