is the GURPS work day of 8 hours possibly actually 7 hours allowing for breaks?

[Plane]

B346's Time Spent / Long Tasks discusses "work day (eight hours)" and how 8-per-24 is the usual limit on work days.

I think a lot of jobs sometimes give something like a 30-minute lunch and a pair of 15-minute breaks (cumulative 1 hour) though.

7/8 basically works out to 52m30s per hour (7.5 minute breaks per hour) and I'm wondering if we should assume that type of interruption is meant to be included?

This would account for stuff like taking a snack break or bathroom break too, or otherwise wouldn't getting the 8-hour shift actually require something like 9 hours?

That or it's something like taking a "Haste" penalty where you're -1 to skill for taking 10% less time, which would reduce 480 minutes of labor to only 432 minutes, giving you 48 minutes to go on break.

[Varyon]

I'd just leave it up to the GM - maybe he allows for breaks, maybe not. And the number, length, and nature of breaks in an 8 hour workday vary by time and location, and it's certainly not impossible to work 8 hours straight without breaks, it just tends to be a bit counterproductive at most jobs.

[Anthony]

A traditional 5 day/40 hour job is 8 to 5 (9 hours) with an hour of breaks. That's increasingly uncommon nowadays but is probably what GURPS was thinking about.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A traditional 5 day/40 hour job is 8 to 5 (9 hours) with an hour of breaks.

I wonder what happened after 1980 to change the standard

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Plane

I wonder what happened after 1980 to change the standard

That's not the 9 to 5 I remember from the eighties. There was even a movie by the same name to go with.

[edk926]

I don't know anyone that gets a paid lunch anymore, but most places give paid breaks still though, so it's like 7 1/2 hours at a traditional job. Note that traditional jobs are increasingly uncommon with many people, at least here in America, working longer shifts.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by naloth

That's not the 9 to 5 I remember from the eighties. There was even a movie by the same name to go with.

Parton's released was 3 Nov 1980 in the UK while Easton's release was 16 May 1980 in the UK

But I guess Parton was more popular since Easton's US release was delayed until Feb 1981

[tshiggins]

I may only work 8:30 to 4:30, if I skip lunch or eat at my desk.
If I go out for a 30-minute lunch, I have to work until 5 p.m.
If I take an hour lunch, I'm there until 5:30.

That's pretty normal, in the United States.

The law requires a 10-minute break, on the clock, for every full four hours worked, and at least 30 minutes, off the clock, for every full six hours worked.

[Fred Brackin]

If you're filling out time use sheets for Gurps that 8 hour working day is a full 8 hours of work. Any time spent eating lunch or taking a break is extra to that and presumably comes out of the 16 hours of the day you're not working.

Characters with Doesn't Sleep do get to add 8 hours to their working day but Doesn't Eat does not give a similar bonus.

[Witchking]

8 hours has basically been the accepted convention going back to First Edition playtest IIRC.

It can certainly be broken down into much finer granularity if the GM wishes.

Lot of that would depend on tech level. 8 hour work day is a modern convention circa 1920 or so. It made a handy way to break up the day once electric lighting became more prevalent and the possibility of running a factory 24 hours a day six days a week could be done.

3 shifts 8 hours each bingo 24 hours.

Prior to that 12 hour shifts were more common.

That is not a long skip from 'sunup to sunset' that any agricultural society from Babylon to the Great Plains would have been familiar with. (and if you had cows like my gramps did pointing out at 4 am that the sun WASNT UP YET, would not cut ice at milking time)