We Don't Pay For Your Lunch Break
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- zarkonite0
That's so petty of them, why single out lunch? How about all the micro-breaks you take during the day like youtube, email, this place, bathroom?
It'd be pretty easy to make up the loss by rounding up the shit out of everything else you do.
- ohhhhhsnap0
typical.
- cannonball19780
If I eat lunch in the office while working, you are getting charged.
- makes sense. if you're working, charge. If your at taco bell, don't charge.capn_ron
- if you're at taco bell, bring rolaidsprophetone
- studderine0
capn_ron, I believe your right.
- YOU'RE. FUCK ME.studderine
- I'm either right or have been getting fucked at every job in my life.capn_ron
- capn_ron0
most full time jobs don't pay for your lunch break. Or do they? I mean I thought you were expected to work 8 hours a day. The days of 9-5 jobs are old and gone. Now isn't it more like 8-5 or 9-6 with an hour lunch. And this is on days that you don't have to stay late. Corect me if I'm off here.
- < that's correctmonospaced
- Depends on the jurisdiction, in BC.(canada) you get 30mins paid, so your workday in 7.5hrs + lunch.= 8hrsmonNom
- In Ontario, You get 30min unpaid lunch and 30mins paid "coffee breaks", so work is 9 - 5:30monNom
- fyoucher10
Reasons why I work per project as a vendor (a business who can also hire folks if needed, different from a "freelancer" who can't hire other folks) and not hourly or per day.
However, if I was working hourly AT a clients office, I'd be billing for ANY time required to do their work at THEIR office. Perhaps not billing them for your lunch break, but certainly billing them for commuting back and forth to THEIR office. If you have to take a call at home, bill them for that time too. And remember, it's hourly NOT per minute. So if a call takes 1 minute, you bill them for the hour. If you worked for 7.5 hours, bill for 8 hours, etc etc.
- CALLES0
bring yer own toilet paper. lesson of the story.
you never know
- vaxorcist0
Hah! This is often an "initial conversation negotiation issue" .... and I once heard a good lesson in negotiation over the phone, when I overheard a hapless account exec at an agency talking to a headhunter for a hotshot programmer guy I was about to work with....
Agency Acct Exec:What's his rate per hour?
Freelancer's Headhunter: $155 per hour, but the most important thing is that he gets a $35 per day lunch allowance, and not just 1 hour, but 1.5 hours for lunch, he's happy to stay late, but this midday break is important for him.
Agency Acct Exec:what?!? $35 per lunch?!? what?!? an hour and a half, the rest of us get 1 hour, nobody gets $35 for lunch...
Freelancer's Headhunter: Well, we can talk about this for a long time, but it's important to him, he'll take an hour and a quarter minimum for lunch...
Agency Acct Exec: but... $35 for lunch?!?
... and so it goes, TOTALLY IGNORING the $155 per hour,they argued over the $35 hour-and-a-half lunch for a good 20-30 minutes till they settled on $25 lunch and 1.25 hour lunch, and left the $155 per hour alone... wow!
and of course, he was treated like a rock star.... he was good, but that good?!? ..
- they can easily go with someone who doesn't ask that much, and he knows it ;)monospaced
- yes... it was 1999... the programmer was in the catbird seat.... very true, they needed him...vaxorcist
- still, that's a crazy negotiation to overhear!monospaced
- utopian0
Just add hours to your commute time, this is completely acceptable.
- fadein110
Work through lunch - problem solved. Make your sandwiches the night before, add a bag of crisps if they don't mind the crunching. You will really notice the benefit to your pocket. Dairylee lunchables are a handy desk based snack if you start to feel weak at any point.
- robotron3k0
pretty normal. you're a vendor.
- bulletfactory0
Of the other 3+ companies I've previously worked full-time for I never experienced this, but my current company gives me $100/month for food on the firm's seamless account (I was grandfathered in w/ the pre-acquisition perks), and the office buys pizza for everyone, every friday.
That said, this is only the case for the NYC office, none of our other offices have these perks.
- of course, freelance or contract work would be a different story. I wouldn't expect to be paid for lunch unless I worked through it.bulletfactory
- set0
I charge for the time I'm in there office. Paying for your lunch hour as a freelancer is something that should or could be offered by the studio as a gesture, not assumed as a given - imo.
- monospaced0
I always charged that time without a thought also because usually, as a contractor, my lunches lasted about 15 minutes. I'd grab something fast, bring it back, and eat while I was working. If you're taking an hour lunch break, that's a completely different story. I wouldn't want to pay some dude if he disappeared for an hour each day and still got paid for it.
- < I think you are right. I doubt anyone takes issue with a small break. Lunch break smacks of an hour to me.babaganush
- doesnotexist0
we always had dinners comp'd, but never lunch. depends on the place really, i know some places lunch is included. time & food.
- monospaced0
My bad. Thought you were talking about the food only. I do find it odd that they won't pay for the time. Sorry.
- babaganush0
I think it's reasonable if you are charging an hourly rate as opposed to a daily rate. Why would anyone pay a plumber for his lunch break. You give up those benefits as a contractor for more pay.
- You don't get those benefits with a salary either. No work buys your food unless you're on a trip anywaymonospaced
- My company started cutting out paid lunches even on business trips. The economy is that bad.monospaced
- But surely it's 'lunch breaks' not lunch. I.e. If a freelancer takes an hour off for lunch, he aint getting paid.babaganush
- right, see my comment below, I misread himmonospaced
- necromation0
Shit... Is this in the UK? I never had this happen in all the years i've freelanced