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

I can only talk for myself but I suspect my situation isn’t unusual. In reality my success measures are project based deliverables, which determine our ability to bill. So if I’ve fulfilled multiple assignments in a month no one will care if I take a random Friday afternoon off, but if I’m consistently not achieving my goals, I’ll be watched very closely and in reality no long hours would save my job if I wasn’t successful. Inevitability though, while long hours doesn’t ever guarantee success, more contact time significantly increases the the chance of achieving what you need to.

I work in the US and have unlimited annual leave. My hours are far longer than 9-5 (standard for my industry) but I do take 8 weeks off a year. When I worked in London (same industry), hours were similar but I only got 7 weeks off in total (27 days + 8 bank holidays).

Use the unlimited annual leave model to your advantage, I say 😊

Because lots of jobs aren’t literally paid by the hour and performance is measured on delivering results. If that takes longer than 40 hours one week but less than 40 hours the following, then that’s what you need to put in. It’s an unspoken rule in many industries, in which an employee insisting on strictly sticking to contracted hours would get them “managed out” in no time.

ETA: I’m amazed how many people on MN seem to not understand this. You see it on any thread about WFH / flexible working. Like it’s impossible to imagine someone being able to finish early / attend an appointment during work hours without using annual leave. It’s easy to think this is taking the piss when you don’t see the other side of these jobs: logging back in in the evenings / at the weekend, replying to emails on holiday etc.

Yep, I do 40 hours pw, 9-6. 1 hour unpaid break (broken up throughout the day 🙄).

So that’s not really what I mean because overall it balances out.

But if you routinely work more than your hours (and never less than) then you are donating your time for free and something has gone wrong - either you aren’t working properly or your job is staffed wrongly.

It doesn’t necessarily balance out. I can speak for myself: I work more weeks >40 hours than <40 hours. That’s the nature of the job and it’s remunerated to reflect this ‘flexibility’ on behalf of the employee.

If you’re talking about low-paid / NMW jobs with set tasks, I agree with you and wouldn’t do more than my contracted hours in that kind of job.

8 hour day/40h week is considered standard working hours in the UK.
I have always worked 37.5h week in the NHS which my friends and DH think is a short week. We work 8h days with 30 min lunch break.

So if you work more weeks a year for longer your contracted hours and that isn’t balanced out by weeks working fewer hours, that suggests that the job takes longer than those contracted hours and so is staffed wrongly - or that you aren’t working efficiently and therefore work longer than you should.

It’s one or the other.

I think it seems long. DH and I both do 8-4. I get a 30 minute lunch and he gets an hour. I could take an hour but I would have to finish at 4:30. I am public sector - 37.5hrs and he works at a university - 35 hours. Both are considered full time.

I seem to know lots of people who work for private companies that work what I consider to be long hours such as 8:30-5:30. Some of them are mandated an hour for lunch at a prescribed time so they can’t even start later or finish earlier if they wanted to

I used to do 8-6. That felt long.

It’s neither of those things. It’s a very unpredictable job and industry. Companies are loath to hire lots of staff for the busy times, because they’re underutilised and hard to get rid of when things are quiet.

Everyone going into the job has a full understanding of this. Like I say, the job is sufficiently remunerated to make up for the unpredictability and the requirement to be flexible as an employee.

ETA: just to add, I know more people with a job like mine than I do people in jobs with very fixed hours.

Full time hours anywhere I’ve ever worked are 9 to 5 with an hours lunch. So 35 hours per week

I worked for a company that was 830 till six absolute joke. Everybody sat around drinking coffee from five.

That's your entire life with no time for anything else. Unless you loved it and didn't want to do anything else that would just be hell.

Companies are loath to hire lots of staff for the busy times

So exactly as I said one of the options was - incorrect staffing.

Or you work in finance or law and work 60+ hours a week.

So that’s what your contract should state and that’s what you get paid for.

But if your contract states 40 hours a week and you routinely work 60 hours a week, either the job is incorrectly staffed, the staff aren’t working efficiently - or the employer is treating their employee as though they’re working for a charity and donating their time for free.

I left a job once because the 9-6 was just too much. Plus I had a 2.75 hour commute each way too. I now do 8-4 (WFH with a 30 min break), it’s life changing.

U.K. colleagues - our std is 8.30am -5.30pm with a 34 hr working week ( unpaid lunch) USA colleagues - They work from 7am to 7pm, generally and work on weekends, will answer emails day and night, check in daily even on vacation and don’t need to out on out of office becuase they never are.

Yet in non office jobs which are often more physical it's not unusual to do longer days. Ambulance crews do 12 hour shifts for example. Many fast food places are 8 hours working time plus a lunch. Office workers have a diss in comparison

I am totally flexible so even though our core hours are 9-5 ish I can start at 7 am and finish early, start late work late or take time out in the day.
So long as the job is done.

I work 8-5, 5 days per week. So, 40 hours for an American company remotely.

That is not how business works. So they put 60 hours in the contract - and then when my 60 hours are finished that week and there’s a massive deal on I just what - stop working and go home? The assistants, HR people, the support can do that sure, but not the lawyers or bankers - not the revenue generating part of a business. When we go on holiday the first thing my husband does when we get to the room is set up his screens - he is never “off” that’s just not how it works.

Sounds like exploitation to me. I’d go for a man with a smaller salary and a proper work-life balance myself. My hotel room isn’t an office.

I have a 40 hour contract, 9-6. Same for my last position. Both global companies. However, I do a lot more extra unpaid hours.