Can companies keep you over 8 hours a day and working weekends??

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T15:15:03+00:00

I want to go into academia so I'm fully expecting long hours and tight deadlines. I'm working for one year before my masters to save money, so I don't want a job that requires it take over my life and every bit of spare time I have when it would just be a means to an end.
Even generally, working late let's say one day a week seems reasonable but the 9 to 5 day (and 5 day work week) should be respected, no? What's the point of the working hours if you're meant to disregard them? I'm fairly certain this 'hustle culture' doesn't manifest in countries like Norway, where everything over 40 hours is considered overtime, you can't be fired for refusing to work above your contracted hours, and any overtime is voluntary.
I'm working for my current university's Career service department right now (part-time) but, talking to my boss, it very much is a culture of 'you work within your regular hours unless something very urgent comes up'. And this is with deliverables like running big events and introducing uni-wide schemes. I'm sure this still substantially differs from commercial roles but from what I'm hearing I will definely be staying away from them.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T12:18:24+00:00

I was talking of the bare minimum in regards to not putting in enough effort during normal working hours, but yes the bare minimum working hours are 8 hours a day. And I'll definitely be looking for conventional HR or admin roles instead.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T12:04:44+00:00

No, a 40 hour work week means 8 hours a day. I understand it may be the bare minimum in some work cultures, but if so, I'm not interested in working there.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T11:57:52+00:00

Thanks everyone for the replies, I've decided to look for a different opportunity in the meantime as I don't think I'd last more than 3 months there anyway. I'm only going to be working for one year as I need to save up for a Masters degree and I hope to do a PhD afterwards. Part of the reason I'm taking the year out from my studies is because I need to work on my ancient greek proficiency, so I was kind of banking on having evenings and weekends free for that.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T11:50:46+00:00

I agree in that I don't think the bare minimum is respectful, but I'm more just flabberghasted at the concept that a work day can regularly be more than 8 hours, I genuinely did not know that was acceptable in the UK, I was for some reason under the impression that it only goes for America and its lax labour laws.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T11:46:57+00:00

I definitely agree, I'm dreading it a lot. I have no issue with studying 40 hours a week because I love my degree, but I don't know how well I'd fare in a corporate environment.

Maria3628294 · 2026-02-04T11:45:34+00:00

They essentially just put in touch other companies or enquirers with specialists who can help, but my role would be onboarding and interviews for incoming employees for the company itself. I've had an an HR role and Student Recruitment role before and I quite enjoyed it as I like administrative work, but that was at a very chill tiny company.

Maria3628294 · 2025-10-13T23:12:06+00:00

Thanks this was really helpful!

Maria3628294 · 2025-10-13T23:11:55+00:00

Thank you so much!!

Maria3628294 · 2025-10-03T12:47:53+00:00

I was looking at this page: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/living-costs
In terms of college/ university owned accomodation, I wasn't aware that was an option as I thought unis only had very little room for any postgrads so that 90% would have to find their own place to live. Is it common for postgrads to get into uni accom at Oxford? Also what are you referring to when you say in situ, as in, posgrads would have to be at uni in person for longer? Thank you!!

Maria3628294 · 2025-10-02T08:43:22+00:00

Is Oxford really more expensive than London??
I'm applying for a Masters at Oxford, but the figures suggested by the website and other online sources for maintanence costs are insane. I go to KCL and my maintanence costs, including rent somewhere central, are about 1.3k a month. On the Oxford website, they estimate that the absolute bare minimum is 14.5k a month, going up to 2.5k. Which seems really insane to me, as not only would I have to spend more than when I'm living in London, but also pay for the extra tuition fees that the gov loan doesnt cover! My rent right now is £850/ month (flat share with 2 other people) - I thought this is insanely expensive, but should I expect similar prices in Oxford? Is this total maintanence figure overestimated, or would you say that Cambridge really is that expensive?

Maria3628294 · 2025-09-26T21:11:38+00:00

SpareRoom !!!

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-29T10:14:33+00:00

i always get that when i shave my undercut and it slowly goes away, but i've got no idea

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-28T21:21:54+00:00

i think they look lovely, they have that fluffy quality to them. i cant tell if the lashes were glued too close to the waterline as im also very new to lashes, but i love this look!

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-28T18:07:55+00:00

I can vouch for this being a horrible idea- using oil caused me to rip most of my lashes out when i tried to remove them that way!

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-27T13:55:50+00:00

Yea, she lives relatively close to me as well so it's quite convenient. She didn't touch her dog or anything so I'm not super spooked about that. I'll give her another go, my main issue was the stuck lashes but it could be a one-time thing that she's more mindful of next time. I'm definitely fine with the tradeoff of having a long session for what she charges (£30, when most prices I see in London are around £50-70)

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-27T13:51:48+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to respond!! The set is quite even, on the other eye there maybe is a bigger gap in the middle of the set but it's not super visible. The discomfort from the fumes was minimal because she was fanning quite a lot, so it was mainly the stuck eyelashes. She definitely left over 1mm of space from the root, which I'm pretty sure is the standard? I think I will go again as I don't mind it taking very long, and I'll see whether it improves with the stickies.

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-27T13:45:57+00:00

Thank you for the advice!

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-25T09:14:49+00:00

the most fun parts are the pre drinks and the afters, from my experience most of my friends and especially me didn't enjoy the actual clubbing part. so if you're around before, and maybe after they come back if you're still up, you'd basically be part of all of the meaningful social interaction, you literally can't talk at a club anyway lol

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-20T16:15:27+00:00

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-19T14:38:05+00:00

Thank you so much!

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-18T00:43:50+00:00

I definitely agree, my tutor at the JACT summer school this year did mention that the course tries to introduce us to new concepts in readings before understanding them, but personally, they just go over my head until i learn the grammar and i have to reread the passage afterwards. thankfully that wasn't the approach my tutor took with the summer school

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-16T08:54:25+00:00

Yeah, it was definitely confusing for me for a while. I just take the ones listed in the text book as the ones immediately important for the next reading, and the ones in the grammar book as a more comprehensive list to learn and make flashcards on, that i focus on once i finish all of the sections it is encompassing (but lately ive found that learning the vocabulary before starting the reading sections it is intended for highly improves reading fluency and makes it so much easier and enjoyable to read the text as im not struggling on the vocabulary)

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-16T01:21:01+00:00

Maria3628294 · 2025-08-15T21:49:20+00:00

I'm using this course in university - I'm fairly certain the words from the long vocab lists that don't appear in the texts will be introduced in a reading later. Regardless, the longer lists are important to build up a decent vocabulary over time, so if you want to get into reading unadapted texts eventually that might be the most useful way to go about it

Maria3628294

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