this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024
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Work Reform

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (4 children)

In any office job I've worked, I would have been able to accomplish jack shit for the second half of the day without a break with some food and good coffee.

Also, breaks in which you can do whatever you want are enforced by law around here, and I'd be surprised if it isn't the same in Australia.

That man is both a dick, and a fool.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I feel like I'm a minority, but I HATE lunch breaks or any other unpaid break. I much prefer to work through them and leave an hour earlier. I don't care if I can go out to eat or leave the office, an hour is not enough time to enjoy that. I still feel like I'm "at work".

If I have to work 8 hours a day, then I want to be at work for 8 hours. Not 8 hours +an extra hour that you can say you're "on break" but really your mind keeps thinking over any related problems you might be working on or planning for what you're going to do when you get back from "break".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I used to do the same thing. Come in, work for 8 hours, munching on something at my desk if hungry, and then leave. If I needed to think or was stuck, I'd get up and walk around the office (inside or out depending upon the weather) which typically helped get me un-stuck.

I think people should have that as an option if they wanted (I think it's technically illegal here in Japan because employers would withhold the legally required break time until the end of the shift which is not how most people work).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It is. I think fair work should have a word with old mate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Where I live, they can only enforce that you stay on site during breaks if they pay you for your breaks, and lord knows they don't want to do that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I consider the question of free coffee to be a litmus test for any company. If you're not offering it, you are unequivocally a loser not worthy of running a company:

  1. It costs next to nothing
  2. Caffeine makes the workers more productive
  3. Your best outcome is workers who drink a healthy amount of coffee every day

The expected return of offering free unlimited coffee for any work place is positive - and the inverse of not offering free coffee is hence negative.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Pretty much any office I've been in had free coffee. Good free coffee, now that's few and far between.