I live in Central NY and work as a chemist at a major production plant for a mega-corporation. It's miserable work, far abstracted from any product, but it pays well for the area.
My employment contract is for a 40 hour salaried workweek during regular business hours. Each day we are required to take an hour long lunch, which expands the 8 hour day to a 9 hour day and my 40 hour week to a 45 hour week. While on site, internet access is heavily restricted, sleeping is not allowed, and any there are no recreation/lounge areas for employees to spend their lunch. There is no food offered on site other than snack vending machines, and all nearby food is fast food chains.
The result is me spending my daily lunch eating for 5 minutes, then twiddling my thumbs and scrolling reddit in my cubicle for 55 before going back to work. I feel like I'm wasting 5 hours a week that I could be spending at home, or doing anything that I actually care about.
The 9-5 work day, which was already horse shit, has been expanded to 8-5. While that hour is free time, I can't do most of the things I would like to do. I'd rather be with people I care about, tending to my garden, or just enjoying my time. I live too far from my job to make trips home reasonable.
From what everyone has told me, hour long lunches are a NYS requirement, and it's not something that can be changed. I understand that people need protections in order to get lunches at all, but I feel like all this accomplishes is taking away more of my already too sparse time.
I'm half here to vent, half here to ask for advice. Has anyone been stuck in similar situations? Is there any way to make this better?
Edited for clarity