Half day

Jackjack21

Hello,

I have just been looking at a 9-5 job with 45 minutes of unpaid lunch.

For a half day am I right in thinking that the day can start/end at 12.15?

wiogs

For a half day I would expect you to work with no break for lunch at all, so possible 9-13 or 13-17

NewShadow

If the lunch break is unpaid and the you normally work 7 hours and 15 minutes (8 hours minus 45 minutes ), I'd expect a half day to be 3 hours 37.5 minutes.

Meaning a start time of 9 and a finish time of 12.38 - Call it somewhere between 12.30 and 12.45

Personally, I finish what I'm doing (natural end) and check with the boss if I can go. Neither of us are all that bothered if it's 5 or 10 minutes either way - but I tend to stay 10/15minutes late if need, or work through lunch, so have earned some flexibility.

Only exception is if it's an appointment and there's a latest possible time I can leave to get to it.

Takeaway_Addict

Presuming its an unpaid break.

7 hours 15 minutes working time

Half of this is 3 hours 37.5 minutes would mean you would stop work at 12.38pm

If its paid then its 1pm

ohreally

Agree with above.

8.00 - 0.75 = 7.4hrs/2 = 3.7hrs (3hrs 42mins)

Snakey

You will need to ask at the interview, make sure you understand the answer given, and take it into account when deciding whether you want the job.

It's all very well calculating what it "should" be, but if the expectation is that you will start/finish at 1pm on a half-day, then if you don't do it you might find your services are no longer required - compared with others on the same shift as you, you will be seen to be leaving early/arriving late.

Remember that they don't need a reason to get rid of you, if you haven't been there for two years.

patman99

This 'half-day' thing caused a lot of conflict at one place I worked. It was an 8 - 4:30 working day with lunch 12:30 - 13:00.
If you booked the morning off, you got paid 4.5 hours, if you booked the afternoon off, you got 3.5 hours.

We had an employee involvement committee and every other meeting the question of whether or not this was fair was raised and the answer was always "we do it this way because if we paid for just 4 hours, it would mean that those who had the morning off, would start at 12:00 and then stop for lunch, whilst those who had the afternoon off, would stop at 12:30 and in effect would be paid for their lunchbreak".

At the last place I worked, the permanent staff got paid 4 hours regardless (same working day, except lunch was 13:00 - 13:30). As there was plenty of overtime, it was possible to start at 06:00 and finish at morning break (10:00), thus making a nice long day off. Plenty of people did this.