Does your shop force you to take breaks?

That makes absolutely no sense at all.

Just fucking mark a break on your time card.

 

OK, just asking a question, and not saying where I fall. But why is this "just suck it up and mark it down" but those who work over 40 hours a week and put down 40 are costing everyone else?

In either way, it's a law and working time you're not getting paid for is illegal.

 

Oh, he should absolutely take the break to which he is entitled.

Sit down for 20 minutes at the turn, if he likes.

Me, I always just figured that I probably made a phone call, answered a text, took a leak and got a Coke at various times, and figured that added up to roughly 20 minutes, and figured I could count that pretty easily.

 

I tried to make that argument once. I was told it has to be 20 minutes consecutive.

 

And so long as your timecard reflects that it was, no problems.

 

It's a very good thing that this sort of thing isn't forced on us, or I'd get myself in trouble.

I hate it when people try to make me do things that they think are "good for me." I'll take my deep breath when I want to take my fucking deep breath, thank you very much.

And people, what you aren't getting is that the type of boss who pushes a 20-minute break on you is exactly the type of boss who will cast a very careful eye that you're taking that 20-minute break you put down on your timecard.

I'm feeling ya, schiez.

 

If you're out covering golf, just sit down for 20 consecutive minutes. It's golf.

 

I once had to write up a copy desker because he never took a dinner break.
State law said you have to take 30 minutes off within the first six hours of an eight-hour shift and we didn't want to face a lawsuit if he was fired or left.
I wish I could have just told him "work what you need, just put a break on your timecard," but I couldn't verbalize that.
My timecard is almost always marked 9 to 1 and 2 to 6, although those are rarely the hours I work.

 

I get that, and I'm probably too hard on executives who have to stick by the letter of the law. I mean, I know lawyers are on the company's back.

 

Thank you. That's all I'm trying to say here.

I'm not pretending we're supermen and we don't need no' stinkin' breaks. I'm simply saying that we work in an industry where we sometimes don't have the luxury of sitting down at the exact second our shift hits the six-hour mark.

For me, I take a break whenever the hell I want/feel. The employee in question here does as well.

The problem I'm having is having a boss that is focusing all their attention on trying to make us be accurate to the minute on our timecards without having the first clue of why that's not always possible.

Again, not arguing with the labor laws. Just saying that it would be nice for someone higher than me to understand the realities of the world.

 

You're asking for reason from your chain, which is like asking for decorum from a howler monkey.