long hours

[Iain Harrison <iharrison -at- SCT -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Alexander von Obert writes:
>>
Here in Germany we have an official 48 hours limit that only few
people exceed - at least not on a regular basis.
<<

This is a hot political issue in the UK at present: Britain's
unpopular government (to be replaced in a few months, I hope) decided
that although it believed in fair trade, that belief doesn't go as far
as following the same rules as he other EC partners, and tried to
evade the 48 hour maximum work week.

The EC commissioners won, saying that it was a health and safety issue
(there are clear research findings that show that health suffers when
people work over 48 hours per week).

The result is that there is supposed to be a limit of 48 hours per
week here too, but in reality, the rule has no effect.

One issue is: if you routinely expect to work at 125%, how can you put
some extra effort in to meet a tight deadline? The answer is that you
can't! Companies that work like that are best avoided, in my view.

Iain Harrison

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