Not literally nine to five, but do any of you actually ever get to go home on time? I am stuck here till goodness knows when, because they want to ship two more articles tonight, and they still have to be seen by several editors, then go to the production manager, then the proofreader and then me—then I give it back to the production people.
We’ll be here till goddam midnight, and all because the editors are taking their sweet time playing Perry goddam White. I have a 90-minute commute (if I manage to catch a bus!) and would like to actually eat dinner sometime this week.
Can any of you go home “when the 5:00 whistle blows?”
I’m suprised you’re putting in the extra time without a fight, considering that you’re pretty sure you’re getting canned any minute. If I were you, I’d just say I had a previous commitment and go home.
You can always finish up the work tomorrow, right? Would the world really come to an end if you went home and got some much-needed R&R?
Normally, I do. It’s actually a 9-5 job literally. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to stay later if things are backed up. For instance, today. One of our clients called me in a panic at 5, just as I was about to leave, because they had provided me with incorrect numbers and I had to fix it now, because they needed them by tomorrow. So now I’m stuck here. Maybe till 7.
Normally my working hours are more like eight to sixish. We don’t have a formal “going home” time. But there’s generally no problem with leaving at five if you don’t have any pressing tasks waiting.
Most nights I get to leave the hospital on time unless there’s an emergency. These can crop up at any time, literally, and if it involves blood bank (and I’m the banker that night) then I’ll have to stay as long as it takes. And sometimes that has been very long indeed.
I work in quality assurance for a video game company, and I work 8-5 most days, with an hour for lunch. The last month or so right before a game is released, though, it’s twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
Nope. When work is slow, I can come and go as a I please, as long as I put in my 84 hours per pay period. (We have to have a 42 hour week because…well, because we have to be better than the next guy. :rolleyes: )
Recently, with all the charlie-fox mickey-mousing going on, I’ve had to put in 12+ hour days, 6-7 days a week. Basically, I go home when I get to frustrated at the file server spontaneously shutting down, or the software not working, or things just not going together, or else when I’m just too fatigued to go on. Then I get home and I can’t sleep 'cause I’m too tired…so I go out someplace for a beer or whisky and read a book, or go see a film, until I can come home, managed to pass out from exhaustion, and stay asleep for 2-3 hours.
I still have it better than some; there’s a guy two doors down from me who is literally on travel 25-26 days of the month, including weekends and holidays.
It’s just not worth it. Except fort the paycheck, damnit!
Let’s see … 10 am to 2 pm Mondays and Thursdays, 8 am to 10 am and noon to 2 pm Tuesdays and Fridays, nothing Wednesdays … nope. Not 9 to 5. Did I mention I’m in college?
I suppose that sooner or later my hours will conform more closely to x hours a day on weekdays, and that point will come once I’ve finished my 2 years of classes in grad school and begun the 3 or 4 years of work on a PhD thesis. Mind you, that’ll be more like x[sup]2[/sup] hours per weekday and weeknight and weekends, but there you are.
I’ve mostly always left on time. I have a good job; well-paying, professional. I just haven’t worked anywhere where more than 40 is demanded as a matter of course except for very short stint at a small sweatsho…er, company . I’ve usually worked for contracting companies and part of the deal is paid overtime, since it’s billable.
Well, not really, but I’m also on the road 25-26 days a month. At the end of the day, when I crawl back to my hotel room, it feels like I’m still on the clock because-- well-- I’m not at home.
I do what I need to do to get the job done. If I can do it in eight hours good. If I can do it in six hours good. If it takes twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours, then, not so good, but tough. The good thing is it’s pretty flexible. Human services, especially when residential services are provided, can be a 24/7 deal. Also, like others, I travel a good deal and when I’m working on the road it’s a minimum of 12 hours a day.
I’m taking off Saturday for Seattle and a week of work. The up side of it is, since I’m traveling on Saturday, I’m going to meet a bunch of Dopers for a tour of Underground Seattle and Dinner on Saturday. YAY! Then Sunday, I get to do touristy stuff like go visit the Space Needle. However, come Monday morning, it’s swampbear does bidness straight through the rest of the week. With luck, I’ll be finished up by around seven P.M. Friday and go crash in a hotel room. The next day I get to board a flight at 7:20 AM to come home. Then, it’s Monday morning bright and early back at the office. I do lots of weekend stuff, especially if staff does not show up for work or an emergency arises.
Then again, there are times I can say I’m going home for a couple of days and recup and nobody bothers me. The big plus for me is, I actually like my job 90% of the time.
6-2, since we’re allowed to work thru lunch. One of the joys of working for the gov’t - unless overtime is authorized, you just do your 8 and go. And that’s what I do.
Recently graduated, still applying for positions - but since I will soon be a junior lawyer, I seriously doubt I’ll finish the working day at 5. Far more likely to be 8 or 9pm, from what I’ve heard from lawyers in their first 5 years of practice. Unless you work for the Public Service (government lawyer), you’ll be expected to Have No Life for the first few years. You’ll be the senior partners’ bitch, basically.
