Do 9-5 jobs still exist in the U.S.?
Do 9-5 jobs still exist in the U.S.?
Ever since I graduated, everywhere I've worked has been 8-5. My current company is going to soon start expecting us to be in 7-5.
How many of you here work a 9-5 with a paid lunch?
Productivity keeps going up but so do working hours.
I saw a law office once in the early 2000s that was 9-5. And the entire office shut down for an hour, while they all had lunch together in the conference room. The phones all went to voicemail and everything. I was working on replacing a few of their computers that day. They made me stop and join them. Seemed like a great place to work.
Most high-skill jobs (e.g. software dev, engineering, research, higher education) are usually flexible with time. No one really cares when you come or go as long as you get the work done. People (read, good-for-nothing management people) are trying to make some of these more time-bound, but it's usually counter-productive. Turns out when you want creativity from someone, you need to give them some freedom.
7? to goddamn 5? I'm not in at 7, and out way before 5, and if the boss don't like it, then that's not a me problem. 10 hours each day as in a 50 hour work week? That would be illegal in the EU, where you can't work more than 48hours on average per week over a period of 4 months https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/human-resources/working-hours-holiday-leave/working-hours/indexamp_en.htm
I worked at one company that was 7am-5pm for corporate office work. The company grew from a small retail parts company decades ago, but never changed the mindset. So even the office work was treated like shift work. Office workers wouldn't even check email before 7am. Many times just hanging out in the cafeteria until 7 on the dot when they had to be at their desks. Further as soon as 5pm hit exactly, all the office workers would drop what they were doing and walk out to the parking lot with all of the other blue collar shift workers.
This resulted in things like Purchase Orders getting delayed by a day because it arrived at the approver at 5:01pm and the approver was gone. There was nearly no weekend office work, which caused its own problems.
It was such a strange place to work.
My current company is going to soon start expecting us to be in 7-5.
Before I start spazzing dignity and self respect.
Can you provide more context on how this was presented to you. Also your career stage? Junior?
As mid level, they can't really try too much of this or I will just reduce my productivity to bare minimum and change jobs. I dont negotiate with terrorists ;)
I'm technically 9-5, though I can choose 7 to 3 or 8 to 4 if I want. I usually work 7-4 and take extra breaks throughout the day (or a really long lunch). Granted, I work for a non-profit which has a LOT less bullshit to deal with. I also have the option to work 7-5 or 8-6 if I want to only work 4 days a week. Flex time is an amazing fringe benefit.
Outside of salaried jobs, I haven't seen anywhere mandate 7-5 schedules for hourly employees (unless it's a 4 day work week). Companies do not like paying overtime, so most I've dealt with will send you home the moment you hit 40 hours.
Salaried employment exists, and there are more jobs out there than they want you to think. The employer-employee relationship is a constant negotiation, and you're always free to walk away.
We don't know how much time we have on earth, and you're selling some of it in exchange for money.
They are going to keep pushing to get more of your life from you, and you need to push back to keep as much as possible.
I have never been 9-5 with paid lunch and I’ve been in corporate world since 1998. 8-5 with an unpaid hour.
Don't think that exists anymore.
Sure, just depends on the business. Self-employed and small business are often much more flexible. I pretty much work 9:30 to 4:30.
I'm on 9 to 4:30 with half an hour lunch. Or I could do anything from 6 - 1:30 to 9:30 - 5.
And yes, I get paid for a full time job.
Unions are awesome.I'm fully remote, with no clock to punch, but with co-workers all over the world. I try to focus most of my hours between 9 and 5, but don't sweat it too much because a few times a month I need to be on a call at 5 in the morning or 10 at night.
There is simply no good time to schedule meetings with someone 12 hours away.
The only places I’ve worked that were that strict were positions providing 24h coverage and you had to be there to do turnover between shifts (I’ve don’t both 8h and 12h). Thankfully those jobs have been a minority of my career.
Mostly I’ve had broad flexibility where the company would declare “core hours” from say 10-3 and allow employees to flex 3 hours in either direction (anywhere from 7-3 to 10-6).
7-5 is bullshit.
I work in tech. Most people I work with pick their own hours but are in office during core hours (10-4), some (like me) will do a pretty strict 9-5, I've seen some do 6-6 (eew). There's def a type of people who do more hours to try and get ahead or impress, but I don't think it's worth it.
I think if I ever worked somewhere with strict arrival or departure requirements I would leave. I'm an adult and work will get done, too much external control will strangle that.
I have a salaried work from home job with no defined working hours. As long as the work gets done within SLAs the hours me and my team work are irrelevant.
I didn't even know paid lunch breaks were/are even a thing. Most jobs I've been in had 30 min unpaid lunch.
I work 9 to 6 with 1 hour unpaid lunch at my current job. I don't really do anything during my lunch besides sit in the office wasting time for an hour. Home is 30 min drive away, so I can't go home. No parks nearby to walk around. Makes it feel like I am working a 9 hour shift getting paid 8 since I am sitting in the office for 9 hours...
Can't say for the US, but in NL, Europe, 9-6 with an hour mandatory break is the default for programming work. We hear the adults complain about 9-5 as students, we go to work, turns out its 8-5 or 9-6. Fuck.
Uneducated works tends to be 8.5 hours per day, instead of 9; only because half an hour breaks are the norm, there.
Covid happened and gave me work from home.
The order to return to office happened and I said no.
In the back and forth, I defined my official schedule as 9 to 5.
Now, typically I work late a night or 2 a week so I start work a couple hours late/stop work a couple hours early a night or 2 a week.
Not US, but Canada. I don't work a desk job, but but drive around doing work out of a van full of tools, with ladders on top.
Most days I can do 6-2, 7-3, 8-4, 9-5, how ever I want.. After 8 hrs I get over time. After 12 hrs is double time.
Lunch is paid.
Usually I set an alarm, either get up, or snooze a bit, and find myself on the job site sometime between 7 and 8 put in 8 hrs of work that day, and go home unless we get busy and something comes up, and the over time is there if I want it. I take it more often than not. It pays off come Christmas time as a pay bonus
Officially I work 8 hours of my choice between 7am and 7pm with 30 minutes lunch.
In practice I work at least 8 hours (most often about 8.5), usually get a lunch, have to be at my desk at 8:30 for standup, and am always on call to some degree. If any of our infrastructure isn't working then I am, but after hours stuff isn't all that common.
I work a 9ish-to-5ish in a science field, salaried. Nobody really cares when I arrive or when I leave, as long as the work gets done. Sometimes science stuff goes off the rails and I have to arrive early or stay late, but I keep track of my hours and arrive a little early or leave a little early on other days to compensate.
I mean, it took four years of college and more than six of a PhD to get to this point, which stunk. But now I can monitor my chemicals stirring in a flask for a few minutes while hanging out on my phone, which is nice.
Mine is 9-4 some days. I do automated QA for an enterprise application. Management budgets 2 hours a day for lunch and overhead (meetings, emails, chatting, etc.) for each employee. If I don't hit that then I can get off early.
Naw, there's only about 3 now. Being rich, being poor, and being a cop.
I just signed an offer for a 8am-4pm job, so I guess they do but it’s been a long while since I’ve had a job with those hours.
Expected work hours seem to be increasing everywhere over the last twenty years or so. It's gotten pretty nuts.
My old job was oppressive clock watchers so everyone just strolled in as close to 8am as they could and left at 5pm sharp (people would be lined up at the turnstiles waiting to badge out). So why are they having you there for 10 hours a day? I'd rather come in an hour later than get a 2 hour lunch.
I work 8:00 to 4:30 with a half-hour lunch break. Frequently I’ll put in a few extra hours in a week for some overtime ‘cause the job isn’t hard at all.
Where I'm at in Canada it's almost always 8:30 to 4:30
I've been working 9-5 and taking 1 hour for lunch for the last 6 years but recently I saw my job description and it says 9-6 (with 1 hour lunch) so 🤷
My work agreement is supposed to be 8-5 with hour lunch. I work 9-5 or 8-4 and eat at my desk when i can. But i do have mandatory overtime which sometimes makes it 7am-9pm. Fun times
I've been working for 30 years, never seen a 9-5 job.
I thought 9-5 was an old trope. I’ve never heard of anywhere that offered 9-5 working hours. I don’t know anyone with them.
8:30-3:00 baby, though honestly 3:45 or 4:00 would be better. I get 40 minutes for lunch and 90 minutes alone without students. I've got it nice.
Never had a paid lunch
I work 9-5 with a paid lunch.
But I am in Canada (which is fairly similar to the US in terms of work culture.
Also I'm unionized.
Union jobs are strict with breaks. I have worked a non-union job with a paid lunch though, that was pretty sweet. In the corporate world, probably not though
Look at the non-profit sector, my experience has been they care more.
8-430 and I get an hour for lunch. Works out to a 7.5 hour workday.
Most of the year I work 8 to 6-8 few months in the winter its 8-430. With a forced 30min unpaid lunch.
For the last 20 years, I’ve worked in smaller tech start ups (~10-50 people) and one larger more corporate tech place (~300 people), and they’ve all been salaried, 9-5. Since they're salaried, it’s a paid lunch period.
Yes, they still exist. I am both salaried and clock my hours. I have to clock 80/2 weeks and I need approval to clock more than that. If I do, I get comp time or overtime if pre-approved. Including for traveling for work. I don't clock my actual times, just hours worked per day. So no annoying 15min accountability that I've heard of from other companies. I think I technically have to take a 30min lunch but I haven't heard noises about that for like, a decade. We've got hours we need to be available technically as well (9-3). I'm also 80% telework and I despise that 1 day a week I sit on the same Teams calls in the office.
It's been 8-5 or 8:30-5:30 or 9-6 everywhere I've worked an office job. But I had a friend move to NYC and she said there everyone worked hard but came in at 9, took an hour lunch and left at 5.
My job is 8:30 - 5 with a 30 minute lunch break. So almost.
But, we also get 2 days/week at home, and can flex time as required. Tons of international work, so the flexible hours are a godsend when time zones are against us.
It's a salaried position and depending on your supervisor and stage of your career, you're expected to work 40-45 hours a week. Deadlines and ugly projects tend to increase hours work. I'm very lucky, as my industry can be pretty brutal with sudden ends to projects and unexpected layoffs.
My first job in Europe (about 5 years ago) was 8-6 with 1 hour of paid lunch and a mandatory 30 minute break. I think that was the closest I’ve come to 9-5. Other jobs have been more flexible with when I start and finish.
I'm 7-3. I eat lunch at my desk while I work so I can leave early.
9 to 5 is just a phrase referencing a standard full time day shift job not about the specific start/stop times
I am currently doing 7:30-4:30 with an hour lunch most days but I am salaried so it could go longer, I am just intentional about only doing that much.
Many research jobs are like that
Most of my jobs have been 9-5. I work as an ecologist. I've also always been hourly, so that's why my hours are not so broad.
I'm at a non-profit and we work 9-5 with, technically, a 30 minute lunch break. So when we take a PTO day, it is 7.5 hours instead of 8. I'm remote though, so I just work through lunch or take that time to cook something.
Sure. If you graduated from Harvard with a business degree and have the connections to walk straight into a board room. Everyone else works 7-5 with a 30 minute lunch you're expected to eat at your desk. Also PTO is a trap and IT can't fix your printer because they're still working on the other printer.
My last job was 9-5 with a paid lunch. It was toxic AF tho
9-5 never made any sense to me.
I thought working 40 hours was the standard, but 9-5 with a paid lunch is less than 40 hours. So, the math never made sense.
The only place I heard of people working 9 to 5 was in Dolly Parton’s song. I’m enjoying reading everyone’s answers though, and I’m hoping someone chimes in that has actually worked a traditional, in office 9-5.
Edit: I meant to say with an unpaid lunch.
I do 4 10s, 7 to 5 l, have of weekends and Thursdays.
I work 8-4 with a paid lunch and I'm hourly. Don't think it was like this at previous jobs though
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I'm not american but here the norm is 9-6. But we do have 1 hour paid lunch by law.
My job is basically 9-5 (salaried), but no paid lunch. If I want to take lunch, it doesn't count towards the hours I work during the day.
I am technically on 8am-5pm, though the boss lets us stop responding to emails at 430pm and head home. I'd have to answer a call or text, but that never happens. I get 1h unpaid lunch.
My coworkers come in a half hour later but only get a half hour lunch. I like the longer break, so I'm find with it. Technically, we're all salaried, so we can show up a bit late or leave a bit early so long as we communicate with the boss about it.
I work a 5-8 flex, so typically I'll do 9 hour days, 7 to 4, where I get the 10th day off. In theory I could do a 9 to 5, but we're asked to be in during 8 to 2 for the mechanics and I want the extra day off. I work as an engineer.
Lunch is a little ambiguous, we can take a lunch in the office and it's laid back, but if we leave the office we can leave for an hour and go somewhere and come back, but that's not paid. Officially.
Things are slow now so our team went to Red Robin and spend a while there and discussed work for a few minutes. We called it a work lunch and a team bonding activity and don't speak of it to any higher ups.
Work in excess of 40 hrs per week is generally guaranteed overtime pay so that so called company you supposedly work for is really doing itself dirty if its requiring its employees to put in such hours.
I’m more inclined to assume you’re just a troll doing some soft propaganda so not really interested in any further conversation—but if you’re a real person and you really do work for a company that’s just gonna start requiring working over 40 hrs a week id suggest reporting the company to your state’s department of labor and finding a new place to work.