[pathy]

I have a question regarding the 9-5 working day. Do Americans really work 9-5 and regard this as an 8 hour working day? Or is this a legacy of the old days with paid lunch or such?

I officially work 8.25 hours per day or 8-17 with 45 minutes of lunch, this is roughly the standard working day in Sweden.

[Symbiote]

9–5 is the standard British working day, which includes an hour for lunch.

As an example, my contract when I worked for the British government said, "You will normally be required to work a five-day week of 41 hours gross, Monday to Friday, including meal breaks".

The time allowed for lunch breaks was one hour per day, which led to a working time of 7h12m, and a total weekly working time of 36 hours.

I only notice now that this doesn't quite add up to 9–17h. That's probably because most people took about ¾ hour for lunch rather than the full hour, and left at 17:00 rather than 17:12.

(Or maybe I was doing it wrong.)

[IshKebab]

It may have been the standard once, but these days the standard seems to be 8 hours of work, plus 30 or 60 minutes for lunch.

I don't know anyone that works 9-5 with an hour for lunch.

[72deluxe]

That'll be me! I am in the Midlands.

....although I must admit this is rare. The last place was 9-5 with half an hour for lunch, which was widely abused by others (eg. 2 hour pub lunch every Friday, clear off early, roll in late).

A previous place wanted 40 hours a week when I inquired about returning. A reevaluation of priorities led me to turn that offer down.

[d_theorist]

9-6 is standard every place I've worked. I've always worked in London though, so perhaps there is a split there relative to the rest of the country.

[lmm]

In the UK the standard was once 9-5 with an hour's lunch. It's slowly crept from that to "9-5 with a short lunch if you're not busy" and then "8 paid hours plus unpaid lunch".

[kraftman]

Depends where you are really. I do 9-5 with an hours paid lunch, last place I did 8-5 with paid lunch.

[abstractbeliefs]

Not sure about the US, but in the UK which seems to be fairly culturally aligned, we're expected to put in an average of 7.5h of "logged in" work, with core hours being 09:30-16:30, and a mandatory 30m unpaid lunchbreak.

(I say average because you're expected to put in ~37.5h of work a week, and have the deficit/surplus at month end of +-5h)

[mattmanser]

Having worked 20 or 30 temp jobs in my time as well as perms, in the UK in the 2000s it used to be 37.5/37/35 hours per week for office and 40 for industrial or warehouse work, but it's increasingly common to see 40 for office.

[ones_and_zeros]

I work for a well known software company in the US. I get in by 9 and leave by 5. I take a 30-60 minute lunch break.

I'm not a young go getter. Many of my colleagues get in earlier and stay way later. I'm not sure about them but I continue to get raises and glowing performance reviews.

[talideon]

The situation is a little different in Ireland: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_r...

I work from 10am to 7pm, with an unpaid lunch break at 1pm. That's considered and 8-hour working day here.

[sheraz]

You may be officially "at work" for that time in Sweden, but there are the countless fika breaks.

I believe Swedish law calls for a minimum 5 minutes break per hour? (Not mandatory but an entitlement)

[Ma8ee]

You are entitled to 5 minutes per hours for toilette breaks et.c. Most white collar jobs you just take your breaks whenever you feel you need them, and the fika is very important and in most places longer than the 20 minutes you accumulate in the morning or afternoon. In blue collar it is sometimes very different with a signal at 55 minutes every hour and then a signal 3 minutes later to signal that it is time to start moving back to your station and be ready for the signal at the hour. But I have worked as a construction worker where there was fika at least once every morning and afternoon.

[dagw]

but there are the countless fika breaks.

At every company in Sweden I've worked the number was exactly 2 @ 15 minutes each.

[pathy]

When I worked in manual labour (warehouses etc) that was certainly the case but in a white-collar job it is much less structured in my experience, we may have a formal fika once a week or just informal coffee breaks every now and then.

Fika IS important to productivity though! Morale boosting if nothing else.

[mstade]

Being Swedish, this sounds about right to me.

[frogfuzion]

This is legacy. Lunch is usually not included in the US so 8-5 if you take an hour lunch or 8:30 - 5 if you take a half hour lunch.

[pessimizer]

Your hours are common in the U.S., except it would be a 1 hour lunch to keep to a 40 hour work week. 9-5 is just a shorthand.

[JoeAltmaier]

8-5 is the standard USA working day.

[beachstartup]

most people work 09:00 - 18:00 and take 45-60 minutes for lunch around noon or 13:00. however many people start or end earlier or later to avoid bad traffic.