work expects me to work through unpaid dinner hour

speedbird1973

It's an internet forum, no point in getting wound up about you lot specifically. I get genuinly wound up about the underbelly of society expecting everything spoonfed for them. Then again maybe I'd be happier if all I got wound up about was a few lunch and few hours work and the limit of my ambition was owning a really big TV!

bendix

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

Mr Bendix,

Thanks! With that attitude, your lunch hour has now been cancelled. It no longer exists. I'd thank you for the free labour but I don't give thanks unless I really mean it. Obviously your not getting any more salary because that's not how I operate. If you don't like it, let someone who actually has a work ethic do your job.

Yours Sincerely

Ure Boss

This just shows how out of touch you are. In the real world, the days of fighting for every minute are long gone. Do we get a lunch-hour? Sure, in our contract yes. Do we take it? Sure - sometimes. Sometimes I take two hours, sometimes I work through lunch. Sometimes I am needed in the office 14 hours, sometimes I decide not to go in today, and I'll work at home, or even just not bother.

This is 2009, not 1979. People need to be flexible. People need to be professional.

As someone else said, if I smelt a wiff of your attitude while I was interviewing people to join the firm I work at, the meeting would be stopped immediately and you'd be shown the door.

I can't believe there are so many dinosaurs around. Chips and gravy for lunch, advocating strikes for this sort of petty nonsense. Good god!

In the OP's defence, she is obviously young and doesnt really have a clue. As someone said, she is still in a school mindset. But those who are egging her on are obviously old enough to know better.

Amber_Sunshine

Ah, the troll who posts threads boasting about her party lifestyle on the dole and expects HB to provide her with a flat in Chelsea .... as if your opinion on work ethics should be taken seriously.

BootyBabe18 wrote: »

How on earth do people who whinge and moan about such petite things, especially 1-offs manage to get and keep jobs??!


When so many people who want more than anything to work aren't choosen for those jobs?!

moneysavingexpert79

bendix wrote: »

This just shows how out of touch you are. In the real world, the days of fighting for every minute are long gone. Do we get a lunch-hour? Sure, in our contract yes. Do we take it? Sure - sometimes. Sometimes I take two hours, sometimes I work through lunch. Sometimes I am needed in the office 14 hours, sometimes I decide not to go in today, and I'll work at home, or even just not bother.

This is 2009, not 1979. People need to be flexible. People need to be professional.

As someone else said, if I smelt a wiff of your attitude while I was interviewing people to join the firm I work at, the meeting would be stopped immediately and you'd be shown the door.

I can't believe there are so many dinosaurs around. Chips and gravy for lunch, advocating strikes for this sort of petty nonsense. Good god!

In the OP's defence, she is obviously young and doesnt really have a clue. As someone said, she is still in a school mindset. But those who are egging her on are obviously old enough to know better.

You need to spend 6 months doing the OP's job and see if you still have this same lame attitude towards people who class themselves as doing 'real' jobs. As if in 'real' jobs you have the option to take a 2 hour lunch as and when you see fit or work from home, or 'not even bother'. You are living in a bubble, and are disrespectful towards those who haven't had the same opportunities as you.

If you have a prejudice towards chips and gravy then that's your own problem. If you think it is that important maybe you should ask people at interview on a scale of 1-10 how much they like chips and gravy and if they would ever consider having it for lunch. What are you going on about?

Why should youth have anything to do with this? Young people are more likely to have a strong sense of what's right and wrong and a mind that has not been perverted by working in an environment such as yours.

Bogof_Babe

I was not allowed two hour lunch breaks or to work from home, and as stated earlier was on a far from generous wage (due somewhat to the part of the country I lived in, but also because I was not "management"). However I put my heart and soul into achieving the required results, and would not dream of quibbling about an hour's free time that I lost because something at work required me to sacrifice it. If I had a backlog I would go in for 7.30 a.m. instead of 9.00, as well as working lunchtimes and weekends. I wasn't a creep, I was just consciencious and wanted to know my job was under control.

One year they asked us all to go on a 12 week course, giving up one lunch hour a week. It was not compulsory but we were sort of leaned on to agree, so we did. Got a NVQ certificate out of it too!

Admittedly on the odd occasion I would get chips and gravy from the canteen to eat at my desk, if there was nothing else I fancied on the menu. Usually I brought sandwiches and a flask of coffee though.

Maybe what is lacking in the OP's role is any feeling of autonomy, so that she doesn't feel the job is "hers". I can sort of understand that in a call centre environment. Don't call centre workers have a promotion structure, so that if she shows willing she might get to be a team leader?

If employers don't give any encouragement to staff which means they view their work with enthusiasm, they won't hold on to them very long. At least not once this recession is properly over.

However as a one-off incident it really wasn't worth making such a fuss about.

surreysaver

speedbird1973 wrote: »

It's an internet forum, no point in getting wound up about you lot specifically. I get genuinly wound up about the underbelly of society expecting everything spoonfed for them. Then again maybe I'd be happier if all I got wound up about was a few lunch and few hours work and the limit of my ambition was owning a really big TV!

Who's expecting to be spoonfed - the only people that seem to need spoonfeeding are the management who take the mickey out of their staff and flout employment law!

Zazen999

surreysaver wrote: »

Who's expecting to be spoonfed - the only people that seem to need spoonfeeding are the management who take the mickey out of their staff and flout employment law!

Can I ask [again] what laws have been broken? Cheers.

surreysaver

bendix wrote: »

This is 2009, not 1979. People need to be flexible. People need to be professional.

Including management.

surreysaver

Zazen999 wrote: »

Can I ask [again] what laws have been broken? Cheers.

Laws regarding breaks. Contracts of employment regarding lunch hours.

Zazen999

surreysaver wrote: »

Laws regarding breaks. Contracts of employment regarding lunch hours.

From the gov website:


The requirements are:

• the break must be in one block
  
• it cannot be taken off one end of the working day - it must be somewhere in the middle
  
• you are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work
  
• your employer can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions

The lunch break was taken in the coach trip on the way back; which is not at the employer's premises. Technically; they provided food [even if the OP didn't eat it], and all of the above conditions have been met.

So, what law has been broken?