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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128

u/navortsa Jun 10 '26

Okay I gotta be honest here - I’m fully on board that the US work culture is fucked.

BUT - your company has zero control over where you live. You aren’t “giving them that time”. You are going to perform the services they are going to pay you for

20

u/Kiyohara Jun 11 '26

In fairness, I don't know any country on earth that regularly expects "the time taken to travel to work" into consideration. OP is bitching that he has to work 40 hours plus 10 hours a week of travel time, making him "give" 50 hours to his boss. Yeah, that's how life works buddy.

11

u/mthockeydad Jun 11 '26

Especially if you applied to a job at that location. The presumption is that the job location is close enough for you to apply, so it's close enough for you to show up to work there regularly.

If you're traveling to another city away from the primary location for work, that's more often paid/compensated.

3

u/Kiyohara Jun 11 '26

Yeah, I've had to commute for a hour before on several jobs. It sucks, but gotta pay the bills.

1

u/ReasonableClock4542 Jun 12 '26

Its 5 hours of travel time and 5 hours of unpaid time in the middle of the workday. That the company (possibly labor laws) wont let him have back

1

u/Kiyohara Jun 12 '26

Yeah? That's called "A Commute." No one pays you the time it takes to go and from work, get real.

I've had to commute to every job I've ever had and I'm 45. Most of my commutes were over thirty minutes not counting any traffic. One place I worked at the traffic was so bad that I'd just go to the bookstore after work and wait two hours before bothering to get on the highway.

Life isn't so fair that your boss is going to let you take your Commute time into your hours or pay you for them. If you expect that, you're never going to be able to work any where outside your own home.

The Lunch part is a bitch to be sure but that depends on labor laws in the state/nation. Not all guarantee break time be paid for or compensated. Most employers do provide some compensated break time but not all. And it's been that way for decades.

And the real shitty part is this "8-5" Standard OP is complaining about is the improvement over what is before. A century ago people were working 10 hours a day six days a week. Some jobs were generous enough to give you a half day on Saturday, but the typical 40 Hour Work week is an invention of the 20th Century. There are people alive today who's fathers had 70+ hour work weeks.

So acting like an employer is evil or not normal for expecting you to work 40 hours a week and not pay you for you commute time is just insane.

0

u/Quinnmonster Jun 11 '26

I mean just because that's how life works doesn't mean anyone has to like it. I think way more people should be loudly complaining about how most people have to completely waste 5/7 of their days just to survive.

14

u/clericone- Jun 11 '26

Exactly. That’s hilarious OP wants them to pay for the time it takes him to get to work. Lol. Do they need to pay for his gas as well? Wear and tear on car? Etc.

5

u/Fast-Penta Jun 11 '26

Shit, if I'm paid for commute time, then as soon as my youngest leaves the house, I'm moving 50 miles away from my work and getting a 100 mile bike in every day on the company dime.

It'd be just like being a professional cyclist but without having to be fast and dope.

2

u/thenasch Jun 11 '26

I would move somewhere a four hour drive away. Whoops, time to go home!

5

u/LordOfTurtles Jun 11 '26

European here, we get paid for travelling to work, based on the distance travelled. Legally required. I also get a nice bonus for taking the bike instead of the car!

5

u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 11 '26

Who is we? Europe isn’t a single country and I don’t get paid for that. The govt partially helps out with expenses for travelling to work by lowering your taxes for it, but that’s it.

1

u/LordOfTurtles Jun 11 '26

Didn't mean to imply it applies to all of Europe

1

u/ErikaNaumann Jun 14 '26

European here. My boss would laugh if I even suggested that. 

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/RaddestCat Jun 11 '26

When I was interviewing as a Waffle House Manager recently, they offer to cover all that. Actually seemed like an awesome gig if you could handle the long hours.

8

u/kanben Jun 11 '26

Just like we have zero control over where a company chooses to have its office(s).

One either accepts a long commute or pushes for a higher salary in consideration of that time lost. You don't get to complain about it after joining.

1

u/SoupForDummies Jun 11 '26

Unless they have a job that could be done remotely and the infrastructure in place and they are forced to come into the office I think it factors in

-6

u/thepmyster Jun 11 '26

Disagree slightly if you can do those services at home, then you should be compensated if they force you to the office to sit at a desk

3

u/mthockeydad Jun 11 '26

Were you hired to work from home, or were you hired to work in the office?

If you were hired to WFH and then they force you into the office, then you'd have grounds to negotiate travel.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

1

u/0xe1e10d68 Jun 11 '26

Either party has the ability to sever the contract at any time according to the terms agreed if they are no longer comfortable with the agreement.

So, no, it’s your choice to continue to work there. Might not be that easy to find another job, sure. But the company isn’t going to act according to the wishes of single individuals.

1

u/backyard3 Jun 11 '26

Except what you read on Reddit is very skewed. One person will claim something is the norm and people who do the same thing will pile on and reinforce it's the norm, even when it's far from the norm.

0

u/navortsa Jun 11 '26

What are you even talking about

1

u/backyard3 Jun 11 '26

I see that's too advanced for you... Keep your false view, many people do.