To think 9 to 6 are long working hours

[Coolcucumbers]

For UK standards, office work.

All companies I have worked so far have been 9:30am to 5:30pm

Never heard of anyone in an office starting at 9:30

I’d say 9-5.30 is very normal = a 37.5h working week.

I read an article on this. It’s called ‘hours creep’

Normal working hours used to be 9-5 with an hour for lunch. When l started working in the late 80’s, this seemed standard.

Dolly Parton wrote ‘9-5’ she didn’t write 9-6

I’ve worked a 7 hour days at all companies I’ve worked for over the years except one, which did 7.5 hours.

Not worked an 8 hour day in an office ever.

I worked at a company once with 9-6 hours
It was awful, never again.

Well they’re longer hours than mine - I do 35 hours a week, 7 hour working days (plus lunch of course!).

All my roles have been 9-5:30 with an actual real finish time of 6 or 6:30 or possibly later. I've never been in a 5:30 finish role that actually ends at 5:30.

My XH used to work 8.00 to 5.30 Monday to Friday then 9.00 to 1.00 on Saturday then go straight to playing football for the afternoon with no time off during the week.
I barely saw him and told him it was ridiculous but he said he wanted to make a good impression on his boss.

I do 7-7 so 9-6 sounds lovely lmao, but it is longer than I've done in offices before. The ones I've worked in have usually been 9-5 or 9-5.30

It is long for an office day in the UK. Standard for my US colleagues to do a 40 hour week though.

I do 8-4 with two 30 minute breaks. That’s long enough imo.

It depends on how many hours per week your contract is for, length of breaks and whether they are paid.
dh is 37 hours he works 5 hours on a Friday and 8 hours Mon-Thursday (7.30-4, half hour unpaid lunch)

I work 150 hours every 4 weeks (to average out at 37.5 per week -NHS shifts)
my shifts are 12.5 hours so 9-6 for me isn’t a long day.

9 is quite a late start for some roles now.

how do your hours break down?

If you get an hour for lunch you are working 8 hour days. Do you have an earlier finish one day? Or is your contact 40 hours? I think 35-37.5 is more usual now. When I started work in the late 80s I worked about 42 as standard but it got reduced over the years.

No. We work 12 hour shifts.

I've always worked 9-5:30, or those hours but slightly flexible on start/end times.

The more senior the position, and in certain industries, the longer the standard hours I've found though.

Five days a week?

I work for an American company, so 40 hour week. All from home though, so the no travel time makes it bearable. I commuted to London (1.25 hrs each way) for a 40 hour week 25 years ago. That was pretty rubbish.

It often comes down to lunch. Some office will do 20 mns lunches eating at desk. Others will demand all take at least 1 hour break.

9 to 6 is long. 9 to 5:30pm is more usual in my experience.

I used to do 8.30 to 6.30 with an hour’s travel either side. Awful.

DH has pretty much always worked 8-5.30, but they have Friday afternoons off. Gym time/fitness and lunch included, and Wednesday afternoon being either office or "team building".

It comes down whether you ate paid per hour or just to get the job done really.

Mine is generally 8.30-4.30 (so 7.5h with 30 mins unpaid break) although fairly flexible and a lot of people do 9-5. Also doing a longer day is not unusual depending on workload and deadlines but it wouldn’t be expected to do an hour overtime every singe day.

I've never started work as late as 9am

I do 8am - 5pm now which is above average (42.5 hour week as only 30 min lunch)
At all my previous places i've always worked 8:30am - 5pm with an hour lunch or a 4:30pm Friday finish

No I did 9-6 in all my first jobs out of uni for over a decade. Some days we were expected to come in at 8 for no extra money. Have never finished before 6

We are contracted to do a 37 hour week. But we don’t have prescribed start and finish times. Like most organisations I deal with, we have an ‘agile working’ policy, so there is no requirement to record times. We can work at times that suit us.

I’ve always worked 7 to 3:30 w 30 min lunch until my current job. I started off 9-6 two days a week and 8-5 three days a week w 1 hour lunch. But I was full time WFH, so not too bad. Now I’m back in the office three days a week and I’m back to 7-3:30 on those days because my coworker still has full time wfh so she does the 8-5 shift.