Typical London work hours?

Maxjessdru

I work in legal in Central London as well - standard office hours are 9.30-5.30 but, like others have said, frequently longer than that (and unpaid). Last two weeks for example, no-one has left before 6pm having had, at most, 15 min lunch break (and not even any big deals on!)

exil

Why? That is - if the reason we go to work is primarily to earn money - why do we work extra hours for nothing? When it will probably actually COST us money - extra child care, a takeaway on the way home instead of cooking, miss the last train home and have to get a taxi, etc?

Instead of working 2 or 3 hours extra at the office every night we could put in a 2 hour shift at McDonalds round the corner and earn an extra £60 a week.

If you are doing something above and beyond the norm that is absolutely essential to your employer remaining in business, surely that represents some monetary amount and deserves some sort of reward, even if it's only your boss ordering in pizzas.

Fluffi

I would say 9-5.30 or 9:30-6pm is pretty standard. Thats only 37.5 hours after all. Not sure anyone really goes half an hour early on a Friday though.

Surely Friday is one of the best days to put in extra hours given that you don't have to get up early the next day

Chinkle

A 7.5 hour day is pretty standard contractual hours, but if your in a "professional" role you put in the hours that are needed if you want to keep rising in your career. I can't imagine normal office hours are much different elsewhere in the UK.

kavics17

I work from 8-6, 5 days a week.

anamenottaken

exil wrote: »

(1) . . . - if the reason we go to work is primarily to earn money - why do we work extra hours for nothing? . . . .

(2) Instead of working 2 or 3 hours extra at the office every night we could put in a 2 hour shift at McDonalds round the corner and earn an extra £60 a week.

(1) Maybe because one is paid to do a job and without doing occasional or even regular extra "unpaid" hours, the job won't be done and you won't have a job to earn the basic pay.

(2) Without pay from the "professional" job to start with, the pay for a shift at McDonalds doesn't look so attractive.

angeltreats

alyth wrote: »

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!

I worked in professional indemnity law in London for about five years and all that time I worked 9:30am till 5:30pm. It was very rare for me to have to work past 6pm even for a crisis (and I got paid overtime when I did).

terra_ferma

I found that working hours vary enormously, even within the same sector.
I worked for companies where you'd do 35yrs only, any overtime taken back through a flexi time.
Not long ago I found myself working for a company that,without making it clear in the job description or at the interview, they expected long-hours (the workload was impossible to complete during normal time) including attending evening functions. I no longer work there.... :j

All of the above totally unrelated to how well they paid.

Recently I have seen jobs where they actually stipulate the need to work regular long hours in the job description (no extra pay, as they are senior jobs).

timmmers

Imagine if istead of arguing about hours and putting up with late starts and late homecoming...everyone gripped the companies responsible for the pathetic commute timetables and fixed them?

You put up with things...they carry on haappening. Wasting your life.

t

chewmylegoff

Deleted_User wrote: »

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?

that is 37.5 hours a week (assuming 1 hour for lunch) and is pretty standard. as for whether they are reasonable hours - in my view that depends the number of hours you understood you'd be working when you took the job.