is 8 to 5 normal working hours

[PartsMonkey]

djones123 said:

I have worked 9 to 5:30 but 8 till 5 seems a lot. Is it normal? never heard of 45 hrs per week.

Edited by djones123 on Friday 29th April 16:40

I'll be honest, having read through this thread, it has opened my eyes to how many people work fewer hours than I do. I have been working in the Motor Trade for 14 years now and until recently have always been contracted to 47.5 hours a week which to me seemed normal, maybe a bit short even . In addition to 47.5 hours a week I had to opt out of the European Working Time Directive. I was told if you don't opt out, you don't have the job.

Technically I am now on 45 hours a week at my current employers but in reality I generally put in 50 to 55 hours a week on average.

[Flooble]

PartsMonkey said:

djones123 said:

I have worked 9 to 5:30 but 8 till 5 seems a lot. Is it normal? never heard of 45 hrs per week.

Edited by djones123 on Friday 29th April 16:40

I'll be honest, having read through this thread, it has opened my eyes to how many people work fewer hours than I do. I have been working in the Motor Trade for 14 years now and until recently have always been contracted to 47.5 hours a week which to me seemed normal, maybe a bit short even . In addition to 47.5 hours a week I had to opt out of the European Working Time Directive. I was told if you don't opt out, you don't have the job.

Technically I am now on 45 hours a week at my current employers but in reality I generally put in 50 to 55 hours a week on average.

As I mentioned earlier, I've set up nearly a hundred Payroll or HR systems over the years for lots of large companies. Almost all were 35 or 37.5 working hours per week. Okay if an hour for lunch that is 40 or 42.5 hours on site, however, that was definitely the norm. This thread has prompted me to recall raising an eyebrow at one firm which had 45 hours as its standard. But I don't recall any going over 48. Definitely worth looking for another job :-)

[toon10]

PartsMonkey said:

I'll be honest, having read through this thread, it has opened my eyes to how many people work fewer hours than I do. I have been working in the Motor Trade for 14 years now and until recently have always been contracted to 47.5 hours a week which to me seemed normal, maybe a bit short even . In addition to 47.5 hours a week I had to opt out of the European Working Time Directive. I was told if you don't opt out, you don't have the job.

Technically I am now on 45 hours a week at my current employers but in reality I generally put in 50 to 55 hours a week on average.

That's the problem, you get used to things and they become the norm. I was on a standard 47 hour week (with commute) but talking with my friends I realised that it wasn't far off slavery

37 hour standard week now and I rarely do any more than 40 unless I'm travelling. 10 minute commute too. I still struggle to find time to do stuff and wonder how I managed to live at my old place.

[julian64]

pfft.

I get into work after a 30 min commute at 7:30 and work till 7pm in the evening with one night during the week till 8pm. There is no lunch break. That doesn't include paperwork which I tend to take home with me. Furthermore this summer I start working the Saturday morning as well from 8 till 1.

[p1stonhead]

julian64 said:

pfft.

I get into work after a 30 min commute at 7:30 and work till 7pm in the evening with one night during the week till 8pm. There is no lunch break. That doesn't include paperwork which I tend to take home with me. Furthermore this summer I start working the Saturday morning as well from 8 till 1.

Id imagine that the hours are because you are in a role which allows you to buy all of the tasty things in your garage?

Id be interested to know if anyone works 35-40 hours and earns objectively really good money like say £100k+? Id imagine the jobs with that hour/pay ratio would be quite hard to come by?

Higher level/paid jobs tend to come with longer hours in my experience.

[Flooble]

p1stonhead said:

Id imagine that the hours are because you are in a role which allows you to buy all of the tasty things in your garage?

Id be interested to know if anyone works 35-40 hours and earns objectively really good money like say £100k+? Id imagine the jobs with that hour/pay ratio would be quite hard to come by?

Higher level/paid jobs tend to come with longer hours in my experience.

A guy I know earns 100K and works 35 hours a week (or less if you count goofing off in work time). Now, the role should be taking 50-60 hours but he just doesn't put the effort in. The pressure to deliver just washes off him and the imminent failure of his department is apparently not a concern.

It depends on your own personal attitude as much as anything.

[BigMon]

There is definitely an element of macho 'pissing contest' viewpoint to some people too. I'm working 70-80 hours a week and if you can't or don't want to do that then you are a massive floss type thing.

Not everyone by any means, but it's definitely there.

My wife is a partner in a reasonably large accountancy firm and earns very good money but works very long hours (probably 50-60 each week as a minimum and often more.). There is no doubt the hours and stress are taking a toll on her and on others in the firm too. I think a big problem is that with mobile phones, email, etc you are almost never away from the office.

I'm contracted for 37.5 hours per week and probably do 40-ish per week. There are some people in my office who do 50-60 but I don't think they really need to and I think the more you do those sorts of hours the more it becomes expected of you to do it, and if you dropped back by 10 hours or so it would be commented on.

I earn a reasonable wage but am definitely of the 'work to live' persuasion so will never earn a fortune but I'm happy with that.

Edited by BigMon on Friday 20th May 09:47

[urquattroGus]

Good trolling OP

[Dan_1981]

Contracted 8 - 16:45 with a half hour break. 15:30 on a friday.

However I usually do 07:30 - 16:30 ish with not much of a break.

I'm also on the phone at anytime.

I'm paid reasonably well, the work is OK and both sides are flexible - if I sometimes have to work til 20:00 then I can sometime ask to take a morning off or whatever.

It;s not too bad.

[Raine Man]

35 hours a week for me. Rarely do overtime, time with my family matters more. Don't reckon I'll be on my deathbed saying 'I wish I'd spent more time at work'.

[Nickbrapp]

Raine Man said:

35 hours a week for me. Rarely do overtime, time with my family matters more. Don't reckon I'll be on my deathbed saying 'I wish I'd spent more time at work'.

This all over, you may not be the richest, have the biggest car, have the biggest house etc, but at the end of it all no one looks back and thinks, wow im glad i had 1 up on the jones next door, it made 80 hour weeks worth it, even though my wife left me for the tennis coach

[johnwilliams77]

Nickbrapp said:

This all over, you may not be the richest, have the biggest car, have the biggest house etc, but at the end of it all no one looks back and thinks, wow im glad i had 1 up on the jones next door, it made 80 hour weeks worth it, even though my wife left me for the tennis coach

True
But you may have to stay in sttier hotels on holiday and watch the pennies carefully/live in a st area

[Jasandjules]

johnwilliams77 said:

True
But you may have to stay in sttier hotels on holiday and watch the pennies carefully/live in a st area

Ask yourself this, will your child remember the days you went to the park, took them to school etc or will they remember the PS4 you bought them?!?!

[johnwilliams77]

Jasandjules said:

Ask yourself this, will your child remember the days you went to the park, took them to school etc or will they remember the PS4 you bought them?!?!

Don't have kids or want them
I think if your 35hour / easy life is enough to afford holidays, decent location (very important), hoon vehicle, some trackdays and regular road runs (mine does), albeit slightly more hours then you're winning.
Having a short commute significantly adds to my spare time/quality of life.
Earning another 20k a year net wouldn't change my life significantly. But earning less would be pretty annoying as I'd have to think about money more.

[Johnnytheboy]

Jasandjules said:

johnwilliams77 said:

True
But you may have to stay in sttier hotels on holiday and watch the pennies carefully/live in a st area

Ask yourself this, will your child remember the days you went to the park, took them to school etc or will they remember the PS4 you bought them?!?!

If youare at work all the time, there's not much benefit to living in a nice area.

[Flooble]

Johnnytheboy said:

If youare at work all the time, there's not much benefit to living in a nice area.

I dunno, not coming home to a burgled house or neighbour's cars strewn on your drive is probably a pretty big benefit.

[mph1977]

Flooble said:

As I mentioned earlier, I've set up nearly a hundred Payroll or HR systems over the years for lots of large companies. Almost all were 35 or 37.5 working hours per week. Okay if an hour for lunch that is 40 or 42.5 hours on site, however, that was definitely the norm. This thread has prompted me to recall raising an eyebrow at one firm which had 45 hours as its standard. But I don't recall any going over 48. Definitely worth looking for another job :-)

45 hours tends to 5 *9 (9.5 or 10 on site) working patterns e.g. 8 til 6 - seen that in warehousing

'day' hourly paid were on 45 hours 0600- 1530 , 0830- 1800 ( so big overlap ) and 12 hour nights ... (6to6)

[-C-]

8-5 would be a long day for me, or my wife, that's 30 minutes overtime.

We both earn good money, we both get in at 8.30 and leave at 5pm in our respective jobs. It's a very rare occasion either of us do anything extra, and shockingly, we both take our hour long lunchbreaks.

I'd happily rather forgo an extra £10/20k/whatever a year if I was expected to be in before 8 & not leaving until 7pm. In fact the only way i'd even consider it is for telephone numbers, on a (very) short term basis, just so I could pay the mortgage off & then find something else to do for less hours.

If any of my team are putting in consistent mental hours i'm questioning if we're doing something wrong as a business. Either we don't have the resources, or they don't have the ability to do their job, so it gets addressed.

I can't believe the hours some people work. I genuinely struggle to think of anything worse with my own time. Mental.

[Nickbrapp]

johnwilliams77 said:

Jasandjules said:

Ask yourself this, will your child remember the days you went to the park, took them to school etc or will they remember the PS4 you bought them?!?!

Don't have kids or want them
I think if your 35hour / easy life is enough to afford holidays, decent location (very important), hoon vehicle, some trackdays and regular road runs (mine does), albeit slightly more hours then you're winning.
Having a short commute significantly adds to my spare time/quality of life.
Earning another 20k a year net wouldn't change my life significantly. But earning less would be pretty annoying as I'd have to think about money more.

I think I'm lucky then, 40 hour week, company car, lovely flat in Cardiff bay, fiesta ST for fun, 3 holidays this year, ( Cuba, Cyprus and Sorrento) good wedge of spare cash left at the end of the month. Kids would seriously eat into that, so no thank you!

[johnwilliams77]

Nickbrapp said:

I think I'm lucky then, 40 hour week, company car, lovely flat in Cardiff bay, fiesta ST for fun, 3 holidays this year, ( Cuba, Cyprus and Sorrento) good wedge of spare cash left at the end of the month. Kids would seriously eat into that, so no thank you!

+1
Absolutely. That's exactly what winning is to me. Good hours with enough money for a decent place/life.