Weird office times

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Salad Dodger

Legendary Member
Location
Kent Coast
On the other end of hte spectrum, I know someone who works three jobs to make ends meet. She drives a new BMW 2 series convertible. Good luck to her. She told me she deserves to treat herself. If it were me needing three jobs, I would treat myself by NOT buying such an expensive (for her) car. But there you go; to each their own.

We used to live in North Kent in a London "dormitory" town. There was a lot of "keeping up with, or preferably getting ahead of, the Jones's". I used to say that most of the mums drove their big cars to the school to drop their kids off, because they had to rush off to work straight afterwards. To pay for the big car that they could be seen in at the school gates.......

Fortunately, we never (literally) bought into that lifestyle. So now we have retired to a little house near the seaside, with a small car, a modest pension income which supports our modest lifestyle, and we are happier than we have ever been.

I know what the OP means about people working stupid hours. I fell into it myself for a while, but am so glad to be away from that culture......
 

Lullabelle

Banana
Location
Midlands UK
We are on a 37 hour week, with a couple of exceptions-part time working mum, 2 people are close to retirement so only work 4 days. TVC and I have both worked over-time in the past to help out when busy and yes the extra money is nice but it gets a bit much after a while so we don't do it for long periods of time. We all need to have a life away from the daily grind.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
I work the hours necessary to get the job done. About half of every day goes on dealing with the rampant inefficiency, deliberate obstruction, and utter incompetence/laziness of others or dealing with their agendas and cottage industries.

This year my mantra has been "Nah, not my scope, not my job." which you can get away with when you fix things and deliver stuff.
 
OP
OP
mustang1

mustang1

Legendary Member
Location
London, UK
We used to live in North Kent in a London "dormitory" town. There was a lot of "keeping up with, or preferably getting ahead of, the Jones's". I used to say that most of the mums drove their big cars to the school to drop their kids off, because they had to rush off to work straight afterwards. To pay for the big car that they could be seen in at the school gates.......

Fortunately, we never (literally) bought into that lifestyle. So now we have retired to a little house near the seaside, with a small car, a modest pension income which supports our modest lifestyle, and we are happier than we have ever been.

I know what the OP means about people working stupid hours. I fell into it myself for a while, but am so glad to be away from that culture......
My SO's mom used to be like that. Whenever we attended a large family function, she always wanted to arrive in someone else's car because her own car was so rubbish. In fact her whole family are full of "my car is better than yours" but they kinda were forced to come to reality when they realised they just can't afford anything. Really don't like people who need to show off, brings out the worst in them, and it shows so much.
 

J1888

Über Member
Very much a culture of getting in early and staying late in my office - I'm a an exception to the rule in that I do long hours when I need to (usually a couple of days a month) and rest of the time I'll do around 10 until 5
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
I work to cover office hours of 8am to 9pm. Currently, this week, is 12.30pm to 9pm and I hate it. I think it shows in my call stats. I am a morning person so getting home at 9.45pm, I am knackered. Tomorrow I am back on 8-4.30 so the 5am get up after a 9.rtpm get home (then walk the dog etc) will be hard.
In March I am switching to a 4 day week. Still 37.5 hours mind, with 3 long week days and one shorter weekend day so will see how that goes. I miss my 8 - 4.30, mon to Friday, I really do.

My days of 50 or 60 hour weeks have long gone. It was expected where I used to work but it was too stupid for words, so I left.
 

Slick

Guru
I found 16 hours a week was a good balance. TBH I probably did more than that but only on the fun bits.
I did 16 hours a day for 15 years before suffering total burnout. I'm now semi retired but working 35 hours a week, finishing at 12 on a Friday and much happier. It took at least 2 years to get out of some bad habits, and even yet I can't walk away for either annual leave or just working at another site without making sure everything is done. I can now leave at 4 o'clock without feeling guilty now though.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
My SO's mom used to be like that. Whenever we attended a large family function, she always wanted to arrive in someone else's car because her own car was so rubbish. In fact her whole family are full of "my car is better than yours" but they kinda were forced to come to reality when they realised they just can't afford anything. Really don't like people who need to show off, brings out the worst in them, and it shows so much.
I used take a perverse pride in my shite cars, almost as much as my nice ones. Until I realised no car was something to rejoice in.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
For the craic, and because others do it, albeit they are permies, I asked this morning if I could cut to only coming in on four days but still bill for five as I'm paid for a 40 hour week and most weeks have done that Thursday lunch.

I dislike being asked to fabricate my timesheets to claim weekend working in order to be part-compensated for the work I do Mon-Fri. Why I can't claim 1.5 days for doing 12 hours on a weekday is beyond me.

"It's not about the money but the satisfaction." They say. Err, no, in job with near zero satisfaction it is entirely about the money.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
I didn't realise you worked with the NHS....
Most large organisations are the same. I've just had a meeting with a procurement team who have done no procurement for me in 15 months despite my spending millions... Go figure.
 
Top Bottom