35 hour workweek

[PrinceOfLeigh]

That was the job i worked at part time when i said 25 hours a week.

If you have a choice NEVER be a courtesy clerk in a grocery store, it stinks beyond beileif.

In the first supermarket I worked I did 2pm-10pm which is the most unsociable shift ever. Most people are either in work or sleeping when you're not in work.

That was the weekend too.

I then did nights which isn't as bad as it sounds but sucks because you never feel that you're out of the place. If you have only Saturday off, technically you are in on Saturday because you've worked Friday night. You then work Sunday Night and it feels like you never left.

During my uni days I worked 4am - 1pm which was on a weekend and was only a pain if I rolled into work still drunk from the Friday Night before.

 

[ummmm........]

Actually the general questions about the 35-hour week are:
1. how much of a cut on your pay would you be willing to accept for how big an increase in your paid holidays? (for instance, you would accept being paid 10% less but have 5% more vacation days)
2. supposing the elasticity is on a 1:1 basis (meaning if you take x% off your pay, you then have x% more vacation days, but if you take x% off your vacations, you're paid x% more), how much would you be willing to work?

If I could have two days off a week and four weeks off a year, I'd be happy to work 12+ hour days the other five days for eleven months . . .

 

[Whomp]

Over the first five years of my career I worked 6-7 am to 7-8 pm and most Saturdays doing paperwork for a few hours. I was young, single and had a lot of others like me.
These days I work however I want but mostly it's 7-8 am to 3-5 pm. Fridays are optional in the summer. I need to get in a better habit of taking weeks off.

 

[Furiey]

In theory I work a 36 1/2 hr week (that's working time not including lunch etc). In practice it is far more and I don't get paid overtime. The EU has a 48 hr max working week which the UK pays lip service to by allowing people to opt out if they wish, so if you look like you will be going above that 48 hrs average, you just get asked to opt out.

 

[skadistic]

When all is calculated I work upwards of 70 hours a week split 'tween jobsite overseer in the morning and blue printing/office work in the after noon. I get up at 4am and my work day ends about 7pm. I take small breaks here and there to rest or post on forums. Otherwaise I'd go crazy.

 

[Grisu]

I invite you to read the wiki article if you don't know what is this about : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek


Had a long discussion at work today about salary. It went about the infamous 35-hour working week in France compared to the 40 Hours in Switzerland. And how Swiss (according to my co worker, i'm not even sure if they have a 40 hour working week in Swiss) have more purchasing power because of it.

So my question is, how many hours you work per week? What is the law in your country?

actually the norm in switzerland is 42 hours, though there's no 'law' about it. a few years back there was a popular initiative to cut it to 36 hours. It was shot down

at the same time I wouldn't want to work more, even if it meant higher pay, 42 is the max I'm willing to make (on a regular base, I'd have no problem doing it short term, of course).

Of course I would like less work hours, but I wouldn't want to lose a portion of my pay, so I think 42 hours isn't too much.
oh, and I would accept more houres in exchange for more vacation

 

[JerichoHill]

Actually the general questions about the 35-hour week are:
1. how much of a cut on your pay would you be willing to accept for how big an increase in your paid holidays? (for instance, you would accept being paid 10% less but have 5% more vacation days)
2. supposing the elasticity is on a 1:1 basis (meaning if you take x% off your pay, you then have x% more vacation days, but if you take x% off your vacations, you're paid x% more), how much would you be willing to work?

1) I work for the government. Everyday is a vacation. No cut
2) Nope. Not there either. Function of good cushy job

 

[Masquerouge]

1) I work for the government. Everyday is a vacation. No cut
2) Nope. Not there either. Function of good cushy job

Yeah, government jobs are usually pretty good for life/work balance

 

[skadistic]

1) I work for the government. Everyday is a vacation.

Stop waisting my tax dollars you slacker !!!

I wish I was a direct employee instead of a contracted worker for the feds.

 

[Elrohir]

I invite you to read the wiki article if you don't know what is this about : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek


Had a long discussion at work today about salary. It went about the infamous 35-hour working week in France compared to the 40 Hours in Switzerland. And how Swiss (according to my co worker, i'm not even sure if they have a 40 hour working week in Swiss) have more purchasing power because of it.

So my question is, how many hours you work per week? What is the law in your country?

Until I read the Wiki link, for a second there I thought they didn't allow overtime either, that it was a flat 35 hours maximum per week. I was wondering how their economy functioned....

But still, that's pretty low. But then, I don't think the government should mandate at what level overtime pay has to kick in. (Because that's really what this is)

EDIT: Wait - they regulate the number of overtime hours too, only 220 per year? What the friggen heck?

 

[Paradigne]

I learned a while back NEVER work anyplace that is open 24 hours a day, you WILL get stuck there for 24 hours at some point...

 

[Bamspeedy]

On paper I am supposed to work 34.5 hours per week. Three days at 12 hours each day minus a half hour lunch everyday.
In reality it has varied quite a bit. Shortly after I started working there 7 years ago we were severely under-staffed so there was a long period of time I was working 45-50 hours in three days. Then there has been times where we have been over-staffed and would only work 25-30 hours in those three days. But it's been pretty consistent now, where I work about 35 hours a week.
The only thing that sucks is that it is weekends (sat-mon), but considering the hour and a half I spend driving to and from work everyday, it's nice to only have to do it 3 times a week instead of 4 (and I car-pool with 2 other guys so it really is only once I need to drive).

The weekend shift pays an extra $1.35 which gets it close to be worth the same as working 40 hours on the weekdays, but it still is a little less (but I don't need to work an extra 5.5 hours!)
Another negative is that working longer than I am supposed to (over 34.5) doesn't earn me overtime pay until I get to the 40 hours, so sometimes when I am frustrated with a longer than normal day, I feel they are trying to 'milk' those extra hours out of me.

To expand on what ShannonCT said.... One reason I don't want to be a manager being paid salary is because an employer could screw you over and have you working 60-80 hours and you aren't making any more money than if you worked 40 hours.
I've heard conflicting reports on how long an employer can make you work (for non-salary workers). When the place I worked at was under-staffed we had several people bring up the 'no more than 16 hours in a day' or 'need to have 8 hours off in between work days (give people enough time to sleep) rules, but I don't know if these are real laws or just things people were saying should be common sense for an employer to follow if they want to treat their workers decent. Overtime pay is great, but when you start working too many hours for too many weeks, months, etc. you finally start getting sick of it. The manager I had a few years ago would have made us keep on working, probably even if it meant working 20 hours in one day, but the manager we have now is more proactive in preventing us having a long day to begin with, and even when it does happen he did send us home before the work was done (which until then had been totally unheard of).

 

[Verbose]

Those of you who think the 35 hour French work-week is odd, bear in mind that the French productivity per hour is killer material. They're damn efficient, mostly because they have to if they're going to get the job done in that time.

And that's been the Holy Grail of European work-studies since the 19th c; to get the maximum amount of work out of people at the minimum amount of time on the task.
There's no point in keeping people on a job where they can't perform at their maximum according to this train of thought.

By comparison Americans, and even Brits, work many and long hours. The question is just if that's an efficient use of time. There's a lot of very tired people just filling slots a lot of the time, if you round up a bunch of people with an 80 hour week under their belt.

 

[Maimonides]

If you are an employee paid by the hour, you are paid 1.5 times your regular rate for any hours worked over 40, in most states.

That is actually federal law. The Bush administration changed the overtime rules a couple of years ago. Hourly paid supervisors & managers are no longer elligable for overtime pay. Some companies continue to pay it voluntarily, though.

 

[sonorakitch]

Those of you who think the 35 hour French work-week is odd, bear in mind that the French productivity per hour is killer material. They're damn efficient, mostly because they have to if they're going to get the job done in that time.

And that's been the Holy Grail of European work-studies since the 19th c; to get the maximum amount of work out of people at the minimum amount of time on the task.
There's no point in keeping people on a job where they can't perform at their maximum according to this train of thought.

By comparison Americans, and even Brits, work many and long hours. The question is just if that's an efficient use of time. There's a lot of very tired people just filling slots a lot of the time, if you round up a bunch of people with an 80 hour week under their belt.

This is a bit of phony economics though. Of course one should expect greater productivity per hour if one works fewer hours; it is human nature to get tired and experience a decrease in producivity over longer hours. To consider the overall health of the economy, amount of output, and overall productivity, the 35 hour work week is less healthy for the economy than the 40 hour work week.

You could easily argue that the 35 hour work week is more healthy for the person though.

~Chris

 

[Masquerouge]

Until I read the Wiki link, for a second there I thought they didn't allow overtime either, that it was a flat 35 hours maximum per week. I was wondering how their economy functioned....

But still, that's pretty low. But then, I don't think the government should mandate at what level overtime pay has to kick in. (Because that's really what this is)

EDIT: Wait - they regulate the number of overtime hours too, only 220 per year? What the friggen heck?

Yeah, welcome to the French peculiar mindset. The French government is heavily involved in business regulations.
This is something I'm mixed about. Some of the regulations are good, some of them are detrimentary. But always, foreigners freak out when they learn about it, usually right before they predict a complete breakdown of the French economy in the next 5 years. Well we've lasted at least 50 years now

Those of you who think the 35 hour French work-week is odd, bear in mind that the French productivity per hour is killer material. They're damn efficient, mostly because they have to if they're going to get the job done in that time.

That's very true. But you know why? partly because most of the people actually work more than 35 hours... yet officialy they work 35 hours. So a regular 50-hour week (as common in France as in other countries, mind you) is written down as a 35-hour one.

This is a bit of phony economics though. Of course one should expect greater productivity per hour if one works fewer hours; it is human nature to get tired and experience a decrease in producivity over longer hours. To consider the overall health of the economy, amount of output, and overall productivity, the 35 hour work week is less healthy for the economy than the 40 hour work week.

Very good point,but I think basically France and most of the French (though not all) have said "frack having the best economy in the world, I want to enjoy life". Ergo the 35-hour week.

 

[sonorakitch]

Very good point,but I think basically France and most of the French (though not all) have said "frack having the best economy in the world, I want to enjoy life". Ergo the 35-hour week.

Yes...work to live rather than live to work...so to speak.

I prefer to work as little as I can and make an enormous amount of money. Seriously, I like working a lot and find it keeps me busy and healthy. I do prefer the European way of vacation though...give me 50 hour work weeks and 8 weeks of vacation anytime.

~Chris

 

[Yeeek]

That's very true. But you know why? partly because most of the people actually work more than 35 hours... yet officialy they work 35 hours. So a regular 50-hour week (as common in France as in other countries, mind you) is written down as a 35-hour one.

That's right, I'm going to work 39 hours as of next week, on vacation till then (changed employer by the way ) and now will have to deal with RTT (not quite sure how to translate RTT? ).

 

[Ramius75]

i work about average 50-60 hrs a week. sometime hitting 75-80 hrs.... -_-:

 

[CaptainF]

The gas station job I had back in August had me on paper at 10 hours a week, but in reality it was more like 15.