The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

Victor Mildew wrote:How many birthdays does your dad get a year?

If he claims he was raised by a football team (and their manager), that should be good for 12 in a year.

Qikz wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:I hope you end up doing the classic sitcom scenario of jumping back and forth between the work party and a family birthday call, freezing the webcam and muting yourself on one as you quickly change outfits and rejoin the other.

The birthday doesn't exist.

Not yet

Today we were informed that we will be allowed a 90 minute lunch every day from now until the end of January, this is sopeople can get time to talk a walk and enjoy the day time as its dark when people start work and dark when we finish work (or it will be soon anyway). Great idea, I was honestly impressed, until I got to this part: "You can make up the time at either side of the day", so we get nothing at all, your manager just cant be a dick when you want to take a longer lunch. strawberry float me the backwards thinking in this place sometimes. :fp:

I had to take my first sick day since COVID yesterday. Massive migraine from the second I woke up which left me bedridden until the evening.

Rax wrote:Today we were informed that we will be allowed a 90 minute lunch every day from now until the end of January, this is sopeople can get time to talk a walk and enjoy the day time as its dark when people start work and dark when we finish work (or it will be soon anyway). Great idea, I was honestly impressed, until I got to this part: "You can make up the time at either side of the day", so we get nothing at all, your manager just cant be a dick when you want to take a longer lunch. strawberry float me the backwards thinking in this place sometimes.

You expected to get free time not working? The sad situation is while that would be beneficial to peoples health companies don't give a gooseberry fool about your wellbeing.

Its the tiniest of possible offerings but ultimately they aren't obligated to give you longer lunch breaks. My place hasn't offered me one, for example. I am all for criticising employers for shitty working practices or poor employee engagement but this isnt one of those.

At least it allows you time to nip out for lunch or the pub or something as opposed to being stuck in for the entire day, and believe it or not that can improve people's mindset quite considerably.

Qikz wrote:
Rax wrote:Today we were informed that we will be allowed a 90 minute lunch every day from now until the end of January, this is sopeople can get time to talk a walk and enjoy the day time as its dark when people start work and dark when we finish work (or it will be soon anyway). Great idea, I was honestly impressed, until I got to this part: "You can make up the time at either side of the day", so we get nothing at all, your manager just cant be a dick when you want to take a longer lunch. strawberry float me the backwards thinking in this place sometimes.

You expected to get free time not working? The sad situation is while that would be beneficial to peoples health companies don't give a gooseberry fool about your wellbeing.

It's a sad situation that companies won't pay people to not do work?

We can't all work for Moggy's company!

Drumstick wrote:Its the tiniest of possible offerings but ultimately they aren't obligated to give you longer lunch breaks. My place hasn't offered me one, for example. I am all for criticising employers for shitty working practices or poor employee engagement but this isnt one of those.

At least it allows you time to nip out for lunch or the pub or something as opposed to being stuck in for the entire day, and believe it or not that can improve people's mindset quite considerably.

In this case they're not giving you anything at all, they're just saying you can start work half hour later or leave half hour later and just take a longer break. They're asking you to re-arrange your free time to happen during work hours.

To be honest I don't think your company is at fault there. In fact your company is being quite adaptable by giving people that flexi-lunch option. Many, many companies wouldn't do that. Currently you can pop out before or after work and get an hour or daylight, but that won't be possible in a few weeks time. If you wanted to make take advantage of a longer break in the middle of the day, then making up for that time either in the morning or afternoon is your choice.

I'd definitely take them up on that longer lunch option and add on an extra 30 minutes at the end of the day.

In the vast majority of cases, companies are out to make as much money as they can. Adding an extra 30 minutes onto each staff members lunch break goes against that. So expecting to have your working day shortened by 30 minutes for 'free' was a bit naive on your part to be honest.

Qikz wrote:
Drumstick wrote:Its the tiniest of possible offerings but ultimately they aren't obligated to give you longer lunch breaks. My place hasn't offered me one, for example. I am all for criticising employers for shitty working practices or poor employee engagement but this isnt one of those.

At least it allows you time to nip out for lunch or the pub or something as opposed to being stuck in for the entire day, and believe it or not that can improve people's mindset quite considerably.

In this case they're not giving you anything at all, they're just saying you can start work half hour later or leave half hour later and just take a longer break. They're asking you to re-arrange your free time to happen during work hours.

I do understand.

They are giving you the option of extending your lunch break so that you can go out and do something as opposed to watching telly for 30 minutes. They aren't obligated to do so.

Seems quite nice tbh, was forever having to ask for longer than an hour if I wanted to pop into town and do errands or go for a bike ride or whatever, a built-in option for that seems less hassle and a decent gesture.

Anyway on a different note I'm slightly bricking it about commuting by train from Newcastle to Hull twice a week to live in shared accommodation with strangers and work in a big tent on a 90-person construction site for the next few months.

Sure it's completely Covid secure.

Yeah I really don't see the problem here. Flexible lunch is a nice option, that doesn't mean they have to give you an extra 30 mins a day for free. And if you're not a fan, just don't take it.

Although tbh I'd rather shorten it to 30 mins and leave earlier

I haven't had a designated lunch break for about 4 years. Places where I have worked don't give a strawberry float so long as the work gets done.

I've worked at places where there was an hour lunch break, half being paid and the other not. It was great for getting out and exercising. Likewise I've been (and am currently at) somewhere that only gives a half hour break, which isn't long enough to do more than sit at your desk or go for a pretty short walk. The option is nice, but I'd rather finish earlier.

I'm meant to work 8.30 - 5 and take an hour lunch but I start at 9 and do 30 mins. No one has ever said anything so figure I'm good.

Plus I regularly do unpaid overtime so they could strawberry float off if they did pull me up on it

Yeah it's a nice option, any flexibility over timings and when to work your hours is a good thing for the employee in my opinion.

Where and when you do your work should be much more flexible in general I think, it's ridiculous that in 2020 we are still so tied to the idea of a 9-5 at a specific location. Covid will hopefully have helped nudge this forward but it will be interesting to see how much things go "back to normal" when the dust eventually settles.

Can't be forced to work 9-5.30 if you get made redundant thanks to covid *taps head*

Qikz wrote:
Drumstick wrote:Its the tiniest of possible offerings but ultimately they aren't obligated to give you longer lunch breaks. My place hasn't offered me one, for example. I am all for criticising employers for shitty working practices or poor employee engagement but this isnt one of those.

At least it allows you time to nip out for lunch or the pub or something as opposed to being stuck in for the entire day, and believe it or not that can improve people's mindset quite considerably.

In this case they're not giving you anything at all, they're just saying you can start work half hour later or leave half hour later and just take a longer break. They're asking you to re-arrange your free time to happen during work hours.

You're getting the benefit of flexibility to arrange your day. If the hours are usually quite strict, that flexibility will be useful to some.

The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

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