In my last job (which went on for nearly 20 years) we also had a "45 minutes before and 15 minutes after" requirement and it was perfectly adequate.
In actual practice, most of us reported early for the crack (craic) in the crewroom was wonderful and it truly was a social occasion. Some of the youngsters used to come in an hour early just to listen to guys who had flown the Super Constellation and also to catch up with friends.
All of this was in the middle of the night.
On the other hand, I knew one guy who would arrive in the staff car park 90 minutes before departure and would then sit in his car freezing his b*lls off in the middle of winter so that he could report exactly 45 minutes before rather than come inside and have a hot coffee.
I will give you two guesses as to which of the two was more fun to fly with.
Last edited by JW411; 20th Aug 2012 at 13:55.