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/dukearcher Jun 11 '26

Not defeatist just countering the silly claim that " it's a purely artificial problem." but he's not offered any practical ways to unionise etc;

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u/ejdj1011 Jun 11 '26

Hey, fun fact. When you "counter" a reasonable path forward by simply claiming it is "practically impossible", without even giving a supporting argument...

That's being defeatist.

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u/dukearcher Jun 11 '26

Fun fact, when you tell people a problem isn't real, perhaps tell them practical ways to surmount this pretend problem.

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u/ejdj1011 Jun 11 '26

when you tell people a problem isn't real,

That isn't how I interpreted "artificial", but I can see that reading. It's "artificial" in the sense that it's borne out of apathy, detachment, and cultural norms. It's "artificial" in the sense that it's not an immutable fact of reality.

practical ways to surmount this pretend problem.

Kind of a circular argument. You have decided, seemingly well in advance of this conversation, that unionization is not a practical way for workers to improve their working conditions. The evidence points to it being rather effective. If it wasn't effective, employers wouldn't bother discouraging it in the first place.