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A Day in the Life of a Young Sheffield Steel Worker
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Hours: How many hours I work each week

Hours: How many hours I work each week

2000:
Well since we are on our first year, we will normally do eight till four, Monday to Friday. Well the original clocking machines are still there but obviously they are redundant now. You can still hear it clicking every so often, every minute but we actually get this um, it's like a small device. On the first day they gave us all a swipe card and when you're clocking in and out all you have to do is swipe it straight down. And as long as you are on time you are all right.

1950s:
48 hours then. You had to work Saturday morning, five days and Saturday morning. You’d make up to 48 hours we'd work an extra hour on a Wednesday night. We used to work until six on a Wednesday night.

1850s:
I spoke to a number of workers about the hours worked. In the iron and steel works the hours are moderate, being 60 hours a week. A period of 12 hours less stoppages is the established rule each day but there are often no regular hours sometimes working from six in the morning until nine at night and on Fridays until 9.30 to finish for Saturday but not working much at the beginning of the week, maybe only half a day on Monday according to the work.