# Why are most jobs 9-5 (Monday thru Friday) rather than other hours/days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641 "2024-10-10T22:08:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/21 "2024-10-12T00:31:31Z")
> [@icon](#): > > The obvious answer is that it was done so that Dolly Parton could be in a movie and write a song about it: That song messed me up. I remember starting my first office job and being surprised that it was 8-5 (with an hour for lunch). Like wtf? An whole extra hour every day for the rest of my life? ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/22 "2024-10-12T11:23:11Z")
Truth. Pretty much every job I have ever had has been the standard 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. But they’ve never been 9-5. Always 8-5. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/23 "2024-10-12T11:51:11Z")
Retail manager here, which I know is a bit of a different thing. Store is open 7 days a week, mostly 10-6, one day we close at 7 and Sundays are 12-5. I’m salaried at 40 hrs and it’s assumed that I take a 30 min lunch in an 8 her day. (Nope, doesn’t happen all that often!). Hourly staff on a less than 6hr shift get a paid 15min break. Staff working 6+ hrs get a paid 15min break and must take a 30min unpaid break as well. Retail can be so weird. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/24 "2024-10-12T12:19:13Z")
I had some jobs where weekends were preferred. While doing my own things on weekdays while most worked can be advantageous, it kills one’s social life as everyone else has off weekends when I was working. So it’s sort of a reinforcing loop IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/25 "2024-10-12T12:21:57Z")
I have worked corporate or consulting jobs in retail for over twenty years. I have spent hundreds of days in stores with store managers. One thing has been consistent between companies and over the decades. You folks do not, and cannot, stop for 20 minutes to eat a meal. As far as working hours go, hours spent in store are lower than they were 20 years ago, but you’re on 24/7 because of cellphones and now smartphones, but still it’s a rare supermarket or drugstore manager who isn’t really spending 60 hours a week in the store, no matter what the schedule says. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/26 "2024-10-12T12:26:46Z")
Yep. I’m really lucky though: my store is small, and my staff is older (ie: not teenage newbies) and fantastic in that they don’t need much monitoring or help. And we don’t generally get the ultra-entitled problem customers that BigBoxCorp gets, so my life is generally fairly easy. But I absolutely work a lot more than my 40 hrs, and lunch is eaten in front of my laptop doing work stuff. Nature of the beast, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![Dinoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@Dinoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinoguy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/27 "2024-10-12T18:14:44Z")
I always worked 8-5 with an hour for lunch, but after a promotion I was “exempt” which meant I wasn’t paid hourly anymore, so if they wanted me in the office on say, Saturday, it didn’t affect my wages. I remember being asked to go to the office on Christmas Eve because one of our plants was down. I fixed the problem. Got an"attaboy." There were other benefits though. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/28 "2024-10-12T19:57:33Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > At NASA the standard shift was 8 and a half hours. Back in the '80s a friend worked at NASA Ames with 9-hour days and every other Friday off. I don’t know how long his lunches were. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/29 "2024-10-12T20:06:04Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Back in the '80s a friend worked at NASA Ames with 9-hour days and every other Friday off. I don’t know how long his lunches were. [5-4/9](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/reference-materials/handbooks/alternative-work-schedules/#Appendc) is a standard Compressed Work Schedule in the Federal government. Usually there’s a minimum _unpaid_ 30 min break required every 5 hours. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/30 "2024-10-14T14:58:31Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think most jobs are 8-5 with an hour lunch. Every job I’ve had was either 8-5 with an hour lunch or 8-4:30 with a half our lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641/31 "2024-10-18T21:17:31Z")
We always called it 9/80 since we were on a two week pay schedule and you got your 80 hours in 9 days instead of 10 (8 9hr days, 1 8hr day and 10th day off). No required breaks for us, just either a 30 or 60 minute lunch, employee choice [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-jobs-9-5-monday-thru-friday-rather-than-other-hours-days/1008641.md?page=1)