HRSINGAPORE Community Discussions

Question

Hi HR practitioners,

Our half day working hours is 9 am to 1 pm and 1 pm to 6 pm. Is this common? An employee highlighted that she did not have time to go for lunch when taking the morning off and suggested we change the PM half day hours to 2 pm to 6 pm. Can you share what's your company's policy?

Linda

Reply 1

1) Working hours: 8 am – 530pm,
Morning half day: 8 am – 145pm
Afternoon half day : 1245pm – 530pm

2) Working hours: 815am – 6 pm
Morning half day: 815am – 145pm
Afternoon half day : 1230pm – 6pm

Emily

Reply 2

Our half-day policy is:

9:00am to 1:00pm = 4 hours

2:00pm to 6:00pm = 4 hours

That makes a total of 8 working hours.

LT

Reply 3

If daily working hrs is 9 am to 6 pm, then half day leave as below:

9am to 1pm or 2pm to 6pm

No lunch break on half day leave.

Nicole

Reply 4

The half-day should be from 9 am to 1 pm or 2 pm to 6 pm. Work at least 4 hours a day.

Eunice

Reply 5

Why 4 working hrs in the morning [9am-1pm] and longer working hours [1-6pm] for the afternoon shift? We practice each 4 working hrs for morning and afternoon [2-6pm].

Rose

Reply 6

9 am to 1 pm is 4 hours, while 1 pm to 6 pm is 5 hours, this is already more than half a day.

If the employee’s working hours are 8 hours per day, then it makes sense that the afternoon starts from 2 pm to 6 pm (which is 4 hours).

Sharon

Reply 7

Our company pm leave is from 2 to 6 pm. It is 4 working hours in the morning and 4 working hours in the afternoon.

Dan

Reply 8

The half-day should be from 9 am to 1 pm (4 hours) and 2 pm to 6 pm (4 hours).

GL

Reply 9

Our working hours is 8.30am to 5.45pm.

For half-day leave application, working hours as follows:

Morning Leave - 1.30pm to 5.45pm
Afternoon Leave - 8.30am to 12.45pm

NL

Reply 10

You have to minus off the lunch hour. Our half day timing is:

Morning half - 8.00am to 12.30pm but staff report to work by 1.00pm because 12.30pm to 1.00pm is lunch time.

Afternoon half - 1.00pm to 5.15pm but staff can leave the office at 12.30pm because is lunch time

The 1/2 hr difference is our lunch hour.

Munjit

Reply 11

Our working hours are 9 am to 6 pm, with one hour lunch. Hence actual working hours are 8 hours per day. Morning leave is between 9 am and 1 pm (4 hours) and afternoon leave is between 2 pm and 6 pm (4 hours).

AL

Reply 12

Our half day working hours are either 9 am - 1 pm or 2 pm - 6 pm. This is factoring that on a normal full day, the hours are between 9 am - 6 pm and there is 1hr lunch included. So in total, there are only 8 working hours.

JN

Reply 13

Normally depends on your company policy for lunch and work hours, since lunch is unpaid.
However, if your timing is 9-1pm and 1pm-6pm, it is a little strange. The morning would be 4 hours and the afternoon would be 5 hours.

4 hours split each way should be reasonable starting at 2 pm unless there are specific reasons why you need staff to start at 1 pm. As for the employee saying they do not have time for lunch, it should be up to them to around the company hours.

RC

Reply 14

If the employee takes the morning off, he/she will have to plan her own lunch and report work at 1 pm sharp. If the employee takes the afternoon off, he/she will leave the office at 1 pm and then take his/her lunch.

Carol

Reply 15

We work at least 4 hrs on Half-day. So, that's 0900 - 1300 hrs & 1400 - 1800 hrs.

Rachelle

Reply 16

So what is your company’s official lunch break? If the lunch break is one hour, your employee’s proposal is spot on. FYI, lunch break is not counted as office hours!

BO