Topic: Commute Times (UK)

@NedStarksGhost to be honest, I'm up for shifting it around or even having a shorter break every now and then but not as a regular thing.

This job has been a weird one, it's been mostly ok and everybody's been really nice except one guy who has been just saying contradictory things, backtracking and trying to lay certain blame on me but not overtly.

Ive been trying to be more involved but I think I'm just going to keep my head down from now on and try and get out of it as soon as I find a better offer.

@NedStarksGhost @ralphdibny We have flexitime at work, so can have anything from 30 mins to 2 hours. I always try to have at least 45 mins to an hour, but if I've errands to run it can go over that. They are pretty cool about it as long as you don't start racking up the hours either way.

I've been at my current place 11 years next month so must like it lol. They are a good bunch of people and itmis probably one the better working environments I've been in.

@ralphdibny @NedStarksGhost @JohnnyShoulder We are pretty much the same here in that it’s flex. We try and stick to core hours even though we work from home as then it’s easier to know when you can contact people. The odd day I will take 30 mins but usually it’s at least at hour. Gives me chance to reset and sometimes even get a run in, which is especially good in the winter when it’s the only daylight you see.

We had a partner in Italy we were working with for a while and they had a minimum of 2 hours off as it was mandatory. They’d go home and get some lunch and chill. They did complain that they missed seeing their kids in the evenings though as they were expected to make up for it so often didn’t make it home till late.

@JohnnyShoulder @render I'm not sure I really know what flexitime is. Is it like you do 7 paid hours in a day but your lunch can be as long as you want or something??

That's good tho @johnnyshoulder , sounds good! Whenever I do these office roles, I always just seem to find that there's one person who makes an otherwise positive experience into a misery. In both instances it's been somebody who thinks they are doing me a favour by giving me the work. At least this one isn't too bad yet but I am recognising aspects from a similar person at a previous role and it's making me dread what it could turn into.

Yeah that's the thing @render , I think eventually when I'm settled in to this place that I would probably want to make the most of that hour by finding a place to do a yoga tape or go for a run or something. Just a bit of exercise that I might otherwise have missed if I am doing the almost 11 hour day including travel. They do have showers here too lol so could be convenient

Nobody said anything about my lunchbreak today though so I am probably just going to assume it's ok and stop worrying about it. If somebody's got a problem then I'm sure I will hear about it

@JohnnyShoulder we also have Flexi time but it's around when you start and finish. The contract says you have the option for an hour lunch but it's heavily discouraged, and you'd have to work the extra half hour to meet your daily hours. But equally like you my company doesn't tend to question popping out for a couple hours if you've got something on, just so long as it's not all the time.

@render Christ that sounds grim in Italy. If it was optional I'd probably forgo the 2 hours if I had to work later.

@ralphdibny It can definitely make a difference doing something at the beginning or middle of the day exercise wise. If I do a long day then it’s the last thing I want to do when I’ve finished so much prefer getting it done earlier on. Then any time I spend gaming in the evening I feel like I’ve earned.

@NedStarksGhost The Italy thing is nuts. It’s like law that started so that workers out in the field got a break during the hottest part of the day but they even apply it to office jobs. There’s just no point because everyone has air con so they all felt like it was being foisted on them for no reason.

@RogerRoger I did that for a while and like you say people don’t appreciate you aren’t working. What was annoying was that on that site there really wasn’t anywhere else to go as we didn’t have a canteen, and the only other place you could go on a rainy day was your own car.

@ralphdibny Where I work it is 7 hours 12 minutes a day which works out to 37 hours a week. It is down to each manager on how strict they are with their team, but the team I work in we are left to manage it ourselves within reason. Mangers only get involved if it gets out control. If you a shorter day just have a longer one to make the time up. Just basic common sense really, but you will surprised how many people don't understand, or at least pretend they don't lol.

Like we had someone who decided to to work a bit extra each day to rack up enough extra hours to have time off work, but it doesn't work like that in our team. You can do extra work if agreed with our manager, and then that gets paid as overtime if it is during one of or busier periods.

@NedStarksGhost heavily discouraged one hour lunches sounds so lame. It's either the rule or it isn't, otherwise it must just feel like your constantly looking over your shoulder

@RogerRoger ahh that sucks. I wouldn't mind the physical act of eating lunch at my desk and working at the same time. Just as long as it wasn't my actual lunch break. I just need up to an hour to escape the building, walk around, sit down outside, just generally get a break from the building that owns me for most of my waking hours.

Cheers, yeah hopefully it's ok and it's just teething issues. I think once they sort out what my actual position is there then I should have some more agency to manage my own day instead of relying on others to give me jobs to do.

@JohnnyShoulder hmmm interesting. I actually like the sound of that kind of specificity! Can you skip lunch altogether then and just leave 47minutes earlier than an 8 hour day? I suppose you need to have at least a 20 min break every 6 hours minimum in line with Working Time Regulations

Yeah I do get what you mean. It should be clearer from the get go. I don't think I'm personally going to say something about my situation because I don't want to lose what I have/have to pack the job in before I have something else to move on to. It's a weird one because we are all on different contracts because we are all subbed through different companies. But yeah I do get it, if it's made clear then those are the rules

@ralphdibny Yeah you must have a minimum 30 minutes lunch break, that and the max 2 hours, and being taken between 12 and 2 are the only things they enforce that i can think of. Think that is a good thing as it helps to prevent people getting burnt out.

I try not to have my lunch at my desk for the reasons people have already stated and that it doesn't feel like I have had break unless I escape from the office. If the weather is bad there are a few breakout pods I sometimes go into, or there was a little cafe but that has not reopened since it closed for lockdown.

@RubyCarbuncle I've never, ever heard anyone say "I loved working retail". Can imagine it was awful. If I worked for someone like Tesco on retail I'd take the exact same stance as you.

@RogerRoger haha in jobs like this in the past, it has usually been with the best of intentions, only for certain aspects of the role to be reduced or nixed altogether. Usually by someone higher up than the person who got me in.

I did ask about it the other day and the phrase "probationary period" got mentioned speculatively and I just glazed over. They didn't give me more money to come in and be a glorified bellhop so it's completely unknown to me what's been communicated down the various levels of beuorocracy. It's not been a great start really, broken promises and office politics are things I'm not keen on. Having so little to do allows my mind to dwell on these things as well. Hopefully they can keep me busy in the coming weeks but I think I'm going to start applying for other jobs shortly. Gotta try and take my own advice that I gave to @NedStarksGhost and punch above my weight for these job applications too. I'd really rather go into something like management where I can use my brain to solve problems instead of using my body for drone work while my mind dwells on unhelpful thoughts.

@JohnnyShoulder yeah it's definitely good to have breaks. I suffer burnout real quick if I don't. The escape thing resonates so much for me. I really hate feeling like I am "owned". I prefer to think of it transactionally in that I do this amount of work in this amount of time for this amount of money.

Here's another one, last minute start time changes? How do people feel if their manager tells them to come in 2 hours early and it's last minute. This one is probably exclusive to contracting too but how do people feel waiting until the night before to find out if your going in to work the next day?

Normally I get some notice and normally I also have a choice as to whether I can take it or leave it so I don't mind. I feel a bit more obliged to take the shifts at this new role and it's making me feel differently about the top down flexibility they are exercising as I don't feel like I can reciprocate.

@ralphdibny yeah definitely go for it. Sounds like you've got it rough there, probation period being used as a threat just plain sucks.

I'm going to apply for a job that's quite different to my current position. More of a maintenance position as opposed to development and travelling. Would be a regular place of work, regular hours. Only worry is I'd have to learn a lot of new stuff. But I believe they're willing to train.

But yeah, if I can go for it you can too man. Sometimes I think we've got to just take a leap of faith to reached the promised land of a happy job!

@ralphdibny I've occasionally been asked to work on a day off but only once or twice has it been a last minute sort of thing. It's usually when we've had issues with some functionality and it's needed to be fixed quickly or for a meeting that couldn't be rearranged. With those occurrences I don't remember it affecting any plans I had but I might feel differently if that was the case.

There are definitely other jobs that are worse for that sort of thing than mine. I'm currently reading this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Going-Hurt-Secret-Diaries/dp/15...

and it really makes you appreciate a) that your own job isn't too bad, and b) that people in the NHS really do get pushed to the brink. It really is a wonder that any of them can actually function in their jobs and as people with what they get put through. If you haven't read it I can definitely recommend it. It's a real eye opener and is laugh out loud funny!!

@NedStarksGhost oh nice that should be cool! Bit of a change of pace. I'm sure you'll smash it! Learning is easy if you are doing it on the job because you actually have the physical process in front of you at the same time as being instructed on it. Much better than books and lectures in my opinion which for me is just in one ear and out the other!

@render tbh for all the whinging I do, in relation to other jobs I don't have it too bad. Doesn't detract from the issues I have that get frustrating but overall it could be much worse. I do try to remember that from time to time, but it's always worth reminding people.

@ralphdibny cheers! I'm the same with learning. I hate reading manuals and struggle to comprehend stuff. People bring up that I did an engineering degree and I basically remind them that I have more or less forgotten it all!

@NedStarksGhost @ralphdibny I think it's fair enough to whinge about work, I do enough of that too

I definitely have a lot of respect for anyone doing a really tough job like nursing / doctoring and then being asked to work all the hours under the sun / moon. It really seems counter intuitive to me to push the people that are looking after our wellbeing so hard. I know that when I'm really tired I'm more likely to make mistakes and everything just takes longer to do.

@render After reading horror stories about people in the likes of retail, services and healthcare I'm always sure to be extra understanding and patient. Not that I'm rude by default, but after seeing what some have to go through I try and be extra pleasant with them.

And totally agree. I've tried learning stuff after work to expand my skills and I honestly just cannot do it. Mentally, I'm gone. Brain has just shut off. So I feel so sorry for those in the NHS having to work extra long hours under more pressure, with also a duty of care to patients.

@render @NedStarksGhost oh I love moaning about work 😂. There is an appropriate amount of moaning though and it's a fine line between letting off some steam and bringing down everyone around you. I have a colleague who moans so much that I have to set him to ignore on WhatsApp. I think what does it for me is that it's speculative moaning (with no self acknowledgement of its speculative nature) with lots of assumptions and no evidence which is not something you can really respond to. Speculation hurts my brain when it comes to work, I just want facts 😂

It's nuts what NHS workers get put through and it's so unfair considering they do one of the most important jobs in the country. I'll have to check that book out sometime. When I first half read the link, I thought it was going to be an article about conditions for Amazon workers which is another company that is apparently notoriously bad to work for. I wouldn't go near an Amazon job with a ten foot barge pole

@RogerRoger same here, massively anti social hours because most of my work is done outside of working hours. Taking a day/night off to attend a social event costs me a shift. I've valued my free time more as I've got older so I've done a lot less shifts as I've got older!

I also keep my phone on silent too so I can call my boss back instead of being caught off guard and half asleep. Just need to be mentally prepared before I accept a job so I don't shoot myself in the foot and accept something awful 😅