Work Question

[dolphins4life]

Let's say you have a fifteen minute break.  When do you start the fifteen minutes?  Is it when you tell your coworkers, "I'm going to break?"  Is it when you reach the break room?  Is it when you sit down in the break room?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Every place I have worked it was when you left your work station, so the first one. 

[ArtieChokePhin]

Breaks?   What are breaks?   Me and my wife don't get breaks in our lines of work.

[Fau Teixeira]

we don't have formalized break structure for programmers .. you get your work done and if you wanna take a break .. take a break . it could be 15 minutes .. it could be 4 hours .. as long as your shit is complete no-one's gonna care

[Dave Gray]

I'm like Fau.  I stop when I need it and I start when I'm refreshed again, within reason.  I put getting the work done above other things and don't pay attention to meeting time quotas.  That means sometimes working after hours or on the weekend or before work starts, but it also means not over-pushing when the workload is lighter, just because I'm on the clock.

It's a general mindset that makes me a more productive employee.  But it also makes me happy and not resentful.  Sometimes I'll have super-late projects that are almost overnight (it's rare, but it's happened) and I'm never upset about it because it's something I'm choosing.

[pondwater]

Been a year since I've worked, but my last job of 15 years I would start my 15 minute break when I reached the break room and end it when I left the break room. So total time would have been probably around 18-20 minutes total. But hell, they never really enforced it while I was there. Some people would disappear for 30-60 minutes and never had any repercussions. 

[Dave Gray]

If there's one thing from this pandemic that I hope we collectively learn, it's that work doesn't have to be an 8 hour in a row at an office thing.  There's no question that I way more productive in this current setup.  I never have a backlog of calls to make.

I used to come in every morning to a bunch of phone calls from around the end of the day before.  Now, I do them as they roll in, after hours....usually they're nothing, so they're handled quickly, while they would potentially turn into bullshit if left to simmer overnight.

It's just so much easier and more streamlined.  And clients really appreciate your candidness and availability.  I'll tell people "I don't work on Saturday, but if the phone rings and I'm next to it, i'll pick it up."  It's just better.

[Pappy13]

Let's say you have a fifteen minute break.  When do you start the fifteen minutes?  Is it when you tell your coworkers, "I'm going to break?"  Is it when you reach the break room?  Is it when you sit down in the break room?

I'm gonna assume you are coming from an hourly as opposed to salaried standpoint as salaried employees don't have strict break room guidelines generally speaking. All my hourly experience I punched a timeclock and the timeclock wasn't in the breakroom it was located near my work station so I would clock out, go to break and clock back in when I was done. I would say that should be the standard practice so I agree with Hoodie, generally speaking it starts when you leave the work area and ends when you return to the work area.

[Phishfan]

Hourly employees should not be clocking out for breaks unless it is a lunch break. The 15 minute breaks are mandated by law as still being on company time. When i was on a time clock I never worked anywhere that was strict about watching the time.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Hourly employees should not be clocking out for breaks unless it is a lunch break. The 15 minute breaks are mandated by law as still being on company time. When i was on a time clock I never worked anywhere that was strict about watching the time.

While 15 minutes breaks are paid breaks, I did have two different employers who required you to punch in and out for breaks.  With both they were paid breaks.  One was a long time ago with actual cards, in/out and lunch was punched on front, paid breaks on the back, if your breaks ran long you were warned, written up, fired, but not docked. The other was an electric time clock and you were punching in and out but you got 15 mins added to your pay. When we were short handed I often only took a 5 min break and got paid for 4:10 even though I was only there for 4 hours.

[Pappy13]

Hourly employees should not be clocking out for breaks unless it is a lunch break. The 15 minute breaks are mandated by law as still being on company time. When i was on a time clock I never worked anywhere that was strict about watching the time.

It was 30 years ago so maybe we only clocked in and out for lunch and not breaks hard to remember that long ago now.

[dolphins4life]

One time, I noticed my coworker was taking much longer breaks then allowed.  When she would go to break, I would time her on my phone.  Then, when she came back, and it was my turn, I would take the same amount of time she did.  One time, this happened, and when I came back she asked me, "Where have you been.  You were gone a long time and we were busy."

I replied, "I took the same amount of time you did," and showed her my phone.

She told my other coworker.  The other coworker cracked up.  She thought it was funny.   

[Sunstroke]

One time, I noticed my coworker was taking much longer breaks then allowed.  When she would go to break, I would time her on my phone.  Then, when she came back, and it was my turn, I would take the same amount of time she did.  One time, this happened, and when I came back she asked me, "Where have you been.  You were gone a long time and we were busy."

I replied, "I took the same amount of time you did," and showed her my phone.

She told my other coworker.  The other coworker cracked up.  She thought it was funny.   

Since this scenario appears to be designed so that others will say "yeah, that seems reasonable, lifer!"

...So, I'll switch it up and simply say that unless you are that employee's supervisor, timing her breaks seems pretty much like a dick move.

[dolphins4life]

Since this scenario appears to be designed so that others will say "yeah, that seems reasonable, lifer!"

...So, I'll switch it up and simply say that unless you are that employee's supervisor, timing her breaks seems pretty much like a dick move.

I thought it was rather clever of me. 

[dolphins4life]

Since this scenario appears to be designed so that others will say "yeah, that seems reasonable, lifer!"

...So, I'll switch it up and simply say that unless you are that employee's supervisor, timing her breaks seems pretty much like a dick move.

So fairness and equity at work makes me a dick?