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They likely take lunch.

True, but in a salaried job in the UK, it's typical to include those hours in your total (though not if you're paid by the hour). At least in my experience. So if you're "at work" 9-5 M-F, that's still a 40 hour work week.

Status quo for a "40 hour week" at my current employer is 8-5 M-F with an hour lunch. I tried it for six months and decided it was a bad idea.

I was able to renegotiate things to 9-5, but my manager acted like it was this really unusual request and wasn't I lucky that they were willing to let me work "less than 40 hours."

That left me wondering, what do other people consider full time in this industry?

A full hour of lunch? Here it's usual to have half an hour of lunch (09:00 to 17:30 for a 40 hour work week).

Depends on the place -- at least where I've worked around here, lunch breaks have largely coincided with either individual preference, and the proximity to nearby (fairly quick) eateries.

If you're in a part of town, for example, where it takes a 10 minute metro ride to get to the nearest restaurant, it seems illogical to enforce a half hour lunch.

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