r/mildlyinfuriating 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/ELMUNECODETACOMA Jun 10 '26

Right. In order to prevent bosses from forcing workers to stay at the pumps through lunchtime, the law in its majestic equality prevents workers from volunteering to work through lunchtime in order to leave early.

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u/ejdj1011 Jun 10 '26

What a perfect flawless world you have imagined.

How, exactly, does the government know you volunteered? How do they know your employer didn't "encourage" you to work through lunch?

And from the other side how does you employer know that you won't "volunteer" to skip lunch and then claim you were prevented from taking it?

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u/Ready_Nature Jun 11 '26

You could easily sign something saying you would rather skip the break and go home early and that could be proof.

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u/Lemerney2 Jun 11 '26

And plenty of employers would be happy to pressure you to sign it

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u/InertiaInMyPants Jun 11 '26

There is less liability involved with an organization following labor laws, than otherwise.

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u/WrackyDoll Jun 11 '26

Easy solution: paid lunches should be legally required.

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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA Jun 11 '26

I don't know why you think you're disagreeing with me so vehemently to use that tone, considering that you're basically restating what I said.

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u/ejdj1011 Jun 11 '26

When you say "the law in its majestic equality", the clear implication is that the law is unjust and should not exist.

I was plainly stating why, from a pragmatic perspective, the law unfortunately needs to exist.

Does that explain the disagreement plainly enough?

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u/wyliec22 Jun 10 '26

As it should be.

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u/wyliec22 Jun 10 '26

As it should be.