Typical London work hours?

[Deleted User]

Quick question. I'm having a debate with someone.

What would you say are 'typical' office hours for professional office workers in London?

I work 9:30 - 6pm (5:30pm on Fridays). The person I'm arguing with says these are 'unreasonable hours' whereas I think they're pretty standard. Who's right?

Mudd14

London employees and the UK as a whole work the longest hours in Europe so I dont think there is a standard in London. If I had to say it woruld be 9-5.30

ERICS_MUM

Until a couple of months ago I worked for RBS in the City and could quite easily do 8 til 6 regularly, with the occasional 7.30 start or 8pm finish. On top of that - at least one hour commute each way.

I would say this is typical of city workers above a certain level (say junior mgmt upwards).

I didn't even get a ginormous bonus for my trouble!

alyth

I was a legal PA in London for seven years, I would start at 9.30 (because most people commuted in, I was lucky and lived in central London) and the general end to the working day would be 5.30 - however, if we had a big case going on, or an urgent email came in, there were times when I would find myself at my desk at 10pm at night. When it came to times such as the budget (I worked in corporate finance at one stage) we would spend three days in the office, right through!

Depends on what environment you work in I guess. I worked in media law for about three years and that was tough, many nights i got a taxi home at midnight and was back in the office at 7am on the Sunday morning.

That's why I moved back to Scotland!

ellie101

I worked in London for years. It varied. Generally, people in London started later in companies I was in, as in 9.45... but could be there until 7. Sometimes I started earlier, did 8am starts, but I'd always work past my normal time.

9.30-6 I found was what was meant to be standard, but rarely happened. I signed out of the EU rules on working hours... can't remember what they were now but we were all encouraged to do it.

C_Mababejive

You are all part timers... ROTFL

Horace

I know someone who works in London and his day starts at 10am and he can still be at his desk at 10pm or later (he is not a senior manager either).

Oldernotwiser

Rather depends what you mean by "professional office worker". I'd say 35/37.5 hours were standard for admin staff nationwide, with extra time being worked (unpaid) in times of pressure.

notisis

London law firms have official hours of 9.30 to 5.30 but in practice the hours are outside that - maybe starting at 9 to 9.30 but always working far later than 5.30 - as others have said 10 pm is not unusual and depending on whether there's a big case on it can be later/earlier and at weekends. Although saying that the same applies to provincial law firms, particularly in this climate. If a deal needs to be done and negotiations are ongoing then you carry on working until it's finished, whatever the day/time.

piggeh

You have to consider how long lunch is as well. Some will only give half an hour, others 1 hour (others maybe more). 35/37.5 hours a week excluding lunch is probably the median hours I think.

gingerdad

i live in rural cumbria and nearly always do 8.30-6.30 so i would see 9.30-6 as fairly standard.. my staff tend to do 8.30-5.00 with 1/2 for lunch..

GD