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Did the concept of 9-5 included a 30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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You always hear the phase “9 to 5” and also the song with the same name. Assuming you include 1 hour worth of breaks (30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks), you’re only working for 7 hours a day which comes up to 35 hours a week.

Now it feels like you have to work 8 hours a day (for a total of 40 hours of actual work), plus your other time off meaning you’re really there for 9 hours each day (for a total of 45 hours). Am i looking at that wrong, or did expected times change, and if so, when?

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[–] 11 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

I have a salaried position. I don't clock in. But it's typically only used to deny us overtime pay. If I work 35 hours a week, I'm paid 12.5% less than my colleagues who do 40. And if my lunch break is too long, I'm expected to stay late sometime within the month to compensate.

And while I do have a shit job (save me) I've never seen someone whose employer didn't mind their hours as long as they got shit done.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You cannot be salaried and deducted hours you don't work.

    Either you are hourly, and paid for the hours you actually work, or you're salaried, and paid regardless of how many hours you work.

    What your employer is doing is illegal, and wage theft.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    This is so common in Quebec that I have trouble believing it's illegal. I think it might be a loophole.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    How do they know when you're not working your full 40 if you aren't clocking in or out? I'm not familiar with Canadian labor law so you may very well be right, but it is kind of hard to imagine a legal pay structure where they can dock you for working fewer hours but don't compensate you for working more.

    Friendly reminder that wage theft is very common and just because lots of people are breaking the law doesn't mean it's actually legal. For example in the States, there is a fairly narrow definition of which jobs qualify as overtime exempt but go to a jobs board and you'll find pretty much anything under the sun. Many employees are incorrectly classified as exempt and are completely unaware they are even entitled to overtime pay.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Well they don't know know, but there are signs. For one, we fill in timesheets, and lying on them is a no-no. I could probably get away with stretching the truth a little, but if they notice I only commit between X and Y time, or that I'm seldom available for developer questions at a particular time, they might get suspicious and investigate my hours.

    As for overtime... Well I think how companies handle it is they don't actually ask us to stay late; they just give us unrealistic targets that kinda require overtime unless you're a god if we ever complained they'd say they never asked for us to stay late.

    We used to be able to accumulate time indefinitely and take time off according to the bank of extra time we'd worked, but once, someone accumulated hundreds of hours and just left on an unplanned vacation for nearly a full month and they really didn't like that. So now, you need to work your quota (which you can have them adjust to your capabilities; 30, 35, 40...) on average every month. So, sure, I can work only 20 hours one week, but that's 15 hours of extra time I need to do within that month.

    And if you have extra at the end of the month, well, that's lost.

    Which sucks, because I used to use those as sick days over the legally required two paid ones we get per year; my health isn't exactly resplendent.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Or they do it anyway and hope they just won't get caught.

    And even if they do get caught, the likely punishment is just paying out the wages they owe, so why not chance it? Fines don't scale based on revenue, profit, or even damages, if there even are fines.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    You cannot be salaried and deducted hours you don't work.

    You would think that. And yet, the US... Finds a way. I'd rather not doxx myself by getting into it further, but it's definitely not illegal where I am.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Not illegal, as in you've actually gone through this with a lawyer, or not illegal, as in your company does it anyway?

    Because Federally, being salaried does not work like you describe: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17g-overtime-salary

    Working less hours in a day is not valid reason to deduct pay. Working less full days is. (From the source above)

    State law does not trump federal law, unless explicitly called out. It's just that federal law is actually pretty lax regarding most things and states are more restrictive.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    I used to work at an engineering firm and one day I saw one of the engineers leave at like 2pm on a Wednesday and he was like, "Bye, see you next week!" He had been busting his ass to finish a project and already hit his 40hrs for the week.

    I was a temp at the time but needless to say, I jumped at the chance when they offered me a real job.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    As others have said, I'm in the "put time in, get shit done" camp.

    Provided I deliver a job well done, my bosses don't give a fuck what or how many hours I clock per week.

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