When does the work day start? (Los Angeles, San Jose: general contractor, living in, office)

[Ultrarunner]

Never been a morning person but for the last year I start at 5 am on the dot...

In reality I come in at 4:45 and get started for my 5 am start time... SF Bay Area.

For 25 years I was the 9 am start time... which suited me just fine.

There are trade offs but starting early means and easy commute and getting a lot done before the rest starting coming in.

[Peasy973]

Depends on your line of work. I've always started between 6:30 and 7:00 am. More recently, I've started at 8 am.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by ronmcq

I am also retired and start these days in the spa around daylight with a cup of coffee watching the hills and sky changing colors with the sunrise.
However when I was working my day started about 3:00 am (after an hour drive to work) finishing at 4:00 pm (with another hour drive home) Mon-Fri. Campo's a long way from town but all the extra overtime hours allowed me to retire 7 years ago at age 57 with no regrets. My scheduled work shift was 7:00 to 4:00 with a 1/2 hour lunch break.

Oh, I like the sound of that ronmcq! I'm going to give that a try next week!

Early retirement is great, isn't it? Especially when you live in an area as beautiful as Campo.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

What time do most people start work in your area?

It varies greatly here in Silicon Valley, especially since many folks work (at least in part) remotely... but just based on traffic patterns, I would say 9-9:30am is pretty standard. They do seem to be getting OFF work very early, though! The traffic on 85 in particular heats up by 2-2:30pm, and recently it took me an HOUR to go 17 miles (to Campbell) at 3:00.

What is a normal work time for your job?

Haha... there is no "normal" in my job, since we're open 7 days/week including 4 nights until 9pm and 3 nights until 7pm. It's a public library, FYI. My schedule rotates, but typically I start anywhere between 10am-12:40pm, and get off between 7-9pm. Weekends included, in fact I work almost every Sunday.

What hours would you prefer to work?

I'm a night owl (seriously nocturnal by nature), so the later the better for me. That's why I work more nights than most of my colleagues, and would work ALL nights if I could. On top of that meshing with my sleep schedule, I also get "evening differential" at least a few times a week. Last year I earned an extra $2500ish just from that differential - win win!

If I could make up my own schedule and we were open this late, I'd choose to work maybe 2:30-11pm or even later if possible... some college libraries have hours like that, but unfortunately I'm only qualified for public librarianship at this time.

Do you work overtime?

Nope, not allowed. We're union workers, so 80 hours is the max we're allowed to work in a pay period... there are some rare exceptions, like if an emergency situation requires additional hours, but otherwise if we're here 81 hours we only get paid for 80. Period.

[sav858]

It's always been between 8am and 9am for any office/white collar job I've had.

[marcopolo666]

"When does the work day start?"

It starts whenever your boss tells you it starts. No brainer.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

It varies greatly here in Silicon Valley, especially since many folks work (at least in part) remotely... but just based on traffic patterns, I would say 9-9:30am is pretty standard. They do seem to be getting OFF work very early, though! The traffic on 85 in particular heats up by 2-2:30pm, and recently it took me an HOUR to go 17 miles (to Campbell) at 3:00.



Haha... there is no "normal" in my job, since we're open 7 days/week including 4 nights until 9pm and 3 nights until 7pm. It's a public library, FYI. My schedule rotates, but typically I start anywhere between 10am-12:40pm, and get off between 7-9pm. Weekends included, in fact I work almost every Sunday.



I'm a night owl (seriously nocturnal by nature), so the later the better for me. That's why I work more nights than most of my colleagues, and would work ALL nights if I could. On top of that meshing with my sleep schedule, I also get "evening differential" at least a few times a week. Last year I earned an extra $2500ish just from that differential - win win!

If I could make up my own schedule and we were open this late, I'd choose to work maybe 2:30-11pm or even later if possible... some college libraries have hours like that, but unfortunately I'm only qualified for public librarianship at this time.



Nope, not allowed. We're union workers, so 80 hours is the max we're allowed to work in a pay period... there are some rare exceptions, like if an emergency situation requires additional hours, but otherwise if we're here 81 hours we only get paid for 80. Period.

What started this discussion was my comments to another poster in another forum. That person mentioned that in California everyone starts work at 10:00am and works till 6:30pm because of traffic.

Of course that is kind of dumb as that would just be moving the traffic from one time to another.

When questioned that poster mentioned that it was Los Angeles and Silicon Valley that maintained the 10:00am start time.

I am familiar Los Angeles so I called him out on that. He then mentioned that the time applies to Silicon Valley where everyone works 10:00am till 6:30pm and many more hours of overtime.

It would seem that maybe lots of people work different hours you are saying that the standard is not 10:00am and you are in Silicon Valley correct?

[Another Place]

Howard Hughes believed in what he called natural sleep. He thought that you should go to bed when you felt tired or sleepy and you should get up whenever you wake up and feel ready to get out of bed.

I have no idea why I'm mentioning this but I thought all of you should know that you have an option.

[lostsoul359]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

In another thread someone mentioned that here in California most people start working at 10:00am and work till 6:30pm. I would like to know what you think about that. What has been your experience with work time hours.

What time do most people start work in your area?
My area is 24/7. We have the Military here, as well as the Border Patrol, CHP and the cops.
We also have mass transit, and it runs pretty much 24/7 (operations all nite to work on the fleet to keep the vehicles serviced and ready to move people around as early as 3:00 AM until 2AM).

What is a normal work time for your job? I own a book publishing company. I am always working. Thank goodness I work for myself now. I used to work for the MTS Rail, for 16 years.

What hours would you prefer to work? Ten am to 6 pm

Do you work overtime?

Always

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

What started this discussion was my comments to another poster in another forum. That person mentioned that in California everyone starts work at 10:00am and works till 6:30pm because of traffic.

Logic dictates that if everyone started work at 10:00am then traffic would be horrendous at 10:00am.