lennavan: fredklein: Lunches and breaks are legally mandated in many, if not most, places. Can't work through those.

I know it seems this way to a college kid. When you hit the real world and you're not punching a clock all the time (or even if you are) you'll realize it's not the same as it is on TV/in your head.

Indeed. I can't tell you the number of lunches and/or breaks I've worked through because it's darn nearly every one. Typically, my lunch "break" has consisted of me sitting at my desk and eating whatever I manage to grab while I continue to work. And that's in more than one job over many, many years as both the boss and the employee with both low and high pay. I'd occasionally get to check email or cell messages, but usually didn't have time to answer them.

Sure, there's the occasional business lunch when you get higher up, but that's still considered working as I'm typically making some sort of sales pitch or going over a project with the other people at the table.

The ONLY jobs I've ever worked where I didn't have to work through a lunch or break were when I worked as a server in college and at the local fast food joint in high school. And even THERE, I occasionally had to do some work during those breaks or man the drive-thru window while scarfing down a cheeseburger.

Now that I'm a parent and work from home... Well I just don't get the breaks at all, and I'm darn lucky if I even have time to eat and go to the bathroom. It makes me miss my corporate masters just a tad.

If a person has no concept of how breaks and lunches work in the real world, I have serious doubts that this person has ever had a real job outside of the minimum wage arena-- if at all. And I'm going to put my money in the hat for college (or even high school) kid.

lennavan: fredklein: Yeah, I'm in college.

I KNEW it! Eh, I can't blame you, I was a lot like you in college. In your defense, you have no idea what the real world is like because you've never been in it.

Making up quotes is not a legitimate debate tactic.

supayoda: Indeed. I can't tell you the number of lunches and/or breaks I've worked through because it's darn nearly every one. Typically, my lunch "break" has consisted of me sitting at my desk and eating whatever I manage to grab while I continue to work.

Then you are letting the company take advantage of you. For instance, the Section 162 of the New York State Labor Law (new window) says, in part:

"...an uninterrupted meal period must be afforded to every employee who requests this from an employer."

See this (new window) also:

Q: Must an employer give meal periods and "breaks" to workers?

A:Employees who:
Work a shift of more than six hours starting before 11 AM
AND
Continue until 2 PM
MUST
Have an uninterrupted lunch period of
AT LEAST
Half an hour between 11 AM and 2 PM
...
Meal periods do not count as work time, thus employers need not pay for that time.

If you CHOOSE to work for free while off the clock on your lunch break, that's up to you.

fredklein: If you CHOOSE to work for free while off the clock on your lunch break, that's up to you.

It's so cute that you think it actually happens that way. It's like when my 5-year-old daughter looks at me and says that she's going to grow up to be a cyborg doctor astronaut rock star Muppet.

supayoda: fredklein: If you CHOOSE to work for free while off the clock on your lunch break, that's up to you.

It's so cute that you think it actually happens that way. It's like when my 5-year-old daughter looks at me and says that she's going to grow up to be a cyborg doctor astronaut rock star Muppet.

Where did she get such a ridiculous idea, that would make her some sort of Super Yoda...