Also you need to be here 15 minutes early, dressed and at the time clock.
And no you have to leave on time in case someone needs you. We have core hours.
Wait, there’s jobs where people don’t get payed for their lunch break? I thought that was a scary myth.
Yep, I work for a fortune 500 and I have to clock out for lunch.
Don’t you feel fortunate? /s
To quote the bird from the Flintstones “It’s a living”. Honestly I don’t hate my job, bored and annoyed with some stuff, but they treat us plebs with a fair amount of decency, plus they pay us decently compared to the rest of the industry.
Same.
Almost all jobs in America…
My god. You poor souls. Its illegal to do that here. Even the most demanding “squeeze every minute out of the worker” jobs don’t do that. 30 min out of your 8 hours is reserved for lunch and lunch is payed for by the employer (the food as well), by law. 8 hour shift effectively comes out to a maximum of 7.5 hours of actual work.
Yeah it used to be like that here, too. But billionaires have been attacking union power for decades to the point they were able to pull this bullshit
*Almost all non-salary jobs in America
You think most salary jobs aren’t giving you specific working hours these days, which generally span 9 hours a day but pay you based on 40 hours a week?
In a lot of states it’s illegal for workers to work too many consecutive hours without a break, especially if it’s a physical labor job. Your employer may legally not be able to allow this.
Though sometimes they are just petty and inflexible.
They used to only have you be at work for 8 hours, and paid you for your lunch break. Then companies got greedy and realized they could squeeze it extra time for free by not paying for your lunch break and extending the work day. Wages didn’t rise to compensate for that stolen time
This is less common than you think, and gets pretty hazy pretty fast where it is true.
The real reason is payroll and accounting.
If you leave an hour early to take your lunch, it looks like you only worked 7 hours.
Could this be fixed? Probably. But accountants are notoriously salty about anything that threatens to crack the mold.
8-4 is still 8 hours?
The average work day is 8-5 with an unpaid lunch break.
8-4 to your payroll people is 8 hours less a lunch break. Because they expect you took it and went home early.
Again it’s not something that can’t be fixed, and I’m sure once in a while it would be fine. But a bunch of people doing it all the time probably causes enough extra work to need to hire someone just to take care of it.
The most unreasonably rigid people you’ve ever met will work in accounting and payroll.
In my timesheets, when I work is logged and automatically calculated. If I put in 8am to 12pm. Then enter 1pm to 5pm, with a 1 hour gap for lunch it calculates 8 hours, if I put in 8am to 4pm, and have “lunch” at the end of the day, it still calculates 8 hours.
At Lowe’s and they had to crack down on this due to a new(ish) Florida law. Can’t work more than 6 hours of an 8 hour shift without a break. If I took a late lunch, of my own accord, they would get dinged for “forcing” me to work too long. Fair enough.
Yet another reason I love working for salary. So much less bullshit, so much more flexibility. If I want to knock off a couple hours early, go kayaking, work in the evening to run updates, fine.
Salary can kinda feed the ego too a bit, anybody?
IDK why, like you’re kinda important-ish & trusted-ish in a way or something… nobody’s worrying how long you’re in the bathroom, get your work done or get fired, angle for that promotion for a bigger salary, no timecards (besides California engineers and perhaps others) that feel kinda like you’re there to be a body as opposed to being there for your mind?
(Stream of consciousness here)
You are spot on. Being free of the clock for 5 years, then going back on was a shock to me. Forgot how limiting that was!
Liberating to accomplish your goals and spend free time working out other paths and projects. All I hear on lemmy is that salary is there to abuse the worker. Not in my limited experience. Salary allowed me to fly and truly contribute.
And we might notice, most salaried jobs are higher level. Can’t compare working a fry vat with working an Active Directory domain.
It’s not illegal where I live but it’s against my union rules (though it’s not a labour job). They have super strict rules about exactly when we should take our breaks. I get it in principle because there are asshole bosses who would try to force people to work through their breaks or shame them into it, but it really sucks for those of us who just don’t mind pushing through so we can leave early or like to take late lunches.
Yeah, that’s one thing that sucks about union jobs. On the other hand, I’m no longer at a union job and can break/lunch whenever I want, but my boss can make unrealistic expectations and I have no way to argue if I can’t get another manager in the line to back me up. My current workplace is very quickly turning into a shittty place to work since there isn’t a union to push back.
What state that? I live Oklahoma that follows only federal law, and I been told repeatedly that there is no federal mandate for giving employees breaks at all.
I’ve worked in some states (mainly North Carolina) that have mandated 15 minute breaks every 2* hours on shift, 30 if you stay for 6 hours, and another 15 if you stay for a full 8. This was at a grocery store so YMMV.
I think those numbers are right, but it’s been over ten years since I worked there.
Edited: cause I remembered the numbers.
You are correct in that statement. There is no federal mandate for breaks or meals, which is super shitty. However, there is a requirement for at least a meal break in 21 of the states which vary in requirements, some even extending to normal breaks.
Reminder: the traditional “9 to 5” workday that is considered “full time” includes lunch. If you’re not getting paid for it or are working 8 to 5 or whatever, you’re getting swindled.
You might say it’s “normal” now, but it only becomes normalized because workers fail to hold the line.
It keeps eroding away. I’ve had skilled jobs where the expectation was 8-5 without any breaks at all. “If you need to eat, you can do it at your desk while you’re working.”
That’s why they make it 9-5:30
Would anyone have a reference on this? (I failed to find one. Internet searches now suck.)
Here’s a source I found for the UK at least:
but it only becomes normalized because
workers fail to hold the line.the rich business owners in charge have been busting unions and brainwashing people with anti-union propaganda for decades.Unions have been attempted more times than they’ve succeeded, not because of workers failing, but because powerful people have power and will do whatever dirty tactics they can to keep it.
Unions have been attempted more times than they’ve succeeded
I get what you mean, but I can’t resist the urge to point out that that’s basically a truism. The number of successes must be greater or equal than the number of attempts by definition, since a success without an attempt is not possible.
Because unions stopped shooting back and bombing. Because when cops and Pinkertons shoot strikers the state turns a blind eye.
My full time job is considered part-time because of this. Plus I just found out we don’t receive jury duty compensation because we’re seasonal workers that’ll just get fired at the end of the season anyways.
My entire career, I got a one-hour lunch, and two, paid, ten-minute breaks.
I know some will say you’d rather not because that’s just more time at work, but with a one-hour lunch you can leave work, that’s the whole point. It’s a real break. One hour is enough time to go to a restaurant, or you can eat at work, and take a short walk. Half-an-hour is barely enough to time to eat and use the bathroom.
I guess what I’m saying is unionize.
That’s why we use the bathroom before or after lunch. ;)
the boss makes a dollar,
I make a dime.
that’s why I shit on company time.
Or live in a state that doesn’t screw you over. 1 hr lunch, two 15 minute breaks for 8 hour shift. Or half hour lunch minimum required after 6 hours work.
This is with or without union.
Being on the clock for lunch is a terrible idea. I like my own time thanks.
With or without, that right is still due to Union actions my friend
Agreed
In my state in my career path at least the lunch is just used to keep is there for longer operational hours. They want us there 9 but pay for 8 and say we have an hour lunch, that way we’re 8 to 5 instead of 9-5.
Breaks are unpaid because that was another way to minimize what workers have to be paid.
Businesses always look for ways to pay their employees less and only change practices when forced.
Without strong unions and support from politicians things tend to get worse and worse.
Too bad that we have neither.
I’m a salaried software developer. My first job was 8-5 with a lunch break that we had to take. I asked if I could take it at the start or the end of the day and was told, “No.” So my coworkers and I started playing board games 3-4 times a week during our lunch break in one of the offices. Mainly legacy games like Gloomhaven and Pandemic Legacy. The VP loved showing off the board game room to the interviewees to show that we like to have fun there.
I do miss that job sometimes because it was just raw programming. I was programming or writing SQL queries for over 30 hours a week. No AppSec, no lengthy review process, no bullshit (except the pay, which was ok for Mississippi).
When I worked for a big game studio, we had a clan, as did many of the other big studios in the country. Every lunch we’d join the same servers. Battlefield, TF2, StarCraft… good times. Well, good lunch times.
They let you out of your crunch cages?!
Thankfully, lunchtime is pretty well enforced by law in Australia… didn’t prevent the “reasonable overtime is included in your base salary” contract clause, where “reasonable” is defined by the publisher, though.
In California, when you take your lunch is also mandated by the law. So even if your employer was okay with the idea, you still have to take it before your 5th working hour.
California is so bizarre, you get mandated lunch breaks but god forbid you want full time employment without risk of being fired at any time for no reason
I think that’s a common US blue state issue. NY is the same. Mandated 15-min, and lunch breaks every few hours, but still “At-Will”
Interesting, in Ohio you have to clock out before the 6th hour.
It used to be 5th hour about a decade ago but DeWine be DeWining
Well that makes sense, pro business DeWine does something that hurts the workers.
Yep. While negotiating our last CBA I brought this up as an option. The union told me we’re not even allowed to voluntarily wave our lunch break.
Well then it’s not yours. And it should be paid. If the labour regulations say you have to take an unpaid break, the labour regulations are bad.
Step back and think about why that regulation exists to begin with. No one said it’s perfect but it’s better than what was.
Check your local laws. In many states, there is no requirement that you take a lunch. There is no federal requirement for that either.
I’ve had employers tell me that that I legally had to clock out for a certain amount of time, but that’s bullshit. It might be company policy but it’s not a law.
Also, this applies to teens working too. The laws are bad. Found this out when Subway was making my 16 yr old niece work 9-12 hour shifts with no lunch break.
In California, you can only waive it if you work less than 6 hours. Otherwise, you need to take a lunch before the 5th hour hits. For overtime, you get a second (you can waive, they cant) meal period after your 10th hour.
Again, check local laws, but in general you can be fired for cause (meaning no unemployment insurance eligibility) for violating company policy. So “legally” might be wrong but “had to clock out (if you want to keep working here)” might be accurate.
In “at will” states in the US, you can be fired without cause and without notice. So do your homework before you decide not to follow company policy.
I’ve always been in an “at will” state (Arkansas) and my more recent firing was without cause and without notice. But, since it wasn’t for cause, I was/am eligible for unemployment insurance.
I’m not claiming, because I can’t actually accept any job offer, due to the constraints of familial duties, and Arkansas requires you accept an offer when you on UI. (I think there are conditions where you can reject, but I’ve not read the statues, just the guidelines published by the relevant Arkansas government department, which aren’t that explicit.)
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This is false. You cannot be fired without reason, you can be fired for any legal reason which will vary from state to state, which may be more strict (for employers) than federal law.
“No reason” IS a legal reason to fire someone in an At-Will state (which is the entire US excepting Montana).
You can be fired without cause. That is in the literal definition of “At will”
America is not the norm, dude.
Still got to leave early, I’ll call that a win.
Seriously though, I really hate that managers hate employees leaving early. Just how controlling do you want to be? Employees are not kids.
It’s about power.
That just goes to show how fragile power is.
Not eating lunch and taking a break is bad for your health and potentially undermines your productivity. It’s a bad idea all around.
And that’s why lunch should be paid if it’s inside the workday.
I’ve always noted with a certain cynicism that the old nomenclature for the workday ‘9-5’ adds up to eight hours. Surely these people weren’t missing lunch…
This is how it is at my current job in Denmark. Never experienced it before working in Denmark.
There’s also unpaid lunch in Denmark. This would though mean that you cannot be interrupted in your half-hour lunch break for work. If you get paid lunch time your employer can though legally call you in for work again if they need you, e.g. calling in the doctor for an emergency operation.
I have a hard time seeing that happening at my workplace, but I see how it can be significant for jobs like medical staff, security, etc.
Good for you then! I work in IT with time critical trading systems, so lunch is sometimes interrupted so we can fix the issues. Bit annoying, but that’s part of the deal.
I also work in IT, but tbf that sounds a lot more exciting than the projects I work on.
Wait, so you don’t eat for 8 hours?
Intermittent fasting is a decent way to lose weight without thinking too hard about calorie counting. You stop feeling hungry during the day after a week or two.
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No, I normally eat for about ten minutes.
That’s pretty quick.
That’s not a problem at all. I’ve been intermittent fasting for almost 10 years now. Started with 36 hour fasts 3 times a week. Then eventually started following my shift work schedule. If I was evenings I’d eat breakfast and lunch, if I was days I’d only eat supper. Now I’m days only so I only eat supper.
My parents who are almost in their 70’s started doing it a few years back and they lost a ton of weight. The thing I love about fasting is it changes how you deal with hunger. My body being hungry doesn’t really phase me, I’m able to ignore it rather easily. I don’t get stomach aches or headaches. I can mentally tell myself that this is my fasting window and it makes it really easy to not eat.
It’s hard to explain without you actually doing it but it was one of the best choices I’ve made. I’ll never go back.
I had dinner last night around 630pm. I’m not planning to eat anything until around 1pm today - and that might be optimistic. I subsist on sleep, coffee, and rage until then.
If they let you take lunch at the end of the day to leave sooner that creates a loophole to say they gave you your lunch break without actually doing so
There’s no federal law in the US that requires them to give you a lunch break. My state doesn’t have one either.
If I recal, there are federal laws in the US that require breaks, just not specifically for lunch?
Nope! The only laws that really apply to those are which breaks are paid and which are not. If you are given any breaks, 20 minutes or less must be paid and count towards OT. Anything over can be off the clock.
Half an hour?
Damn.
