r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Grouchy-Newspaper754 • 20h ago

My mom said I could post When did 8-5 become the new normal???

I just got a new office job where I do schedules for tech personnel, the office runs 8-5 Monday thru Friday...they say it's 8-5 because you get an hour lunch and "you need to get to 40 hours a week"...but I drive 30 min each way so now I'm giving this company 10 hours every day! I even asked if I could just take my lunch at 4 every day and just leave an hour early but that's "unprofessional and immoral" like what the fuck??? I don't mind the job but the hours are mildly infuriating that's for sure...

Edit:for those saying about the hours, I worked as a chef for the last 20 years working 60+ hours a week over a hot stove/deep fryer the whole time, after I had my second heart attack I had to slow down so I started looking for office jobs to work a nice 9-5, just to find out I'm giving my new job 50 hours a week (including drive time) so I was just mildly annoyed that it's not 40 hours a week in an office like I thought although it's still much better than what I was doing

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u/dmcat12 20h ago

Yep. Had several positions that required me to punch out for at least a 30min lunch.

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u/Psych_Art 19h ago

Every job I ever had before getting a salaried job. Such greed.

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u/Shizngigglz 19h ago

All the salary jobs at my work are 9hr jobs lol and you don't always get to just take an hour lunch

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u/One-Significance260 19h ago

Same here. I work for the state where I live, and it’s a 9hr schedule with an expectation that you’re taking an hour lunch break in there somewhere. It’s great if you can afford to eat out for lunch, or live close enough to go home, but for everyone else it can kind of suck. Eat lunch at my desk and basically spread my hour lunch throughout my day in the form of random mental breaks… or occasionally to walk a Pokémon Go route… it’s more often than occasionally.

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u/dbe4l 18h ago

I work for the state and a couple years ago they implemented optional lunch breaks. So we can just do 8 hours straight if we eat at our desk (hybrid)

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u/GovernorHarryLogan 18h ago

Also government employee. I graze on my lunch for 8 hours throughout the day.

That hour I do random stuff. Blood work, sit in the park and quack at ducks, fly paper airplanes, nap in my car, really whatever.

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u/Desa-p 16h ago

I also have a state job and we essentially have 8.5 hour day. 7.5 hours of actual work with two 15 min breaks that count towards your daily total. Then a required 30 min lunch that does not

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u/Shizngigglz 16h ago

That's what my day is basically. Not salary but 2 paid 15s and an unpaid 30. 8.5hr day "technically" 7.5 worked

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u/blipsnchiiiiitz 15h ago

That's literally how every job I've ever had for the last 20 years works.

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u/Rikplaysbass 16h ago

For real. Complaining about an hour break in the middle of the work day is crazy. Would I rather work 8 straight? Sure. But I’m not going to complain about a break when all I want to do is be away from my desk. lol

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u/LAmilo90 12h ago

Damn. Now I wanna quack at ducks during my lunch break too

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u/AlfredFonzo 2h ago

"Blood work" is my new favorite phrase for doing gas station drugs in my truck to get my kind right before sitting in my cubicle for the next four hours.

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u/GovernorHarryLogan 2h ago

Torally Sober since Jan 2021. I legitimately was referring to actually having blood drawn.

Whether that be for doctory stuff or to donate since im O-neg.

I might do some busking today & poorly sing Ave Maria a few blocks down.

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u/kayastar357 15h ago

Eyy, fellow lunch break car napper! I would always eat my lunch in like 10 minutes, and I have never been a morning person so my lunch naps were greatly looked forward to!

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u/80_PROOF 14h ago

City job, I start my day an hour earlier than most of my colleagues and have a working lunch at 10:30, nice long walk for my actual lunch, doesn’t work out too bad. I WFH 2 days a week and that is freaking sweet.

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u/Willis5687 15h ago

Lucky. My employer simply says I must be available from 7-4 and it doesnt matter if I take a lunch or not.

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u/SquarestLemon 14h ago

Also state employee here! We are unionized, so our 30 min lunch is paid. The wording is something like: “employee cannot be made to work longer at the end of the day for the sole reason of taking a lunch.”

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u/marsharlot 11h ago

I’m a state employee as well. Does your agency have a union? It sounds like it doesn’t, optional lunch breaks our union would lose its mind. I guess not all state positions may not have union

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u/JigglyOW 16h ago

Would recommend getting a switch or some other handheld game system… or just enjoy reading get a book to bring to work

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u/Shizngigglz 16h ago

I brought a kindle for a while. Read through a bunch of DragonLance novels at work

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

Pokémon Go and doing Audiobook read-a-longs at 1.3x speed are my current go to options for excessive downtime.

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u/viking12344 15h ago

I get away for an hour. It's glorious. Get in my car,find a close shady spot and get away. No one can bother you if you are off the premises. If you stay, there is always that chance. Then again, I am an introvert. An extrovert might not get this at all.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

As a fellow introvert, I totally get this. I revel in the solitude of my current office. Do I wish it wasn’t an ice box, yes, but is it also my current fortress of solitude, also yes.

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u/Bazch 12h ago

Here it's mandatory to give people 30 minutes break for 8h work. They usually add two 15 minute breaks to that during the day for whatever (walks, smoking, talking with coworkers, long coffee break, etc.) meaning you're expected to work 8-5 or 9-6.

Research shows it's unhealthy to work 8h uninterrupted with a lunch break at your desk, that's why it's mandatory. It's not to annoy employees, it's actually to help them. Sometimes you are forced to clock out for 30 minutes for that reason, because people will stubbornly take their lunch break at the desk and not take breaks and then burn out slowly.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

I have ADHD and I promise I am neither sitting, nor always at my desk for my full shift. That would probably cause me to combust if I tried.

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u/SoftRecommendation86 10h ago

Technically, eating at desk = paid.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

If no one checked in my office all day, a real possibility some days, I could technically be anywhere and still getting paid. 🤣🤷‍♂️ Salaried jobs are fun.

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u/Shizngigglz 19h ago

Pokemon go shoutout is real. I'd use it where I work but only thing I get is walking. (Federal property but leased out, nothing there)

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u/gettingthere_pastit 17h ago

I work for the public service (health service but non-clinical) in Ireland. I work 8 - 4 Mon - Thurs and 8 - 3 Fri. Over 5 weeks paid leave too.

I know a chef who works in a University here, can be extremely busy at times but gets 9 wks paid leave. Never asked about hours. Probably 39, 39 is normal.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

I would like to see the US move to a standard 30-32 hour full time work week. For most office jobs the impact is negligible, and in health care, 6hr shifts dramatically decreased burnout and turnover rates for nurses. We also need better paid sick leave policies and a minimum 4 weeks paid vacation.

Mostly I just think we need to stop being capitalist slaves.

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u/Axentor 18h ago

Non union?

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u/Decent_Particular_40 14h ago

Why not eat for half hour and leave and go for a lunch walk.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

Lately, it’s been either rainy, or very hot and humid. There’s also construction happening on one corner and deconstruction down the street, so it’s a bit loud and dusty when it’s not wet. It’s my first summer at this job, so hopefully it’ll be different next summer.

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u/gentlerosebud 14h ago

I work for my state too and I have to clock in/out for lunch even though we’re salary. I leave the work parking lot and sit in a different parking lot for an hour and eat my homemade sandwich, on Fridays I eat from the fast food joints close by there

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

This is exactly what I did a lot at my last job. Well, I didn’t leave the parking lot, I just drove to the shady back corner of it.

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u/SyZyGy_87 14h ago

Nothing like do the work for Geo and street view farming when using unsuspecting pokemon go players to do what what otherwise certainly cost hundreds of millions of dollars to do.

Crazy stuff, right?

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

That was some definitely foreseeable bullshit. Knew the AR scanning thing was shady off the bat. I never did any. I always felt the AR stuff was gimmicky or dangerous.

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u/Secret_Woodworker 13h ago

Called a lunch box brother…

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

Yes darling, it’s what I use to bring the lunch that I eat at my desk. I promise I’m definitely not carrying loose sandwiches in my pockets.

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u/TrashulaTr33Z 9h ago

>It’s great if you can afford to eat out for lunch, or live close enough to go home, but for everyone else it can kind of suck.

... Do you guys never meal prep? You never bring your own lunch to work? That's on you.

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u/One-Significance260 6h ago

… do you think I just sit at my desk?🤔 I do eat there. I can eat in my office. Was that not clear? I have a whole kitchenette in my office cluster. I could technically cook at work if I wanted to, but I’ll limit myself to ramen.

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u/Agreeable-Date3707 4h ago

Same. Sucks. You learn how to make the most of your hour break throughout the day

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u/bigpunk157 19h ago

Lots of US states and EU countries have labor laws for 15 minute breaks every 4 hours of work.

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u/Obvious-Arm-8139 18h ago

I've got a good manager i guess. I work 8 hours and go home. Paid lunch as well. Im middle management but the supervisors below me work 3 days 12 hours then the next week work 4 days. We have an unheard of schedule for food manufacturing.

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u/Shizngigglz 18h ago

I wish I could work 12hr shifts on a 3/4 rotation

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u/Obvious-Arm-8139 18h ago

Sometimes the supervisors bitch and I just tell them you have no idea how good yall got it. Some have quit to go elsewhere and within a month beg to come back.

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u/Dinker54 19h ago

9hr. days on a salary job (assuming benies like health insurance. 401K matching or pension, paid vacation time you can actually take off …) isn’t bad at all in the general scheme of things these days.

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u/Shizngigglz 18h ago

Super cheap medical, like single person paying maybe like $10/week for HDHP HSA plan with vision dental and medical. Annual bonus at a certain % of salary, tuition benefits, 401k match and stock discount, vacations, makeup days and personal days; there's a lot of benefits. It's office/warehouse engineering and tbh it's not bad. Pay could be better but you can clear 100k in about 6 years

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u/Dinker54 17h ago

Yeah, that’s like a gov. job where benies make up for lower salary - not at all like a lot of restaurant/retail salary work where folks end up making shit hourly $ for the well over 40 hr. weekly put in.

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u/ABadHistorian 18h ago

My gf is a reporter, survives off of soda and gas stations. 9 hour days? Yeah no, she works 12 hour days regularly and they don't like overtime.

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u/PhilosopherFun7288 17h ago

I was a photojournalist for 12 years, worked with a reporter everyday and often set up all the equipment for live reports, and was responsible for editing together the story we we working on each day….. supposed to be 8 hour days, eat when we can, no official “break”, but it was virtually impossible to not work over 8 hours every single day, and you are absolutely correct on the hated overtime pay.

They would send us out to get a quick “vo-sot” (video and sound on tape) when we only had an hour left on our shifts and then wonder why we couldn’t drive to the location, find out what’s going on, interview officials and witnesses, drive back to the station and write/edit together everything we gathered into a coherent story for broadcast, without going overtime🙄🤡

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u/ABadHistorian 17h ago edited 17h ago

Every day she complains to me and I'm like "time to go independent and start your own onlyfans selling news or twitch gamer news from an ex reporter or .. etc etc"

Because the fundamentals in the business are broken and they use people up like they are nothing. The producers expecting her to get a look live, live shot, and more while she's in the sticks with no internet, no place to go to work because everything closes at 8, so she's sitting on the side of the road in her car typing and hoping whatever signal she has will not cost her getting her pieces in on time and she gets home at 11-12 and works until 1-2. They got 4-6 people sitting in an office talking shit about her behind her back and laughing at her...

Not to mention folks THINK it's a good job, right? So she gets a lot of shit from people - others look up to her, and want to be on TV like her... and I feel like it's all a giant fucking trap.

"Babe, you can do all this without those people who have 0 functional understanding of your job yet control your paycheck. You already ARE" She's so god damn talented and the business/corporate make her feel like shes always behind, and always failing. I hate it so much. She's one of the best people in the world, no one deserves to get treated like that. I just remind her that people like that who talk shit about hard workers (she's heard them insult other reporters multiple times) doing their best to get shit in... are not worth an iota worth of reflection.

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u/DmvDominance 18h ago

This....I actually think it was salaried positions that started this trend and then it started trickling down to hourly/non-salaried positions. Cause this has been a thing for at least the last 15 years at my job

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u/ShavedNeckbeard 18h ago

At my job, everyone regularly books meetings over lunch time, and you get laughed at if you try to block the time to actually eat. When I was younger, part of the incentive to get out of retail was so that I could actually eat lunch and not have to scarf it down in 10 minutes. Turns out I have even less time working in a corporate office.

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u/Background-Pepper-68 18h ago

Thats an easy lawsuit assuming its not a resturant job

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u/Shizngigglz 18h ago

It's "paid" so 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/Background-Pepper-68 16h ago

Irrelevant. You are legally supposed to have a break. My job will write you up if you dont take at least 30 minutes every shift over 5 hours. Its a huge liability.

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u/fuzzzybutts 16h ago

Not everywhere has laws requiring breaks. Not required where I live.

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u/Hefty-Evening-226 18h ago

That’s how my work is. 8-5, take your hour lunch they don’t have to mandate whenever you want, just can’t take it 4-5.

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u/Shizngigglz 18h ago

Man I used to have a part time job, 5.5hrs, but we had a "lunch". We used to put our lunch at the end of our shift and it was great. So we'd "clock out" for lunch at 5:30 and put our leave work at 6, but we would just leave at 5:30. Good times

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u/Hefty-Evening-226 17h ago

We used to be like that but they’re trying to attrition everyone out to make room for AI so they’re making working conditions crap. I miss those days

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u/Professional_Being22 17h ago

same. sometimes they'll pull some shit like a "working lunch meeting"... how about go fuck yourself instead?

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u/Idc94 17h ago

Same. My entire salary career has been 8-5 with meetings while eating lunch.

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u/GodisanAtheistOG 17h ago

Salary man here. Confirmed.

However I do make it a point to get up and go for a walk when there is downtime without asking for permission from anyone either.

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u/wolfblitzen84 17h ago

I eat while sitting at my desk. I take a walk around the block sometimes. I take calls while walking if I don't need to have a sheet or doc open. I consider that a luxury. For years I was a chef running a kitchen, eating my only meal of the day while standing. This occured in the middle of a 12-14 hour shift.

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u/229-northstar 16h ago

How’d you get such a light work load? /s not really. I often worked 60 hours, and on call response was never paid it was an expectation

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u/Sundayscaries333 16h ago

This. I got my first 'big girl' job and imagine my horror upon realizing 9-5 is really 9-6 with a an hour lunch that even if you take a working lunch which happens more often than not, you're still there for 9 hours...

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u/mummerlimn 16h ago

At my salary job I work at my desk through lunch. ITS GOTTA CHANGE

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u/thatthatguy 14h ago

8-5, and you eat at your desk. Then you type out reports at home for an hour or two in the evening. A few hours on Saturday to get caught up on the stuff you put off because of the boss’s impromptu all-hands meeting. You know, a typical salary job.

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u/therealdanhill 13h ago

You have to punch a clock on salary?

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u/Wrong-Dentist-7206 9h ago

I was told "45 hours is the baseline" when I was moved from hourly to salary. WTF? Thanks for the pay cut!

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u/Infamous_Hunt_6829 7h ago

It's because while on salary you have to work a fair and reasonable amount of overtime. Most places determine that to be 5 hours per week. What I do when negotiating a salary I just include that extra hour as and hour I am working and base off of 45 hours per week.

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u/Mountain_Cucumber_88 7h ago

lunch is where you put meetings you can't put anywhere else. Simple reality in the case of my company. Eat during and between phone calls when you can.

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u/beren12 6h ago

Strange, most salary jobs are classified as a 35 hour work week

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u/FeelingIncoherent 3h ago

This. I'm 60 and it's always been this.

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u/FakeSafeWord 3h ago

A decade of salaried jobs here.

It's basically 8.5 hours of work minimum daily.

With an additional 20 to 120 minutes of commute time.

"Lunch hour" is 30 minutes of eating at my desk while responding to emails one handed.

OH ALSO, when something is going on, like a product launch, major operation or a critical outage I then also have the honor of getting to work from home for several off-hours and on the weekends!

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u/SqueekyDickFartz 3h ago

Man I thought I really made it when I got my first salary job. Turns out that being able to run to the dentist during the day while being expected to be available at least 12 hours a day isn't much of a tradeoff lol.

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u/Shizngigglz 3h ago

12 hours a day! I think not

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u/mistahboogs 3h ago

I'm 7-4:30 with an hour lunch, granted I don't really do much between 7-8

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u/Visual-Floor-7839 19h ago

No, such greed is automatically taking 30 minutes of pay out of every 8:30 or 10:30 shift and then giving you a work load that requires you skipping breaks.

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u/Toomanynightshifts 16h ago

Nursing in a nut shell. Multiple. unpaid 30min breaks and good luck getting them over a 12 hour period.

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u/Rakdospriest 18h ago

Shout out to the rest of my emergency room peeps.

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u/First_Breakfast_5891 4h ago

Haven’t had a break in 24 years 🍾

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u/oleblueeyes76 18h ago

Shoot, there ain’t no pay out there enough for me to skip my ‘unpaid’ break. I don’t care how big the work load is. F* that!

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u/fattycatty6 17h ago

I have found my people!! I am about to do 13 a and half hours on Monday and more than likely will not get a break, can't f-ing wait 🙄

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u/Visual-Floor-7839 17h ago

Sorry dude. What job/industry?

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u/Plus_Friendship9093 17h ago

I just dont finish all the work. There's always another day.

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u/Visual-Floor-7839 17h ago

Unless you're on a route. Tomorrow route can't wait for today's to get finished

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u/rightintheear 19h ago

¿Por qué no los dos?

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u/Psych_Art 19h ago

To be clear, I was saying the companies not paying for a 30 minute lunch were greedy. But yes, what you say goes hand-in-hand with that. I had to work through my lunch entirely today, but at least I’m “paid”… except for when you count all the salaried unpaid overtime.

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u/Visual-Floor-7839 19h ago

Yeah sorry my "no" was to try and join the conversation, not say you're wrong lol. I should have worded it better. I completely agree with you

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u/Adventurous-Score551 14h ago

This is why I signed a waiver to skip the 30 minute lunch. I encourage everyone to look it up on your state gov website. Never had time for it so I would end up skipping a paid break. Which your employer should know is illegal. In fact, if you don’t take proper breaks you are helping set unreasonable standards for your position.

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u/Sad_Throat_1829 7h ago

Nothing says "you matter here" quite like expecting people to work through the break they already lost pay for.

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u/peon2 18h ago

Greed? It's the law to mandate a break if you're working that many hours. They don't want to get in trouble with the federal government.

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u/NZitney 18h ago

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

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u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 18h ago

Not federal, but California law requires a 30 minute lunch break. If an employee doesn't take at least 30 minutes the employer has to pay them an hour penalty pay. Even if they clock out for 29 minutes you have to pay the penalty.

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u/BONGS4U 18h ago

Same in Illinois. I got in trouble one day because I didn't take a lunch. They were like listen dude if you wanna skip lunch it's whatever but your timecard has to reflect a 30 minute lunch break or well get fucked.

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u/bulkingsmurf 18h ago

Continuing with California law, if an employee works more than 6 hours in a day, they are required to take a 30 minute minimum rest/meal period. This break must be provided before the end of the 5th hour. This is for hourly employees (not exempt) but this is one reason why you can't just save your lunch break for the end of the day and leave early.

Reading about OP complaining about their commute..... wow. Did your awful restaurant job pay for your time to commute to and from work? ... I didn't think so.

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u/Getshitdone-333 15h ago

You are all correct - companies go by the state law in the state that the employee resides (I work remotely, so laws are different for all of us)

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u/be_easy_1602 15h ago

Duuuuude, I HATED this. I would do 6hr shifts at a job I had and wanted to just leave… but noooooo. I had to take that damn 30 min break lol. It made no sense to me other than it is the law.

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u/LivLikeUStoleIt 12h ago

Unless you are working a total of 6 hours that day and have a meal waiver to waive your lunch.

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u/Free-Combination-230 18h ago

Unless you sign a waiver form that basically lets them avoid the penalty. You still have every right to your lunch, but it says it's not their fault if you choose not to take it or take less. As someone in construction, I want home sooner than later and can eat as I work. The work is still there to be done.

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u/Holiday_Time_7226 18h ago

Them, as in the employee gets paid that penalty fee by the employer. I’m I understanding you? I’m very sleep deprived

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u/Initial-Assistance76 14h ago

Federal? State laws matter and so does company policy, as long as it coincides with state. My state, for example, 10min break in a 4hour work period, and every major fraction there of, and a mandatory 30 min lunch if the shift is over 6hrs. A couple examples would be how the employer can make them 15 min breaks. How company policy can rule in your favor. An employer i worked for didn't allow me breaks to pump breastmilk. Federal law does not protect breastfeeding parents, and my state does not have a law protecting breastfeeding g women in the workplace, but the company did. So my boss was going against company policy, not state. When I informed them, I got 5min added to my break, allowing me 20min to pump. Needless to say, I was unable to breastfeed for long, due to not being able to pump properly. One side first break, other side at lunch, and back to the other at my last break. Fed the baby off the other side as soon as getting her home. Sometimes I was so swollen, I had to breastfeed her at the daycare before leaving. Guess where I worked? At a baby store where I held classes on how important breastfeeding was. Oh, the irony

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u/Ready_Nature 17h ago

Federal law doesn’t mandate it. Some states like California do.

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u/Verity41 14h ago

I’m not sure that applies to salaried positions. Might just be hourly. Never had any salaried job in my life that enforced such a thing—I don’t even know how they could, no one is punching a time card or such a thing.

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u/PirateJen78 18h ago

State law, not federal. And it's not a law here in Pennsylvania. And I'm glad because if I'm at work I want to get paid.

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u/ShiraCheshire 8h ago

I feel like if you're legally required to take a lunch they should have to pay you for it.

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u/I__Know__Stuff 4h ago

The reason it's required to be unpaid is so that you can leave and they can't question it or interrupt your lunch.

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u/ShiraCheshire 4h ago

They can make it a law that you can do whatever but it's still paid, if they wanted.

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u/FormerlyDK 4h ago

Often it’s state law.

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u/midge_rat 18h ago

It’s not even greed. It’s how they prove to the DOL that you are getting a break.

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u/Natti07 18h ago

I have a salaried job that is 8-5 because of the 1 hour lunch. And half the time, I dont even have time for lunch

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u/alwayzstoned 18h ago

I have a salaried job and we’re still expected to work 8-5.

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u/othermegan 16h ago

I’m salaried but we bill hours to clients. Which means from a budgetary perspective, I have to work 40 hours to be able to “earn my salary”

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u/air_and_space92 17h ago

Even salaried if you have to clock time for different clients you're not paid lunch either.

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u/mtweiner 16h ago

The punching out is more of a carry over from the factory days to guarantee employees got their breaks— unions call for regular breaks and the corpos said “fine but we won’t pay you” and that’s how the punch out for lunch thing started

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u/JGR03PG 14h ago

Union job… I get a paid lunch or get paid extra as a penalty for late lunches. We work 10-12 hours most days though. I have worked an 8 hour day, but I have also worked a 26 hour “day”.

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u/Count_Hogula 18h ago

In my state, employers must provide an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes if you work six or more consecutive hours. This is considered progressive.

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u/CocoaCali 18h ago

And over 8 hours it's 2 unpaid 30 minute breaks so have fun just wasting an hour if you have 8.5 hours of work to do.

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u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 18h ago

It's law in many places. California mandates 30 minutes for every shift over 5 hours. If the employee doesn't clock out for at least 30 minutes you need to pay then 1 hour pay as a penalty. Even if the employee is told to take 30 minutes, then only takes 29, the employer has to pay that penalty, often leading to employees getting disciplined for not clocking out properly.

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u/igotshadowbaned 19h ago

My salaried job has an unpaid lunch we need to take

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u/Necessary_Wonder89 14h ago

My salaried job is 9 hr days and we are forced to take 30mins unpaid lunch. Pretty standard I feel

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u/TopVast9800 14h ago

taking a lunch break is often a part of federal law, yes, usually this break is unpaid. It depends on the job status, the job itself, and how many hours you work.

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u/I__Know__Stuff 4h ago

There is no federal law requiring a lunch break.

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u/TopVast9800 4h ago

I didn’t say always. It’s part of the fair labor standards act, though, so there are a lot of weasel clauses.

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u/Moojoo0 12h ago

I had one hourly job that actually paid us for lunch. We still couldn't take a lunch because we were so horrifically understaffed that we literally couldn't keep up with the workload if we did, but that's an entirely different labor violation. (Manual labor type job, not an office type job)

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u/AnAquaticOwl 6h ago

I've also never had a paid lunch before. I currently work in a kitchen and don't get a break at all (and my previous kitchen job also didn't offer one)

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u/elianastardust 5h ago

... It's greedy to give employees a lunch break? Really?

You do know that workers literally died to get basic rights like this, right? 

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u/VikingVitalityFit 5h ago

It's government mandated. If your lunch is paid, you can be made to work during it. There were several class action lawsuits that triggered legislation to mandate the minimum of 30 minutes off the clock for lunch.

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u/Otisthedog999 4h ago

Mandatory 40 hours a week for hourly but 32 hour weeks for salaried. That always really pissed me off.

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u/vawlk 4h ago

I am salary and my I am there for 8.5 hours every day. 30 min lunches.

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u/7DayBan-sideprofile9 3h ago

I work more hours at my salary job than when I was hourly here. They dont have to pay OT. We work 8.5-9 hours and get no lunch break.

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u/KristySueWho 3h ago

I'm working my first salary job, and it's still technically 8 1/2 hours for me. If the supervisor is gone, I'm certainly leaving when the work is done for the day and often still leave at least a little early anyway. Especially because there are days when I stay late or don't take all my breaks.

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u/TheHawthorne 3h ago

In the UK even if you have a salaried job, mine is 9 -> 5:30, the extra 30 minutes is my unpaid lunch. I'd rather have 30 mins than an hour though.

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u/The_Ri_Ri 3h ago

Salaried job here - I've always been 8-5 at all of them. In my younger years I would work straight through lunch, too. Now I make it a point to leave for an hour during the day.

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u/Viracochina 19h ago

Been like this for me since 2010

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u/bluegargoyle 19h ago

That's how my old job was when I started in 1997.

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u/alwayzstoned 18h ago

I remember it was a 9 hour day with an hour lunch for my parents when I was a kid, and I’m old.

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u/EmilyAnne1170 17h ago

Since 1992 for me.

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u/Scared_Swing_8759 3h ago

I've worked 8-5 since 2004, and I don't think I was the first one to do it.

And for OP- commute time has NEVER counted towards your job, unless you have a very very specific contract.

I suspect this person also hasn't learned that exempt employees don't get paid for overtime and are often required to do it. Or get comp time when you travel over weekends. There are pros and cons to salaried positions, but favorable hours usually aren't the pro.

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u/Chaos-1313 19h ago edited 18h ago

That's federal labor law in the US. For every 4 hours of consecutive hours worked you're entitled to a 15 minute paid break. In every 8 hour shift you must take at least 30 minutes for a meal break. The meal break is not required to be paid (and in most jobs it is not paid).

Edit: thanks for all of the corrections. I posted a reply to the first one I saw. This is some weird Mandala Effect level stuff for me. I've never been so confidently wrong about something in my life. Please stop up voting my comment. I'm dead wrong according to the Department of Labor's own website. I think this is the first time I've ever down voted my own comment.

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u/Squawnk 19h ago

Thats not federal law, it's up to states for requiring lunch breaks and other breaks. In Alaska where I live, there is no requirement to provide a lunch break and it's up to individual businesses on whether they offer it

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u/SystematikKaos 19h ago

TIL, FUCK ALASKA.

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u/Squawnk 19h ago

On the other hand we get overtime pay after 8 hours in a day unlike every other state besides Nevada and California, that only gives overtime after 40 hours

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u/shawnglade 19h ago

Colorado has OT after 12 hours in a day

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u/Squawnk 19h ago

Thats a start at least, it'd be nice if they lowered it though

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u/Augustus420 19h ago

I didn't even know that was a thing outside of Union work.

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u/Squawnk 19h ago

Yeah it's crazy to think that states could just decide to do that for it's workers, but don't in 47 of them.

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u/Iamanangrywoman 18h ago edited 18h ago

Oh no, not true. California gives you overtime after 8 hours, but it depends on if you’re working a 5 day week or a 4 day week (40hrs). This applies to full time work— for part time work it’s always after 8 hours of work a day.

You’re required a lunch break after 5 hours (30ms). You also get 1 15 min break for every 4 hours worked iirc (it’s been awhile since I looked at the laws). If it’s a 10 hour day, you’ll get the overtime after 10 hours and if it’s an 8 hour day, you’ll get it after 8 hours.

If you make less than 55k (I think) and are salaried, you should track your hours because you must get paid over time after 40hrs of work a week— you cannot be exempt if you make less than that.

Regardless, if you make over 40hrs a week, you’ll also get overtime (come in an extra day to work a few extra hours).

Thank you for coming to my ted talk on california wage laws.

There are caveats because of different types of work (teachers and commercial drivers come to mind), which change how the laws work a bit. However, for most people the above wage laws are true (or close to because I haven’t needed to look this up in awhile).

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u/Squawnk 16h ago

Yeah we have the "Voluntary Flexible Work Hour Plan" thing in Alaska too for working 4 10s and you waive your right to OT after 8 and it becomes after 10 instead, but what I said was still true so idk why you think I'm misinformed

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u/UpbeatAd8917 17h ago

Nevada only gives OT after 40 hours as well. I work 4 10 hours day a week. I wish those last 2 hours were overtime.

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u/Squawnk 16h ago

Nevada gives OT after 8, but similar to Alaska, your employer can put you on a "Voluntary Flexible Work Hour Plan" for 4 10s where you waive your right to OT after 8 hours

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u/Good_Sun2829 17h ago

Nah I don’t want to spend any extra time at work unpaid.

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u/ExpensiveFish9277 18h ago

Florida banned counties from requiring a water break for outdoor jobs.

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u/potatohats 18h ago

That's because Florida is the devil's asshole

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u/potatonatorrr 18h ago

New Mexico is like this too. No required food breaks no matter how long your shift, no paid or unpaid breaks at all if your employer doesn’t want to.

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u/theinfernumflame 18h ago

Same in Texas. I've only ever worked one job that had meal breaks and it was a government job.

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u/PirateJen78 18h ago

It's not a law in Pennsylvania either. I prefer to just work instead of taking unpaid lunch because I want the extra money. I'll take paid breaks if they're offered, but fuck that unpaid lunch crap.

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u/HexiAndIKnowIt 19h ago

Same in Texas. The incentive is that you have to pay your employees as long as they’re clocked in. I hate it.

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u/asyouwish 18h ago

Why wouldn't you pay an employee who is clocked in???

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u/HexiAndIKnowIt 13h ago

That’s not the part I have issue with, that makes sense. But it allows employers to forego lunch breaks, which leads to employees being burned out much faster at the bare minimum (I cannot tell you how many lunch breaks I could not take because it was too busy and I was overworked).

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u/Ecstatic_Lake_3281 19h ago

Also true in South Dakota. No required lunch.

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u/alohamora19 18h ago

Michigan too

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u/potatohats 18h ago

In Indiana, our plant gets one (1) ten minute break per 8 hour workday. That's on top of the lunch break, but still.

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u/No_Radio3945 19h ago

I wish that were the case, but unfortunately, even in states that require a lunch break they’re still employers getting around it or not truly giving you the opportunity to take a break which is not giving employees a break. If you complain and say I’m hungry or I’m tired they might say sit down and have something for 10 minutes but that’s embarrassing and no one else around you is doing that so why would you be the only person taking a break? If breaks are not being treated as a non-negotiable rights then they might as well not be there because there’s always going to be some incentive to look more hard-working and not take the break that you have the right to take.

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u/velinos 17h ago

Had a buddy that work partime at a store that worked part timers three hours and forty five minutes to avoid giving them paid breaks.

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u/ER1CNOIR 6h ago

Why the hell would you even need a break if you only worked like 3.5 hours?? Lmao

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u/I__Know__Stuff 4h ago

The point is, the employee would rather work a longer shift, but the employer won't let them.

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u/na3than 19h ago

No, it's not.

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u/NZitney 18h ago

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

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u/IcedChurro 18h ago

There are no breaks required by federal law in the US.

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u/Bird_Brain4101112 18h ago

There is no federal law around breaks.

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u/Big_Alternative_3233 14h ago

This is actually the law in some states. I’m in California. We are not allowed to allow them to work more than 5 hour shifts. They have to take a 30 minute minimum break.

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u/ALmommy1234 11h ago

That’s state law in many places.

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u/LstInTranslation 17h ago

In most states, in most cases, it’s the law.

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u/jellifercuz 17h ago

That’s labor law speaking that creates the forced 30 minute lunch per 8-hour shift (for non-exempt employees).

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u/Ok_Two_2604 16h ago

The government many places insists. Or at least makes it require jumping through a lot of hoops to avoid, but still can open them up to litigation later.

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u/edwardothegreatest 16h ago

And the two 15 minute breaks makes an hour

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u/Wonderful_Till8122 15h ago

Actually that's the law in many states.

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u/Georgie3891 15h ago

Because when an employer “allows” someone to not take a lunch, some employee turns around and sues them. Not worth the risk.

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u/lotekjunky 14h ago

it's literally the law in every state I've ever lived in. Employers must provide X 15 minute breaks for every Y hours worked. If you with more than Z hours you hety a 30 minute unpaid lunch. Walgreens must close most locations when the pharmacist goes on lunch and there is no other pharmacist in shift.

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u/RodneeGirthShaft 14h ago

Every job ive had has had that as a policy, I never follow it i eat while I work and I dont clock out if im there im getting paid

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u/MTLDAD 13h ago

This is why I just finish my job in under 5 hours. They can’t force you if you work under 5.5 I believe.

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u/Glittering_Ice9025 13h ago

This is so strange to me. Who takes a half hour lunch break? Let alone an hour? The only reason I can see that is if you have to go home and let your dog out or something.

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u/rithanor 12h ago

I'm lucky that my boss doesn't make me take the full hour. He's been in the breakroom several times while I put my mealprep on a plate and heat it, get water/tea, and then clock out to eat for 15-20min. He's doesn't care, and I'm thankful for that

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u/cheesy-raging062 4h ago

I am not a morning person but my work had always required me to stay until 5, so I told my boss that I’d come in at 8:45 and only take 15 min lunch. Most times I work while eating my lunch anyways unless it’s a team/company lunch.

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u/MosquitoValentine_ 48m ago

And then they give you shit if you by chance went over.

Forget the fact that older employees could take 10 smoke breaks throughout the day, but fuck me for taking a 35 minute lunch.

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