The 9-5 workday is basically ingrained in our minds at this point. Sure, there are plenty of people who only work part-time, or people who work overtime , or people who do shift work or have a job with irregular work hours. But the majority of us are working eight hours a day, five days a week, starting at 9am.
But a lot of the times, you’re kind of wondering if it’s eight hours including a lunch break.
At some point in that eight-hour work day, you’re supposed to get a lunch break where you can eat and, you know, not do work.
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Legally, an employer can’t force you to work a full day without letting you eat at some point.
But lately, it feels like some employers are using tricks to get workers to work longer… without actually giving them a paid lunch.
This hasn’t gone over people’s heads, though.
In a TikTok by a user named Jess ( @genericjess420 ), she points out the fact that we’ve been told 9-5 for generations, and yet all of a sudden employers are getting people to work 8-5 instead.
“What do I need an hour lunch for… that’s not even my time I can’t do anything with it.”
Now that Jess mentions it, there does seem to be a trend of employers sneaking an extra, unpaid lunch hour in the middle of the workday.
It didn’t go unnoticed in the comment section, either.
One commenter wrote, “So basically it started as a 9-5 with a paid 30 minute lunch and then they decided they didn’t wanna pay lunch but wanted the full 8 hours sooo…8-5.”
Some people started pointing out how it feels like employers want more for less.
“It was 9-5 AND they paid for your lunch break & retirement— now it’s 8-5 with an unpaid lunch break and 401k. We have been robbed,” a user commented.
And of course, they try to use that unpaid time in other ways, too.
In a comment, a user wrote, “my favorite is the scheduling unpaid seminars and programming etc. during the lunch because… you’re already there anyways.”
I guess the 9-5 was more of a concept than a concrete “rule.”
As The Chicago Tribune wrote back in 2011, “while ‘9 to 5’ has never been a true national standard for a workday, those hours became a common understanding of a typical workday following the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.”
But it seems like our perception of the workday lunch break has changed over time.
How lunch breaks are viewed has changed, with many employees feeling pressured to catch up on tasks during a time that was intended to give them a chance to catch their breath and get some nutrition.
As some in the comments to Jess’ TikTok point out, it seems like the unpaid hour is an attempt to make sure workers get a break.
“I think it’s to make sure the worker can’t be exploited and gets a mandatory break but flawed in execution,” a commenter wrote.
Either way, it seems like most people hate that extra hour that they spend at work.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
