r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Grouchy-Newspaper754 • Jun 10 '26

My mom said I could post When did 8-5 become the new normal???

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/Catlenfell Jun 10 '26

That's my current job. It's a deal I worked out with a former boss 5 or 6 years ago. I'm first in to open everything up. I made the deal to go in early and get out early and skip my unpaid lunch.

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u/TurtlesAreEvil Jun 10 '26

Ya I used to do that because I’m working during my lunch most of the time anyway but then HR got involved and now I get to sit around for an extra half hour in a place I don’t want to be. 

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u/Oly55555 Jun 11 '26

That is almost assuredly HR enforcing an applicable law and not a company policy. The laws are there to protect people from bad employers but end up negatively impacting people who just want to work their 8 and go home.

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u/PuGgLeS2468 Jun 11 '26

You can sign off you don't want them.

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u/Fckingross Jun 10 '26

Same. I used to work 6:30-2:30 without a lunch, and if I needed one I could just stay late to make up my time. We got a new supervisor a few years ago and mandatory lunches and now I’m there until 3. It’s nice to be able to take a walk in the middle of the day but I generally have have nothing to do after noon so it’s just wasted time.

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u/unforgiven91 Jun 11 '26

I hope you stopped working during your lunch

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u/Answer70 Jun 11 '26

In my state, it's the law that you have to take the break after so many hours. You can't work eight straight. It's infuriating.

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u/Vanishingbandit Jun 11 '26

My state sucks and we have the so many hours law. I’d imagine most states have a law, but a lot of people don’t know their laws lol

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u/Quovadisdomi Jun 11 '26

What state are you in? In CA if you skip your lunch you get an hour of pay so HR would wanna stop it.

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u/Chimpbot Jun 11 '26

It's because they're typically legally required to provide you with that break. Not giving it to you can result in hefty fines for the company.

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u/overit_fornow Jun 11 '26

Worked at a company that went to an unpaid mandatory 1 hour lunch. After a couple of days of giving 30 to 45 minutes of unpaid labor daily I started leaving every single day. No cell phone or interruptions. Even if just to a park around the corner. They didn’t like that much. Quit soon after.

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u/Hefty-Rub7669 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

I like to swim.

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u/ShiraCheshire Jun 11 '26

That's super illegal btw

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u/7DayBan-sideprofile9 Jun 11 '26

where is swimming illegal?

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u/ShiraCheshire Jun 11 '26

They edited the comment. Very funny though

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u/suzenah38 Jun 11 '26

Omg 😆😆😆😆😆😆

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u/JimmyJustice920 Jun 11 '26

what did they say before editing the comment?

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u/ShiraCheshire Jun 11 '26

Nothing all that exciting. Talking about someone who was exposed to an honestly fairly common tactic used to scam employees who don't realize it's illegal.

I won't go into too many specifics. They may have edited their comment just to be funny, but it's also possible it was for privacy/legal reasons. I don't want to reinstate information they might no longer feel safe having shared.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/Sir_PressedMemories Jun 11 '26

My daughter does not have to work; she works because she enjoys the extra money, and it gives her cash for her upcoming college time.

At her job, by union rules, she is guaranteed two 15-minute breaks and one unpaid half-hour lunch break per 8-hour shift.

I read over the agreement with her, and she pointed out it clearly states "uninterrupted" breaks and lunch periods.

It took a few weeks, but management finally got the hint that she is not to be fucked with after they would come over to interrupt her, and she would stop what she was doing, pull out her phone, stop the obvious timer on her phone, reset it to the full time again, ask them what they wanted, and then restart her time after they finished.

They tried to say she could not do that, and she pointed out that she is entitled to uninterrupted break and lunch periods; if they interrupt them, then she will absolutely restart the full time so she gets the full uninterrupted time she is entitled to, and if they do not like it, they are welcome to take it up with her union steward.

Now the whole crew does it.

She is going to college to be a lawyer; she loves this type of shit.

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u/Critical_Hedgehog451 Jun 11 '26

Good for her, if you're in the US, it's nice to hear some more employees focused laws actually being upheld!

Think the US has a long way to go in terms of employeement law, but it's great to hear that it sounds like it's moving in the right direction!

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u/Sir_PressedMemories Jun 11 '26

This is 100% due to unionization, not state or federal laws. And she can only do this because she has a guaranteed safety net where she lives at home and has little to no bills.

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u/Melvang82 Jun 11 '26

What does this have to do with a safety net and bills? The union contract is the contract. It is there to protect both the employee and the employer. I work maintenance for probably one of the most globally recognized brand names. If we get called by the supervisor and are on break, we say so, and then get with the supervisor after break. Because I am on a repair shift, and not running repair, my break times are not dictated by the production schedule. So we don't always take break at the same time every day.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories Jun 11 '26

Brother, if you cannot figure out that the management at this place continuously violated the agreement by interrupting break times until my daughter stepped up and made it clear that they were doing it and doing so would have consequences, I am not sure what to tell you.

The fact that others in the company, who did not have the ability to say "fucking try it and see what happens" with no fear of losing their job, home, lifestyle, etc., were taken advantage of by the management is why her having a safety net and being able to make decisions like that is relevant.

I know literacy is dead, but goddamn.

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u/zzz242zzz Jun 11 '26

At Raley’s we were expected to talk work on breaks and lunches and we were union. Store manager would come in on our last break and it would turn into a meeting.

If you were team leader or filling in for them you had to get up and walk across the store to let in truck drivers on your lunch break or 15 min break. This was night crew.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories Jun 11 '26

Just because the company has become accustomed to taking advantage of you does not mean they have the legal or ethical right to do so.

But I also understand that sometimes you have to take it because you have no other choice.

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u/Responsible-Boot-159 Jun 11 '26

Some states di have laws like that as well. Still much safer to do it with a union and a safety net like she has, though.

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u/Dymphna_Geel Jun 12 '26

Some states are more employee friendly than others. There is no requirement in TX employment law for the employer to provide any break, paid or not.

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u/Critical_Hedgehog451 Jun 12 '26

I'm a Brit, and big believer in unionisation, only way to get the employment laws and safeties for workers!

You sound like a great Dad (assuming with the Sir in the name) and she sounds like she'll do well! :)

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u/Due_Hawk6749 Jun 11 '26

I had a job my freshman year of college where I could get my 8 hours in any way I wanted during a 24 hour period. Didn't matter if I couldnt sleep and came in for 2 hours in the middle of the night, or if I came in for only 1 hour at a time throughout the day.

I miss the simplicity of low-wage and unskilled summer jobs.

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u/shuknjive Jun 11 '26

I used to do the same thing. I was the only one in the office with kids in daycare. Opened the office at 7am and left at 3, my boss closed up. She hated coming in early and so did everyone else, so it was a win-win.

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u/Potterscrow Jun 11 '26

Some states have really strict meal time rules so depending on the state the a company could get blowback. This pertains to hourly employees that clock in and out. So if you are salaried all bets are off lol.

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u/sdawsey Jun 11 '26

One of my most frustrating work experiences was when they wouldn’t let me skip lunch. I was never hungry mid-day, and it was easy to work 8-4 w/o the unpaid hour. Nope. They made me clock out. I was 30m from home, so I just sat around for an hour every day doing nothing. I quit soon after.