My work do not require regular work hours, but since when is 8:30-6 a normal work hour? I always thought work hour is 9-5.
North American here. 8-5 is 8 hours of work with a 1 hour lunch. That ends up being only 40 hours a week. Some workplaces standardize on 45. Some workplaces pay overtime starting at 40 (extra pay for the 41st hour) while some wait until 90 hours in two weeks before paying overtime. If the work hours arrangement doesn’t work for an employee they should bring it up to HR or managers. They can quit anytime.
That is really unfortunate, so sad to see NA work culture progress backward… I am pretty sure 9-5 was standard for a while.
What’s even more messed up is part time work here. Legislation stipulates that workers get additional benefits at 30 hours. End result is companies only hire people for 29.5 hours and don’t have to supply those benefits. Meaning people take two jobs and still have no healthcare paid by either employer.
Where was 9-5 ever standard? Here in Europe you usually work 8 hours plus 1 hour lunch. So you either do 8-5, 9-6 or 10-7. 9-5 is only standard if you work like a slave without food all day.
The 9-5 work day usually refers to a work day without a lunch. It was common for employers not to offer lunch breaks for labor jobs. Even now, there are a lot of states that don’t require employers to give employees an hour for lunch. I live in Texas and they don’t require giving breaks or lunch.
I think it mainly depends on the employers. I live in nyc and while I was in the USPS it was 7:30 to 4:30 because of the unpaid hour lunch, when I started working at Kawasaki it was 7 to 3:30 for the 30 minutes unpaid lunch, now as a Train inspector I do 7 to 3 with paid lunch. My buddy is a data analyst and does 9 to 5 but because he takes his lunch at the end so he’s done, otherwise it’d be 9 to 6 with unpaid lunch. Fiance works for WIC and does 8 to 3 they don’t pay for her lunch and she’s only allowed to work 7 hours.
I do 0900-1800, lunch isn’t included for me. But I’m also fortunate enough to work for a company that only does four days a week.
Most places where I live have 9 hour work days, some even have 10 or 11 hours (longest scheduled shift I did at my old workplace was 11 hours).