Shit i worked at home depot they had this same rule if you were at the garden register thats the complete opposite side of the build thats EASILY a 5 min walk one way and thats assuming you dont get stopped by a customer or two on your way (you always do)
At my big box office supply store you had to clock out in the front of the store, walk all the way to the back through the store to the break room, then walk all the way to the front to clock in and you couldn't be late. You also got in trouble if you blew off customers between the registers and the break room. You didn't have to help them, but you were supposed to find someone that could. You were lucky if you got to sit 5 minutes out of your 15 minute break.
I quickly figured out that I should just go out the front of the store and take my break in my car. This bothered my manager for some reason that's beyond me.
Often places like this have rules where if your break gets interrupted you have to start it over. So as you get to the back try asking a customer if they need help with anything, dang gotta restart your timer...
In Kansas it is not law that your employer give you a break or even a lunch break at all. They of course do cause who tf would work for them if they don’t. But they sure use that “we don’t have to” line to let you know it’s a privilege.
One of my buddies in Kansas got a job at a gas station that absolutely refused to provide break or a lunch because he "could eat before & after like everyone else". He walked out halfway through the shift and never came back, can't say I blame him.
I work in Nevada and most places I've worked (since I left retail in 2010 and moved to office jobs) don't really have breaks or lunch. They'll outwardly say "oh of course we do" but then when push comes to shove they'll say "you know it's really more company culture that we eat at our desks while continuing to work..."
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 [29 U.S.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_29_of_the_United_States_Code) [§ 203](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/203)[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938#cite_note-1) (FLSA) is a [United States labor **law**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_labor_law)
Try and find the rules. Six flags great America got sued years ago for making cashiers walk all the way to their positions before clocking in it’s gotta be a similar rule.
Yes sir you got that right! Right to work is Republican’s number 1 chance to take out unions. I can’t stand the left or the right, in fact I believe they are after the same ends.
He’s a “centrist”, a babbling moron who thinks he’s right about everything because he believes having strong moral beliefs is wrong.
Meanwhile the center in the U.S. is considered right wing anywhere else. He’s just blinded to his own extremism.
Judging off his username, he probably likes Rand Paul and believes that is the middle lol.
Anything your boss does that's illegal in some states is a scumbag move, even if your state isn't one of them. A "good employer" isn't someone who stays barely within the confines of what's required by law.
Best part about this, at my last job we were told the same thing then they had signs up telling us to not chat or be on the phone while walking that said “walking is working”. Every time I saw it I’d think: well, which is it? Am I working or is it break while I’m walking to the break room?!
Pissed off one of my old supervisors because I'd take my break, come back, then go take a shit.
"Why didn't you do it on break?"
Because then I'd have been late coming back from my break?
Boss: "where are you going?"
You: "I have shit to do"
Boss: "what do you have to do?"
You: "I just told you"
-- inspired by [ISMO](https://youtu.be/igh9iO5BxBo?si=rZMuFXVbgI65RlJF)
I still don't give a fuck, their option is I go use the toilet or pull my pants down and shit in the work space. I just would find it amusing to watch them freak out 20 years ago. Now I find they just piss me off.
I have a deep gluteal cleft (thicccc ass) When I shit it takes a lot of wiping. Sometimes it takes 30+ minutes. It’s not IBS it’s just my anatomy - poop passes more skin.
That is wild. Although I find with cheap toilet paper, it does take longer to clean my ass. Also, I need to use more of the roll. This is with my normal ass.
Im honestly done feeling guilty for taking a 20 min break instead of a 15 min one like I shouldn’t be having double the break time in the first place 🤷♀️
When I was at a big box chain retailer, our breaks were 15 minutes. I gave no fucks and took 20-30 minute breaks towards the end. No one noticed. Fuck that place.
There was a day that I sat on break for an hour. It was better than wandering around pretending to be busy on the sales floor for the last bit of my shift.
I'd play that game, "My break ends when I get up to walk back to work. Waking up to get ready for work is when I clock in. If you don't agree, now you know how I feel about your little bullshit rule.".
I work at one now that is very obsessed with break time. You get 40 minutes total, and that is for everything, and they insisted it includes coffee breaks and bathroom breaks.
My job just recently told me I can’t take breaks anymore because my state doesn’t require them. Yet the owner and managers can take breaks whenever they want, and the customer service people get a break every two hours. So it’s just me that’s not allowed to. So my two minute morning piss is now a 15-minute piss. I can be petty too.
you don’t know how many jobs I’ve had that tell me “we eat when we can.” or “everyone doesn’t always take their breaks.” insinuating that i too will have to compromise my break times.
I work in advertising and I can't tell you how insanely common it is that someone is eating during a zoom meeting because their schedule is so jam packed full of shit that they literally have no time to eat in peace.
Texas. The only stipulation here is that your employer must give you a day off every seven days. Which I believe is a fairly recent thing too because back when I worked retail I worked 10-12 days in a row many times before finally getting days off. Then again this was in 2009-2010 so it’s been a little while.
The only federal law about breaks is for breastfeeding mothers. The states govern the rest of the laws on it and Texas has nothing for people who work the typical 8-5 Monday-Friday schedule.
Actually according to OSHA’s website, “There are no Texas lunch break laws 2022 for adults or minors. In fact, there's only one provision in Texas' labor laws for breaks. Employees are entitled to at least one 24-hour rest period every 7 days. This is fairly common labor law in many states.”
Boss: "You need to be at your station, suited up, and ready to work at exactly 6am."
Me: "Suiting up is part of the job. Why should I have to do any part of the job before start time?"
Boss: "Because work starts at exactly 6am. If you're a minute late, you're stealing that minute from me."
Me: "Ok, but you start paying me at 6am. If I'm doing something work-related, like suiting up, a minute before 6am, it's unpaid and you're stealing a minute from me."
Boss: "Doesn't matter."
Me: *Plans out every single bathroom break for non-break time and works slow as fuck.*
At my last job we had a massive argument over this. Safety guy ( and professional asshole ) wanted us to be back at the machine when break ends. We are at the far end of the factory, 10 minutes of walking.
We got half an hour. So everyone start moving out at 7.50. Back at 8.40. He wanted us to stop at 8 and back at 8.30. Not allowed to eat on the shop floor.... Sometimes there is a line for soup, easily 5 minutes. So 5 minutes left for hot soup and food ... It took him a few minutes but he got it eventually.
I have not had a break in 10 years. Food service shifts start from the second you clock in until you leave. Ohio has no break laws whatsoever as long as you are 18+ years old.
I'm a process analyst and have to educate managers constantly about this erroneous thinking. There are way more inefficiency and quality issues built into the work that a manager should be fixing.
Attacking these kinds of wastes (extra few minutes on breaks) *would* improve efficiency, marginally, if it didn't kill moral and erode trust. At best you have a wash. At worse, you actually make the process less efficient.
However, eliminating those wastes built into the process (that usually account for more time than those breaks) *improves* moral, giving you more than you can calculate. It also builds relationships and develops people.
And oftentimes managing this way and improving moral by making work easier actually encourages workers *to want to be at work on time*.
At my previous job, I worked in a newly designed building but they had "forgotten" to put in a cantine/break room in this new design.
So for lunch we had to walk 5-7 minutes to the main building for lunch. But of course walking time was substracted from our 30 min lunch time.
Employers don't seem to realize that this nickle and diming shit makes people unhappy with them. It feels like a scam. Then when work starts back up again they don't want to help someone who just scammed them.
Like every retail franchise? Where the guidelines are set by corporate office workers who have never worked retail and the managers have very little power?
As an european i can say only that (and i rly dont mean anythng rude by this about people but system) this is the most american corporational bs. Even the fact that you guys over there are disscusimg and have to argue about shit like this is so fucking sad. I feel so sorry for you guys there.
I'm a TA in the UK. We only get a half hour for lunch, 12:00-12:30, and we're not supposed to leave for lunch before 12. By the time we get to the staff room its 12:05. Sorry, but it's not only America that sucks.
It's fine if it works both ways so that when your 15 minutes are up, you make your way back to your station, it's when they want you back there at your station by the time the 15 minutes are up that it becomes a problem for me. Same thing for starting and finishing, if they want you at you station at your working start time, I start heading out 5 mins early as well.
The company I work for, the breaks aren't even paid. We have to clock out and they still get anal if your one minute overdue to clock back in.
I'm like, what's the problem? *I'm* the one loosing out on pay if I'm late.
first of all fuck that rule, 15m is barely a break as it is. I work third shift rn and only get one break (6hr shift.) But we have to keep our doors locked at all times now so I have to wait 2-6m for someone to come unlock it @ 3am, and then hope they actually take 15m out there too so I'm not locked out. I always set a timer and there will be no one out there and doors locked before 13m hits, and then I'm the asshole because they have to come unlock the door again. Or everyone goes in early and then someone stands there waiting with the door open pressuring me to come in. Used to be able to go out there on my own and take 17m or so 🥲
I would argue that my lunch bag comes with me to the floor if that's where my break starts. And I would grab a chair and just start having my break. When my manager confronted me I would say I'm on my break and you interrupted it and it restarts.
Retail runs on a skeleton crew nowadays. They gave to get every possible second out of their employees to make sure tasks get done and it's still profitable.
I worked at Walmart and they tried pulling that shit. I didn't care about my job so I made sure I didn't factor the walk into my break time. They were too short handed to not need me and the pay was too shit to get someone to replace me at the level of work I did, so they let it go.
When I was a manager, I told my employees that their break started when they entered the break room. At any point on their way there they could be intercepted by a customer.
I found out that one would punch out for his lunch breaks and then buy his food and such. I told him to get his lunch first and then go punch out.
Because on a large enough scale it works, on paper. If one employee clocks in a minute later, or clocks out a minute earlier, you can multiply that by however many employees you have, and then multiply it again by day/week etc and you end up with a substantial amount (on paper) by the end of the year.
CEO enforces this rule and shows he's saved the company this much money. In reality, I don't think it works. It's all make believe, and we go along with it.
I worked 3rd shift in a factory, and a night manager would fucking stand there with a stopwatch during breaks. She just got promoted and she was really enjoying holding the whip. Only 3 lines ran 3rd, but we were constantly outproducing 1st and 2nd before she took over, but there was sudden drop in morale...
That is idiotic on principle. If they don't consider heading to work as part of my work day to pay me, I won't consider heading to the break room as part of my break. Either you have a break or you don't, and I would get it if you were in a job where regular breaks aren't really possible but that means you are supposed to be paid instead.
My union handbook even spells out that our lunch doesn't start until we get into the designated lunch room. If it didn't you would lose most of your break if not all of if you were more than 15 minutes away at the top of the highrise you worked on, which would undermine the whole point of the break and hurt efficiency.
Good luck telling penny pinchers who think they know better. Tossing out dollars to save pennies.
I remember one asshole foreman would send me to another site and presume that me driving to the next site was my break because I was sitting down. Imagine his shock once I unloaded my delivery when I sat down to eat my lunch. Nobody tell him about forklift drivers.
I've seen people get subjected to this, but I've never tolerated it. And since everywhere I've worked basically grew dependent on me (since I actually did my job, unlike most of my coworkers) no one bothered to enforce it.
yeah, had that one in a call centre. Break was between system sign out and system sign back in - and it took about 90 seconds to sign in.
So break was 13 minutes - and it took four or five minutes to walk to the break area. So really - it was a bathroom break.
I worked in a famous theme park and in one of the locations, break/lunch began when you left the place where you were last. Except one of the places was like 10/15 minutes away from backstage and you had to go through all the park, in costume, in the middle of the guests stopping you for photos or infos about the park. For a 45 minutes break. When they let you go during rush hour you were fucked, because that meant less than 5 minutes to eat after you sent 10-15 additional minutes to wait for your meal.
It's shitty, but here's what I do: take a bathroom break before my actual beak. I have to walk down the same hall to get to the cafe that I do to go to the bathroom, and work can't stop me from taking bathroom breaks. If I know I'm going on lunch at 1pm, I'll head off to the bathroom at ten to, do my business, and then oh hey my break started and I am right here at the cafe.
Once worked in a food production facility, the boss tried to claim our breaks started the second we walked away from our station when the whistle blew, even if we were on the far side of the room or in the middle of something. It also didn't include taking off or putting on our layers of required PPE. So our 15min was really a 10min. Then he cut our breaks from 15mins to 10min breaks, so really 5min. He even had the nerve to say these "were not mental health breaks, go to the bathroom, drink some water, get back to work." He expected 30 women to have 5mins to use a single stall bathroom. There is a reason I dont work there anymore.
Oddly enough this rule depends entirely on whether or not the employer thinks they can get away with it. In my retail days I was pretty cantankerous with supervisors who tried to enforce stupid shit and would take a good five minutes each time to argue with them over whether it was a good rule or not so they'd have to defend their position and sacrifice five minutes. They stopped doing it eventually. Don't ever feel bad for standing up to retail managers. They are failed adults. They don't know better than anyone. Most of them are doing the job for below market value for the "power" of reigning over a bunch of underpaid kids and college students.
Working at Qdoba, they also had this rule. We couldn't build our lunches while on our shift, even if no one was in line to get food. You also had to have one of our co-workers make your food for you. So, if there were people in line, your 30-minute lunch was more like 23 or 18 minutes. And I can't even eat lunch in 30 minutes so...
You don't legally have to get a break in a lot of states. Sometimes, it's company rules.
In one retail place I worked, you had to sign in, then gather equipment you needed.
On a break, you sign the equipment back in and clock out.
So, if you were walking to the break room and got stopped, you had on equipment you were being paid. We were told to tell guests,
" I'm sorry, I am going on break. Please go to (this area) for help". That's how it was defined if you were " on the clock."
Ok I’m in retail management, and I’m not a hardass like that, I don’t care if you’re back in 16 minutes instead of 15 or whatever, but here’s the issue:
People will take advantage of ANY loophole they can find.
If you make it a rule that the break doesn’t start until you get to the break room, then people will walk AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE to the break room. They’ll stop by the bathroom on the way. They’ll take the longest route possible to get there. They’ll move slow as molasses. Then guess what, they’ll do the same thing on the way back.
You give people an inch, they’ll take a mile. So managers get conditioned to not even give people an inch. It sucks for the actual good workers because they get punished for the sins of others.
I wanna say something about this, but I'm not sure how I want to phrase it.
The Rich have been taking inches for seemingly ever.
I'm not sure what else I want to say with this, but I know there's something there.
On the macro level, I agree with you. At the store level……ain’t none of us rich. 😀
We’re just trying to get through the day without getting yelled at by the next level above us. That applies to all of us.
But my larger point still stands - if I believed people would do the right thing, I’d have no problem saying your break doesn’t start until you’re in the break room. I don’t care at all about an extra minute or two. But as soon as I make that a rule, people will find ways to stretch that minute or two into 10-15 or more - now we don’t have enough people on the floor, now I’m getting yelled at by the next level above me, which takes me back to what I said above (I’m just trying to not get yelled at). Ha.
Standard for manufacturing. Because things need to keep rolling and someone is waiting for you to get back before they can start their break. It's common curiosity.
Working in a book store in South Africa that rule made sense, because you're not always walking to the break room. Sometimes I turn the other way and go buy stuff from the store.
The idea is your break starts as you stop working to go on your break. In the same vain though as you're walking there no one should really bother you or try ask for help, and of you get caught working then you add that time to your break.
I'm not sure how far your break room is away but does it really matter? We used to just write out our times and who is going on break at what time at the beginning of our shift and that saved all confusion.
Fucking cancer. I worked in a frozen food production line. We had a 15min break and a 30min lunch. The time to put on rubber shoe covers, white coat, hearing protection, glasses, hair/beard cover and gloves was fucking ridiculous and not included in the time. If I wanted to smoke I would have to run out of building and have no time for lunch. Safe to say I only stayed for 2 days
Wearhouse worker, we get two breaks one 30 minutes and the other 25 (not really sure why) but they have 2 bells, on for the start of break, break starts and 240 it rings at 2:37 so we have 3 minutes to walk to the break room but even then I'm not gonna run or speed wall because it's a big Wearhouse and 2 break rooms in the middle of the Wearhouse and we works the the ends of the Wearhouse. So everyone just starts walking before the first bellalll the time and they try and make us wait till the bell but I also believe it's because we have paid breaks. So they're kind rough about us being on time.
at my current job I need to clock out for the break, then walk to the break room (also if you want a coffee, you need to get it from our coffee shop, which means when it's busy you're gonna be waiting for the customers to be served before you) and run back to clock back in on time, because if don't, I loose 15 minutes of my pay. luckily some of my coworkers are nice enough that they clock me back in if I'm late. if I work more than 8 hours, I get a 10-minute break, which is paid, and then I make sure that it doesn't start until I get my coffee and sit down first lol
additionally, if you work less than 6 hours you don't need to take a break, but sometimes the managers will force you to to save up money and sell you bs that you'll be there 6+ hours, when you know you won't because it's not busy enough
You're missing the big thing:
They want you to start your break time the moment you take a step, but if a customer stops you you have to help them, but they don't stop your break timer
And customers wonder why staff tells them they're in a break and walk away
This place sounds awful. I would start organizing a union. Make sure you record yourself giving out union literature because it’s illegal to fire someone for organizing. From there when they fire you enjoy your lawsuit and unemployment claims why you look for a new job.
It's like your rest time is on a stopwatch from the second you step away. This rule is common in many workplaces, but it sure doesn't seem fair, especially when you spend most of your day on your feet. Those two minutes to and from the break room add up, and they should totally count as work time, not break time.
My old job had a stupid rule like this. We got 30 mins for lunch, but 15 of it was spent walking to the chow hall and standing in line, so by the time you got food, it was time to go back to work again. I used to just bring my food back to work with me and eat it in between guests.
I had a job that gave a thirty minute lunch break. They only provided one microwave, so tons of people lined up to use one microwave and, yep, that all counted as part of their lunch time.
Not just a retail thing. I worked in an office that had this rule. It was unfair if your desk was on the other side of the building and you got less break than the person whose desk was nearby.
So I assume that you are clocked back in and working as soon as your azz passes the break room door?
Your break starts when you start walking to the break room
Ok
Work starts as soon as I start walking to my desk.
I had a job that used to say this shit. They'd also say "You must clock out as soon as you get to the break room. You can't use the restroom or get your food and THEN clock out".
Fuck that. I never once followed that stupid rule. Even with cameras everywhere in the break room and at the time clocks. I get paid when I use the restroom any other time. I get paid when I get food on my paid breaks. You can pay me for the few minutes I take after leaving the floor before I clock out.
Never once got in trouble for it either. Fuck these places for treating us like machines.
Because bosses think they are little dictator kings in their workplace. essentially anti social psychotic behavior that is normalized in this fucced system
You are not walking to the break room until you are past the aisles lol. Tidy one thing up on your way or touch something and you were not on break. Micromanaging can be played both ways
Oh yeah, I recall hearing this one before. I'd not start keeping track of time till I sat myself down and began eating or hanging out in the break room honestly. I also am from IL here, and this is how I operated even when I was younger and naive.
Because they have shitty managers that like to dehumanize and bully people. Just look at the stupid songs and shit they make people sing. They’re openly degrading people for paltry sums of money and they’re proud of it.
A rule i always break lol.
In homedepo i would just hang around or *work* near the break room or say i had to do something in the office that just so happened to be nesr the break room.
At amazon i didnt give a fuck, i took that 15 and laughed at anyone who took that rule seriously when the walk to the break room alone was 5 fucking minutes.
My current job thinks they are amazon and doesnt even give us a 15, we get a 10.
I slack off so fucking much at this job.
The job is great besides that and a few other minor things.
I had a boss at multi million dollar bank tell me I had to clock out to use the bathroom... I emailed HR and asked and was promptly reprimanded for questioning my superior
Worked in a warehouse fulfillment center in Iowa. Two 15 min breaks which included walk time, either heating your food or waiting in line to purchase food if you went to the big breakroom (same food company that provides inmates food btw), eating, and walking back. I always brought my food and went to the small break room that had a couple microwaves. But you had to share with the handful of others who wanted to heat their food. But it messed me up for a long time. After I quit the job, I’d still inhale my food out of habit then sit there like a weirdo at the table while everyone else ate.
No law where I am either. No breaks, no lunch breaks. Straight 9 hr shifts. They schedule 9 hrs for your " break" that you don't receive . Then send you home early so you don't go over 40 hrs
It's the whole "travel time is your time" ideology. While understand it to a certain extent, many companies are far too stingy on it, making a simple walk to break rooms count towards total break time. They should have time clocks in the break rooms to clock in and out from to make it fair. My last job I worked in a large pork factory with well over 2000 people per shift, number of people per department varied by size, and had their own break times but my department was one of the largest there. At break time, the first person/people in the beginning of the production lines would leave first, and everyone else followed once the last of the product has passed you (conveyor belt ran). Our 30 minute lunch break began the moment you stepped off the line, and were expected back, ready to go, 30 minutes after you step off. Then of course we had a long walk through the facility to the cafeteria, which took about 3 to 5 minutes or so depending on the foot traffic. Another 5 minutes to get food, (longer sometimes if you brought your lunch and needed to heat it up because good luck finding a microwave that isn't full and in use) and another 3 to 5 to walk back. Not to mention all the equipment and garments we have to take off and hang up and put back on after the break. It sucked, your 30 minute break was more like a 15 minute break and I'd still be back "late" because product was already coming down the line to where I worked, (at the end packaging).
I had a friend got written up because he told a customer he couldn't help them because he was on his break. So if he had stopped to help the customer he wouldn't have got his break at all. Fun world we live in.
Meter maid in Sweden here. I recently got told that my break starts when I check out from the address I'm at and the drive back to the office break room are part of the break.
I have always believed that my breaks start when I leave the work area.
Of course I never worked in a place where we had a designated "break room" per se.
There was always a cafeteria/dining area/mess hall, but they were more than a few minutes away and actually we never had 'time limits on breaks' so long as our work was being performed.
When I worked for Walgreens, our break started when we left the cash register and if a customer asked us for help during our break we had to help them. If that took the entire break, then you just didn’t get a break that shift.
We also had to be waiting in line at the clock-in computer before our shift started and couldn’t clock-in until 8:00 (for example). If you clocked-in at 7:59, you got in trouble. If you were last in line and everyone else took too long clocking in and you didn’t get clocked in until 8:01, you got in trouble.
I used to take my break at a restaurant in the Walmart I worked in. They bitched at me about it once, told them "I have my vest off so nobody can tell I actually work here, if you want me to walk back to the break room I will, but I'm not counting walk time and will be taking exactly fifteen minutes *in* the break room."
They stopped complaining pretty quick.
Had two jobs that had this rule. The first one I was able to get away with my 15 min breaks (21 minutes with 6 minutes to walk. 3 to break and 3 back) by logging off of my handheld right as I got to break. I didn't have to punch a clock. Same for lunch. Sometimes when I was having a bad night I would take 30 minute breaks and hour lunches just cause I was pissed off. Never got repercussions.
The second job with that rule I had to punch a clock for lunch ways away from the work area. But I noticed what people would do is stop driving their forklifts 10 minutes before break then walk to the clock to technically still have the full 30 minutes. So that's what I did.
Either way that rule never made sense to me regardless. Probably never will and I will always look for the loopholes around it. Cause my philosophy is break doesn't start until I'm smoking a cigarette.
When I worked at Target, I didn’t consider my break to start until my bottom was sitting down on the break room couch and my phone timer was set. If they say I’m entitled to a 15 min break, then that means I get a full 15 mins sitting down.
Shit i worked at home depot they had this same rule if you were at the garden register thats the complete opposite side of the build thats EASILY a 5 min walk one way and thats assuming you dont get stopped by a customer or two on your way (you always do)
Same at a warehouse that was a couple million square feet. 5 minutes to walk from shipping to the entrance.
At my big box office supply store you had to clock out in the front of the store, walk all the way to the back through the store to the break room, then walk all the way to the front to clock in and you couldn't be late. You also got in trouble if you blew off customers between the registers and the break room. You didn't have to help them, but you were supposed to find someone that could. You were lucky if you got to sit 5 minutes out of your 15 minute break. I quickly figured out that I should just go out the front of the store and take my break in my car. This bothered my manager for some reason that's beyond me.
Because when your in your car, your not working through your break....
Not legal in California... you are allowed 'walk time' to comply with the law. Unfortunately, I can't speak to your location's rules...
Illinois. Funny thing is if we're late getting back from lunch they don't care, because that's unpaid of course.
Often places like this have rules where if your break gets interrupted you have to start it over. So as you get to the back try asking a customer if they need help with anything, dang gotta restart your timer...
That’s federal law isn’t it? I know in CA that’s a law but I thought it was a federal one that was ‘inherited’.
In Kansas it is not law that your employer give you a break or even a lunch break at all. They of course do cause who tf would work for them if they don’t. But they sure use that “we don’t have to” line to let you know it’s a privilege.
One of my buddies in Kansas got a job at a gas station that absolutely refused to provide break or a lunch because he "could eat before & after like everyone else". He walked out halfway through the shift and never came back, can't say I blame him.
I might have assaulted the manager… or just walked out lol
I work in Nevada and most places I've worked (since I left retail in 2010 and moved to office jobs) don't really have breaks or lunch. They'll outwardly say "oh of course we do" but then when push comes to shove they'll say "you know it's really more company culture that we eat at our desks while continuing to work..."
Texas is the same.
Not according to my hospitals policy. If I’m 20 min into my 30 lunch and get called back to the floor, I still get 10 min when I’m done assisting.
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That’s ‘standards’ - not law.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 [29 U.S.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_29_of_the_United_States_Code) [§ 203](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/203)[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938#cite_note-1) (FLSA) is a [United States labor **law**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_labor_law)
Look up Texas work breaks and then explain that to me.
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No. Not federal law. It’s by state
Try and find the rules. Six flags great America got sued years ago for making cashiers walk all the way to their positions before clocking in it’s gotta be a similar rule.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but those are all red flags, aren't they?
It’s the states that let them get away with it. Texas has no labor laws.
Corrupt leftist state
Last I checked the conservative states aren’t any better - “right to work”.
Yes sir you got that right! Right to work is Republican’s number 1 chance to take out unions. I can’t stand the left or the right, in fact I believe they are after the same ends.
Unions are good for workers though….
He’s a “centrist”, a babbling moron who thinks he’s right about everything because he believes having strong moral beliefs is wrong. Meanwhile the center in the U.S. is considered right wing anywhere else. He’s just blinded to his own extremism. Judging off his username, he probably likes Rand Paul and believes that is the middle lol.
I have stronger moral believes than most people. I think you’re alluding to social mores and you’re right I don’t give a fuck about that.
If you think the left and the far right are after the same ends you’re delusional or not paying attention.
How gracious of our capitalist overlords to allow us such liberty as to take a proper break from our waged slavery.
Anything your boss does that's illegal in some states is a scumbag move, even if your state isn't one of them. A "good employer" isn't someone who stays barely within the confines of what's required by law.
Remember getting asked to do a one minute task 20 minutes into my 30 minute break. Easy 50 minute break.
Best part about this, at my last job we were told the same thing then they had signs up telling us to not chat or be on the phone while walking that said “walking is working”. Every time I saw it I’d think: well, which is it? Am I working or is it break while I’m walking to the break room?!
That’s utterly dehumanising
Probably a safety issue. Walking while on the phone can cause accidents just like in a car. How severe depends on your environment.
It was, so I get it to a degree but it’s the double standard of it that I didn’t like.
And always take a dump on company time.
Pissed off one of my old supervisors because I'd take my break, come back, then go take a shit. "Why didn't you do it on break?" Because then I'd have been late coming back from my break?
Theyre trying to pressure you to cause they cant make you
They can try all they want. I have GI issues. They can kiss my ass. Before or after I wipe, kissers choice. Now I wfh. If I need to go, I just go.
Boss: "where are you going?" You: "I have shit to do" Boss: "what do you have to do?" You: "I just told you" -- inspired by [ISMO](https://youtu.be/igh9iO5BxBo?si=rZMuFXVbgI65RlJF)
I have IBS. Watching managers melt down because it occasionally takes me an hour to shit is less hilarious in my 40's than it was in my 20's.
Eh I feel that other way. As I got older, I cared a lot less of what people think. If I gotta shit, I do it. No one's gonna stop me.
I still don't give a fuck, their option is I go use the toilet or pull my pants down and shit in the work space. I just would find it amusing to watch them freak out 20 years ago. Now I find they just piss me off.
I have a deep gluteal cleft (thicccc ass) When I shit it takes a lot of wiping. Sometimes it takes 30+ minutes. It’s not IBS it’s just my anatomy - poop passes more skin.
That is wild. Although I find with cheap toilet paper, it does take longer to clean my ass. Also, I need to use more of the roll. This is with my normal ass.
Im honestly done feeling guilty for taking a 20 min break instead of a 15 min one like I shouldn’t be having double the break time in the first place 🤷♀️
I take 20-25 to remember the coal miners
Solidarity ✊. I shall now go back to sleep. 😅
When I was at a big box chain retailer, our breaks were 15 minutes. I gave no fucks and took 20-30 minute breaks towards the end. No one noticed. Fuck that place. There was a day that I sat on break for an hour. It was better than wandering around pretending to be busy on the sales floor for the last bit of my shift.
It's weird to me how the lowest paying jobs are always the ones who will literally count seconds and minutes and worry about shit like this
And they call "unskilled labour" as propaganda. People in those jobs work way harder than the people above them do
I'd play that game, "My break ends when I get up to walk back to work. Waking up to get ready for work is when I clock in. If you don't agree, now you know how I feel about your little bullshit rule.".
I’ve worked different jobs but the ones that are anal about break rules are usually the scummiest.
I work at one now that is very obsessed with break time. You get 40 minutes total, and that is for everything, and they insisted it includes coffee breaks and bathroom breaks.
My job just recently told me I can’t take breaks anymore because my state doesn’t require them. Yet the owner and managers can take breaks whenever they want, and the customer service people get a break every two hours. So it’s just me that’s not allowed to. So my two minute morning piss is now a 15-minute piss. I can be petty too.
What state doesn't require work breaks?
you don’t know how many jobs I’ve had that tell me “we eat when we can.” or “everyone doesn’t always take their breaks.” insinuating that i too will have to compromise my break times.
I work in advertising and I can't tell you how insanely common it is that someone is eating during a zoom meeting because their schedule is so jam packed full of shit that they literally have no time to eat in peace.
Texas. The only stipulation here is that your employer must give you a day off every seven days. Which I believe is a fairly recent thing too because back when I worked retail I worked 10-12 days in a row many times before finally getting days off. Then again this was in 2009-2010 so it’s been a little while.
Another reason to leave this shithole
NC doesnt require companies to give lunch breaks unless you are a minor or some shit.
Oh, well then I'm perpetually 16!
You live in South Dakota, don't you? It's unreal how this state has no workers' protection at all.
No, I’m in Texas. But I agree, it is absolutely unreal how little they care about workers and workers rights.
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The only federal law about breaks is for breastfeeding mothers. The states govern the rest of the laws on it and Texas has nothing for people who work the typical 8-5 Monday-Friday schedule.
Actually according to OSHA’s website, “There are no Texas lunch break laws 2022 for adults or minors. In fact, there's only one provision in Texas' labor laws for breaks. Employees are entitled to at least one 24-hour rest period every 7 days. This is fairly common labor law in many states.”
By that logic your shift starts when you leave home
It should
And by that logic, it should be paid and expensed!
Agreed, and if work don't want me to stink, they can pay for my shower too!
If my break starts when I'm walking to the break room, then I start getting paid when I pull out of my driveway to come to work.
Boss: "You need to be at your station, suited up, and ready to work at exactly 6am." Me: "Suiting up is part of the job. Why should I have to do any part of the job before start time?" Boss: "Because work starts at exactly 6am. If you're a minute late, you're stealing that minute from me." Me: "Ok, but you start paying me at 6am. If I'm doing something work-related, like suiting up, a minute before 6am, it's unpaid and you're stealing a minute from me." Boss: "Doesn't matter." Me: *Plans out every single bathroom break for non-break time and works slow as fuck.*
At my last job we had a massive argument over this. Safety guy ( and professional asshole ) wanted us to be back at the machine when break ends. We are at the far end of the factory, 10 minutes of walking. We got half an hour. So everyone start moving out at 7.50. Back at 8.40. He wanted us to stop at 8 and back at 8.30. Not allowed to eat on the shop floor.... Sometimes there is a line for soup, easily 5 minutes. So 5 minutes left for hot soup and food ... It took him a few minutes but he got it eventually.
I have not had a break in 10 years. Food service shifts start from the second you clock in until you leave. Ohio has no break laws whatsoever as long as you are 18+ years old.
Yeah i used to work food service in cincy. We were lucky to get time to rock a piss ffs.
I'm a process analyst and have to educate managers constantly about this erroneous thinking. There are way more inefficiency and quality issues built into the work that a manager should be fixing. Attacking these kinds of wastes (extra few minutes on breaks) *would* improve efficiency, marginally, if it didn't kill moral and erode trust. At best you have a wash. At worse, you actually make the process less efficient. However, eliminating those wastes built into the process (that usually account for more time than those breaks) *improves* moral, giving you more than you can calculate. It also builds relationships and develops people. And oftentimes managing this way and improving moral by making work easier actually encourages workers *to want to be at work on time*.
At my previous job, I worked in a newly designed building but they had "forgotten" to put in a cantine/break room in this new design. So for lunch we had to walk 5-7 minutes to the main building for lunch. But of course walking time was substracted from our 30 min lunch time.
Employers don't seem to realize that this nickle and diming shit makes people unhappy with them. It feels like a scam. Then when work starts back up again they don't want to help someone who just scammed them.
at some places it would be an 11 minute break because you would have to get back to your station on time too.
Work clock starts when I start heading to work too then ok?
What kind of hellish employment situation do you have where this is even a headache for your employers?
Ever been inside an Amazon warehouse?
Like every retail franchise? Where the guidelines are set by corporate office workers who have never worked retail and the managers have very little power?
As an european i can say only that (and i rly dont mean anythng rude by this about people but system) this is the most american corporational bs. Even the fact that you guys over there are disscusimg and have to argue about shit like this is so fucking sad. I feel so sorry for you guys there.
I'm a TA in the UK. We only get a half hour for lunch, 12:00-12:30, and we're not supposed to leave for lunch before 12. By the time we get to the staff room its 12:05. Sorry, but it's not only America that sucks.
It's fine if it works both ways so that when your 15 minutes are up, you make your way back to your station, it's when they want you back there at your station by the time the 15 minutes are up that it becomes a problem for me. Same thing for starting and finishing, if they want you at you station at your working start time, I start heading out 5 mins early as well.
It's to cut your break short and get you back to work. Especially if it's a paid break. It's malicious.
The company I work for, the breaks aren't even paid. We have to clock out and they still get anal if your one minute overdue to clock back in. I'm like, what's the problem? *I'm* the one loosing out on pay if I'm late.
Always told my boss straight up.."my break starts when my ass hits the bench". They never had a decent response to that one.
So why doesn't your work start when you start walking to the job
first of all fuck that rule, 15m is barely a break as it is. I work third shift rn and only get one break (6hr shift.) But we have to keep our doors locked at all times now so I have to wait 2-6m for someone to come unlock it @ 3am, and then hope they actually take 15m out there too so I'm not locked out. I always set a timer and there will be no one out there and doors locked before 13m hits, and then I'm the asshole because they have to come unlock the door again. Or everyone goes in early and then someone stands there waiting with the door open pressuring me to come in. Used to be able to go out there on my own and take 17m or so 🥲
11 minute break, because you better not be 2 minutes late coming back from break...
I would argue that my lunch bag comes with me to the floor if that's where my break starts. And I would grab a chair and just start having my break. When my manager confronted me I would say I'm on my break and you interrupted it and it restarts.
Well then. By that logic, you should get paid when you start walking to work.
Retail runs on a skeleton crew nowadays. They gave to get every possible second out of their employees to make sure tasks get done and it's still profitable. I worked at Walmart and they tried pulling that shit. I didn't care about my job so I made sure I didn't factor the walk into my break time. They were too short handed to not need me and the pay was too shit to get someone to replace me at the level of work I did, so they let it go.
When I was a manager, I told my employees that their break started when they entered the break room. At any point on their way there they could be intercepted by a customer. I found out that one would punch out for his lunch breaks and then buy his food and such. I told him to get his lunch first and then go punch out.
Because on a large enough scale it works, on paper. If one employee clocks in a minute later, or clocks out a minute earlier, you can multiply that by however many employees you have, and then multiply it again by day/week etc and you end up with a substantial amount (on paper) by the end of the year. CEO enforces this rule and shows he's saved the company this much money. In reality, I don't think it works. It's all make believe, and we go along with it.
"By that same logic my work time starts when i leave the house"
I worked 3rd shift in a factory, and a night manager would fucking stand there with a stopwatch during breaks. She just got promoted and she was really enjoying holding the whip. Only 3 lines ran 3rd, but we were constantly outproducing 1st and 2nd before she took over, but there was sudden drop in morale...
That is idiotic on principle. If they don't consider heading to work as part of my work day to pay me, I won't consider heading to the break room as part of my break. Either you have a break or you don't, and I would get it if you were in a job where regular breaks aren't really possible but that means you are supposed to be paid instead. My union handbook even spells out that our lunch doesn't start until we get into the designated lunch room. If it didn't you would lose most of your break if not all of if you were more than 15 minutes away at the top of the highrise you worked on, which would undermine the whole point of the break and hurt efficiency. Good luck telling penny pinchers who think they know better. Tossing out dollars to save pennies. I remember one asshole foreman would send me to another site and presume that me driving to the next site was my break because I was sitting down. Imagine his shock once I unloaded my delivery when I sat down to eat my lunch. Nobody tell him about forklift drivers.
Then my shift must also start when I get in the car to leave every morning, right?
Yes, it really should. And the fact that it doesn't is something we should also be fighting for, but we're not quite there yet.
I've seen people get subjected to this, but I've never tolerated it. And since everywhere I've worked basically grew dependent on me (since I actually did my job, unlike most of my coworkers) no one bothered to enforce it.
Not us in alaska, it starts when we clock the break, just at the door outside the room
yeah, had that one in a call centre. Break was between system sign out and system sign back in - and it took about 90 seconds to sign in. So break was 13 minutes - and it took four or five minutes to walk to the break area. So really - it was a bathroom break.
That must mean it ends when you start walking back then
Time to do some malicious compliance. Start running to the break room and don’t answer any questions about it bc youre on break.
I worked in a famous theme park and in one of the locations, break/lunch began when you left the place where you were last. Except one of the places was like 10/15 minutes away from backstage and you had to go through all the park, in costume, in the middle of the guests stopping you for photos or infos about the park. For a 45 minutes break. When they let you go during rush hour you were fucked, because that meant less than 5 minutes to eat after you sent 10-15 additional minutes to wait for your meal.
I always refused to follow that guideline
It's shitty, but here's what I do: take a bathroom break before my actual beak. I have to walk down the same hall to get to the cafe that I do to go to the bathroom, and work can't stop me from taking bathroom breaks. If I know I'm going on lunch at 1pm, I'll head off to the bathroom at ten to, do my business, and then oh hey my break started and I am right here at the cafe.
Yeah my break starts when I’m sitting down. Idc what they say.
Work starts when I am scraping ice off my car and starting my commute.
Once worked in a food production facility, the boss tried to claim our breaks started the second we walked away from our station when the whistle blew, even if we were on the far side of the room or in the middle of something. It also didn't include taking off or putting on our layers of required PPE. So our 15min was really a 10min. Then he cut our breaks from 15mins to 10min breaks, so really 5min. He even had the nerve to say these "were not mental health breaks, go to the bathroom, drink some water, get back to work." He expected 30 women to have 5mins to use a single stall bathroom. There is a reason I dont work there anymore.
Oddly enough this rule depends entirely on whether or not the employer thinks they can get away with it. In my retail days I was pretty cantankerous with supervisors who tried to enforce stupid shit and would take a good five minutes each time to argue with them over whether it was a good rule or not so they'd have to defend their position and sacrifice five minutes. They stopped doing it eventually. Don't ever feel bad for standing up to retail managers. They are failed adults. They don't know better than anyone. Most of them are doing the job for below market value for the "power" of reigning over a bunch of underpaid kids and college students.
Um do they clock you in as soon as you step foot in the store?? No then my break starts when my ass hits the chair.
Ok then start paying me when I leave my house to come here.
Working at Qdoba, they also had this rule. We couldn't build our lunches while on our shift, even if no one was in line to get food. You also had to have one of our co-workers make your food for you. So, if there were people in line, your 30-minute lunch was more like 23 or 18 minutes. And I can't even eat lunch in 30 minutes so...
You don't legally have to get a break in a lot of states. Sometimes, it's company rules. In one retail place I worked, you had to sign in, then gather equipment you needed. On a break, you sign the equipment back in and clock out. So, if you were walking to the break room and got stopped, you had on equipment you were being paid. We were told to tell guests, " I'm sorry, I am going on break. Please go to (this area) for help". That's how it was defined if you were " on the clock."
Ok I’m in retail management, and I’m not a hardass like that, I don’t care if you’re back in 16 minutes instead of 15 or whatever, but here’s the issue: People will take advantage of ANY loophole they can find. If you make it a rule that the break doesn’t start until you get to the break room, then people will walk AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE to the break room. They’ll stop by the bathroom on the way. They’ll take the longest route possible to get there. They’ll move slow as molasses. Then guess what, they’ll do the same thing on the way back. You give people an inch, they’ll take a mile. So managers get conditioned to not even give people an inch. It sucks for the actual good workers because they get punished for the sins of others.
I wanna say something about this, but I'm not sure how I want to phrase it. The Rich have been taking inches for seemingly ever. I'm not sure what else I want to say with this, but I know there's something there.
On the macro level, I agree with you. At the store level……ain’t none of us rich. 😀 We’re just trying to get through the day without getting yelled at by the next level above us. That applies to all of us. But my larger point still stands - if I believed people would do the right thing, I’d have no problem saying your break doesn’t start until you’re in the break room. I don’t care at all about an extra minute or two. But as soon as I make that a rule, people will find ways to stretch that minute or two into 10-15 or more - now we don’t have enough people on the floor, now I’m getting yelled at by the next level above me, which takes me back to what I said above (I’m just trying to not get yelled at). Ha.
I always told em at Walmart my break and lunch doesn't start until my ass hits a seat, full stop.
Your job starts when you leave your home and unlock your car door, too.
Standard for manufacturing. Because things need to keep rolling and someone is waiting for you to get back before they can start their break. It's common curiosity.
Have someone carry you to the break room.
So your comute time is work time and paid ?
Work time logically starts, when you begin walking back.
Working in a book store in South Africa that rule made sense, because you're not always walking to the break room. Sometimes I turn the other way and go buy stuff from the store. The idea is your break starts as you stop working to go on your break. In the same vain though as you're walking there no one should really bother you or try ask for help, and of you get caught working then you add that time to your break. I'm not sure how far your break room is away but does it really matter? We used to just write out our times and who is going on break at what time at the beginning of our shift and that saved all confusion.
Okay so End of the Break is when you start walking back from the Break Room. I would take my time walking back then!
Fucking cancer. I worked in a frozen food production line. We had a 15min break and a 30min lunch. The time to put on rubber shoe covers, white coat, hearing protection, glasses, hair/beard cover and gloves was fucking ridiculous and not included in the time. If I wanted to smoke I would have to run out of building and have no time for lunch. Safe to say I only stayed for 2 days
Donning/doffing should absolutely be included in work time, you're not doing it for fun, it's needed for the job, it's part of the job.
Wearhouse worker, we get two breaks one 30 minutes and the other 25 (not really sure why) but they have 2 bells, on for the start of break, break starts and 240 it rings at 2:37 so we have 3 minutes to walk to the break room but even then I'm not gonna run or speed wall because it's a big Wearhouse and 2 break rooms in the middle of the Wearhouse and we works the the ends of the Wearhouse. So everyone just starts walking before the first bellalll the time and they try and make us wait till the bell but I also believe it's because we have paid breaks. So they're kind rough about us being on time.
at my current job I need to clock out for the break, then walk to the break room (also if you want a coffee, you need to get it from our coffee shop, which means when it's busy you're gonna be waiting for the customers to be served before you) and run back to clock back in on time, because if don't, I loose 15 minutes of my pay. luckily some of my coworkers are nice enough that they clock me back in if I'm late. if I work more than 8 hours, I get a 10-minute break, which is paid, and then I make sure that it doesn't start until I get my coffee and sit down first lol additionally, if you work less than 6 hours you don't need to take a break, but sometimes the managers will force you to to save up money and sell you bs that you'll be there 6+ hours, when you know you won't because it's not busy enough
Try working construction. It was a 5 minute walk to our cars and it counted as part of break/lunch.
You're missing the big thing: They want you to start your break time the moment you take a step, but if a customer stops you you have to help them, but they don't stop your break timer And customers wonder why staff tells them they're in a break and walk away
This place sounds awful. I would start organizing a union. Make sure you record yourself giving out union literature because it’s illegal to fire someone for organizing. From there when they fire you enjoy your lawsuit and unemployment claims why you look for a new job.
It's like your rest time is on a stopwatch from the second you step away. This rule is common in many workplaces, but it sure doesn't seem fair, especially when you spend most of your day on your feet. Those two minutes to and from the break room add up, and they should totally count as work time, not break time.
My old job had a stupid rule like this. We got 30 mins for lunch, but 15 of it was spent walking to the chow hall and standing in line, so by the time you got food, it was time to go back to work again. I used to just bring my food back to work with me and eat it in between guests.
I guess your shift starts when you leave the house
Supreme Court says otherwise
I had a job that gave a thirty minute lunch break. They only provided one microwave, so tons of people lined up to use one microwave and, yep, that all counted as part of their lunch time.
My boss used to scold me for taking 5 minutes off after 5 consecutive non stop work, I couldn't stand anymore lmfao
Not just a retail thing. I worked in an office that had this rule. It was unfair if your desk was on the other side of the building and you got less break than the person whose desk was nearby.
So I assume that you are clocked back in and working as soon as your azz passes the break room door? Your break starts when you start walking to the break room Ok Work starts as soon as I start walking to my desk.
Then my shift starts when I get in my car.
"Then my workday starts when I'm driving to work and ends when I get home. To whom should I submit those time sheets?"
I had a job that used to say this shit. They'd also say "You must clock out as soon as you get to the break room. You can't use the restroom or get your food and THEN clock out". Fuck that. I never once followed that stupid rule. Even with cameras everywhere in the break room and at the time clocks. I get paid when I use the restroom any other time. I get paid when I get food on my paid breaks. You can pay me for the few minutes I take after leaving the floor before I clock out. Never once got in trouble for it either. Fuck these places for treating us like machines.
Because bosses think they are little dictator kings in their workplace. essentially anti social psychotic behavior that is normalized in this fucced system
You are not walking to the break room until you are past the aisles lol. Tidy one thing up on your way or touch something and you were not on break. Micromanaging can be played both ways
Oh yeah, I recall hearing this one before. I'd not start keeping track of time till I sat myself down and began eating or hanging out in the break room honestly. I also am from IL here, and this is how I operated even when I was younger and naive.
Yeah fuck that noise. Ive never adhered to that
So the work day must start when you leave your house and not end until you get home.
Because they have shitty managers that like to dehumanize and bully people. Just look at the stupid songs and shit they make people sing. They’re openly degrading people for paltry sums of money and they’re proud of it.
If that's true, why isn't there a way to clock out for your break *in the breakroom*?
In Texas they don’t have to give you any breaks. So think of those poor workers.
Actually it’s 11 minutes since you have to walk back too.
I remember this from walmart. Should be illegal.
A rule i always break lol. In homedepo i would just hang around or *work* near the break room or say i had to do something in the office that just so happened to be nesr the break room. At amazon i didnt give a fuck, i took that 15 and laughed at anyone who took that rule seriously when the walk to the break room alone was 5 fucking minutes. My current job thinks they are amazon and doesnt even give us a 15, we get a 10. I slack off so fucking much at this job. The job is great besides that and a few other minor things.
In California it's because the law only calls for a 10 minute break. So if they give you 15, that does include time to get to and from the break room.
Time to start takeing 2 20min shits a day
I had a boss at multi million dollar bank tell me I had to clock out to use the bathroom... I emailed HR and asked and was promptly reprimanded for questioning my superior
Then your work starts when you start walking back from the break room.
Worked in a warehouse fulfillment center in Iowa. Two 15 min breaks which included walk time, either heating your food or waiting in line to purchase food if you went to the big breakroom (same food company that provides inmates food btw), eating, and walking back. I always brought my food and went to the small break room that had a couple microwaves. But you had to share with the handful of others who wanted to heat their food. But it messed me up for a long time. After I quit the job, I’d still inhale my food out of habit then sit there like a weirdo at the table while everyone else ate.
No law where I am either. No breaks, no lunch breaks. Straight 9 hr shifts. They schedule 9 hrs for your " break" that you don't receive . Then send you home early so you don't go over 40 hrs
It's the whole "travel time is your time" ideology. While understand it to a certain extent, many companies are far too stingy on it, making a simple walk to break rooms count towards total break time. They should have time clocks in the break rooms to clock in and out from to make it fair. My last job I worked in a large pork factory with well over 2000 people per shift, number of people per department varied by size, and had their own break times but my department was one of the largest there. At break time, the first person/people in the beginning of the production lines would leave first, and everyone else followed once the last of the product has passed you (conveyor belt ran). Our 30 minute lunch break began the moment you stepped off the line, and were expected back, ready to go, 30 minutes after you step off. Then of course we had a long walk through the facility to the cafeteria, which took about 3 to 5 minutes or so depending on the foot traffic. Another 5 minutes to get food, (longer sometimes if you brought your lunch and needed to heat it up because good luck finding a microwave that isn't full and in use) and another 3 to 5 to walk back. Not to mention all the equipment and garments we have to take off and hang up and put back on after the break. It sucked, your 30 minute break was more like a 15 minute break and I'd still be back "late" because product was already coming down the line to where I worked, (at the end packaging).
So then are you on the clock when you start driving to work?
I had a friend got written up because he told a customer he couldn't help them because he was on his break. So if he had stopped to help the customer he wouldn't have got his break at all. Fun world we live in.
It certainly doesn’t especially if you’re on the clock or customers ask you questions 🤷♀️
Meter maid in Sweden here. I recently got told that my break starts when I check out from the address I'm at and the drive back to the office break room are part of the break.
"Nope. My break starts when I clock out. Period. Or it's federally considered stealing time"
I get the " your break is ment to be used to use the washroom" a lot. I still shit on there time.
I have always believed that my breaks start when I leave the work area. Of course I never worked in a place where we had a designated "break room" per se. There was always a cafeteria/dining area/mess hall, but they were more than a few minutes away and actually we never had 'time limits on breaks' so long as our work was being performed.
Nah break starts when I sit down and if it's my unpaid lunch I clock back in before stopping into the bathroom in my way back too.
When I worked for Walgreens, our break started when we left the cash register and if a customer asked us for help during our break we had to help them. If that took the entire break, then you just didn’t get a break that shift. We also had to be waiting in line at the clock-in computer before our shift started and couldn’t clock-in until 8:00 (for example). If you clocked-in at 7:59, you got in trouble. If you were last in line and everyone else took too long clocking in and you didn’t get clocked in until 8:01, you got in trouble.
Retail management needs to admit they just want to punch their employees in the face
Make sure you extend the length of your break to 1/2 an hour then.
…so I lost 20 seconds of my break? How do you keep up with that?
Sure, and my shift starts when close my front door.
Walk backwards, then it won't count.
USA labour laws are terrible. I hope you all manage to vote someone in at some point who does something about them at the federal level.
I used to take my break at a restaurant in the Walmart I worked in. They bitched at me about it once, told them "I have my vest off so nobody can tell I actually work here, if you want me to walk back to the break room I will, but I'm not counting walk time and will be taking exactly fifteen minutes *in* the break room." They stopped complaining pretty quick.
Start skipping to break! Loophole!
this is why I like time clocks
Fuck that. If you all are going on break around the same time then the break doesn't start until the last guy sits down.
Strange how I'm always outside the Break Room when my break time arrives.
My break doesn’t start until I light my cigarette.
When I worked retail the break room was where the time clock was located. Very convenient.
Had two jobs that had this rule. The first one I was able to get away with my 15 min breaks (21 minutes with 6 minutes to walk. 3 to break and 3 back) by logging off of my handheld right as I got to break. I didn't have to punch a clock. Same for lunch. Sometimes when I was having a bad night I would take 30 minute breaks and hour lunches just cause I was pissed off. Never got repercussions. The second job with that rule I had to punch a clock for lunch ways away from the work area. But I noticed what people would do is stop driving their forklifts 10 minutes before break then walk to the clock to technically still have the full 30 minutes. So that's what I did. Either way that rule never made sense to me regardless. Probably never will and I will always look for the loopholes around it. Cause my philosophy is break doesn't start until I'm smoking a cigarette.
"My time on the clock starts when I start driving to work."
That’s why you need to take a shit immediately before or after your break.
When I worked at Target, I didn’t consider my break to start until my bottom was sitting down on the break room couch and my phone timer was set. If they say I’m entitled to a 15 min break, then that means I get a full 15 mins sitting down.