8.5/day hours required for Maxiflex users, could 1/2 lunch be done at home?

[Anonymous]

They could around all this by just paying you for your lunch break.
I work for local government as a first responder. I work 12s and get a paid one hour break and 2 15 min paid breaks. I rarely take the 15 min breaks. But I’m also not “ actively working” all the time either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if you're not union eligible?

PP said it varies by union but really it just varies by agency. If you had different lunch break rules for bargaining and non-bargaining unit, you would know.

+1. About a 0 chance of the agency giving NBUs a better deal than the BUs.

It's not that they are giving them a "better" deal, it's that something is explicitly noted in a CBA while not noted elsewhere in the procedural documents of the agency.

[Anonymous]

My CBA just says that you must take 1/2 lunch if working more than 6 hrs in a day, and that the lunch must “usually” be between 12-3. So if you get in at 6:30, you could leave at 2:30, and eat your lunch on the way home.

There’s no government-wide OPM rule on this. Though I expect an EO and opm guidance this week stating that all Feds must take a 2-hr unpaid lunch, which must occur at the midpoint of your workday. I believe that was Vivek’s idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My CBA just says that you must take 1/2 lunch if working more than 6 hrs in a day, and that the lunch must “usually” be between 12-3. So if you get in at 6:30, you could leave at 2:30, and eat your lunch on the way home.

There’s no government-wide OPM rule on this. Though I expect an EO and opm guidance this week stating that all Feds must take a 2-hr unpaid lunch, which must occur at the midpoint of your workday. I believe that was Vivek’s idea.

And our “leadership” will dutifully comply with zero question or pushback. And the unions will cry and whine and grieve and then do nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if you're not union eligible?

PP said it varies by union but really it just varies by agency. If you had different lunch break rules for bargaining and non-bargaining unit, you would know.

+1. About a 0 chance of the agency giving NBUs a better deal than the BUs.

It's not that they are giving them a "better" deal, it's that something is explicitly noted in a CBA while not noted elsewhere in the procedural documents of the agency.

At least for us its programmed into the scheduling software so it won't let you submit a schedule with a start/stop time only 8 hours apart, needs to be 8.5.

[Anonymous]

Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

I don’t want to risk time card fraud, but I also don’t want to be treated like a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

Honestly, my commute is 2 hours and 20 minutes each way and I need to leave after 8 hours and 15 minutes to catch a train if i want to see my kids awake on weekdays, period. I'm not committing time card fraud if I eat at my desk and input that I worked 8 hours (our software just includes total time). But if that's what they're going to fire me over...okay. Then that's where it ends for me. I'm not going to be gone from 4:45 AM to 6:45 PM every day because of a damn mandatory lunch break.

[Anonymous]

Must be by Agency because I eat at my desk while working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really being tracked? I know our building you only swipe in each morning.

I'm at a swipe-in, swipe-out HQ. That said, do you really want to risk timecard fraud?

We had this very question come up at an RTO office hour, and our HR staff was unequivocal that 8 hours means 8.5 plus a lunch break in the middle. No gaming the system to leave "early".

Honestly, my commute is 2 hours and 20 minutes each way and I need to leave after 8 hours and 15 minutes to catch a train if i want to see my kids awake on weekdays, period. I'm not committing time card fraud if I eat at my desk and input that I worked 8 hours (our software just includes total time). But if that's what they're going to fire me over...okay. Then that's where it ends for me. I'm not going to be gone from 4:45 AM to 6:45 PM every day because of a damn mandatory lunch break.

Say it again for the people in the back.

[Anonymous]

I personally think the 30 minute break is BS. It should be one hour mandatory. And must leave work station.

The one hour lunch is based on Science. Back years ago there was no lunch break, the workers fought for a lunch. To surprise of bosses over time they figured one hour was optimal for productivity as it gave them the proper mental and physical break to work hard all afternoon. Any shorter just meant unhappy tired workers in afternoon who are less productive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally think the 30 minute break is BS. It should be one hour mandatory. And must leave work station.

The one hour lunch is based on Science. Back years ago there was no lunch break, the workers fought for a lunch. To surprise of bosses over time they figured one hour was optimal for productivity as it gave them the proper mental and physical break to work hard all afternoon. Any shorter just meant unhappy tired workers in afternoon who are less productive.

Leave the workstation and go where? Eat in the bathroom? Or should we switch workstations and eat at someone else's desk? There's certainly no dining area in my building, they are cramming people into workspaces.

[Anonymous]

It’s absurd that they can hold people to 8.5 hour agreements in CBAs while shredding the telework provisions. In some cases the unions conceded to 8.5 hours in exchange for telework. Any employee at a desk should have the option of packing a sandwich and eating while working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought we had to take the unpaid lunch during the day and could not put it at the end of the day.

This.