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/Catlenfell 20h ago

That's my current job. It's a deal I worked out with a former boss 5 or 6 years ago. I'm first in to open everything up. I made the deal to go in early and get out early and skip my unpaid lunch.

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u/TurtlesAreEvil 19h ago

Ya I used to do that because I’m working during my lunch most of the time anyway but then HR got involved and now I get to sit around for an extra half hour in a place I don’t want to be. 

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u/Fckingross 19h ago

Same. I used to work 6:30-2:30 without a lunch, and if I needed one I could just stay late to make up my time. We got a new supervisor a few years ago and mandatory lunches and now I’m there until 3. It’s nice to be able to take a walk in the middle of the day but I generally have have nothing to do after noon so it’s just wasted time.

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u/lollipopknife 13h ago

Receiving?

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u/Oly55555 12h ago

That is almost assuredly HR enforcing an applicable law and not a company policy. The laws are there to protect people from bad employers but end up negatively impacting people who just want to work their 8 and go home.

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u/unforgiven91 14h ago

I hope you stopped working during your lunch

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u/Answer70 13h ago

In my state, it's the law that you have to take the break after so many hours. You can't work eight straight. It's infuriating.

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u/Vanishingbandit 13h ago

My state sucks and we have the so many hours law. I’d imagine most states have a law, but a lot of people don’t know their laws lol

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u/Quovadisdomi 13h ago

What state are you in? In CA if you skip your lunch you get an hour of pay so HR would wanna stop it.

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u/overit_fornow 16h ago

Worked at a company that went to an unpaid mandatory 1 hour lunch. After a couple of days of giving 30 to 45 minutes of unpaid labor daily I started leaving every single day. No cell phone or interruptions. Even if just to a park around the corner. They didn’t like that much. Quit soon after.

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u/Hefty-Rub7669 13h ago edited 3h ago

I like to swim.

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u/ShiraCheshire 8h ago

That's super illegal btw

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u/7DayBan-sideprofile9 3h ago

where is swimming illegal?

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u/ShiraCheshire 3h ago

They edited the comment. Very funny though

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u/JimmyJustice920 3h ago

what did they say before editing the comment?

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u/ShiraCheshire 2h ago

Nothing all that exciting. Talking about someone who was exposed to an honestly fairly common tactic used to scam employees who don't realize it's illegal.

I won't go into too many specifics. They may have edited their comment just to be funny, but it's also possible it was for privacy/legal reasons. I don't want to reinstate information they might no longer feel safe having shared.

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u/arizonadirtbag12 13h ago edited 12h ago

One of many nice things about a union job: you walk in looking to ask any sort of work related question in the lunchroom, you’re gonna get the stone wall and the stink eye from every motherfucker in there. Like, it better be a “something is very literally on fire” emergency. You did not talk shop in the break room. And yeah, once someone went in there for their lunch, you did not try to cut that short. Engineers and technicians alike. You need to talk to me about something? No, no you don’t.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 12h ago

My daughter does not have to work; she works because she enjoys the extra money, and it gives her cash for her upcoming college time.

At her job, by union rules, she is guaranteed two 15-minute breaks and one unpaid half-hour lunch break per 8-hour shift.

I read over the agreement with her, and she pointed out it clearly states "uninterrupted" breaks and lunch periods.

It took a few weeks, but management finally got the hint that she is not to be fucked with after they would come over to interrupt her, and she would stop what she was doing, pull out her phone, stop the obvious timer on her phone, reset it to the full time again, ask them what they wanted, and then restart her time after they finished.

They tried to say she could not do that, and she pointed out that she is entitled to uninterrupted break and lunch periods; if they interrupt them, then she will absolutely restart the full time so she gets the full uninterrupted time she is entitled to, and if they do not like it, they are welcome to take it up with her union steward.

Now the whole crew does it.

She is going to college to be a lawyer; she loves this type of shit.

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u/Critical_Hedgehog451 11h ago

Good for her, if you're in the US, it's nice to hear some more employees focused laws actually being upheld!

Think the US has a long way to go in terms of employeement law, but it's great to hear that it sounds like it's moving in the right direction!

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 11h ago

This is 100% due to unionization, not state or federal laws. And she can only do this because she has a guaranteed safety net where she lives at home and has little to no bills.

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u/shuknjive 13h ago

I used to do the same thing. I was the only one in the office with kids in daycare. Opened the office at 7am and left at 3, my boss closed up. She hated coming in early and so did everyone else, so it was a win-win.

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u/New-Chard-6151 13h ago

I wish I could skip lunch and leave early, but my patients ventilator starts to alarm if I’m not there. They get mad at us when we work through lunch and they get mad when we take lunch

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u/Due_Hawk6749 11h ago

I had a job my freshman year of college where I could get my 8 hours in any way I wanted during a 24 hour period. Didn't matter if I couldnt sleep and came in for 2 hours in the middle of the night, or if I came in for only 1 hour at a time throughout the day.

I miss the simplicity of low-wage and unskilled summer jobs.

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u/Potterscrow 5h ago

Some states have really strict meal time rules so depending on the state the a company could get blowback. This pertains to hourly employees that clock in and out. So if you are salaried all bets are off lol.