Normal office work arrangements - your experiences?

[Finland]

Being new to Australian job market, I'm wondering about PP's experiences with what would constitute normal office hours and such arrangements here in Perth. I've recently started in my first job here - it's an office role in a privately owned small import and wholesales company. I'm working from 8 to 17, 5 days a week, on a part-time agreement. I fill in daily a time sheet for in/out and unpaid break time (typically 10-15 mins for a quick snack or a fruit for lunch at my desk) and get paid an hourly rate.

 

So - I guess I'm curious, is this a typical arrangement in Australia? Would love to hear your thoughts!

[portlaunay]

Do you mean 8am-5pm or 8am-7pm? Typo?

I think it's probably the same as everywhere, it depends on a variety of different factors - the sector you work in, the culture of the organisation, your own work ethic, size of the company etc etc.

I've worked in public sector here where we worked 8am to 5pm most days and I've worked in private sector where people worked 6am to 9, 10, 11pm, six days a week and put in a few hours on a Sunday too.

 

I'm sure you'll get a number of different perspectives. What are your concerns? How would you like your current situation to be different?

[Finland]

Thanks for the comments Porty, yes I meant from 8am to 5pm - so 45h a week (minus the breaks). I've too worked long hours on private sector back in Finland, but back then the "normal hours" were 8 am to 4pm and you could "time bank" the extra hours - tagging in and out electronically and thus providing a degree of flexibility. I tried to educate myself on the Australian work agreements before signing the contract and on paper it would seem that the national standard is 38 hours /wk on average for full-time workers (I'm part-time with an average of 45h / wk).

 

Not sure if there's any current concern per se - perhaps I was a bit surprised that they changed their mind from intended 3 days per week to 5 days per week so quickly. Also, I'm just thinking ahead of the possible transition to being full-time and if that then means "24/7" in practise, as it will then be on a yearly salary instead of hourly.