How many hours do you work? Poll results/discussion

BigMikeyG

I work 35 hours a week with no paid overtime although probably once fortnightly I will work an extra hour or something to get it done. Not to bad in comparison to some of the replys before me.

bikerchick1066

I have a full time job of 37.5 hours and also have a waitressing job three evenings a week, so normally do around 54 hours a week.

As ceridwen says, don't have time for much of a life, but apart from small mortgage, no debts either.

It's a bit of catch 22 situation. Need the extra job to have money for the good things in life, but don't have the time to spend the money!

teddyco

A quote from the following BBC News article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7991616.stm

"Who would this affect?

At the moment about one in 10 UK employees work more than 48 hours a week, according to the latest government figures. These people, including those who earn extra overtime, would be stopped from doing so.

But it would also affect all of us who want a choice about our hours. For example, if your partner loses their job and you are offered extra paid hours at work, you can take them, even if it means working more than 48 hours a week. Under the plans proposed in Brussels, this option would be ruled out.
Freedom would be replaced with frustration. Researchers working on cures for diseases would be unable to point to the importance of their work and put in longer hours. Ambitious people who want to work extra hours would be told to go home.

Unsurprisingly, the UK government is fighting hard in Brussels to keep the opt-out, and the majority of countries support its retention. It may surprise you that removing the opt-out is even being considered in a recession, when the last thing the economy needs is an extra restriction from Brussels.

The MEPs who want to end the opt-out say that longer hours mean exploitation. This would be true if people were forced to work them. But the opt-out that we have now means you can only work longer hours if you choose to opt out of the 48-hour working week. And the figures show that only a small minority do work longer hours.

Some MEPs who propose a ban on longer hours cite health and safety grounds. But the opt-out doesn't affect people like airline pilots and lorry drivers who rightly have separate rules. Nor does it affect Britain's health and safety legislation, which is the best in the world.
We think people should make their own decisions about whether to work longer hours. You know your own ambitions and circumstances and can take them into account. The opt-out allows you to do so, and this doesn't need amending in Brussels."

tazliveshere

I really hope they don't bring this in as it would be a disaster for people like us.
I am in full agreement that nobody should be compelled to work more than 48 hours but some of us have no choice.
I cannot work as I am a full time carer for our disabled son, we have no family to help us out and childcare for children like him is non existent.
My husband works an average 60-70 hour week to support us all. This is not because he wants to or to give us a great lifestyle it is to enable us to live!
We are trying very hard to clear our considerable debts and are making some headway but we still have a long way to go.
If he was only allowed to work 48 hours it would probably result in bankruptcy and repossession for us.
How would this help anyone?

irishwench69

I can't believe this ruling tbh......it's just not going to work!

I work in healthcare and work well over 48 hours a week - 60+ is typical. I'm also on-call for a lot of the remainder. (I voted category '17').

I don't get paid overtime or get any extra - and I'm not going to stop doing the hours even once this becomes illegal.......it's just not an option with the type of work that I do.....

People will just do it on the quiet or lie about how many hours they've done / are doing...... :rolleyes:

IW x

piglet15

I think it sounds like a great idea. I have worked for the same pub company for the last 10 years; I am on a 48-hour contract but when they send the contract out they also send a WTD opt-out form with it, which you are "strongly advised" to sign. In the past 7 years of managing pubs I have rarely done less than 55 hours a week. Several times I have exceeded 100. Averages out at about 60. On top of that I have only been able to take my full holiday entitlement for the year once. I had one week off last year and when I asked if I could have a few days off recently was told that no, there was too much for me to be doing at the moment. I do not get overtime, and have worked out that I am earning significantly less than minimum wage at the moment. I have no experience in any other industry (and I do enjoy my job too), so I think that bringing in more stringent WTD regulations would be a great advantage to me and others in my situation - meaning we actually get a healthy home life!

ceridwen

Totally agree with piglet. There is always going to be "swings and roundabouts" with anything. However - I think we do need to make it a priority to protect those employees who are forced to "volunteer" (huh!) to work however-many-hours-their-employer-wants regardless. I am certainly very well aware of just how much pressure employers can and do put on people to "volunteer" for what the employer wants - and just how high a percentage of staff then "volunteer" against their will for something. I'm strongwilled enough to resist any pressure to "volunteer" for something unless I genuinely do wish to volunteer - but there is a HUGE percentage of employees that get pressurised into "volunteering" for whatever their employer wants.

I think a lot of employees were too scared about keeping their jobs anyway - BEFORE the current economic crisis came along - to do anything other than "volunteer" as required. The situation will be even worse now - where people will be thinking - "If I dont 'volunteer' for whatever my employer wants - then I may get made redundant".

Many people DO need a law in place - so they can state "I''d love to volunteer - but sorry....no can do...the law wont let me" and then go off and think "thank goodness - my employer cant argue with that...heh!"

...and Piglet...if you are earning "significantly less than minimum wage" - REPORT THEM...

BobbinAlong

Proper flexitime and paid overtime should be a requirement of the majority of jobs. OK there's some it wouldn't work for, but even shift patterns can be accomodated. Flexi is the best. The ability to take time off without using your annual holiday and perfect for those occasions such as repair men coming.

Just working an hour extra each day soon totals up the two days a month maximum we are allowed to take. We also get special dispensation to build up extra for Christmas shutdown leave. Formal clocking in and out is worth it for the reward and yes, there's set limits to what you can accrue or be owing.
Having had it I would make it a serious want for any other job - except the one I really want which is retirement with a decent pension :-)

BarryP

I answered 21 (36-40 hours salaried with overtime).

The reason the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) was introduced was to stop people unwittingly driving themselves to serious illness or worse by overworking. That is the reason why, in the UK, the EWTD is (theoretically) overseen/administered/monitored by the Health and Safety Executive.

Additionally it is not just about the maximum number of hours that can be worked in a week (averaged over 17 weeks and excluding sickness and holidays) but also quantifies the number of hours break one should receive between one period of work and another (11 hours) and the maximum number of days per week which can be worked (six out of seven which can be "commuted" to twelve in fourteen).

I can understand why some people are concerned about limiting themselves to 48 hours but I think the problem of long hours in this country is one which has created more problems than it has solved. A simple example to consider: would property prices be as high (and nobody, I don't think, would disagree that they are exorbitant in most parts of the UK) if people had not, in the past, worked all the hours that they could to afford the repayments on their mortgage? (People should, perhaps, think about buying houses to live in not as an "investment" but that's another argument).

Don't you think that working people in other advanced industrial countries in Europe actually look at their cousins in the UK and laugh? Who, if they really didn't have to, would want to work more than 48 hours per week? It should also be borne in mind that the EWTD affects all citizens in the EU not just those of us in the UK so to claim that the introduction of the "no opt-out" clause will somehow make the UK "less competitive" - as many disingenuous politicians claim - is a myth...unless they really want us to compete with those poor souls in the "developing world" as it is patronisingly described.

The problem with us is that we have become used to paying the most in Europe for our homes, goods and services; accepted relatively low wages generally without complaint; become subject to the "long hours, low pay" business model prevalent in the United States of America (because we have become subject to the USA's "cultural imperialism" - unlike the rest of Europe) and are now trapped in a cycle which we don't think we can get out of.

It is time for people to start acting collectively and break the psychological grip which long hours culture and its attendant problems has on us.

In the short term this will be extremely difficult but just look to see if your company still pays a dividend to its shareholders whilst asking you to accept a pay freeze or cut. That's usually a good indicator of where business' priorities lay.

buxtonrabbitgreen

I am happy with my 32 hours a week. But my oh has signed to opt out and did 56 hours last week. He needs to do this as the nature of the job (seasonal) means he is out of work for 10 weeks every winter. He is trying to accrue some money to help tide him over the time when he has no work. so would not be at all happy to have to work less hours.