To think most office jobs don’t need to be 9-6

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And it’s just a way to convince a work force “you’re lucky to have a job”.

NC as I’m looking at moving jobs- currently in a typical 9-5 London office job, looking at roles they are ALL 9-6, or worse 8-6. Certainly over the last 20yrs I’ve been employed I’ve seen the odd job advertised to 6pm but now it seems the norm, despite the fact anyone I know who works in an office works more random adhoc hours thanks to work mobiles.
Most of these companies don’t need to operate past 5pm- and I can’t help but think that extra squeezed hour is to make sure we the workforce get the message we’re lucky to have a job.
Kids or no kids finishing at 6pm- with an hour London commute seriously ruins your day, your evening is entirely scarpered and it’s made me thoroughly depressed.
rant over !

I agree. 9-5 was normal when I was younger, with an hour lunch, so 35 hours a week.

I feel lucky to now be on 37 hours a week. My previous jobs were 42 hours, 45 hours and 42 hours.

DD started work this year at 21 and is 9-6. Unheard of really in my day an office job was 9-5. There seems to be no reason to work this late. Luckily she’s hybrid so wfh 3 days so can clock off earlier when her work is done.

Should be 9-5. People need a work-life balance. 4 day weeks would be good too.

I was 9-5 in NHS allied health role when I started. Then agenda for change can and 2.5 hour added to my working week. Apparently that was ok because I was getting a pay rise. Ha ha ha ha. Now it’s a mad dash to get in for 8:30 every day.

Found til 6 long op as creche shut at 6.30. That was years ago. My temping was 8 til 5. One role was 5.30. Its def long if a commute involved..

Most 'office' jobs don't need to be in an office five days every week.

Take out the time-wasting longer than needed team meetings, the 'let's wait a couple of minutes for others to join' (no start on time), and a few other things, and you could easily do the work in most cases and finish at 5 or before.

I’ve had a couple of 9-6 jobs on my life. That extra hour makes all the difference, it was just depressing. Especially when I worked on reception and the last hour would be dead, nothing to do and I’d sit staring at the clock tick round.

The 9-5 is a holdover from the days of factory work. We don’t do that now, for the most part, and just like we stopped working on Saturdays (again, for the most part - appreciate this is very different in I.e medicine or retail). COVID even showed that in the 21st century we don’t really need to be in the office.

We need to move away from the 9-5 mentality. It’s mostly the purview of managers anyway, who need to justify their existence before anyone realises that most aren’t doing anything - indeed, most jobs aren’t ‘doing’ anything really.

We’d all be a lot more productive and happier if it were 11-3. Happier workforce is a more productive workforce, and productivity in the UK is absolutely shite with 9-5 (or 9-6) 5 days a week as standard

Yanbu. A lot of workplace practices just don't suit most people. The commute, the sitting at your desk for all those hours, the commute back. It's extremely tedious. Thing is any pushback on it is met with screams that anarchy will follow if you're not by your desk by 8/9am having commuted for at least an hour with some form of delay en route. I remember leaving work at 5:30 on a few occassions met with jokes that I was clocking off early. None of this leaves any space for any quality of life. By the time you're home, sorted the kids (or whatever else you do), decompressed etc it's time for bed. And all of this sometimes for a measly paycheque. It aggravates me so much!

Yanbu. But I am surprised so many places have rigid hours still.
We can all work around school runs/hairdressers/gym classes etc as long as we do our work and are available for key meetings. I still work a lot of hours but do them when it suits my life.

Agree totally op.

Even if you're single and childfree, finishing at 6 is so restrictive and limiting. A one hour commute is standard from outer London to central London so you don't get home till 7pm. It's hardly any time at all...you can barely do anything beyond having dinner as going to bed! It's one thing if you have a successful, lucrative career, but if you're doing a mundane job in payroll or admin, it's utterly soul destroying

It’s a shame employers can’t be more flexible with hours 6pm finish is fine if it suits but 9-6 that’s a long day and like others say possibly getting home at 7 that’s no time to do anything it does not suit anyone unless you started late and finished late like 10-6 . I feel like employers want to practically own you but in less hours you can be much more productive. We’ve all seen it 1 hour meetings taking all afternoon a quick catch up taking a hour or 2 , then people end of working later & later when the reality is time management and better flexibility and people will be more productive.

Also if you're a parent, your child could be in childcare until 7pm once you factor in commuting time. It's ridiculous.

A 6pm finish suited me just fine when I was younger and working in London. But all those jobs came with a 10am start!

Agree with OP - most employers are looking for longer hours and simply aren't paying anything like enough.

I do 8-4.30. Some people there do 8.30-5 and other 9-5.30. When I lived in London it was mainly until 6

Thing is lots of jobs say 1-2days wfh but to me that doesn’t offset that additional daily hour at a desk- also not convinced wfh is here to stay.
I need to do some more work tonight and will do it shortly, so no issues working late and outside my hours- it’s that pathetic must sit at a desk until 6pm I object to.

I have noticed the opposite in my job and now I feel lucky. It was 9-5:30 and they have recently changed to 9-5. Also I can wfh as much as I want.

i agree it’s ridiculous OP. It used to infuriate me that at 9am everyone was supposed to be sat at a desk. People work well at different times. Some people would excel starting at 11 and working later. Or starting at 7 and finishing earlier.

it’s an employees market. Could you leave for a different company and tell them why.

the sooner we get to the 4 day week the better. It’s been shown to increase productivity.

I wonder if companies are extending hours to offset wfh ie they think people aren’t wfh properly so trying to claw back some time.

It’s actually the opposite problem- my current employer is 9-5, I’m happy with the set up, common sense approach to work (by the nature of what we do I pick up work out of hours and weekends). Want to leave for progression and money. But every job I see has that extra hour and I don’t want to do it.

Considering how much more technology we have compared to previous decades, we should be working less not more. I agree it's to make us feel lucky.

Working 9 to 6, what a way to make a living… nah, take it from Dolly Parton, she knows the proper rules.

Does it not mean you can pick your hours between 9-6? My company is 37.5 hours but you can pick your hours between core hours of 9-6

Nope

We’re 9-6 and having previously done 9-5 that extra hour kills me! I don’t believe anyone is productive for 9 hours a day. Our senior management team did actually discuss a 4 day week a while back and my boss assumed we’d all be working 11 hour days!

I’m also job hunting at the moment and I’m surprised at how many London jobs are moving back to being office based. I only do 1 day a week in the office at the moment and have no desire to go back but it’s been tricky finding jobs that aren’t a minimum of 3 days in the office.

Try explaining that logic to investment bankers, that can run between 9-12 hrs a day, usually the reasons for putting in extra time, is to be better and achieve more at your role.