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It's a matter of rules. If employees are expected to work for eight hours between 8:30 and 5:30, then they should stay until the close of business, which is 5:30!
Those seem like odd business hours. Why start at 8:30 versus 8:00? Why not expand the hours to 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and then have the early birds work 8:00 to 4:30 and have the stragglers do 9:30 to 6:00? With children being dropped off at daycare or school there will always be those for whom the later schedule works and the early birds can get out at 4:30; a win for all.
No one sits at their desk and works 8 hours straight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlygal
I do.
Rarely do I get upduring work. I like to come in and leave only once a day. I bring food from home or I don't eat. I don't even use the restroom until it's time to go home.
I would wet my pants, and probably get urinary track infections, if I needed to hold my urine for 8 hours on a regular basis. If it works for you that's great, charlygirl, but I doubt if it works for more than a small percentage of workers.
It's a matter of rules. If employees are expected to work for eight hours between 8:30 and 5:30, then they should stay until the close of business, which is 5:30! It doesn't matter if they skip their lunch break - they need to be there until 5:30. Besides, it wouldn't kill people to work nine hours a day. What do you do that's so important that an extra hour at work and another 30 minutes added onto your commute means the end of the world?
No one said you had to have kids.
No one said you had to live 45 minutes away.
No one said you had to take this job.
It's a free country. You can always quit!
I must admit you sound a little bitter and resentful. I wonder why you are so concerned with your colleagues, unless you are of course, their manager (but if that were the case I assume you would have solid policies for your employees to follow). I would worry about yourself and your career. Don't worry about theirs.
I once worked for a woman who was like this. The company's core hours were 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and employees were required to put in at least 8 hours of work during core hours. She took that policy to an extreme and we were not permitted to leave prior to 5:00 PM unless we had a doctor's appointment regardless of the time we arrived at work. She would come in at 9:00 AM, take an hour lunch and leave at 6:00 PM but she would always give the people leaving at 5:00 PM a hard time even though those people arrive at work 1 to 1.5 hours before her and some of them did not take a lunch break. Effectively she wanted those people to put in 9-10 hours of work per day while she only did her 8.
She was a lot like the OP. Pushing 50 by now, she was never married and never dated any men (or women) during my five year plus tenure at that company. She still lived with her mother in the same house that she grew up in. She never moved out or tried living in a different community. Finally she expressed the same rigid views as this OP.
I would wet my pants, and probably get urinary track infections, if I needed to hold my urine for 8 hours on a regular basis. If it works for you that's great, charlygirl, but I doubt if it works for more than a small percentage of workers.
I once worked for a woman who was like this. The company's core hours were 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and employees were required to put in at least 8 hours of work during core hours. She took that policy to an extreme and we were not permitted to leave prior to 5:00 PM unless we had a doctor's appointment regardless of the time we arrived at work. She would come in at 9:00 AM, take an hour lunch and leave at 6:00 PM but she would always give the people leaving at 5:00 PM a hard time even though those people arrive at work 1 to 1.5 hours before her and some of them did not take a lunch break. Effectively she wanted those people to put in 9-10 hours of work per day while she only did her 8.
She was a lot like the OP. Pushing 50 by now, she was never married and never dated any men (or women) during my five year plus tenure at that company. She still lived with her mother in the same house that she grew up in. She never moved out or tried living in a different community. Finally she expressed the same rigid views as this OP.
Sounds like the OP needs to do two things. First, he needs to familiarize himself with the I/O literature on productive (and happy) employees. Hours worked does not equate to productivity. Second (or maybe he should focus on this first), he needs to spend his time and energy forming interpersonal relationships and finding a companion rather than focusing on others' work behaviors.
It's a matter of rules. If employees are expected to work for eight hours between 8:30 and 5:30, then they should stay until the close of business, which is 5:30! It doesn't matter if they skip their lunch break - they need to be there until 5:30. Besides, it wouldn't kill people to work nine hours a day. What do you do that's so important that an extra hour at work and another 30 minutes added onto your commute means the end of the world?
No one said you had to have kids.
No one said you had to live 45 minutes away.
No one said you had to take this job.
It's a free country. You can always quit!
Are they actually breaking rules if their boss is okay with them leaving at 4:30?
If you want to work 9 hours by missing lunch and staying until 5:30, that's your prerogative. Some might consider that breaking labor laws though, so how much do you want to push the issue when your superiors aren't disciplining, and have in fact given approval, for coworkers to leave earlier?
It's all well and good to have a solid work ethic, but it's another to think that being glued to your desk for 9 hours when you don't need to be, makes you a valued employee. Whether you like it or not, there are politics and a workplace culture at play that you seem completely oblivious to.
If it's not necessary and productivity doesn't increase any to work 9 hours versus 8, or even 5, what is the point of having your backside glued to that chair all those extra hours? Your attitude toward the workplace and the value of employees is the very one that makes for lousy managers and supervisors and results in high job turnover, which is never good for business.
If a company can afford to be flexible with their employees and considerate of the fact that their employees have a life beyond the office, they have much happier and more faithful employees as a result. The slackers and abusers of the system will get cut either way when they're not performing up to task when they are on the job.
Are they actually breaking rules if their boss is okay with them leaving at 4:30?
If you want to work 9 hours by missing lunch and staying until 5:30, that's your prerogative. Some might consider that breaking labor laws though, so how much do you want to push the issue when your superiors aren't disciplining, and have in fact given approval, for coworkers to leave earlier?
It's all well and good to have a solid work ethic, but it's another to think that being glued to your desk for 9 hours when you don't need to be, makes you a valued employee. Whether you like it or not, there are politics and a workplace culture at play that you seem completely oblivious to.
If it's not necessary and productivity doesn't increase any to work 9 hours versus 8, or even 5, what is the point of having your backside glued to that chair all those extra hours? Your attitude toward the workplace and the value of employees is the very one that makes for lousy managers and supervisors and results in high job turnover, which is never good for business.
If a company can afford to be flexible with their employees and considerate of the fact that their employees have a life beyond the office, they have much happier and more faithful employees as a result. The slackers and abusers of the system will get cut either way when they're not performing up to task when they are on the job.
we have a guy that eats lunch at 11:00 am and he really feels that since he working at the 12 noon lunch hour time, he should get paid for lunch, every day. He not a dumb guy either
No one sits at their desk and works 8 hours straight.
I have done it for years, and many times much more than 8 hours (own business). The only time I get up is to go to the bathroom or get a drink, but usually I already have anything I need at my desk. I definitely don't get up for the equivalent of two 15-minute breaks, much less a lunch break. Again, I said this is with my own business; I worked until the work was done.
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