When I was a lad it was quite normal for folks working an eight hour day to get an hour for lunch. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that until recently, I've never had a job where this was not the case since leaving school.

However...something must have happened while I wasn't looking, as every job I have applied for recently all state that you get only one half hour for lunch. The most recent was a call-centre, which I loathe and detest anyway, but it did get me thinking. I've done call-centres before, and I know that previously, where an employee was sat at a computer on the phone continuously, it was law that they have a fifteen minute break every so often. This also appears to have been completely arsed away with, certainly according to the employer that I met today.

Anybody know what's occuring here?

Same with me our kid.
I do remember a certain female prime minister we once had abolished the Wages Council which used to set the standards for working hours, rest periods and considerate stuff along with wages.

That was the start of stripping the lead from the workers roofs.

So in answer to your question ...

If an employer's generous enough to give you a job these days, you're required to be grovellingly grateful, and not have the audacity to expect things like breaks. They own you, don't you know.

Here's just one very small example of the way companies behave now:

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/23/f...goals-unpaid-interns

Forgot to mention that the interviewer also "expects staff to stay behind and finish what they are working on without pay".

This was after she told me she had to get rid of two people recently due to sickness issues. Bollocks...they probably told her where she could stick her 'without pay' bit, tbh. I know I would.

That's not a new phenomenon, Abs.

It's good if you've decided you don't want the job when they're saying those things, because you can point out in a level tone with a straight face, that in return, you expect her to nip to your home and vacuum up and cook you a meal, while you're finishing your task at work. Cheeky bastards. Or just laugh and ask incredulously how she managed to snag her position when she's clearly prone to illogical thought patterns. .

Gilly wrote:
Not what you know...but who you blow, Gilly-bean. You really should trust me on that one.

I had a boss from Canada while I was working in Japan. He was okay at first but he began to obsess about getting people to work for no pay and squeezing his workforce even when it was obviously detrimental to the mid term health of the business.

He was big into self-help books and one in particular Rich Dad, Poor Dad was something he would quote to me and it made me nauseous and bored.

This squeeze is bad for business (high turnover of staff-cost of training-low moral and therefore quality etc) but it is motivated by an ideology that teaches that every failure to squeeze is money lost and that your success is measured by the gap between your salary and those of you subordinates.

mikey mikey wrote: Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

We've got it and they haven't?

wake_up_bomb wrote:
Actually the guy who wrote it is fairly crooked and has, like his co-author Donald Trump, filed for bankruptcy and dumped his debts on the public.

Ab Origine wrote:
Well generally speaking this is what people goto bloody work for innit, pay ffs lol..

Ab Origine wrote:
Always had an hour dinner. Occasionally I'd do 1/2 to get out early but usually I'd prefer a break & to go for a prowl.
Fuck anybody who says you are only allowed half.
I worked for Centrica for a bit doing menial data entry work. We had a break in the morning and one in the afternoon, as well as an hour lunch. They tried to take our breaks off us, citing that even though we worked with computers where the law states the break entitlement - we weren't permanently looking at our screens, so we weren't entitled to it any more. I kicked off & handed in my resignation straight away as did a few others..... so they changed their minds the crooked little fuckers.

andyh wrote:
As an employee I should've added

If she can't afford sick pay then she's better off contracting it out, she'll find they charge more though ofc

If more people stood up for themselves like that, SB, the work-place would be a much better environment. The problem is that there are too many people who are eager to toady up & agree to unreasonable demands, when they should all be saying, 'Get real!'. I've seen examples loads of times, and it bugs me.

Like a fortnight before the last royal wedding, our ops manager where I worked then called a meeting to inform people the bank holiday was discretionary for employers, and they weren't giving it. However, the management had decided they'd quite like to watch the wedding, so the building wouldn't be opening up that day - hence we couldn't come in, and would have to make the time up.

Even though everyone was mad about it, they all stood there mute and glassy eyed, which pissed me off. I didn't. I pointed out that if staff couldn't access the place during their contracted hours, the company would be legally obliged to pay them, and had no recourse to insist on the hours being made up. The manager actually smirked when I said that, and walked off without responding, because he knew I was right.

He sent a colleague round to ask everyone when they would be working the time back and compile a list of the commitments. When she came to me, my answer was, 'Never'. They didn't deduct any money from my wages, because they knew I'd take it further if the did. So when people where whinging to me about having to work the Saturday or extra hours in the evening to give the time back, I wasn't sympathetic. I just suggested they not do it - but they all did anyway.

Gilly wrote:
He probably read Rich Dad Poor Dad. He won't think any less of you btw. He obviously had no respect for his employees from the outset.

btw
Gilly wrote:
That's just it. They have trained people to think that they should be grateful to have a job, and not that the employer should be equally grateful to have somebody supply them with their labour and time.

This song sums it up nicely........




More lyrics: www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/donovan/

Gilly wrote:


You, miss, are a super-star.

Ab Origine wrote:
She sounds like a commie agitator to me. I nominate Comrade Gilly to fill the vacant position of SZ Marxist.

Whatever happened to the last one we had?

He's retraining as a salt miner comrade.


(OP: Some things never change eh?)
Here's an old Harvey Andrews song, - Unaccompanied.


The hooter wakes me up to face the day again
I wish that it would bloody go away again
Monday's bad and Tuesday's worse
Wednesday, Thursday - just a curse
But Friday's payday, fill the purse
And pray again

My wife she's growing round the waist, we're wild again
The priest gives thanks that we've been blessed with child again
After five I said, No more
I'd never touch her, that I swore
But the priest says that's what loving's for
Beguiled again

They moved us to this bloody block of flats again
Before we'd been here long we had the rats again
The kids play on a piece of scrub
We haven't even got a pub
But the priest has formed a social club
Rush mats again

They built a special factory for work again
Said, It's a great job for you, don't shirk again
I stand around and tighten screws
And dream about a glass of booze
Whichever way you turn you lose
A berk again

The car's packed up, I can't afford repairs again
But the company's paid dividends on shares again
The bloody telly's on the blink
And something's blocked the kitchen sink
But the boss's mistress earned her mink
Upstairs again

The thirties are a memory for Dad again
He tells me it can never be that bad again
But from Jarrow and from Clyde they come
With silent hearts and muffled drum
We want the cake and not the crumb
We're mad again

hugorune wrote:

At precisely 01.50 hours on the 20th of July 2013, he's amusing me (unwittingly unfortunatly for him) elsewhere on teh big interwebz


Seeing as you asked