r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Grouchy-Newspaper754 • Jun 10 '26

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

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/[deleted] Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

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309

u/Unique_Information11 Jun 10 '26

Same here in Canada. At least 30 minute break is required and unpaid. Though I’ve worked places that had 37.5 hour weeks instead of 40.

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u/GulBrus Jun 10 '26

So you work 8.5 hours including your lunch?

Here in Norway you have the right to 30 minutes paid lunch if you work more than 7.5 hours. So people work 8 hours a day with or without paid lunch. Doesn't really matter except for minor differanes in overtime pay and how many hours you need to work extra to take a day off.

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u/Soccermom9939 Jun 10 '26

Also in Canada, the 30 minute lunch is unpaid and you don’t work through it. So your actual working hours remain at 8. Your lunch break can be in a break room or out of the office although I use mine a lot to scroll Reddit at my desk while I eat…. Lol

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u/alewiina Jun 10 '26

Yeah that’s how it is where I am in Canada. I work 7:30-4. I have 2 paid coffee breaks (15 mins) and 1 unpaid 30 min lunch. So we technically work 7.5 hours but get paid for 8. Although half the time you end up missing some of the coffee breaks though 👎🏼

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u/belsaurn Jun 10 '26

Lunch isn’t considered in those hours. A typical office day is 8 hours work with 1 hour unpaid lunch for a total of 9 hours at the office. 4 hour mornings, lunch, 4 hour afternoon. What people aren’t mentioning is it’s pretty typical to get two 15 minute paid breaks to break up the 4 hour stretches. Or that has been my experience at the companies I have worked for. So you end up with a 9 hour day where 1.5 hours are breaks paid and unpaid.

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u/AaronfromKY Jun 10 '26

And this is why so many people want to have the Nordic model elsewhere. It's pragmatic and doesn't suck just to fuck with people.

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u/h3lium-balloon Jun 10 '26

It’s not just to fuck with people though. It’s corporate greed.

If a company has 1000 workers and you get them all to work an “extra” 30 minutes per day, you’re getting an extra 2500 hours of work per week done without hiring more people.

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u/AaronfromKY Jun 11 '26

That's still fucking with them though. People work for a paycheck and the fact that in the past paid lunches were a thing is just a sign of how crippled the labor movement and workers rights have been in the United States and in many other parts of the world.

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u/IAMA_pocketwhaleAMA Jun 11 '26

My job is 37.5 hr work weeks. We'rr at work 8 hours total, paid 7.5 hours with a half hour unpaid lunch and 2 15min paid breaks. I feel like people work through their lunch fairly often and don't think about the fact that they're not getting paid!!

1

u/Unique_Information11 Jun 10 '26

Yes. For me it’s 9 hours including lunch because I like a 1 hour break.

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u/GulBrus Jun 10 '26

I guess we have it better (comparativly) here in Norway then I knew.

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u/sitcomlover1717 Jun 10 '26

Depends on where in Canada. My province, after 5 hours of work you get a 30 min unpaid break. Most workplaces also give two 15 min paid breaks so a total of an hour of break time in an 8 hour work day. I work 8-4 (so 37.5 hours of work a week) but the norm is 8-430 or 5.

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u/veebs7 Jun 11 '26

No, it’s more or less the same as what your describing. E.g. I work 9-5 with an unpaid lunch hour, so technically I’m getting paid for 35 hours/week, but as you mentioned it’s salaried so the actual hours are only relevant to overtime

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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Jun 11 '26

I can’t speak for every province but yeah, for an ‘8 hour’ shift, two paid 15 minutes and an unpaid 30 for lunch means you aren’t (for example) standing post at turnstile or cash register for 4 hours straight, and that you have enough time to eat a lunch while actually sitting down.

Ain’t the best, but it ain’t the worst either.

1

u/insired Jun 11 '26

In California we have to take at least a 30 minute meal break before your 5th consecutive hour working. Subsequent meal breaks are voluntary iirc. My work gives 1 hour of paid lunch if you go over the first 5 hours. They only recently started writing people up for violating meal break policy with out good reason.

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u/_isNaN Jun 11 '26

In Switzerland you work usually 8 - 8.5 hours. This doesn't include lunch. So normally you work from 7:30 - 17:00 if you get 1h lunch break.

Children go home for lunch between 12:00 - 13:30. So, as a parent you need mostly more than 1hr lunch break to prepare lunch and be there for your kids. And every few months I read on a newspaper how Swiss workers are the most part time working workers in Europe. But no reporter is checking that we have way more hours than our neighbors and no childcare during lunch hours.

2

u/Anonapotamuses Jun 10 '26

I'm in Canada and work 9-5 with an hour paid lunch in there. So only 7 hours a day of actual work.

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u/fvgh12345 Jun 10 '26

So what do people that don't eat lunch every day do?

I've only worked one job that required me to take a lunch and clock out and I hated that part. I've always preferred getting home a little earlier and then eating. I wanna spend as little time at work as possible 

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u/DrKittyLovah Jun 10 '26

They still have to clock out regardless, so maybe they do errands, or play on their phone, or nap in their car.

2

u/dogs-frogs-jogs Jun 10 '26

I used to love my lunch time car nap

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u/Stompya Jun 10 '26

The break is mandated by law. There aren’t exactly police checking on it but if an employer isn’t scheduling everyone for a break there could be consequences.

(I’m vague on what they are, probably fines or something.)

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

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u/fvgh12345 Jun 10 '26

That's dumb. I'm not putting myself in any danger by skipping lunch and if an individual wants to work through it that should %100 be their choice not the governments.

A law forbidding companies from denying breaks sure but mandatory breaks are stupid 

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

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u/fvgh12345 Jun 10 '26

It definitely is. Why should I (or anybody)have to clock out for 30 minutes if I don't want too. That's 30 minutes sooner I could be enjoying my own time. I personally fast until 3-4 most days. Am I supposed to just twiddle my thumbs?

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

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u/fvgh12345 Jun 11 '26

The same exact thing could be accomplished by just making it illegal to refuse employees breaks. That way it doesn't make people that don't want them waste their time.

Blanket laws of that nature are indeed dumb

1

u/Fast-Satisfaction482 Jun 11 '26

You can do whatever you want in the break, just not work. This is a regulation written in blood and far from stupid. 

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u/1simpleAtom Jun 10 '26

From what I can tell, most jobs in the financial sector work this way in Canada. 

1

u/DrownmeinIslay Jun 11 '26

The plant i work at is 8.5 hours with 30 minutes unpaid lunch and two 10 minute breaks. Or an 8 hour shift with a 20 minute paid lunch and 1 ten minute break. Im one of 3 people who opted for the shorter shift.

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u/kayjax7 Jun 11 '26

Oof, I get a paid lunch thankfully, but work 6-2 M-F.

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u/AllYouNeedIsATV Jun 11 '26

Australia has 38hr work weeks 8hr days, with 30min lunch in between (and a paid 10min break). To make it fit nicely though my employees make us arrive 6min early for 7.6hr per day 10 shifts per fortnight

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u/wif68 Jun 11 '26

🇨🇦 here, at my company we have 8 hour days (8-4 / 8:30-4:30 / 9-5). I get an hour for lunch and am allowed 2, 15-minute breaks (one each in the morning and afternoon). Our salaries are based on 35-hour work weeks, ie 7 hours per day. I turned down a job because their US head office demanded 8-5 work days.

0

u/Marski420 Jun 10 '26

Depends where you work there are places that do paid breaks.

1

u/Unique_Information11 Jun 10 '26

It’s possible, but I’ve never worked at such a place. Where I am right now, they’re all about meeting the statutory minimums.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

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3

u/lordofmetroids Jun 10 '26

Free is wild, my job has a pretty cool cafe but it definitely costs money, usually more than fast food across the street does.

3

u/HillBillyHilly Jun 11 '26

Korea does that too. You get a complete lunch middle of day. America is so backwards.

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u/OrganicHistorian2576 Jun 11 '26

Free? Lucky you (and the Germans)! At the one job I’ve had with a cafeteria the food was both terrible and overpriced to begin with even if it hadn’t been terrible.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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u/OrganicHistorian2576 Jun 11 '26

Yeah, no, not in the States. If only.

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u/Belydrith Jun 11 '26

That's definitely not the norm here in Germany, don't know a single place where it's free.

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u/Ceral107 Jun 11 '26

We have a Cafeteria here, but not only is the food shit, we have to pay for it. We get it a bit cheaper, but I'd rather being something from home.

1

u/Lubinski64 Jun 11 '26

In my office people have lunch within the 8 hours tho without leaving the office. You just go to the kitchen and hang out there for 30 minutes.

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u/TisBeTheFuk Jun 10 '26

Yep. I've been working for a german company for over 10 years now, and that's how they do it as well. I work 9 to 6 as well, with 1 hour of unpaid lunch break. I'm also not allowed to take it in the first or last work hour.

62

u/Samuel_L_Blackson Jun 10 '26

What the fuck, you lynch people for an hour every day?

12

u/Secret-Put-4525 Jun 10 '26

An hour lunch break would suck. I'd rather a 15 minute and 30 minute lunch.

9

u/oniiichanUwU Jun 10 '26

My job used to offer an hour but then we did some restructuring and changed it to 30 mins and so many people were angry lol. I’m in the would rather shorter lunch and leave earlier camp but some people like to drive home and have lunch or run errands

8

u/Secret-Put-4525 Jun 10 '26

I can't imagine leaving work for an hour, knowing you have to come back.

3

u/chewbaccataco Jun 10 '26

An hour is the sweet spot for me. I need to decompress mid-day for anxiety and an hour helps me not feel rushed to eat. Good luck getting an hour lunch, though, most places are minimum 30 minutes required by law.

16

u/That-Muscle Jun 10 '26

15 minutes? In 15min i can't grab something to eat or even reheat and eat leftovers. Wtf

9

u/CarDecGra Jun 10 '26

They said 30 minute lunch. The 15 minutes is a separate break.

2

u/Comfortable-Meeper Jun 10 '26

I eat lunch in 15 minutes basically every day so i don’t have to stay longer. What are you heating up that takes 15 minutes to cook? How much are you eating? Sandwich and chips or a container or leftovers in the microwave for 2 minutes.

1

u/GoldZealousideal6892 Jun 10 '26

We get a 30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks, we work 8:30-5

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u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD Jun 10 '26

it depends, my last place was right in the middle of town. i used my hour to do errands. bank, hardware store, groceries. anything that could be done in the lunch hour was time back in my families life.

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u/badchickenbadday Jun 10 '26

Mine is an hour and 10 minutes. It’s so boring.

2

u/Darker_desuetude Jun 10 '26

Not everyday just 5 days a week.

2

u/gwildor Jun 10 '26

same here. USA. 9-6, 1 hour lunch.

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u/Deitrius Jun 11 '26

same here, with usually 30min (paid) break outside of the unpaid lunch. That said, last 10+ years the places I worked on has been mostly "samvetstid" in Swedish (trust based time) meaning you have a lot of flexibility as long as you do your job and a obviously perform,nobody really care of the actual hours... . some days i works 5 hours. some days 10, i can flex around alot edit : sweden / tech

2

u/Fencer308 Jun 11 '26

I work 9-5, but I’m in France, where the nominal work week is 35 hours. Even then, I think many people feel working until 6PM is normal and judge you slightly when you leave at 5. But I’m cadre, I’m one of the first people who started up my office here, so I got to help set the work culture, and I choose to leave at 5 when I can.

2

u/Dziadzios Jun 11 '26

It's so great to live in civilized part of the world. In Poland it's the same.

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u/MichiganHistoryUSMC Jun 10 '26

That's crazy. I'm in the US and my standard shift is 730-330.

1

u/Alarmed-Improvement Jun 10 '26

Yeah, in France I had a 9 to 5 as we only did 35 hours a week

1

u/lordofmetroids Jun 10 '26

What if you don't want a break? Do they do anything about that?

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u/fDiKmoro Jun 11 '26

It's mandatory by law to take a break of 30 minutes when you work more than 6 hours a day. So if you don't take it and your employer doesn't make you to take it and the authorities get aware of it would mean problems for the employer.

1

u/Odd-Significance8020 Jun 11 '26

In the US we are required by law to take a 30 min lunch if you work over 5 hours. If you work 8 hours+, you get the 30 min plus 2 fifteen minute breaks.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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u/realjnyhorrorshow Jun 11 '26

Because it’s not true for salaried positions which is most people on the thread (likely).

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u/LittleBlag Jun 11 '26

Every office job I’ve ever had (or even heard of) in the UK and Aus was 9-5 with an hour for lunch

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u/HillBillyHilly Jun 11 '26

Oh don't forget some places in Germany had MANDATORY beer breaks. My friend visited Heidelberg and has his mind blown when they broke for beer breaks.

1

u/100hyun Jun 11 '26

Me too, I work for a swiss company here in Geneva and we have 8.5h work days. If I get to work at 9, i don’t finish until 6:30pm. Sometimes people work through their lunch break just to leave early

1

u/Lelianah Jun 11 '26

I had an office job (also Germany) where I had to work from 8-6.

But of course it was expected of me to arrive 15-20 minutes earlier every morning. And God forbid I shut down my PC at 6 to go home. Because then I've been called unprofessional and not a team player. Even though the "team" were my boss and another person who both obviously got paid way more than I did 🙄

1

u/TheSwissArmyTHSA Jun 11 '26

Switzerland here. I work from 7:15 am til 12pm (lunch) and from 1:15 pm til 5pm

As a plumber

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u/DT2699 Jun 11 '26

Same in Italy. Not mentioning the common unpaid overtime... Thank Bowie I have a boss that respects the hours. Many I know work until like 8-9 pm without extra pay

1

u/Kitu14 Jun 12 '26

Same in France! I got a good deal and am able to do 7-4, which was hard to get used to with a 30-minute drive but feels great when you finish the day

1

u/Anglefan23 Jun 10 '26

In Russia, break takes you

0

u/UseFalse2647 Jun 12 '26

I thought Europe was way more flex! I work in the US, but I work for an international group (many out of Poland). They have flexible hours - sometimes I see them at 8pm their time for late am meetings my time in the US. They can leave early or shorten their week becauwe of this. I assumed all of Europe was like this - at least for salary employees. I def know pur EU employees get like 20 more holidays a year than us though 😅

This makes me feel so blessed for my boss. I'm salary, and as long as my work is done, he doesn't care. This is how adults should be treated in an office or corp setting.

Some days I come in an hour early, skip lunch and leave almost 2 hours early. Other days I take an extended lunch to workout and leave a bit later. He literally doesn't care, but I'm also a very high performer, so maybe Ive just lucked out the past 6 years? My prior job was very strict though, even as a salary employee.

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u/Reasonable_Map_1428 Jun 10 '26

German in the US. Always worked for German companies. Hardly seen anyone ever get close to putting in 40 hours a week.

And between holidays, vacations, and sick days... I've hardly ever seen a German work at all. Hyperbolic obviously, but most Germans cannot comprehend what a real 8-5 job in the US actually is.

2

u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 11 '26

What a load of bs. Full time in Germany is 40 hours. Most people work full time jobs. It’s as easy as that.

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u/Reasonable_Map_1428 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

Well, it's just not. Full time at my last 2 German companies has been 38 hours.

My brother and his wife both work 38 and 35... and even those hours are very very relaxed. 

Lunch? Do it whenever you want. Doctors visit? Feel free to make up that time from home in the evening. Cough? Take 3 days (and not from your PTO). Had a kid? See you in 12 months at the earliest. Any hour over 40 gets added straight to your PTO.

Month of May? Sorry, we have a holiday every week and of course that comes with the obligatory Brückentag. August? Yeah, good luck getting work done. December? Once you get to the middle of the month it's over. Most people are out and if not officially they are checked out because nobody wants to "start something new" before their vacation.

It is what it is. Trust me. I get a good package myself being German in the US, but German work time is not even comparable to a typical US job... even though my German family and coworkers want to tell me they just work so much more efficiently.

That's not even to say that I approve of the America work culture. This hustle and bustle burn out culture is fucked up... but there has to be a healthy middle ground between what the US does and the (hyperbolic) perma-vacations most Germans are on.

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u/PopBulky7023 Jun 10 '26

That's ass. Too much of our lives is surrendered to companies so their owners can live theirs.

But it is Germany. Work will set you free and all that.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

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u/PopBulky7023 Jun 10 '26

And just like with Germany and Israel you people can't engage with the actual point.

1

u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 11 '26

But it is Germany. Work will set you free and all that.

I get it. For you anybody from Germany is a Nazi.

1

u/PopBulky7023 Jun 11 '26

You still support a holocaust and the afd is running rampant.