What’s going on with working hours these days?

[CateringPanic]

I work in the public sector. My working hours are broadly 9-5 although I can flex this if I want to eg. 8-4, with 30 minutes for lunch. Either way it’s 37.5 hours a week which I thought was standard for full time work. I’m reasonably senior so obviously I might sometimes choose to work late to get stuff done but these are my contracted hours.

BILs girlfriend is young, early 20s and in her second job out of uni (was only in first for 6m). Her old job was 9-6 and her current one is 8-5. She thinks this is normal - I think her employers are taking the piss.

She is salaried, not hourly paid, and these are low skilled, low stress administration jobs so no real need to work long hours at all.

AIBU to think this is more than full time work and she shouldn’t have to be working an extra 5 hours a week for crap money or am I just out of touch with how things are out there?

@Coronationstation the issue is the implication that work should be your whole day. If you finish at 6pm AND have a commute your evening is basically dead in the water before it starts. Couple that with the fact that productivity does not increase with hours worked it makes me feel like we are living in a capitalist dystopia…which to be fair we probably are!

I have been with my company for over 20 years and have a 35 hour week, it used to be 9.30-5.30 with an hour for lunch, now it is much more flexible.
however, I am on an old contract, newer hirers have a 37.5 week.

Yeah, id hate to be finishing work regularly at 6. Nightmare. I've found starting earlier is better and id happily start work at 7.30/8am and finish at 4. Any earlier than that would be frowned upon. I used to have a commute that took 45 mins if I left before 7, but could regularly take up to 1hr 30, more if there was an accident on the motorway. That certainly encouraged me to be up and out early.

Standard hours in my area for my industry (law) are 9-5 with an hour (unpaid) for lunch.

I’ve only worked at one place that had longer contracted hours and it was a pretty awful place to work.

Obviously you can’t really do a lawyers job 9-5, but the point is you CAN leave if you want to! And it’s nice to have an hour in the middle of the day for lunch - both to go out to decompress, or to occasionally cut short if you have to leave early…

I honestly find the 9-6 jobs quite depressing.

And @RufustheFactualReindeer thats bonkers. I hope your DD knows that she can refuse to work more than 48h a week. I’m guessing she’s in car sales though as my friend does similar hours!

How many people actually WORK work, following their contracted hours in an office job though?
Even on MN so many people are doing other things during office hours while WFH. Where I work everyone disappears at 3 to do the school run..

I worked for a Big 4 from the early 80s. It was always 7.5 hours a day (7 in London). Originally 9 - 5:30 with an hour for lunch, but latterly much more flexible. So I've always regarded that as entirely normal. Of course most folk there work way, way more hours than that.

My job is like yours OP. Except everyone works more anyway (also public sector) so it someone defeats the object.

The problem is, it’s all dedicated people who care about the job, and it wouldn’t get done if we didn’t.

Wow I'm around your age and to me 9-5 feels like nothing as I've almost always worked longer hours. I did an office job when at uni in the summer and honestly 9-5 felt bliss as with the breaks and how light it was at 5pm it felt like I still had a day in the evening. It surprises me that people really wouldn't take a job if it had an extra hour.

That said, I suppose it depends on the job and what you're paid. The minimum wage job i had which was in theory 9-5 but in reality sometimes 60+ hour weeks was helpful to my cv. Some roles I did were hourly rate so worth working loads because of that. And my current career is very highly paid so its expected. If I had to do a job that wasn't really helping me with a career trajectory and didn't pay well perhaps I'd also moan about more than 9-5

My official hours are 8-4, with 30 mins for lunch.

I had an interview once and at offer stage they dropped in it was 42.5 hours a week. Absolutely fucking not.

I work 32 hour.. according to my manager anything over 30 hours is classed as full time ..

most work 37.5 hours

Standard for my work is a 40 hour week so roughly 9-6 with an hours unpaid lunch.
Im lucky and work a 35 hour week 9-5 with an hours unpaid lunch. I’ve been there 10yrs and would struggle to get that kind of job again these days. The salaries are the same for both so effectively earning less per hour on the 40 hour job. I wouldn’t want to work 5 extra hours for free

Our place (semi-retail) is 9 - 5.30 five days a week including one weekend day. But we get an hour for lunch unpaid so it's 37.5 paid hours a week, pretty standard really. And we definitely get to take the whole hour, they're quite strict on it which is nice, and there's no bothering people outside of work hours policy too.

I'm late 40s and all the jobs I've been in the private sectors are 8-5 or 9-6. For those in roles that have service level agreements, such as IT or service desk, the desks are open between 8-6 and so staff are 50/50 on either pattern. Back office roles are normally with a lot of flexibility. It's you that is unusual, OP.

My contract is 35 hours but we're fully flexible so there's no real agreement about lunch etc, I suppose.

It does seem to have gone backwards. When I was young (early ‘80s), DF was a buyer for an engineering works. He did 9-5 with an hour for lunch and finished at 3 on Friday. That was standard for anyone office based, men (and it was all men in those days) on the shop floor did 8:30-4:30 and finished at lunchtime on Fridays.

I currently do 37.5 hours but do shifts so when it’s my finish time, I go home. It makes me very wary of changing jobs as flexibility seems to be disappearing fast. It’s always low paid, basic admin jobs (IME) that seem to insist on you sitting at a desk pointlessly for hours.

Very much agree with this!

I do 0900 - 1800 most days

37.5 hours is standard NHS. That’s either 3 x 12 hour shifts a week, with an 4th shift once a month to make the hours up, or 5 x 7.5 hours, each with 30 mins unpaid lunch break. I work NHS community in a 9-5 team. We do one late evening a month, staying till 7, but get to come in at 11 that morning. Tbh, it’s pretty good and I wouldn’t want to work longer hours than that.

I worked 40 hours a week (7.30 - 4.30 half hr unpaid break), for years until I got the job I'm in now. A lot of the jobs advertised in this area on Indeed are for 40 hours pw. All private sector ones though, I thought it was standard tbh.

Used to work in day nurseries. Hours were 7am till 4pm or 8am till 5pm or 9am till 6pm.

I'm the head of a professional services function at a University and I do a 35 hour week, hybrid working. In previous public sector jobs 37.5 was pretty standard.

I moved to public sector 2 years ago and 37 hours a week feels like bliss. Most of my jobs have been 40 or 42.

I’ve always worked private sector and my hours have always been 35 hours a week. And I can do those 35 hours however I choose. So 8-4, 7-3, 9-5, 10-6.

@CateringPanic I'm public sector too. We officially work 37 hrs/week. This hasn't changed in 20 years that I've been with this organisation.

DH, and many friends, do similar work in the private sector. Working hours seem to have crept from 37.5 to 40-42 hours a week in the last few years, often packaged up as a "flexible 175 hours a month " type of deal.

My old job was 9-6 with an hours unpaid lunch.

It’s very kind of work to give you an hours lunch which is UNPAID and which too many people work through anyway so ends up being more free labour!