# What are your working hours?



## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

Really struggling with this. Since moving to HK from London that is.

I was doing a 9.30am-5.30pm there. And people would actually leave at 5.30, or even earlier. Here in HK, I'm usually the first to leave - at around 7pm. I often stay later though, particularly since the new boss started. Apparently this is across the board, and expected in HK.

My own feeling is that if you can't finish your work by the time you're contracted to (my contract says 5.30pm), then you're incompetent. The Chinese seem to see it differently. The longer you sit at your desk the better you look.

So - remind me Blighty-based folk. What are your hours? Fuck I'm really starting to rethink this move.


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## teuchter (Dec 11, 2013)

My last office job, 9.30 till 6.30 official hours, actual hours tended to be more like 10 till 7 or 8, later depending how much work was on.


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## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

Could you not complete your work by 6.30?

I work really fast, I don't see the point of sitting at my desk if there's nothing to do when I could be at home with my family. It's fucked up.


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## white rabbit (Dec 11, 2013)

I work at home so I work the hours I like. It's tremendously liberating not to have anyone watching. What tends to happen for some reason is that work time and time doing other stuff has become combined. It's just after nine in the evening and I'm sat at my desk, but I haven't looked at anything work-related for hours. The balance depends a lot on how much I have to do. If I have to get stuff done, I may end up working into the evening or weekend. Otoh, I can spend hours during what's supposed to be work time doing other things.

I suspect many here will combine work stuff and non-work stuff. It is a bulletin board, after all. It's just how covert you have to be.


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## teuchter (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> Could you not complete your work by 6.30?
> 
> I work really fast, I don't see the point of sitting at my desk if there's nothing to do when I could be at home with my family. It's fucked up.



Sometimes, I would be there late because I'd spent half the day arguing on urban75 instead of getting on with the work that needed to be done that day, and that I could have had done earlier if I hadn't been messing around on the internet.
Sometimes because I actually had a lot of work to do.
Never because I wanted to look hard-working or be the last to leave.


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## teuchter (Dec 11, 2013)

white rabbit said:


> I work at home so I work the hours I like. It's tremendously liberating not to have anyone watching. What tends to happen for some reason is that work time and time doing other stuff has become combined. It's just after nine in the evening and I'm sat at my desk, but I haven't looked at anything work-related for hours. The balance depends a lot on how much I have to do. If I have to get stuff done, I may end up working into the evening or weekend. Otoh, I can spend hours during what's supposed to be work time doing other things.
> 
> I suspect many here will combine work stuff and non-work stuff. It is a bulletin board, after all. It's just how covert you have to be.


I work from home at the moment and if there are no fixed appointments it will tend to be from about 11am until 2am but with work and non-work mixed up together as you describe. I'm not sure how healthy that is really, though.


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## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

white rabbit said:


> I work at home so I work the hours I like. It's tremendously liberating not to have anyone watching. What tends to happen for some reason is that work time and time doing other stuff has become combined. It's just after nine in the evening and I'm sat at my desk, but I haven't looked at anything work-related for hours. The balance depends a lot on how much I have to do. If I have to get stuff done, I may end up working into the evening or weekend. Otoh, I can spend hours during what's supposed to be work time doing other things.
> 
> I suspect many here will combine work stuff and non-work stuff. It is a bulletin board, after all. It's just how covert you have to be.



I would love to work from home. HK would be fine if I could do that. It's not the place itself I'm not getting on with, it's a great town, it's purely the working hours - which is a very common complaint amongst expats here.


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## Saratoga (Dec 11, 2013)

8 day rolling week; 4on 4off. Initially offered with 3pm to 3am but that kinda moved to 4pm to 4am. If I had the chance I'd move to days as when my rolling duties land me to work weekends I work days on another contract.

But its mostly peaceful at night and fewer people to laugh (at me) when I get it wrong. Unfortunately there are also more road closures at night....


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## wiskey (Dec 11, 2013)

12hrs either 7am-7pm or 7pm-7am,genetally we are at the desk by half six though. Fortunately it makes little difference how fast I work, the work keeps coming and I don't leave until someone is physically there to hand over to.


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## spanglechick (Dec 11, 2013)

Start 8-8.10am. Work through to an average of about 6.20pm. No breaks.  Mostly I get to pick up / microwave sthg for lunch but I need to combine that with my loo trip and eat it while I work.  I'm a teacher.  There's just too much to do. I am always behind.  Currently I could work full time for a magical extra week of hours and I'd just about catch up. 
I do try not to take work home, though.


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## farmerbarleymow (Dec 11, 2013)

Standard office hours, with flexitime. I was in at 10 yesterday and left at 4:45, but I'll be in at 08:15 today (on the train there now) and will leave at the same time. Working excessive hours is a very bad idea, not least for health reasons. Look after yourself gabi.


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## iona (Dec 11, 2013)

According to my contract, if anyone ever bothers sorting it out, I work 8.45 (9.45 one day) - 5.45 with a lunch break between 1 and 2. I actually start at 8.30/9.30, sometimes have an hour or more for lunch but often only get 15 minutes or have to work right through, and I tend to finish between 6.30 and 7.30. Sometimes I finish earlier, but then sometimes I don't leave until gone 8.

Mondays are the worst. Even when I'm working 9 - 5.30, I'm out the house for 14 or 15 hours because of travel time.


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## StoneRoad (Dec 11, 2013)

The admin side is officially part-time - but is done "on demand" - the rest of the time I spend in the workshop.
One lad is an early riser and gets there about 0600......he leaves about 1500 / 1600 with about 3/4 for lunchbreak. Depending on what stage our current project is at, we can all be gone home by 1700. Painting can mean a late start and even later finish - you can't just put the brush down halfway down a panel.........this is proper coach painting with traditional paint, btw. The last project saw me cleaning the brushes after 2100 a couple of times. (I didn't start until 1500, btw, so it was just a late shift, with food, milk and drinks "in hand" to save time and not risking losing the "wet edge") A bit different to the woodwork in the restoration stages.

I enjoy this sort of painting, and the result, even if it can seem to take a long time. I'm just glad I'm not a plasterer building a ferro-cement boat. That has to be done, inside and out, in one shift ("wet egde" , literally !). You weigh all ingredients, including the water, the sand has to be dry (bagged type) - all sorts of rules of work apply.


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## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

iona said:


> According to my contract, if anyone ever bothers sorting it out, I work 8.45 (9.45 one day) - 5.45 with a lunch break between 1 and 2. I actually start at 8.30/9.30, sometimes have an hour or more for lunch but often only get 15 minutes or have to work right through, and I tend to finish between 6.30 and 7.30. Sometimes I finish earlier, but then sometimes I don't leave until gone 8.
> 
> Mondays are the worst. Even when I'm working 9 - 5.30, I'm out the house for 14 or 15 hours because of travel time.



Those hours sound like mine. Altho my travel time is literally a 4 minute walk door to door at least.

I keep reminding myself theres more to work than life but unfortunately ive indebted myself moving all the way here so its a Catch 22. I can't actually afford to quit and move back to the UK. Rent is sky-high here and ive got a year fucking contract on my flat to see out, with no chance of paying it off early. I think the firm knows this too. They've got me by the balls.


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## High Voltage (Dec 11, 2013)

Officially 8.30 to 5.00 with an hour for lunch

Because of my commute I'm often in half an hour early but I do leave bang on the dot of 5 Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays - Wednesdays and Thursdays I overnight so can stay on if I just need a bit of quiet thinking time that I wouldn't otherwise get during the working day

I also just about take my lunch hour, but I'll eat at my desk so often get the odd question asked

And then there's the busy times, during those I'd rather work hard during the day and be absolutely shattered come home time, rather than work slower but make the working day longer - if I need more time I'd rather get in early, that extra hour or so is my best time


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## _pH_ (Dec 11, 2013)

My hours can be anything from 6 hours to 9.5 hours, starting at anything from 3.45am, finishing at anything up to 2.00am. I hate shift work.


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## Mapped (Dec 11, 2013)

Officially in the office 9-5, 36 hours a week.

However I have a great boss and I do a lot of this from home and remotely, so at the moment I mainly go into the office for meetings and to catch up with people. I've been doing a lot of travel recently, which means I can claw back time for myself after I arrive home from a trip at midnight. I also manage a project with members in the US, Europe and Australia so I'm often doing calls and emails early in the morning and late at night. So the boundaries between work and home can become extremely blurred. 

However I'm currently writing this post from my nice, warm bed 

I've just got a new job starting in Feb and I think I'm expected in the office there 7.5hrs a day. I'm going to try and live close to work though, so hopefully that won't bother me too much.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 11, 2013)

Average is at least 12 hours a day, often 16 or more. Longest stint I've ever done was something like 27 hours straight.


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## RedDragon (Dec 11, 2013)

10am - 6pm Mon - Fri and an hour for lunch, any overtime becomes time of in lieu and needs to be used within 28 days, six weeks leave and bank holidays. However, it's a mind-numbing job.


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## ddraig (Dec 11, 2013)

i don't actually know but i presume there are some sort of core hours
on secondment and work from home 95% of the time, some trips and overnight stays as well as event days
worked late a lot when i started but it has calmed down now
boundaries still a bit blurred but make the effort to get up and be at computer at 9am. went out for a few hours recently and was just answering emails on blackberry, luckily don't get hardly any calls
so mostly 9-5 but can be 9 - 7/8, 8 - 7


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## hiccup (Dec 11, 2013)

Roughly 9-5, but I usually do 9-6, which allows me to take a day off every couple of weeks through the miracle of flexitime.


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## bi0boy (Dec 11, 2013)

Last time I had regular working hours I did 9:15 to 17:00 with an hour for lunch and two 40 minute coffee breaks. This was pushing the boundaries of piss-taking but no one seemed to notice.


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## pseudonarcissus (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> So - remind me Blighty-based folk. What are your hours? Fuck I'm really starting to rethink this move.



I just moved back to London, and the short working hours are great. I was in Texas working for a British company and that wasn't bad, 8-5 and usually I was there 7:15 to 5. American companies seemed to have a macho long hours thing. Crazy when you think a lot of people drive over an hour to get to work.

I then went to Brazil where it was 8:30 to 7:30 most days. We'd just set up the company. That was illegal as no overtime was paid, but I wanted the company to be a success.

Now back in London, 8:30 to 5:30 more or less and a 15 minute cycle commute

I think Europeans are just spoilt


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## wiskey (Dec 11, 2013)

iona said:


> I'm out the house for 14 or 15 hours because of travel time.



This is a big issue where I work (which is basically 12hr on / 12hr off for 4 days then some days off) - on top of a 12hr shift people are travelling for up to 3hrs a day leaving not a lot of time for sleeping and eating and coming back for the next 12hr shift!


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## Ms T (Dec 11, 2013)

Rolling shift pattern of three days on, three days off, including nights and weekends.  The shifts are roughly 11 hours long and once I leave that's it as someone else has taken over.  This is a good thing.  The constant changing from nights to lates to earlies, not so much.  I am currently feeling wrecked after a set of nights.


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## Onket (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> My own feeling is that if you can't finish your work by the time you're contracted to (my contract says 5.30pm), then you're incompetent.



Sorry gabi but this is bollocks. And it's exactly the kind of bollocks that leads to people feeling they must work more than their contracted hours.


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## Belushi (Dec 11, 2013)

pseudonarcissus said:


> I think Europeans are just spoilt


 
Or workers in the rest of the world are being taken advantage of.


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## Remus Harbank (Dec 11, 2013)

Presenteism is abhorrent. You're a grown person, for all you know this is your only life, if there is urgent work that needs doing by all means stay on past your contracted time, but never ever make a habit of it.


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## blossie33 (Dec 11, 2013)

I am at work from before 7am until 5pm.
I don't have to be in quite that early but I do have to be in when the postman makes an early delivery to the building which can be any time from 7.45am
It suits me to come in at that time as it's a quieter time to travel and I can do house services type things around the office when there's no one here.


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## Belushi (Dec 11, 2013)

> Presenteism is abhorrent. You're a grown person, for all you know this is your only life, if there is urgent work that needs doing by all means stay on past your contracted time, but never ever make a habit of it.


 
It also leads to shit productivity ime.


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## Crispy (Dec 11, 2013)

9-5:30 with an hour for lunch. Strictly observed unless there's a deadline to meet, but it's by far the exception not the norm.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Dec 11, 2013)

08.00 to 22.30 or later if required. 7 days of this, then 7 days off.


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## Throbbing Angel (Dec 11, 2013)

7h 24min per day
flexi system
week 1 I have to cover 9 to 5
week 2  pretty much move my hours about as needed


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## spanglechick (Dec 11, 2013)

Remus Harbank said:


> Presenteism is abhorrent. You're a grown person, for all you know this is your only life, if there is urgent work that needs doing by all means stay on past your contracted time, but never ever make a habit of it.


So what would you advise me, as a teacher, to do?


It's very easy to say that, unless all the work is important and not doing it will lead to disciplinaries.


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## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

spanglechick said:


> So what would you advise me, as a teacher, to do?
> 
> 
> It's very easy to say that, unless all the work is important and not doing it will lead to disciplinaries.



Innit. I had a shot across my bows during my performance appraisal last week for the crime of only turning in 10 hour days since I left hospital after work related health issues. Basically told I'm on a last warning. But fuck em. They can sack me if they want.


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## Sirena (Dec 11, 2013)

Midday till 6pm, three days a week.


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## ReturnOfElfman (Dec 11, 2013)

Not many hours and I like it that way. Varies day to day but I probably do about 25 hours a week paid work but I do productive stuff outside that too, some of which is to help my future job prospects.


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## Remus Harbank (Dec 11, 2013)

spanglechick said:


> So what would you advise me, as a teacher, to do?
> 
> It's very easy to say that, unless all the work is important and not doing it will lead to disciplinaries.


I would advise you to never take anyone's advice to start with, what you do with your life is your responsibility.

That said, teachers have always been a bit of a special case workload wise, just as nurses, doctors, etc… You have the luxury of being presented by a strong union though (assuming you are in the UK), right? So, if you and your colleagues feel that you are being exploited you do have the option of taking collective action, unlike many (private sector) employees.


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## ddraig (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> Innit. I had a shot across my bows during my performance appraisal last week for the crime of only turning in 10 hour days since I left hospital after work related health issues. Basically told I'm on a last warning. But fuck em. They can sack me if they want.


and how does this work when your contracted hours are less? how will they enforce it?


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## gabi (Dec 11, 2013)

ddraig said:


> and how does this work when your contracted hours are less? how will they enforce it?



A friend in HR here tells me workers have no rights. There's no such thing as constructive dismissal for instance. I'm being forced out, probably due to my health probs, but I've got no legal comeback. 

Workers in the UK should realize how fucking lucky they are, I certainly do now.


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## girasol (Dec 11, 2013)

7-30 until 4, three days a week from home, two in the office. Most people do 9-5:30, but they allow flexibility.  A lot of people do long hours, a lot don't...


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## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Dec 11, 2013)

Nine till about quarter past five. Occasionally we do late events that I have to stay for but otherwise I stick to those hours.


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## og ogilby (Dec 11, 2013)

Proper cushy job here.

I guess I work about 1 hour a day on average but I have to be here from 8 till 5. That's not so bad though because I work from home.


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## Winot (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> I would love to work from home. HK would be fine if I could do that. It's not the place itself I'm not getting on with, it's a great town, it's purely the working hours - which is a very common complaint amongst expats here.


 
A friend did a stint as a trainee lawyer there and was horrified to have to cover every other Saturday morning.  She made sure on a point of principle that she was horribly hungover on those days


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## rubbershoes (Dec 11, 2013)

9 -5.30 are my core hours but my job requires me to stay until the job is done

I'm normally in at 8 , sometimes at 7


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Dec 11, 2013)

24/7/365 for me, straight up, so tell your lazy Chinese colleagues to suck on that.


In the office generally 0900-1800 though.


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## frogwoman (Dec 11, 2013)

8.30-5 with an hour for lunch


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## BoatieBird (Dec 11, 2013)

I get paid to work 30 hours a week and I work 30 hours a week.
I don't have the option to stay late (unless it's planned in advance) as I have to be home for when my boy gets in from school.

Occasionally my job demands that I do stay longer, but I almost always know about it in advance and can plan for it.
If I work extra hours I take the time off at a later date.

This is the culture of my workplace and I know I am very lucky.
I think it does pay off in the end for my employer as people tend to work here for years and are very loyal.


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## teuchter (Dec 11, 2013)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> 24/7/365 for me, straight up, so tell your lazy Chinese colleagues to suck on that.
> 
> 
> In the office generally 0900-1800 though.



You must have an easy job if you can do it while you are asleep.


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## fuck seals (Dec 11, 2013)

gabi said:


> Really struggling with this. Since moving to HK from London that is.
> 
> I was doing a 9.30am-5.30pm there. And people would actually leave at 5.30, or even earlier. Here in HK, I'm usually the first to leave - at around 7pm. I often stay later though, particularly since the new boss started. Apparently this is across the board, and expected in HK.
> 
> ...




My last job was for AUssies.  Well an Oz company anyway; I was in the UK; my customers between Madrid & Moscow. 

So whilst my contract might have stated 40hrs, 5x8, and whilst i had certainly never signed the waiver to limiting working hours that's required here, i worked way more.  Waaaaay more.

Partly it's sales & the working culture that goes with hitting quota; partly it was an unchallenged assumption that the MO of the company was to break your back it the name of being seen to do *something*.

My usual day went wake at 5, starting calling my EU customers at 6 (9 am in Moscow by then ...), drive to work at 7, work until 6pm, home, call my US boss at around 8pm.  Last call to Oz at 12 midnight.

Add to that EU travel 2-3 time a fortnight and im doing i dunno somewhere between 50-70 hours.

Then there's stress of not succeeding.  it's a shocker, knowing that not hitting your quota might well mean no job in an instant.  that's another sleep loser right there.

don't get me wrong, i was good at it, as good as anyone in the company, i loved my customers, i was paid way north of 100k, and i loved the subject matter.

But in the end it's too much.  The final straw came when this cnut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Killelea called me at 3am to ask where a 17000€ deal was.  i asked him if i should be concentrating on the 800,000€ of closing business i had instead, but no, not closing the small deal was a sign of weakness.

3 days after that i resigned.  when i was asked why i just said "i'm tired.  i havent slept well in 6 months.  we're done".

my vote, gabi, for what it's worth, is get out. 

i have never seen an alpha-(fe)male, macho culture overachiever retire happy.  i have only seen them die young.


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## sim667 (Dec 11, 2013)

Are you ready for this.

Monday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5
Tuesday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5, 6 - 7.30, 7.45 - 9
Wednesday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5
Thursday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5
Friday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45

Yes, that is how my actual working hours are split up, just so they dont have to pay me any money on my breaks (despite the fact I'm expected to prepare for the next session). I then have to do marking, lesson preparation, my PGCE, and my CPD in my own time. For training day's (always a friday) where Im expected to stay outside of my working hours I get 50% rate (under minimum wage), so I tend to refuse.

But actually I'm in until 8.30 every morning, work until whenever my last session is, and then stay to finish up extra work until the kids leave me on the verge of a nervous breakdown, at which point Ill go home, get  5 or 6 hours sleep and then come back.

All for the princely sum of £15600 a year (I am term time only though).


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## Sprocket. (Dec 11, 2013)

Week 1  Sat.   0545-1815
			 Sun   0545-1815
			 Mon  0545-1815
			 Wed 1745-0615
			 Thu  1745-0615.

Week 2  Tue.  0545-1815
			 Wed  0545-1815
			 Fri	 1745-0615
			 Sat	1745-0615
			 Sun	1745-0615.

Week 3  Thu.   0545-1815
			 Fri	 0545-1815
			 Mon   1745-0615
			 Tue	1745-0615.

Week 1 Start again!

I have been doing this five years and still do not know what day it is!
Sold as three on/two off/two on/three off.
At least we get more weekends off than on four on/four off.
Fucking capitalists!!!


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## spanglechick (Dec 11, 2013)

sim667 said:


> Are you ready for this.
> 
> Monday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5
> Tuesday 9.30 - 11, 11.15 - 12.45, 1.45 - 3.15, 3.30 - 5, 6 - 7.30, 7.45 - 9
> ...


You know when you were trying to tell me to move into the FE sector...?


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Dec 11, 2013)

teuchter said:


> You must have an easy job if you can do it while you are asleep.



It's not that easy, but been doing it long enough that I can do it in any state, ask 5t3IIa


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## sim667 (Dec 11, 2013)

spanglechick said:


> You know when you were trying to tell me to move into the FE sector...?


 
At least we've got rights, not like workers in academies.

I think we have a lot less shitty paperwork to do, but remember my role is predominatly a technician, so I have to do all the maintenance, ordering, lesson prep for other teachers....... and at this place (not most colleges I've worked at), property maintenance (our property guys literally do fuck all), and finances and record keeping (low end SMT managers at my place are generally pretty incompetent).

Also I'm particularly stressed at the moment as I've taken on extra teaching, working for a HOD who is genuinely just not a particularly pleaseant individual, teaching a class at level 2 which I find their lack of interest and behaviour problems incomprehensible, and have a exceptionally troublesome student, which has resulted in me telling nasty HOD to sort him out or I'll quit.


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## neonwilderness (Dec 11, 2013)

My hours are 8.30 - 5 which I pretty much stick to most of the time.  Occasionally I go in early if I want to get something done in peace and quiet or stay late if there's something urgent that needs to be finished, but that's fairly rare and I usually get the time back in lieu. There are a couple of people who stay past 5 every night just to prove how busy they are, but whenever I've stayed late the same people have usually fucked off at about 5.15 

I do freelance work at home as well.  That varies depending on what I have on and is usually mixed up with non-work stuff.


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## weepiper (Dec 11, 2013)

Fixed hours 9-5 three days a week, unpaid lunchbreak of an hour. I get paid for 22.5 hours.


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## Voley (Dec 11, 2013)

I'm contracted to work 37 hours a week and I claim every minute over that back as flexitime. Technically I'm 9-5 but because I get in at 8:40 and only have a half hours lunch I get a day off every month for that. And that's the culture of my office, fortunately. It's recognised that the pay's shit and it's a job for people whose work/life balance is more important than the money.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Dec 11, 2013)

I'm on flextime.  As long as the work gets done and the customers get technical support in a timely manner, they don't care when I'm here.  It's spoiled me rotten!


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## moochedit (Dec 11, 2013)

mon-thurs 8.30am to 4.30pm fri 8.30am to 3.30pm  (lunch break 12:45pm to 1:15pm)
(Nobody works overtime at my place. The car park is empty within about 30 seconds of the bell going  )


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## stuff_it (Dec 11, 2013)

Any time between 6am and 11pm on days when I feel well enough or can be arsed.


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## Cribynkle (Dec 11, 2013)

It used to officially be 37.5 hours/week - so 9 - 5.30 with an hour for lunch.
But on a good week it was 8 - 6 with no lunch or breaks so 50 hours per week
And then evening and weekends with no extra pay - so averaging 55 hours per week.

But then I left and started working for myself so I have no idea now....more hours but not the type of hours to give me burnout


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## Geri (Dec 11, 2013)

My hours are 9 -5 with an hour for lunch. I get in just after 8 but that's to have breakfast/get changed/straighten my hair.

I usually work from 9 until 12, then have a half hour lunch, then carry on until 5. At 5 I start finishing off, i.e. put the letter and e-mails I've sent on the files, print off the e-mails that have come in since I last looked at them, count them and put them away in folders.

There is no way I can do all my work in a day, not since they made 3 people in Watford redundant and transferred their two biggest accounts to me. I do try not to have any work that's over a month old however.


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## Ming (Dec 12, 2013)

4 12hr shifts (day, day, night, night) then 4 or 5 days off. Its pretty good actually. Bad for the back end of life (takes years off your life but fuck it that's the crappy end anyway).


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## Cheesypoof (Dec 12, 2013)

i work for myself, so its whenever i want....im a really lazy person though without structure.

towards a deadline will work very hard. was in Greece last October at a conference with 3 precious days off after but knew the bosses would want a story on the riots...so i worked for two of those days and did a long piece on the political strife going on there....i recall being in a stuffy hotel room, gazing longingly at the sun.......im appreciated for that i guess


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## Sapphireblue (Dec 12, 2013)

40hrs a week, 8.30-5.30 with an hour for lunch. overtime will be paid or given as TOIL.

i used to work 37.5hrs with a bit more flexibility on how they were spread over the week, e.g. work longer some days and shorter others. i miss that.

i've never worked anywhere where unpaid overtime was expected. i've had really busy periods where i've had to do ridiculous hours, but it's always for a fairly short defined period such as the last few weeks of a project. i've also had a couple of extended periods like that, for several months, where they over-commited to an unachievable schedule, but we got paid overtime. it nearly killed me, but i got loads of money. tbh, i'd rather have been skint and had my free time back.

my OH is frequently expected to do unpaid overtime, if it's particularly excessive he'll get TOIL, but as they're always busy he never seems to catch up taking them and permanently has at least a couple of days owing. it's killing him and he's job-hunting increasingly desperately, not that he really has the time to do so but he's trying at least.

if the workload is such that you can't keep up, then they don't have enough staff. if it's affecting your health, then you need to try to get out. i know that's not easy for a lot of people, but look into it. sometimes it may be better to accept you're going to suffer financially when overall you're going to be much better off. 

on a similar but smaller scale, i've recently moved jobs and i hate my new commute. hate it. i'm now looking for jobs that pay a fair bit less that are in the best location possible. i'm lucky that i can take the drop but it will mean potentially cutting back on some/most luxuries (e.g. everything except unavoidable bills) depending on what i end up going for.


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## Winot (Dec 13, 2013)

Cheesypoof said:


> <edited>.


 
Are you Liz Jones?


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## Cheesypoof (Dec 13, 2013)

Winot said:


> Are you Liz Jones?



no...im some nobody. And im not very good. On with thread.


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## Citizen66 (Dec 13, 2013)

gabi said:


> So - remind me Blighty-based folk. What are your hours? Fuck I'm really starting to rethink this move.



I do a 35 hour week. 07:30 start 15:10 finish (the extra ten minutes a day gets us an extra five days annual leave).

The bosses wouldn't dream of pressurising us into staying longer than we're contracted to. This is because the trades union that you like to piss and moan about ensures we're not still at work 2 hours later than we're contracted to be like numpties.


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## Citizen66 (Dec 13, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Average is at least 12 hours a day, often 16 or more. Longest stint I've ever done was something like 27 hours straight.



What use would you be after ten hours even? Isn't there a tiredness cut off point where audio engineers' ears become useless because of fatigue?


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## pinkmonkey (Dec 13, 2013)

white rabbit said:


> I work at home so I work the hours I like. It's tremendously liberating not to have anyone watching. What tends to happen for some reason is that work time and time doing other stuff has become combined. It's just after nine in the evening and I'm sat at my desk, but I haven't looked at anything work-related for hours. The balance depends a lot on how much I have to do. If I have to get stuff done, I may end up working into the evening or weekend. Otoh, I can spend hours during what's supposed to be work time doing other things.
> I suspect many here will combine work stuff and non-work stuff. It is a bulletin board, after all. It's just how covert you have to be.



I'm like this, I combine work with admin and moderating on various forums and Facebook groups. I don't work every day. I sometimes do a 12 hour shift. I sometimes work from 5am til midday, I sometimes work from 5pm til 2am, if a client is working in China, I work nights, so I can work with her via Whatsapp and Dropbox and Skype.  I don't think I'd cope with office hours anymore, or presentism. I've worked in China extensively, mostly in shoe factories and the hours are crazy.

gabi when you are in the office is it acceptable to nap? When I've worked in China in a factories the hours are something like 8am til 10.30, 1/2 hour for breakfast, or a nap if you need it, lunch at 12 til 1.30, most people nap for half an hour, then one hour at 4 or 4.30 (most people sleep) then finish at 8 or 9. I never felt tired because of all the napping. It's very similar to the working hours in Spain, (where I've worked in shoe factories as well) except their lunch is longer and they finish at 9 or 10pm.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 13, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> What use would you be after ten hours even? Isn't there a tiredness cut off point where audio engineers' ears become useless because of fatigue?


You're only behind a desk for a couple of hours for a show. The rest is rigging.


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## Citizen66 (Dec 13, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> You're only behind a desk for a couple of hours for a show. The rest is rigging.



Ah right, fair dos.


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## Diamond (Dec 13, 2013)

Very variable - usually 9-7 most days with at least one or two 9-10 a week.

When it's very busy it can get a bit silly - there are timesheets from some points this year where I was billing 80 hours per week.  That's not sustainable though and I have no idea how you'd be supposed to do my job at my level if you're a primary carer.

Thankfully it's not a facetime kind of place though.  You only stay late if there's work to do and it needs to get done.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 13, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Ah right, fair dos.


That said, I have done 10 hours straight on the monitor desk at a punk festival. Main subs 8 feet to my left and a double Marshall stack less than 6 feet in front of me. I was deaf for about a week afterwards


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## Stig (Dec 13, 2013)

This thread has made me feel much better about my job.

Officially I do 9:30 to 5:30 with half an hour for lunch, but I generally go home around 5 as everything's done by then. 

Then when it gets busy I'm happy to stay late for days to get it sorted, as I've racked up all those half hours so I don't feel hard done by.

I've tried coming in to work at 9am a few times, but OMG transport is fucked at that time of day! It doubles journey times at least. And that's reverse commuting.


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## Poot (Dec 13, 2013)

I probably have the cushiest hours here -  9.30 until 2.30. Mon - fri. But I don't get paid much. Definitely not complaining! I also work 55 miles away from my manager. *smug*


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## twentythreedom (Dec 13, 2013)

gabi said:


> .... So - remind me Blighty-based folk. What are your hours?


What is this 'working' of which you speak?


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## Agent Sparrow (Dec 15, 2013)

For the last few months I've been working 9am-7pm for two or three days a week, and then till 5.30/6pm the other days. Which doesn't sound too bad unless you consider that through Monday to Wednesday I'm only meant to be doing  9am-4pm (and those are the days I'm working till 7pm), and Thurs/Fri the normal 9am-5pm. And that the other day I spent a day of annual leave writing reports for work.  And despite that I utterly empathise with this...



spanglechick said:


> There's just too much to do. *I am always behind.  *Currently I could work full time for a magical extra week of hours and I'd just about catch up.


Essentially I'm trying to cram 6 days work into 5. It's not incompetence, there's just too much damn work to do and high stakes for a lot of it if doesn't get done. I'm already leaving out work I see more as tick box stuff than actually meaningfully important, and tbh do get worried that I could be pulled up on that. 

Next month I'll only be working 3 days a week, but I've already acknowledged that I'm almost certainly going to be using the two "free" days to take work home to complete.


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## purenarcotic (Dec 15, 2013)

Office hours are 8.45 till 5.15 Monday to Thursday, and 8.45 till 5 on a Friday.  As I'm in placement I have to do a 7 hour day with a half hour lunch break.

Typically I'm in the office just after 8 and leave some time after 5.  I don't remember the last time I had a proper lunch break, I'm always working through it.  I have no car but our service is city wide and the travelling is killing me; if I have a visit I can be out of the office for up to three hours or more which makes doing all my paperwork ridiculous. 

I always said I would never be one of those people who worked more than the hours required but it's just not possible to stick to that in this line of work. I don't even get paid ffs.


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## Cloo (Dec 15, 2013)

I'm strictly 9 to 5, which is just as well as I simply can't work any later. My last job was until 5.30, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I could do anything productive in that final half hour. Now I'm at quite an unusual office in terms of everyone really actually fucking off home pretty sharpish at 5 or before (quite a lot of ppl come in early, finish early)

In the last year, gsv has has two jobs, of which one was 9 to 6.30, and people did leave on time, the other 9 to 6, but only til 5 on Friday. They've been an utter pain in the arse as it's meant that I, as the one working until 5, could never stay in town without having to go through a nightmare of organisation to get kids picked up and looked after. Plus I always had to handle the picking kids up being asked for 50,000 things by them the instant we get in etc. Luckily he starts a 9 to 5 role in the new year (I had given up on hoping there were any left in his field at the level he's working) and we'll be able to alternate drop off/pick up between us.

I dunno what you do if you have kids and you're *both* expected to be working later than 5. I have hear awful stories from the States of poorest folks having to hold multiple jobs and put their kids in childcare from before they wake up until several hours after they've gone to sleep.

I think we need to make a stand against 'hours creep'; I don't want my grandkids being in childcare from 6am to 10pm to fit around working hours!


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## shakespearegirl (Dec 16, 2013)

Officially: 9.30 - 6.30 with an hours lunch.
Reality: Seems to be varying between 16 and 18 hours a day and expected to be on call all the time and constantly checking emails. Also expected to work weekends with no notice. I can bill for some overtime, but its just not worth it. 
Result: I've just resigned 2 months into a 12 month contract! Yay feel so much better.. 
These crazy hours are endemic in my industry (TV) but have realised that at the ripe old age of 43 I just can't take it anymore


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## Gerry1time (Dec 16, 2013)

My place seems to be fine with a pretty strict 9-5, which feels odd. Although I generally skip lunch breaks to get more done. On days I'm in London I can be 'working' from 7am to 10pm with travel and so forth, but have been doing that sort of thing for years anyway so doesn't bother me.


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## N_igma (Dec 19, 2013)

Normally 07:00-15:00 

The earlier the better for me.


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## moose (Dec 22, 2013)

Officially 9 - 5 with an hour for lunch, but that never happens. I normally sail in at 9.15, but work straight through till 7ish. I don't mind working over as it's only 10 mins from home - I like to be in my car in time for the Archers, but that doesn't always happen. If I work weekends I get recovery days, but rarely have time to take them, unless I've been travelling and am genuinely knackered. I get paid quite a bit so don't mind doing extra stuff.


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## Anuruth (Jan 2, 2014)

My working hours only 8 hours.


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## cypher79 (Jan 2, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> 10am - 6pm Mon - Fri and an hour for lunch, any overtime becomes time of in lieu and needs to be used within 28 days, six weeks leave and bank holidays. However, it's a mind-numbing job.



I used to have a job where the hours were 10am - 6pm, and it was fucking great . Didn't have to get up till 9am, and the roads were much quieter coming to work or going home. The job itself was shit, but you could skive massively and take the piss on breaks .


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## Buddy Bradley (Jan 4, 2014)

They just changed ours to 40 hours a week, Mon-Fri. In reality I manage about 4-5 hours of actual work a day, or 1-2 if I'm at home  If I'm at head office it's more like 10 hours a day since it's all meetings.


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## silverfish (Jan 4, 2014)

Six weeks on six weeks off.

Depending on what the job is I make my own hours but I'm on call 24/7

I long ago decided they pay me for my time whatever I do so have no dramas/shame cutting off whenever I fancy.

Sitting in an office just to " be seen there" utterly sees everyone off

Do your hours or do your workload then fuck off back to your family. The machine is always chiselling more and more from the workforce, why bend over and take it up the arse with a handful of sand by choice

Work smart not hard


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## jusali (Jan 6, 2014)

gabi said:


> A friend in HR here tells me workers have no rights. There's no such thing as constructive dismissal for instance. I'm being forced out, probably due to my health probs, but I've got no legal comeback.
> 
> Workers in the UK should realize how fucking lucky they are, I certainly do now.



We're lucky are we? We fought hard for those rights precisely because we were fed up with the conditions you speak of in HK.
There's too many idiots who work extra than they're contracted to, which forces everyone to work more and more hours and accept less and less working rights. Everyone craps on about "Global Competition" but all it succeeds in doing is people working more and more hours for less and less pay.
This is a race to the bottom and everyone will lose out............


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## gabi (Jan 8, 2014)

I've started leaving work at 6.30pm. Still the first to leave in my team. Altho I notice there are other expats who leave at 5.30, ie on time, but this is because their teams are managed by westerners. My direct team are all Chinese.

One of my colleagues seems to be here from 5.30am till 11pm recently (plus weekends), based on the emails I have in my inbox in the morning. She has a 5yo daughter and a 45 min commute. I have no idea how she does it. It's fucking mental. Dont know how much longer I can get away with the 6.30 thing but I'm laying down the gauntlet. Fuck em.


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## Mr Retro (Jan 15, 2014)

That's fucked up gabi. When my wife goes to Hong Kong she deals with 2 separate companies under 1 holding company. 1 company keeps normal hours and in the other 18 hour days are not uncommon. 

It seems it's the CEO's who drive the culture (in these companies at least). So it's see monkey do monkey for the employees. 

My wife reckons efficiency and output are about the same in both places but unsurprisingly the working environment is much more pleasant in the company with the normal hours.


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## gabi (Jan 16, 2014)

Are you still moving to hk?

i've got a 'restructuring' meeting next week with my rottweiller of a big boss flying in from singapore where i fully expect to be given the heave-ho for not keeping up the 70 hour thing. lookin at new jobs now but its tricky visa-wise.

be very careful if you do move here - you want an ex-pat boss, not a chinese one.


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## Mr Retro (Jan 16, 2014)

We're going out in a few weeks time to see if we'd like it or not. It then depends on the exact position my wife is offered and the ex-pat package they offer. 

I have a very good job here so that has to be taken into consideration as I'd have to jack it in. So unless the package is very good we won't go. However it's a cool opportunity so once my wife's company sort out a work visa for me and the package is good we'll go as I should be able to pick up something else. 

I'm not too unhappy about potentially doing a 9 to 6:30/7:00 or longer but I won't do long hours just for the sake of it. Just fucking sitting there because it's expected. I'm 40, a bit long in he tooth for that horseshit


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