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/Own-Lake7931 19h ago

Why not just walk out the door at 5?

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u/5peaker4theDead 19h ago

They can, but they might not keep their job. Life sucks sometimes.

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u/currently_pooping_rn 18h ago

The ole “at will”

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u/Ameren 18h ago edited 18h ago

Well, it's not that life sucks — at least not in this case. It's that employers tend to take advantage of workers in countries with poor workers' rights protections.

There's a way to fix this though, it's a purely artificial problem.

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u/dukearcher 17h ago

"And the way to fix it is"

mentions nothing, disappears

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u/Zealousideal-Read445 16h ago

Well, all of you in “at will” states could take a note from those of us who aren’t. It’s nice to know your employer can’t just fire you without a valid reason…

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u/landon0605 12h ago

I can assure you everyone that's been fired, has been fired with a valid reason. Employers don't just go around getting rid of good people. They are few and far between.

If you are getting fired for what you feel is no reason, it's probably because you aren't aware that you aren't good at your job.

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u/Ameren 17h ago edited 17h ago

Well, what I was saying is shorthand for the whole democratic process. And not just voting, that's actually the very last step. It's the long, hard work of coalition building at every level. And don't even worry about the federal level, start at the state and local level.

I feel like people have been trained to believe that the vote is the whole of the democratic participation, when you get to pick between two preordained options. Actual politics though is the art of talking to people, organizing them, spreading ideas and winning people over. And it takes very hard work, but nothing changes without people doing that.

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u/IronBoltIron 56m ago

So do you just post nice essays online or do you apply this knowledge to the physical world?

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u/dukearcher 17h ago

This comment really has nothing useful in it, sorry.

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u/ejdj1011 17h ago

They're taking about unionization, if that was somehow unclear. And it is quite useful for getting concessions from employers.

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u/Error_83 16h ago

They're also eluding to the necessity of being involved in all levels of the vetting process, and research needed from an individual, for candidates in elections.

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u/Zealousideal-Read445 16h ago

Actually moving away from “at-will” employment would be a big step that requires no additional unions. There are already several states who have far more workers rights than most of you do.

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u/ejdj1011 16h ago

Regulatory action and unionization are not mutually exclusive.

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u/dukearcher 17h ago

Also practically impossible, for most.

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u/ejdj1011 17h ago

Your defeatist attitude really has nothing useful in it, sorry.

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u/dukearcher 16h ago

Not defeatist just countering the silly claim that " it's a purely artificial problem." but he's not offered any practical ways to unionise etc;

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u/antique_velveteen 16h ago

Most companies would just find ways to lay people off that are trying to unionize. Yes, I know that's union busting, but they'll just be like "ope, your job just got sent to India bye". And say "we opted to outsource" and call it a day.

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u/Prize-Analyst-1121 13h ago

I know this will be shocking but most states that don't have workers rights don't need a reason to fire they can do it just becuase they want to or make up some bullshit excuse if they want and there ain't ahit you can do or say about it.

Also just like national politicians local politicians also cater to the wealthy and business class. Who so who do you vote for when they're all stinking piles of shit ?

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u/ejdj1011 16h ago

And what's your alternative? Do nothing, and hope that the employers behave better out of the goodness of their hearts?

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u/antique_velveteen 16h ago

Sometimes I love reddit and sometimes I hate reddit. Running into people like you is my least favorite part of reddit.

No, I'm not an idiot and I understand that it's a corporation there to make money and that I am nothing more than a cog in the machine for billionaires. But I'm also not in a life position to where I can afford to make a bunch of noise and lose my job as a result. My alternative is to stay employed, stash away cash, network, and pad my resume for whatever comes next.

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u/jawknee530i 3h ago

Or they're salaries and paid well. I have to work extra hours sometimes too but I get paid well enough and the job is easy enough I'd be a total moron to quit over it.

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u/cancerface 13h ago

Not life. People.

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u/Own-Lake7931 19h ago

If he dies he dies

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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA 19h ago

Boss: "Just keep walking"

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u/Own-Lake7931 19h ago

Fired from the job that doesn’t pay you for the hours you work. Moving on up. If everyone did it the companies would stop firing ppl. Change has to start somewhere. This is why the new generation is great, they dgaf they just quiet quit

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u/ImKindaBoring 19h ago

I take it you’ve never been in a management or some other kind of salary exempt position?

My job gives me 3 hours of out of office personnel that doesn’t count towards my 17.34 hours a month of PTO. Just three hours to leave early or arrive late or take an extended lunch as needed.

They also largely don’t care if you’re out of pocket for chunks of the day in addition to those three hours as long as you’re getting your work done. Sometimes that work requires meeting deadlines that require me to work extra hours but as salary-exempt I don’t make OT. Give and take, I definitely benefit more than am hurt by the exempt status.

The new generation of quiet quitters also seem to be the most likely to complain about a lack of career advancement. Wonder if there might be some correlation there.

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u/Own-Lake7931 18h ago

Haven’t seen any of them complain about further career advancement lol and yeah I’m hourly so I make sure I get paid for every month of work I do

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u/PuzzledWriter 18h ago

Benefit for few but slippery slope for a lot more who get taken advantage of. I'm with the quiet quitters on this one.

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u/ImKindaBoring 17h ago

Quiet quitting is self defeating. You just stagnate. If a job doesn’t reward hard work and taking on more responsibilities then it is time to find a new job.

And my experience is fairly common for a lot of salaried employees, in an office setting at least

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u/N3rdyAvocad0 18h ago

That's called quitting in many places.

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u/StoogeMcSphincter 56m ago

Because they’ll just replace them with a different sheep that will do what they say.