“The 9[am] to 5[pm]” is a common term for one’s regular job, on the basis that normal people start work at 09:00 and finish at 17:00. I’ve worked a few jobs and closest I’ve ever gotten to this is 08:00 to 17:00, which I gather is standard.
Are there real jobs where people actually start at 9 and finish at 5?
I work 7:30 - 15:30. I hate waking up so early but it is nice to have time to run errands.
No. Companies have stolen 2 extra hours from us. They used to include a paid lunch hour in those 8 hours. Now, it’s not only 8-5, but we don’t get paid for the lunch hour.
US Midwest 9-5 jobs are normal even when not really sensical for all businesses. Very much a control and “you sit here cause I pay you to.” I worked a place that expected 8:30am - 5:30pm with an hour lunch break. Salaried work. I worked hourly at a distribution center that was 8:30 - 5:00pm with half hour lunch.
It would be interesting to see a filter of responses by country.
In my experience:
- Architecture / Eng / Construction Industry (Canada):
- 8-5, summer hours, loosely enforced.
- Software Industry (Europe):
- 9-5, several extra weeks of vacation, loosely enforced
- Software Industry (America):
- 9-6, moderately enforced
- Software Industry (Canada):
- 9-5, summer hours, loosely enforced
- Architecture / Eng / Construction Industry (Canada):
I believe in wresting back any amount of control/time we can from the system.
So my job has me coming in at 8:30-9:30am and leaving at 3:30pm every day, thanks to training my boss and working the system.
And honestly I am switching to a hybrid WFH job because even this is too much office time.
They don’t give me a window, so I am letting myself get recruited elsewhere.
I work from 8:30 to 16:00 with a half-hour lunch break, so 7 work hours per day.
It’s paid as a full-time job.
If I collect too much over-time, I get a stern talking-to from my supervisor, who could otherwise get in trouble with the works council and the owners (cause they’d get in trouble with the union and the law). So I make sure to go home on time.
I have 42 days of paid time off I HAVE to take, plus unlimited sick days.I could have made 50% more by chosing a different employer, and 3-4x as much in the US.
But why the hell would I? I’m able to save up 1/3 of my take-home pay as it is, and that’s after pension and healthcare are accounted for.Wait wait, what type of country treats its citizens like humans?
I live in Germany, but that’s not normal here, either. I deliberately chose an employer with a strong union and high worker solidarity and was lucky enough to switch jobs when my skills were in high demand.
These gals do.

From what I’ve heard 9-5 was a thing before employees were given a mandatory 1 hour lunch break which was counted as non-work time. So basically the work schedule was shifted to account for break time no longer being counted as part of the work day.
Of course I’ve never looked into it, so there’s a good chance it’s not that :p
This is correct, lots of places that were 9 to 5 would give people a lunch half hour or a lunch hour that would technically be on the clock. When lunch hours became mandatory employers went well fuck that and made it so you didn’t get paid for your lunch. Most people don’t realize off the top of their heads but 8 to 5 is actually nine hours.
You mean, before employers stole our paid lunch breaks and gaslit everyone into forgetting about them.
Yeah that :3
Yes, I work 9 to 5
I currently work 8:00 to 16:00 and no one has complained about my working hours yet. But, I’m a software dev working remote with coworkers in several different timezones, so the exact time I start and end my day really doesn’t matter.
At a previous job I worked 9:00 - 15:00 for several months when I was depressed and no one complained about that either. 🤷
All but one of my jobs (excluding hourly jobs as a teen) have been 9-5, the one that wasn’t was 9-6 with the justification that we had a 1 hour lunch in the middle… but like… I’ve taken a 1 hour lunch at every job… so I have no idea why that company was such a stickler for that. Basically no one did shit after like 4pm anyways
1 hour lunch means you are expected to leave the office (or at least not work). Some countries get really strict about a one hour lunch break where you don’t do any work and so it is carefully enforced there.
Strict working hours are important for jobs like assembly line work where if you are not at your station nobody else can do any work. Often they do build enough slack in that they expect you can take a couple bites here and there between doing your work. Though this isn’t the most sanitary so it isn’t common anymore.
For anyone doing work that doesn’t depend on others being at their station at the same time a strict shift doesn’t make sense, and there are not many assembly lines left like that (the assembly lines I have seen lately are much shorter and your team of 10 needs to work the same shift but your team can choose lunch time, and if you get the team’s work done faster everyone can even get an extended lunch.
All of my jobs have been 9-5, lunch included. I think the key is whether you’re paid hourly or by salary. I’ve almost exclusively worked at tech startups as a salaried employee.
Factory jobs are 6-14 and 14-22 (and 22-6 if there’s a rush), and office jobs usually 7-15, including a 30-min break. Then there’s the service sector, depending on when the shop opens…
Yes. I do. Dealership mechanic. 9-5






