To think a lot of people on here think people only do 9-5 jobs??

[RockOutcrop]

Inspired by seeing people question why an OP and her husband were lazing around the house today and wondering why they aren't at work. Really questioning it and implying they should have a job to go to.

Many many people work shifts, weekends, evenings, nights. I'm typing this from my bed where I've been chilling out and about to go to sleep for a few hours before work tonight.

Seems that some people are not just mind blown by, but totally ignorant to the fact that that not everyone works Monday to Friday office hours

I completely agree, and I've just been reading that thread, although I haven't posted on it, It's really bizarre that some people think it's really 'weird' and 'wrong' for somebody to be at home in the middle of the day. I work part time and work from home anyway, so I'm pretty much at home very often, in the day. My husband works afternoons and nights three days a week. (Alternates every other week.) So he is at home in the day, sometimes too.

I can work the hours I want, and sometimes when DH is on afternoons 3pm till midnight, I will work 5pm or 6pm till midnight, and I won't get up until half nine the next morning. Honestly, the reaction I had on here from someone once (when I said that don't get up till half nine some days) was shocking. 😂 I was called slovenly and idle. 'I've already been up for four hours by then!' they snapped! It was like I'd personally offended them. 😆

I also get particularly annoyed with one of my neighbours who's got a small child that wakes up at 6:00 am everyday. and she's screaming and bellowing in the garden, and my neighbour is banging doors and playing their car radio really loud at 7.00 am ... So that pisses me off. People who are up at stupid o'clock - two hours before dawn sometimes - who think that everybody else should be awake as well. Ignorant as fuck. Some people work late!!! What's more, I am not super noisy at midnight when I'm awake/working. (And neighbour is in bed asleep after going to bed at 10pm!) Not even slightly noisy actually. Maybe I should be! She doesn't give a fuck about making noise at 6.00-7.00am when DH and I are in bed asleep!

I totally agree. There was a whole thread last week about a ‘Saturday Morning Cuppa’ and I was thinking we both haven’t been off on a Saturday together for years.

I was a small bit jealous because it must be a bit easier to all have weekends off like that.

But how? I thought everyone on MN works 60 hours a weeks and never have time for anything because of crazy work schedules...

Absolutely, but it's not only people on Mumsnet. I used to work a rotating shift pattern which included night shifts, weekends, bank holidays, weekend night shifts........the people who simply could not grasp that I might be at work on a Saturday night or asleep at lunchtime on Monday were numerous, but it was a good filter for weeding out the idiots who wouldn't be worth spending time with anyway.

I work in retail - so often don't even get Christmas off (will get Christmas day, but we're open all the rest of the time) and used to work with animals, which was pretty much 24/7. I get really angry with the 'oh, you can do that at the weekend' brigade! But then I also get angry with the 'wasn't lockdown lovely?' brigade...

There also seems to be this assumption that every job is about hours and is interchangeable with others in the organisation.

‘just go to part time’
‘just compress your hours’
(or get partner to do the same).

My last job was in a senior technical role, supporting an activity that ran 24/7. If there was a significant problem with how things were running I needed to be working on it. Whether that was at 2pm on a Tuesday morning or 3am on a Saturday morning. Compressed hours doesn’t work for those roles, and neither does part time.

I think the comments, or some of them, on that thread were unnecessarily mean spirited. She was being light-hearted.
Like 'why are you lying down?'
'because I'm in an iron lung' or
'because I'm a lazy benefit scrounging bastard'
It's like why should someone need to respond to that question.
Of course lots of people work shifts, part time, or not at all. Why they should be brutally attacked for not being at work at the precise time specified. If they were at work, they shouldn't be posting on here, right?
Really it's nonsense.

Don’t you think that a large majority of workers (80% would be my guess) do work weekdays / standard hours?
Sure, some might do condensed hours, 8-7 some days for ex, but that is still fairly standard. Or some might have a day off during the week, and 9-5 or 9-6 the other days, still fairly standard.

I’d be interested in knowing the % of workers who work nights / weekends / unusual shifts.

Apparently…

I certainly didn’t think it was the norm but didn’t expect it to be that low.

Well if you think about carers, hospital staff (drs, nurses, hca, cleaners, cooks, etc) paramedics, shop assistants, hospitality workers, taxi drivers, police and all those involved in that profession, and that's only off the top of my head, there will be a huge amount more, then I can't imagine the majority of workers do a 9-5 week mon to Fri

They absolutely are. Especially the ones who come in when it's boiling outside and say "it's a shame you're in here it's lovely outside". I honestly don't know what they expect me to say to that. Unfortunately my excellent resting bitch face shows them what I think. Probably a good job I'm retired.

Ah yes lockdown. I worked all through and have to say in the beginning I found it stressful dealing with people who were shopping for all the compromised people they knew. Yeah right we know you're being greedy, selfish bastards. And then when they were allowed out for a walk and just popping in twice a day for an ice cream with all the family. Totally selfish. Sorry it's still a sore point, I had to breathe all their germs in and then take it home to my family.

Exactly the same reaction here. Plus irrational anger when I read all about how everyone spent their furlough time learning a language or taking up gardening and there we were refereeing fights over bogroll and handwash.

I used to have a 2-week rota which included working every other weekend, so I’d always have a day off during the week (week ran from Sunday-Saturday).

A friend of mine used to make comments about how nice it must be to work “part-time” if I mentioned it was my day off during week. She genuinely couldn’t work out how I still worked full-time but got a day off in the week every week.

Saying that, I was guilty of those thoughts myself. Whenever I did venture into town on the Tuesday I’d get so frustrated by queues in shops and busy car parks, thinking to myself “why is everybody out and about on a TUESDAY?! Go to bloody work!”

I think it's perfectly understandable to feel like that.
The only good thing to come out of it was my dd started to work from home and managed to save a flat deposit.

Although I did get sick of hearing dh say how bored he was having to stay in, I did offer to swsp funnily enough he wasn't up for that.

also some people can't comprehend that some people can't flex working hours, they can't finish early or start late to fit around nurserty or school. that working hours are fixed you can't wfh or catch up another time you have to start a x time and finish at y. if you want to miss a shift it is called annual leave there maybe an exception for medical appointments
there are many of these jobs around factories, NHS teaching retail, they are not all NMW but some are, you can be earning lots and still have inflexible hours.
I agree some people think my sister has it cushy finishing at 3pm but she is a community nurse and started at 7am, it's full time and sometimes she doesn't start till 2pm this is not because she has had a morning off but she'll be working till 10pm. She doesn''t have kids but even if she did those are the hours of the shift you can't just not start at 7am because nursery isn't open till 8, Because it's NHS they generally understand if you have to have day off with sick kid but the same rules apply to everyone 1 early 1 late and 3 x 9-5 per week and every third weekend, ( pro rata for PT staff) when you get a day off during week to compensate; only 4 weeks of your annual leave max can be in school holidays

Both of us work shift as do most of my friends . I’d love to see a poll on this here, it would be interesting.

I’ve never worked 9-5 and don’t know anybody who does.

In our house work “shifts” at our various jobs can start anywhere between 5am and 7pm.

I’m at a point in my life now where I only have one job but I’ve also had more than one for years, and for three years in my 20s I had three jobs.

Urgh even some of my friends don't understand that in my industry (professional sport) although I mostly work roughly typical office hours, there is also a need for me to work evenings and weekends when required. If I'm at work at a major sporting event until 11pm by the time I get home, you bet your arse I'm "lazing around" most of the next day. I might reply to emails but that's it, that's how my job works. Still blows my dad's,mind when I pop to see him on a random afternoon - "why are you not working?" 😆 I was dad, you were just asleep!

According to MN, all jobs are going to be replaced by AI anyway, which is another indication about how narrow the view of 'a job' many on here have.

Likewise how maternity leave is always 'way harder than any job' which might be the case if your idea of work is a few hours of office work at your own pace with plenty of time for conversation over good coffee with your colleagues.

But then MN thinks that everyone in the civil service works in London, can dictate their own hours and rise to G6 before they're 30.

My dh works weekdays 8-6, 2 nights "on call" a week (6pm till 8am) and then every 5th weekend 6pm Friday to 8am Monday on call - followed by an ordinary Monday till 6.

No option to work from home and hard to get cover if he needs to swap.

He's a GP. I'm disabled and a student at the moment, but when I finish my counselling training I'll probably have to work some evenings.

Also have young adult children

Dd1 assistant manager in a bar/restaurant, has Wednesday and Thursday off, ds in a bar, mainly 4-close shifts. Dd2 is a spa therapist and works 10-6 5 days a week but one of those days is Sunday.

It looks like it was taken in 2018 as well, i.e. pre covid and the boom in wfh/hybrid working, so I'd expect it to be even lower now.

Most people I know work 9-5. I work 9-4 then 6-whenever I finish (sometimes 8 sometimes midnight) plus parts of most weekends. The joys of running your own business!