Working 9 to 5..?
 

If you work Mon - Fri full time normal office hours what are your official 'contracted' hours in Australia?

Reaching to the back dusty areas of the brain, I seem to only remember working 0830 - 1730 for full time roles, which now I think is a long day! Edinburgh seems to be 9-5 in general (speaking from experience of 15+ jobs over 13.5 years - mainly contract work).

There will be many who work over their contracted hours, however, interested to see what the average is?

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

8 - 4, sometimes 7 - 3

BB

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I do about 07:30 to 15:30 but sometimes I stay late for various reasons like picking my daughter up from ballet at 18:30 or covering for my colleague if he is at college.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I stroll in around 9:15 and tend to work later, a bit of after hours and Saturday too it being IT and all.

My contract says 7.25 hours a day but nothing would get done if I did that ...

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

My contract says:

...there is no additional payment for those reasonable additional hours on the basis that it's factored into base salary I suppose.

It also says:

Realistically, in our Melbourne office at least, it's tumbleweed time pretty soon after 5PM. But many people are working quite a few hours in excess of 40 per week.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Sounds suspiciously similar to mine, the extra hours are explicitly factored into the contract but my boss is a good guy and doesn't mind us taking time off in lieu.

Hello if you are reading btw, really mean that. ;)

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

40 hours plus other hours as required.... gulp. Wish I was a tennis WAG

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

My hubby leaves the house at 6am, it's a 45 min drive to the city and gets home at 6.45pm, Mon to Fri.

He's a contractor. Current position he is in, they'd have him in at 5 and not leaving till 8 every night, with no extra pay.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

What a way to make a living..


Well someone had to do it. :D

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

:D:thumbsup:

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

everyone will be singing it all day now! (if their working hours allow) :p

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

ouch, long day :( hope he's able to stay a contractor for longer, paying by the hour is definitely the way forward

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Well he has no intention on going permie just yet! Money is much better contracting, but you have to save for holidays!

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I start at 7:15 and finish at 3:45 but get paid for 7 hours, 36 min per day. Once every 4 weeks the banked 24 minutes a day = a day off with pay. If I do any time over my regular hours I get either time in lieu or on weekends time & half on Saturday or double time on Sunday.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

good stuff, am in similar boat however the agency offers rate plus holiday on top and it accumulates so you can see what you've have but not touch it. Otherwise I would spend spend spend!

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

sounds like a good gig, esp the day off with pay ever 4 weeks :thumbsup:

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I'm a lowly civil servant ;)

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

as long as you (semi?) enjoy what you do (as opposed to hating it), have good hours, paid OT and a day off every 4 weeks life seems ok... hoping so!

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I do really enjoy my job. It's interesting, there are a great bunch of people I work with and my employers are really supportive of my wanting to learn new stuff. I'm really lucky.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

sounds like a dream, can't ask for more than that! what do you do exactly?

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I'm a medical secretary at Royal Perth Hospital. I work for he HOD and 3 other consultants as well as taking care of the junior doctors. We're getting a new professor next week - just in time for me to go on 5 weeks leave - so I'll be dumping 1 of my consultants when I get back so I can take on the Prof's work. I'm looking forward to working with him, as he's really into research.

My consultants are really varied in their work. 1 is an electrophysiologist (pacemakers and implantable devices and the electrical workings of the heart) and he others are interventionalists (angiogram/plasty, closure of "holes in hearts", etc). They're great teachers, and really encourage me to learn as much as I can from them.

It's really different to what I did before we came to Australia. Back home I was an ophthalmic technician working in private practice. Here I have very little patient contact and don't do anything even remotely medical. It's kind of nice to have a different kind of responsibility :) And seeing how my skills are not recognised here I guess doing something I knew how to do anyway was a good place to go. What do you do?

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I work international FIFO and also spend a chunk of the year in the Perth office. When on site i do 5 weeks on working from about 5:30am to 5:30 pm seven days a week followed by 3 weeks off. When based in Perth i do 8am to 4 or 5 pm

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I did 8-4 (more like 8-6) for a year recently, couldn't wait to get back to my "real" job. I can't cope with the regular hours thing, just doesn't suit me. So now I'm back on three 12 hour shifts a week, more sometimes when we have a disaster running, or when there is sick leave to cover. 24/7 shift pattern so all shifts are 6.30-18.30 or 18.30-6.30 and its just heavenly, especially if I get a whole run of night shifts. I really struggle to sleep at night so day shifts are agony, but put me on a few nights, when I can sleep through the nasty daylight period and I'm a happy old witch :thumbup:

Why anyone would prefer a standard 5 day week beats me - the way this works its not unusual to get a week off every 2 months without using up any actual leave at all. Admittedly when the world is ending and there's a Cat 5 cyclone heading for north Queensland things get a little fraught and the world outside the office ceases to exist for weeks at a time, but that's part of the "fun" :unsure:

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I vaguely recall 8.30 - 4.51 being the prescribed hours for my one time "proper" job but I doubt there ever was a week where only those hours were worked! After that in my "retirement" job a certain number of hours ow were specified but it was agreed that they could be worked at any time to meet the needs of the organisation and me with total flexibility (really lucky!)

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Dorothy sounds interesting. I did a short stint, nearly a year, of working as an EA to a Director of Haematology in a hospital in Perth. It was interesting but oh those words!!! I'm currently still an Executive Assistant plus a bit more responsible for work allocation of admin staff. Just a contract job but I do love a good exit door and that one is leading to Perth!

Quoll sounds brilliant role

MP I have done shift work before however being a control freak I and an EA I have to have structure and planning.... I know, sad!

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I do 930 to 5.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

My OH has 40 hours per week plus whatever hours extra he needs to get the job done. Last night he got home at 11pm, having left at 7.30 am. This is not unusual- he has to go in at weekends quite often, and sometimes take conference calls at 2am!!! That is one of the problems of working with an international company run by Americans.:thumbdown:

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Any job I have ever had that was worth a pinch generally involved doing whatever it took to do the job and I was payed from well to very well and mostly were well to high in the satisfaction stakes. , the ones where hours were regulated 9-5 etc (and I never had many of those) were often ordinary in job satisfaction--and pay.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Spot on

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Yes, but when the extra demands, (sometimes for overnight work at a weekend,) get in the way of family life, even though the pay is good, you do get a little fed up.

At least the office pays for a meal if he has to stay past 8pm, and a taxi home if it is past midnight.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I've had some hugely fulfilling roles, mainly working for charities/alumni in Universities, where hours were regulated. Guess it depends on what job satisfaction you're looking for.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

boo :-( I could never sustain this... love my sleep too much!

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

Not really - well, I would say it's more company specific, than based on any sort statement in a contract about hours.

The 40+ hours thing is common in certain industries...but it doesn't necessarily mean people are doing it all the time. The thing about a lot of those industries is they are often very flexible with work hours and in a lot of cases people can manage their own time to quite a large extent.

Without saying too much I can tell you that employee satisfaction is very high at my company, with a 40+ hour clause...and its recognised as one the best places to work in Australia.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

but taking 'whatever it does to do the job' equals burnout for many.... if whatever it takes means 60 hours + I just meant doing huge amount of hours to finish the job might mean satisfaction to some, where doing 35 and having a good work/life balance might mean satisfaction to others.

everyone is different eh, makes things interesting :)

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

SPOT ON.

I have never taken much notice of contracted hours.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I tend to get in between 7:30-8:00 and leave at 4-4:30pm pretty much every day. I'm often the first in (but not always) and sometimes the first to leave (but not always). Anyone in our building after 6pm is kicked out and getting in before 7:30 is a major pain in the arse with security.....

Contractually its a 38 hr week (7.6per day) - but nobody counts... I no longer do ANY work from home ever, but occasionally read an email and might respond if it seems appropriate.

I consider myself lucky not to be in a place where "40 hr week" really means 50+. My last job was, for 5 years, a 40 hours a week in the office and a good 20+ (unpaid and unrewarded overtime) from home - and I've promised myself I will NEVER do that again.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

I start my new job on Monday and am contracted for 38 hours per week.

I have to work 8 hours per day with half an hour unpaid for lunch which makes an eight and a half hour day. I can work 8-4.30, 8.30-5 or 9 -5.30.

As I am working 2 hours per week over my contracted hours, I get one rostered day off per month.

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

There is often balance, 40 hrs normally: occasionally more for project deliverables......

as long as I can manage my own time I am happy....

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

now that's one I can shout SPOT ON! to :p

Re: Working 9 to 5..?
 

well done :starsmile:

which one will you do, or a mixture thereof?