You always hear the phase “9 to 5” and also the song with the same name. Assuming you include 1 hour worth of breaks (30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks), you’re only working for 7 hours a day which comes up to 35 hours a week.

Now it feels like you have to work 8 hours a day (for a total of 40 hours of actual work), plus your other time off meaning you’re really there for 9 hours each day (for a total of 45 hours). Am i looking at that wrong, or did expected times change, and if so, when?

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    You’re thinking small-time, like an hourly worker. Good office jobs are generally salaried positions and the idea of clocking in and out is… not a thing. Some days you work more, some less, whatever needs to be done. The idea of 9-5 is just a general time frame. And no one gives a shit when you lunch or break. In a real profession the yardstick is, are you getting it done or not?

    I’ll catch grief for saying that, so I’ll preempt by saying, if your job isn’t like that, you likely have a shit job.

    • radroot@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Gentle reminder that without “small time”, hourly workers doing real labor your easy, sweatless, office job would disappear overnight. Perhaps some gratitude? Maybe even some solidarity?

      As a former IT professional turned baker, I dislike the condescending attitude too many white collar workers have toward the actual wheel turners of the world.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        “doing real labor” “easy, sweatless, office job” “the actual wheel turners”

        “I dislike the condescending attitude”

        It never ceases to amaze me how often people see and hate shit in other people that they epitomize themselves.

        And honestly, my experience has been the opposite and I see the condescending attitude, at least more openly, coming from blue collar workers more often.

      • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        If you want solidarity you need to stop shitting on office workers first. You’re lambasting your own behaviour with this comment. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black…

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I’ve done it all, from shoveling asphalt to dishpits to customer service, all that and a dozen more. Guess what? Those were shit jobs. Doesn’t make the person doing those jobs shit.

        Some of y’all are so eager to be offended it’s ridiculous.

    • Lepsea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Me laughing in salaried 9-5 with clock in and clock out. Pay deduction if i forget to do clock in or out even if everyone know i work that day. Got paid 50% less than people who did the same job same position who didn’t need to clock in/out.

      I have a shit job and the only thing that keep me going is the job close to where i and my family live so i can check on my sister (found out that she do self harm once and I’m scared to go faraway from her ever since).

      Desperate people make a good cheap employee.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 month ago

        I’m “salaried,” and union, but they 100% track our hours and if you use up your benefit time and take additional time off, you will not get paid.

        So I’m not even completely sure how they can even call it salary. Like… Maybe I’ve misunderstood the meaning of that word my entire life?

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I’m desperate ATM. Looking at a crappy onsite tech support role, no benefits, just to get by while I keep looking.

    • Eiri@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      I have a salaried position. I don’t clock in. But it’s typically only used to deny us overtime pay. If I work 35 hours a week, I’m paid 12.5% less than my colleagues who do 40. And if my lunch break is too long, I’m expected to stay late sometime within the month to compensate.

      And while I do have a shit job (save me) I’ve never seen someone whose employer didn’t mind their hours as long as they got shit done.

      • JamesFire@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        You cannot be salaried and deducted hours you don’t work.

        Either you are hourly, and paid for the hours you actually work, or you’re salaried, and paid regardless of how many hours you work.

        What your employer is doing is illegal, and wage theft.

        • Eiri@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          This is so common in Quebec that I have trouble believing it’s illegal. I think it might be a loophole.

          • half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 month ago

            How do they know when you’re not working your full 40 if you aren’t clocking in or out? I’m not familiar with Canadian labor law so you may very well be right, but it is kind of hard to imagine a legal pay structure where they can dock you for working fewer hours but don’t compensate you for working more.

            Friendly reminder that wage theft is very common and just because lots of people are breaking the law doesn’t mean it’s actually legal. For example in the States, there is a fairly narrow definition of which jobs qualify as overtime exempt but go to a jobs board and you’ll find pretty much anything under the sun. Many employees are incorrectly classified as exempt and are completely unaware they are even entitled to overtime pay.

            • Eiri@lemmy.ca
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              1 month ago

              Well they don’t know know, but there are signs. For one, we fill in timesheets, and lying on them is a no-no. I could probably get away with stretching the truth a little, but if they notice I only commit between X and Y time, or that I’m seldom available for developer questions at a particular time, they might get suspicious and investigate my hours.

              As for overtime… Well I think how companies handle it is they don’t actually ask us to stay late; they just give us unrealistic targets that kinda require overtime unless you’re a god if we ever complained they’d say they never asked for us to stay late.

              We used to be able to accumulate time indefinitely and take time off according to the bank of extra time we’d worked, but once, someone accumulated hundreds of hours and just left on an unplanned vacation for nearly a full month and they really didn’t like that. So now, you need to work your quota (which you can have them adjust to your capabilities; 30, 35, 40…) on average every month. So, sure, I can work only 20 hours one week, but that’s 15 hours of extra time I need to do within that month.

              And if you have extra at the end of the month, well, that’s lost.

              Which sucks, because I used to use those as sick days over the legally required two paid ones we get per year; my health isn’t exactly resplendent.

          • JamesFire@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Or they do it anyway and hope they just won’t get caught.

            And even if they do get caught, the likely punishment is just paying out the wages they owe, so why not chance it? Fines don’t scale based on revenue, profit, or even damages, if there even are fines.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          You cannot be salaried and deducted hours you don’t work.

          You would think that. And yet, the US… Finds a way. I’d rather not doxx myself by getting into it further, but it’s definitely not illegal where I am.

          • JamesFire@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Not illegal, as in you’ve actually gone through this with a lawyer, or not illegal, as in your company does it anyway?

            Because Federally, being salaried does not work like you describe: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17g-overtime-salary

            Working less hours in a day is not valid reason to deduct pay. Working less full days is. (From the source above)

            State law does not trump federal law, unless explicitly called out. It’s just that federal law is actually pretty lax regarding most things and states are more restrictive.

      • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        You’re not an exempt (salaried) employee if they deduct your pay for working less in a given week. I’ve never had an employer who cared about hours as long as work got done.

      • oozynozh@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        As others have said, I’m in the “put time in, get shit done” camp.

        Provided I deliver a job well done, my bosses don’t give a fuck what or how many hours I clock per week.

      • noseatbelt@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        I used to work at an engineering firm and one day I saw one of the engineers leave at like 2pm on a Wednesday and he was like, “Bye, see you next week!” He had been busting his ass to finish a project and already hit his 40hrs for the week.

        I was a temp at the time but needless to say, I jumped at the chance when they offered me a real job.

    • Bilbo_Haggins@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Lolol what kind of fantasy world do you live in? Salaried worker here and although my job isn’t 9-5 strictly if I don’t work at least 40 hours a week my pay will be docked. So I get to choose between 8-5 or 9-6 or I can work while I eat and get that cushy 9-5 life. Or if I miss work I can make up those hours by working at night. It’s a real luxury to be able to do that compared to shift work, but the hours are still being counted.

      Also stop being so entitled. Most of your life necessities come from industries (groceries, power plants, gas stations, hospitals, etc) where people work on a timecard/shift basis so don’t you come out here and pretend timecard or shift work isn’t a “real” profession.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        the hours are still being counted

        Refer to my last sentence. And you will note that I didn’t denigrate anyone’s work, only that if they’re on the clock, the job probably sucks.

    • jagged_circle
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      1 month ago

      Tell me more about this “some days you work less” concept. It’s completely foreign to me

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Those would be Fridays at my last job. Swear to god no one did anything unless absolutely necessary and most were gone by mid-afternoon. LOL, which sucked because that’s when I was often jamming along and no one was around to help, question, etc.

        If your job has you grinding non-stop, that’s no way to live and a good employer recognizes that.

        • jagged_circle
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          1 month ago

          Tell me.more about this “good employer” concept. That’s completely foreign to me