How many hours a week do you work?
 

I've been reading a few posts of late about the cars we're restoring. Some of you guys are putting in some serious hours on top of work requirements...

I recognise that I live and work in one of the luckiest countries in the world (but not the USA) and only have to put in 36.25 hours per week to fulfil my obligations. I was just wondering what you guys are required to put in as a minimum where you work?

Cheers

40

I am supposed to work 40, but was told that I am "expected" by management to work substantially more. I usually work 45-50 hours/week. Sometimes more - never less. I work with some people that routinely put in 10-12 hours a day and then come in on the weekends. I've worked as much as 16 hours a day, but that is only in rare circumstances

that's something that i always wondered about

do people in the US just do overtime and not get payed for it??

Get paid for 40. As far as actually working, well......

Don't forget to add the time to get dressed in the morning to get ready for work. or the time commuting, back and forth, or the time for lunch.
Usually most of the day is gone.

Someone explain being "exempt" to Stijn...

eeh , why don't you? what does excempt mean when it comes to overtime?

Salaried employee. By the contract I am requried to put in 40 a week, and most weeks only put in 40, but when I am out supporting deploying units I will put in up to 80.

Most salaried positions don't pay OT.

My "on paper" work week is 37.5 hrs, but every couple of months I'll put in a week or two of 50+ hrs when we have a project getting ready for launch.

When I took the position they explained that the extra hours were already taken into consideration with the salary. Plus I have flexibility to skip out early or take a day here or there, outside of vacation.

Next year I'll have enough years in to 4 weeks vacation

"Exempt" means that salaried people are exempt from the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA sets requirements like break times, hours per day that can be worked, overtime pay, pay on weekends, etc. It really only applies to hourly workers. Salaried people are at the mercy of management, to a great extent. There is flexibility, but I would hazard a guess that many (most?) Americans are working more than 40 hours a week and not getting paid for the extra time. I know I don't. It's "expected".

so there is a difference, over here, salaried is still a fixed amount of hours, give or take a few, it's not that we claim every minute, an hour or 2 in a busy week is not something we make an issue out
but 50 hour weeks, fogetabout it, that's overtime

boss can expect what he wants, we expect overtime pay , strict laws a bout it , it can't even be forced

we get 30 days vacation , not including overtime compensation


note, managers are then "excempt" over here to a certain extent
but i don't rate that, they have no soul, at least mine doesn't

This is a huge +. I do love that fact, especially when it is slow at the office and beach weather here, I am out the door.

well, we get that flexibility too, we have more holidays, and any overtime we do, can be recouped that way

depends on the manager, but i'm sure it's no different there, right?

there is also the salary difference, from what i hear , collegues of mine in the US , get a lot more it's only the exchange rate that kind of evens it out, but not quite...

yet housing, fuel , food stuff is all more expensive here
but we get cheaper health care (a grand a year, comes of the gross part of the salary, so it's tax free)

and all 30 holidays are payed, and many get a 13th month on top of it

so i think all in all, it's a different package, but not that much different in value of the package...

Yep. The other side of the coin is that I've had to reschedule vacation based on stuff that pops up at work.

Essentially, they are willing to pay a bit more and be flexible, but I am expected to be flexible as well. Great arrangement as long as neither side is taking advantage.

10 stat holidays (+2 "floaters") + 3 weeks

You bet. I've worked under 4 different managers at this company. Completely different each time.

It wouldn't be such a huge + if you were getting 30 vacation days a year instead of the 15 your probably getting now.

In terms of work hours, the Europeans have it all over us. I used to work for a Belgian company. It seemed there were 3 and 4 day weekend holidays every month...sometimes twice in a month. Also, there is the 3 week summer holiday that is often extended to 4 or 5 weeks.

I get 10 working days of vacation each year. When I hit 5 years, I get 15. Whoopie.

9 Paid Holidays + 240 Hours (30 Days) vacation. I have been with my company for 5 yrs.

I had to be with my company for 10 years before I got more than 2 weeks of vacation per year. I have been here 18 years now and am up to 20 days (I'm maxed out).

40 to 50 hours a week - have seen as high as 90 (salary)
9 paid holidays
3 weeks vacation (get a 4th next year)
5 i am sick of work days

on call 24/7

get a pretty nice bonus at the end of the year split between cash and stock (average of about 2.5 months of pay and as high as 3.5 months pay)

I am maxed out at 30 days

Man, I need to stop working for myself.

I work about 80 hours/week, but I take a lot of time off. I take at least 4 week-
long vacations and lots of 3 and 4 day weekends. It's a work hard/play hard thing.

My schedule is flexible and I work from home / the road / and one day in the office each week. Many days are standard 8 hour days, but when I travel I typically go from 8 to 8. I have tried my best to keep around 40hr/week. In the weeks where I travel or have after hours events I typically take Friday afternoon off.

After 3 years I have;
Vacation time - 15 days
celebration days (?) - 2 days
Personal days - 6 days
I also carried over 5 vacation days from last year.

Pay isnt great but relatively stress free and good family time. I work for a US based company BTW

None at the moment.

The best stretch I had was compiling 460 comp hours over the course of 140 calendar days. We only had to work Saturday and Sunday twice during that time, so in reality it was 106 days and 460 hours overtime. Most days were 9-10 hour days, several were 16-17, three or four were 20-21 hour days.

When it is over, you shut down mentally and physically for a few days.

40-50 hours plus 10-20 hours commuting.

Exempt, probably 20 real hours of work each week. The rest is spent golfing and entertaining folks. even with that I don't really ever work past 3, and never get until around 9. I do however get my work done, and that's all that really counts here. I do travel a lot, and I don't count "airplane hours."

4 weeks of vacation
9 floating holidays
2 weeks of sick time.

Salary = no over time here
40+ not including 1 hr for lunch. Sometimes it's 10hr days, but in the summer every Monday we leave at 3:30 and play 9 holes of golf with the managers/owners. Good exposure at high levels.

10 days until 5 years then 15 days.

8 -paid holidays
2- personal days

I lost 5 days of vacation moving to the latest job, but the people are much better to work with and that I think is the key to enjoying your work.

Start getting ready for work about 7AM, usually not home until about 8PM or so - six days a week usually, sometimes seven.

That doesn't even begin to consider a couple of side projects I'm doing.

NOT a complaint either. I've seen this industry from both the "boom" and "bust" perspectives. I'd MUCH rather be too busy (like I am now) than not busy enough. You'll never hear me gripe about it. When I hear younger guys in our office complaining about it, I usually scold them and caution them to "be careful what you wish for - you just might get it". Being too busy is infinitely better than sitting around unemployed with no way to pay the bills.

Now--

Salary

8-5 or 7-4 or 9-6 5 days a week. Occasionally I work a little extra here and there. EXCEPT when I'm on call. Then it could be an extra 8-25 hours in a week, but we are compensated for being on-call.

Back in the day ('94-'95)

I used to manage an auto parts store that was a lot like Autozone or Advanced Auto. Folks in Florida are probably familiar with Discount Auto Parts. Then I was making $21k a year plus bonuses (about $4-5k a year) and was working anywhere from 60-->90 hours a week. The norm was usually 65-70 hours a week. As a manager we had a minimum of 50 hours a week, but we were told that the minimum wasn't really attainable by 99% of the managers and so they expected 60 hours a week.

Here, Here!!!

At my last job they hadn't handed out raises in 3 years. Everytime someone complained about that I told them to be glad they still had a job at all. It never seemed to matter, they still complained.

Work 30. Payed for 40.

0. I quit my job a month ago. I do work alot more around the house now. I'm now a house dad and my wife supports me. I am fortunate to be in this position. Plus I get more mid-week track days.
Dave

i work in the automotive parts business...we get hardly any days off..personally, i will not work over 40 hrs...not worth the investments as there is no loyalty in the business.

Sun-up to sun-down. Sometimes it's work-work, sometimes it's work-work-work, and sometimes just work. It's all work. Even not working is work. Work is a wierd word. Work WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork WorkWork Work

OK, Burnin' oil is off his meds again. Or maybe he's found some new, improved, better meds. Hard to say really.

Zero...:D

Thought burnin oil was going to start

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.

Usually 40, but for example, they're doing some serious stunt work on National Treasue 2 and crew call is 7:45 PM tonight, so I'll probably work late and take some or all of tomorrow off. Same thing tomorrow night and Friday night. I'm salaried so no overtime. Overall, I don't feel like I get screwed. Where I do get short changed is when I travel, then I miss out on being at home evenings and weekends to catch up on projects.

All I have to say is this:

Look at my post count.