Working hours

[Steppy]

I work in Radio communications & encryption for the National Crime Agency. The user friendly job title is Civil Servant.

[FuzzyB]

Ouch. I didn't realize how bad we had it.

I work ~50 hours a week on average. I get no vacation days and no sick days. For the most part, I'm expected to work federal holidays, too. If I want to take a day off, I have to work the hours some other time.

I really need to convince my wife to move.

[geoffbot]

Ouch. I didn't realize how bad we had it.

Neither did I.

[Steppy]

Ouch. I didn't realize how bad we had it.

I work ~50 hours a week on average. I get no vacation days and no sick days. For the most part, I'm expected to work federal holidays, too. If I want to take a day off, I have to work the hours some other time.

I really need to convince my wife to move.

No holidays or sick pay?

[Jeannie]

Neither did I.

Geoff, did you never notice how much less often the working US mods announce they'll be away for non-business travel? And that those plans are of much shorter duration?

Jeannie

[FuzzyB]

No holidays or sick pay?

Nope. We even have a sick room at my office. Apparently, the powers that be think you should work off whatever ails you.

[Raza]

And no such thing as unfair dismissal either

That's not entirely correct. It depends on the type of position, but most courts would require good faith in termination and a bad faith termination could easily result in damages being awarded.

But I don't know if 8-7 is the norm. I mean, where I worked it was pretty close to it for a lot of people, but I also saw 8-5ers and even some 9-5ers.

Standard holidays off is usually 9-12 days a year (usually one or two less than the UK..no Boxing Day, usually only Good Friday or Easter Monday, and no May Day), most people get two weeks (10 business days) vacation, plus some sort of personal days. My package changed as time went on:

15bd Vacation/3bd Personal/6bd Sick
to
15bd Vacation/3bd Personal/Unlimited Sick
to
20bd Vacation/3bd Personal/Unlimited Sick (at 5 years...one more promotion I would have gotten another week)

So I had a good amount of vacation. That was the one area where I couldn't complain about my old job. However, when I worked 7-7, 7-8, and 7-9 most of my first year, then 8-7 or later often afterwards, I still had plenty to complain about.

This is, of course, all only my experience in a salaried position, so no guaranteed overtime (companies are allowed to give overtime, but are not required to). Hourly is different. I have no experience with hourly work.

[geoffbot]

Geoff, did you never notice how much less often the working US mods announce they'll be away for non-business travel? And that those plans are of much shorter duration?

Jeannie

I never really noticed to be honest Jeannie, that's why I started this thread - I frankly didn't believe my sister. I guess one assumes the grass is always greener. I don't feel that I work long hours...I mean some people commute to London for an hour then work 10 hour days, but it's not the norm.

[pepperami]

Having read this I think I'm quite fortunate. I'm rostered to work 40 hours a week but in Ireland a working week is classed as 39 hours, that extra hour a week gets me an additional 6 days leave per year. I have 20 days annual leave and get an extra day for each 5 years of service. Currently 28 days leave and all the bank and public holidays.

I also entitled to 6 weeks sick leave in any rolling 12 month period.

European legislation demands that no employee in Ireland can work more than an average of 48 hours per week.

Oh and there must be a minimum of 11 hours between shifts.

[vinylgreek]

From a statistical perspective the U.S. work force labors more hours per week than much of the world. It also takes less of its allotted vacation days. There is a slowly growing move towards offering unlimited time off (within certain industries and job classifications of course) since such a large number of those days go unused so it's a benefit that costs corporations nothing. This coincides with the high productivity of the U.S. labor force.