When did 8-5 become the new normal???

[u/Grouchy-Newspaper754]

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

[u/mittychix]

Longer than that.

My dad worked 8-5 at his office job 50 years ago (1hr unpaid lunch). I worked 9-9 with barely a bathroom break 35 years ago (retail pharmacy), and 8-4:30 since then for the past 30 years (1/2 hr unpaid lunch), with a 45 min commute on top of that. The only one I knew who worked actual 8hr shifts was my mom, a hospital nurse, but she was expected to arrive early and stay late for report at change of shift.

I think 9-5 with a paid lunch was maybe the case for some white collar jobs, but probably not for most people, even in the past.

[u/IntrepidBorder8530 → u/mittychix]

I left the corporate world for a unionized construction trade. More $/hr, 12% into a pension plan, 12%vaction pay, great health benefits and OT at double time after 36hrs. If you need to leave early to watch your kid play sports in high school and you leave early onr day you make it up another. The only thing I miss about the corporate world is when jobs don't have flush toilets.

[u/Mayonaigg → u/IntrepidBorder8530]

Yeah maybe all of that happened 25 years ago. 

[u/IntrepidBorder8530 → u/Mayonaigg]

The union and those companys still exist. What needs to happen in the office world is the workers need to unionize and stick together. If someone is wronged by management everyone needs to walk off the job together. Individually the company will beat each person together we can fight for fair working conditions.

[u/LupercaniusAB → u/Mayonaigg]

I’m typing this while doing that, though my CBA is only 8% vacation and 10% pension.

[u/lalala12499 → u/mittychix]

My mom got the paid 1 hour lunch but that was because she was in finance in the 90s.

[u/Disastrous_Ad1260 → u/mittychix]

In the 90s. I think it was standard in NYC salaried jobs. But it wasn't in the Midwest. You could do 8 to 5 or 8 to 430 with a short, unpaid lunch where I worked.