please empty your brain below

I had a full lunch break yesterday, for the first time in ages. Even went up into town and ended up playing pinball on one of the machine in Afflecks Palace shopping arcade- it was great, I felt like I was skiving off school or something.... and then at night-time I actually had the energy to do something other than collapse in front of the telly- so it really does make a difference!

I always take a full lunch break and always leave on time. So there. Work to live, don't live to work.

I must adimt, I'm fairly lucky - I get overtime for any late starts/early finishes. An I get double time if I find myself working between 9pm and 3am.

Luchbreaks...well... Bit of a sticking point at the moment as we don't get them. Imagine a twelve hour shift without any food.

But we do get 'paid off' for missed mealbreaks, £7:20 on a twelve hour shift and it's tax-free to boot.

Not that the government is happy about that last little bit...

I always come back to the same thought on this one. If someone else had your job, someone with family responsibilities, for instance, then they wouldn't be able to expect from them what they do from you.

Therefore I see this as discrimination against a single person.

Plus, as someone once said to me when I tried to pack my own bags in a US supermarket where they employ packers, if you do a job that someone else should be doing, you are denying someone a job.

I took a nearly complete lunchbreak and left the office at 6pm. So, just 30\\% extra unpaid overtime today then.

I must try harder to get the hang of this.

I always used to feel guilty about leaving on time before I left for good.
Long hours syndrome sucks. There is a perverse sense of achievement - that's the evil thing about it. I blame Thatcher. [just for a change]. I think she once said, "Happiness is a ticked list" or summat.
Life is too short and "I wish I'd spent more time at the office", is no epitaph for anyone. You need minions DG! I'll have a word with the shop steward.

Adore my 'work' - it's everything I ever wanted. It's what I did before, but with a paycheque. So I actually get a bit upset when I've got to go, because I'm lost for what to do at weekends now, I get bored out of my mind.

Then there is something good about Temp work - I might only get paid the hours I work (can I afford a visit to the dentist? Will I be able to pay the rent this week if I'm ill?) but that means that come 4pm, I'm going home whether you like it or not. Or, if you want me to stay, you're going to pay for it. ahaha.

On the other hand, I only get £5.28p.h. doh.

This subject always confuses me. My 'contractual hours' are 35 a week, but I could count on the fingers of one hand when I have actually only done that many. But I don't really think of the extra as unpaid overtime, and neither do my colleagues. Why? Because we are paid pretty big salaries (not an hourly rate) and it is clear when you start that it ain't going to be nie to five. Sure, there are extremes (and I just left one place because of that), but I think it is a mistake to say that all hours worked over those 'minimum hours' are unpaid overtime, at least in my profession (law).











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