How many hours do you work? Poll results/discussion

peter_the_piper

With a plant nursery we work 9 hour days and 7 days a week for about 60% of the year. We do allow ourselves a day off in the winter. I don't see how this would work for us as we do not employ anyone and we would still not do so if they tried to restrict our hours. Still retirement looms from 2012 so might just get away with it.

Pssst

I would like to see a limitation of 48 hrs per week. There seems little point in working more hours and falling into the 40% bracket.

kunekune

In my job, if I only worked 37 hours a week (what I am 'contracted' to do) I would end up in serious sh*t, because for much of the year I could not do all the tasks that need doing in the time available. I work weekends because I have to (and because I can't work evenings). But the average of 45 a week (I don't do lunch, and of my 7 weeks annual leave I take 3-4) is not enough to ever get me promoted. I do some extra work for extra money through another organisation - this is allowed in academia, and in fact the kudos is good for my cv. I feel the need to do this because OH has a medical condition and now works 4 days a week. But I have very little life. It sucks. Fortunately my children still love me, LOL.

Wayne1_2

I am sick and tired of being told what I can and can not do.

I discussed this with an American carpenter in New York last year, a union man to the core. He was incandescent with rage about the prospect of social engineering that this legislation creates and so am I.

The politicians are bringing in the working time directive for one reason and one reason only and that is to keep us in our place and deny us the ability to better ourselves and keep us in our place. e.g. if you want to work extra hours to say save up for a special item or to try and better yourself/lot you will not be able too. This is by design so that there are two classes. The political classes and the rest of us. It must not happen.

Rant over.

lkmc01

how about dividing the student category up too. I'm a full time student in my last year and I've been putting in over 100 hour weeks at the moment

Empty_pockets

I used to do 60 plus hours per week when self employed just to make ends meet. Often 70, And I know of other driver doing 80+.
It's a danger to taxi passengers and other road users but folk have got to meet their responsibilities.

I work in the public sector now. 35 hrs per week, good salary and don't do a great deal!

BarryP

Wayne1 wrote: »

I am sick and tired of being told what I can and can not do.

I discussed this with an American carpenter in New York last year, a union man to the core. He was incandescent with rage about the prospect of social engineering that this legislation creates and so am I.

The politicians are bringing in the working time directive for one reason and one reason only and that is to keep us in our place and deny us the ability to better ourselves and keep us in our place. e.g. if you want to work extra hours to say save up for a special item or to try and better yourself/lot you will not be able too. This is by design so that there are two classes. The political classes and the rest of us. It must not happen.
Rant over.

Politicians kept you in your place long before the EWTD. Just consider some of the legislation introduced recently...lets say the Eighties - flog off council houses cheap so that everybody has a mortgage [and the associated debt]; anti Trade Union legislation so working people were prevented from supporting each other; Privatisation, the biggest con of all, where individuals queued like fools to buy something they already owned. Before that the aristocracy kept you in your place.

Do you not think it strange that other large EU countries not only have a higher standard of living than the UK they also have something which, only thirty-five years ago, the UK led the World...Quality of Life. Unfortunately in the UK we've all been led to believe by a sucession of charlatans that the "B" all and end all is money.

As for a New York carpenter being incandescent with rage about the EWTD he perhaps ought to be outraged about living in a society which has a minimum wage and nobody gets paid it ("..you'll have to try to make your money up with tips..."); rudimentary or non-existent healthcare for the millions who can't even afford the insurance payments; lack of educational opportunities unless your parents are comparatively well-off; etc.

The EWTD should go some way to reducing stress - something I'd never heard of at work until comparatively recently - which apparently loses the UK economy millions of lost days per year. Hopefuly it will also make people ask themselves, "Do I live to work or work to live?"

Harriat

I work 48 hours every week but often have to work 72 hours. The company get away with it because not all the hours are worked within Mon-Sun but are worked consecutively. Also we dont get dinner breaks or tea breaks away from the work place

NoMoneyNoProblem

I work for a large police service in the north of england I haven’t worked less than 48 hours a week in years. If I’m ordered to work over I have to no choice about it If I don't its disciplinary action. Don’t get me wrong I work over to get the result the public wants but I cant see how my team could achieve results when it gets to the end of the shift Sorry mr robbery I have to stop chasing you I’m due off duty in 10 minutes. Note I would have had to of caught him at least 3 hours before the end of the shift just to get basic paper work done. It won’t work.

mquine

Wayne1 wrote: »

if you want to work extra hours to say save up for a special item or to try and better yourself/lot you will not be able too.

Many of us have to do unpaid overtime. If we are not legally allowed to work more than X hours a week, that limits the amount of unpaid overtime our employers can force us to do. Not all overtime is paid!

Also, if you work beyond a certain number of hours, it's obvious that the quality of your work is going to drop because you'll simply be tired. In some professions, you might get away with it. In others, you might kill people.