Poll: Hours Worked? Comments - too much or too little?
 

I have prided myself in the past on my life work balance but in recent years, it is work work work. I think I need to move 2015 into a more enjoyable balance. I don't want for anything that is even close to critical. I do enjoy my work but don't seem to have time to do things that I say I want to do. I probably work 45 - 60 hours per week counting the interruption on my life that emails cause. I am more productive than all but one of my co-workers but am aware that I am in a role that isn't the best fit for me. I don't plan on changing my role however for many reasons. In a past career, I worked 35 hours or less and was one of the best in the country.

But this is not about me. What about you? How many hours worked and is that too much or too little?

Larry

On average, I'm 55 hours +/- now and that is down from 65+ six years ago. In office between 7-7:30 and leave usually 5-5:30. Eat lunch at my desk everyday - have gone out to lunch five times in six years. Add another hour plus after the kids go to bed 2-3 nights plus 3-5 hours on weekend. I work in investment management and every quarter when companies report earnings, that number goes up. Sometimes significantly. I get five weeks vacation and have to force myself to use them. I think I'll lose 5 days this year, but six years ago i took maybe 10 day, so taking 20 is a big improvement.

I like what I do, but now working for a large company and don't enjoy that part.

40 hours for full time, this semester 6 hours in hte classroom, plus time for grading, office hours (not supposed to be done during FT work, but we all do it), etc. Oh, and I'm taking a class (3 hrs per week), and have to develop a new class for Spring (40-60 hours sometime between now and Jan 5).

I've been retired for just a year now. I pretty much do what I want, when I want (as long as my wife says I can). Life is good.

Full time government under contract 40 hour week... not sure what you mean by 30 hour regular or 40 hour overtime?

I got a new job 3 months ago, so now I work 40-45 depending on the week and I love it. I'm not sure what my hours were before, but I was basically on-call 24/7/365. No more.

It would be interesting to see income versus time invested correlation

Like a hot crazy matrix for hard workers :)

I voted "Retired", but in truth, I'm semi-retired.
In the summer season, I'm putting in about 40 hours a week as a heritage interpreter at the tidal power site and gigging about every two weeks.
I was approached this fall by a baker friend who couldn't find anyone to work a farmers market once/week about an hour away, so Saturdays I'm doing that for him, plus the gigs a couple evenings /month.

In truth, I'm doing no more or no less than I want.
Wasn't it Mark Twain who said, "Work is whatever a body is obliged to do. Play is whatever a body isn't obliged to do."

Best
Les

Been retired 11 yrs, but:
Started working 7 days a week at age 15 in a gas station. That was a break from working on the farm.

Put myself thru college working 40 hrs a week.

For my career, I worked every bit of overtime and extra job I could. I was the scheduler for extra jobs and got my pick. During the holiday season, I would work six weeks straight w/o a day off. Most of those day were 12 to 14 hrs, one was 24 hrs.

Then I hit the wall at about age 45. Tried to do 40 hr week, but some overtime and night-time callouts couldn't be avoided.

Retired at age 52 and haven't had a job in 11 yrs.......I did build a house and do a lot of volunteer work.........

Got out of the Navy with no place to live, a GED, $18 in my bank account, and NO GI bill.
Started working 50+ hours per week and attended night school for 17 years.
First 10 years went every semester; Spring, summer, fall and winter.
Last 7 years just spring and fall.
All that hard work paid off.
Now i work 40 hours per week to the second.
I will knock my grandmother over if she is between me and the door at 4pm. :D

When not on field trips I've always tried to stick to 40 hours. These days I'm a manager and no more field trips. I'll get in the office early but I'm out the door at the crack of 5:00 and don't do anything more than think about work in the off hours. Too many people put family time second.

That's "Full Time Government Defense Contractor/National Laboratory/Military Industrial Complex" actually.

35 - 60 h/wk. Whatever it takes to get the job done. My favorite is traveling on nights, weekends and holidays to be there for that 0730 Monday morning meeting.

I'm not complaining - It's an awesome job. I'll take this over the real world any day!

My emphasis above - the rest fits me to a T. I just have to make sure not to get in BK911's way around 4 pm. ;)

Rostered hours 110 per fortnight: occasionally a bit more with teaching, etc.
(38 to 50 of those hours are nights-like now.)

I used to work three jobs and put the money into investments. It worked out well and haven't had a "real" job since I turned 45. If I do anything it's for myself or volunteer work.

I've been in private practice for 30 years now. 10 years ago I was working 6 days a week for a good decade but I've now hired more associates so I've cut back quite a bit. For the last 5 years I've been practicing 4 days a week (about 28 hrs) and have taken about 8 weeks in holidays including all of August off.

So I guess I'm "partially" retired?

I work 44/36 schedule for the State. Week one: Monday through Thursday 9 hours days and Friday 8 hours. Week two: Monday through Thursday 9 hours and Friday off.

I have no idea either.

^^^^^Don't you understand? ....It's the Gubmint!!!

Right now? I'm salaried, but I get paid 1.5x if I work OT. I work four 10hr days. No on call, sometime have OT available (pretty much always voluntary). Very little OT for the last 6-8 months, for 2 years before that I was working 60hrs/wk (completely voluntarily, did it for the $$$). Previous jobs, mostly 50ish hours, salaried, no OT when you factor in a little extra here and there, on call and projects.

When I was in my early 20s, I worked at a retail parts place that was HUGE in FL. I worked my way up to being a manager in 2 years. I made 21k/year with bonuses, so got another 4-5k in bonuses (was only a manager for about a year before I quit). The manager's minimum schedule was 50hrs/week, but I was told that 90% of the managers couldn't get their job done in that time and should be working 55-60. When I got promoted and realized what sort of BS the job was and how poorly the business was managed, I couldn't wait to get out. The only plus was that I liked my team and a few aspects of the job. I'm glad I'm capable and was able to get far, far away from that sort of gig.

I'm a 2nd generation Greek American. To a Greek American a half day is 12 hours. I'm 64 yrs old and I still have nightmares about working for family businesses when I was a kid.

I still use the half day line........when I want to mess with someone.

50-60/week. Startup. There is an upside, but it isn't personal time.

Work life balance? WTF? Isn't work life too? It is for me.

It hits me hardest when I miss out on family events and hunting ...

G

I'm in hvac mostly doing commercial boiler water heater installations and service. I work mainly 40 hrs. per week.
I'm near the end of the road, I'm retiring in 3 months, (I'm 55) then I can do what I want.

I'm an entrepreneur. I don't know the difference between work and not-work. I'm pretty much "on" 24-7. I haven't had a vacation in decades, but then again I haven't taken a non-business trip to Europe or the Caribbean in decades either. It's all just life to me.

37.5 hour government employee. OT for my job title was just approved, so that may shift up a little bit. There is enough work that I could easily fill 60+ hours a week. Not that I plan on doing that. I value time home with the family way too much for that.

As a younger man I did 50-60 hrs a week. But after getting passed over a few times I put in the standard 40 and no more than that. Now at 62 I do 37.5, by the book.

By hours, I probably only "work" about 40 hrs per week. It tends to be a full 40 hrs, though. For lack of time, I probably only eat lunch about twice per week. I have 4 weeks of vacation allotted, but I usually only use 2 weeks, with a third week for work-related conferences.

I try to avoid the on-call 24/7/365 scenarios, too. It's one thing to cover yourself all the time. It's another to be covering anything and everything at all times.

Still better than in residency, though. That was about 100-110 hours per week for 5 years. It's a grim discovery, during intern year, that you're making less than minimum wage.

I used to do 70-80 hours a week without fail. Of course this was back in the mid-2000s and it was a different world back then. I lived about 10 minutes from work so that helped. I would go in on Saturdays and Sundays routinely for a while, then have the rest of the day to enjoy. It really wasn't bad, I was making money hand over fist, etc. But it does wear you down over the long term.

Now it's a much different situation. Typical work week is about 45-50 hours, about half of which I consider wasted in meetings (I don't consider meetings productive at all - even when they do have agendas and where you leave with action items). I refuse to work Saturday or Sunday ever. I'll sometimes stay in the office until 7 or 8 but I'll never work a weekend again for anyone other than myself.

Historically I never really took vacations either - I might take a day here or there for whatever but I had a decent enough quality of life I just never really felt the burning urge to go somewhere else and just blow a lot of money for the sake of it. Now I feel a bit different. There are other people in my life now that I want to spend time with and build meaningful memories with (something other than day-to-day) and let's face it - living in New England just plain sucks a lot of the time so it's nice to get away and I see value in it. I also get a ton of vacation time now (never had that before, it was always a week per year or two weeks after you'd been there a year or whatever) so that helps. I have a ton of it banked too - maybe 8 weeks (?) which is nice if things ever went south or for when I finally leave so I can still have money coming in while I'm relocating, etc.

I figure I'll be here another 1-5 years and then be off to a different locale, new job, etc. (things are going that way now, I just need to feel like I've gotten out of being here what I can). Once that happens I'll reassess vacations, time off, etc. since it's all so situational-dependent.

The last week or so has been bad.
Mon 24 hrs
Tues 6 hrs
Wed 24 hrs
Thurs 8 hrs
Fri 14 hrs
Sat 24 hrs
Sun 24 hrs
Mon 8 hrs
Tues 10 hrs
Wed today will be 24 hrs

Not great

I did about 80 hours a week on my govt job...no overtime (first military then civil service) for almost 40 years (although I was only paid for 40 hrs). I use much of my vacation time to do reserve duty,

During sequestration last year, I stayed at home (and worked) with the TV on in my study... and saw (24 hrs a day) that my employer (both elected leaders and ordinary taxpayers) believed I was lazy, stupid, underworked and overpaid. Now I work exactly 40...what I am paid for.

If your poll choices were intended to insult government employees, congratulations.

Flintsone. Ok. I am an ass. I apologize. My humor button overrode my good taste button. My father was Corps of Engineers for 35+ years. A HS buddie was active Army for 25+. My wife was a work-a-holic teacher. All gave huge contributions to the US over their personal lives. Again, I made an error.

Please forgive. I recognize that many many government workers are exceptional. Somehow, I only seemed to remember to complete losers and made some smart aleck postings.

Thank you for your and millions of other's service. I DO appreciate it.

Larry

Larry

Apology accepted. You are a heck of a man to admit a mistake as most of us who post here would never even consider we might be even a little wrong. Heck, I am often an ass and rarely apologize. Good for you.

I was not hurt, but many folks who know nothing of the hard work and sacrifice that many federal employees make (yes some are dirt bags) are influenced by the constant scapegoating by elected officials and the media...so I just wanted to make my point. It really was funny, but since there was no category for govt employeees (and there are many who post here) who worked 40 hours or more , it made any statistics automatically make them look bad. Lot of folks read the PP threads and some form opinons based on what they read here.

Many tend to lump all feds wth the guys that are prosecuted (because they break the rules that millions of others uphold) and the DMV (not feds) who kept us waiting to get new plates.

Thank you for the kind words and happy Thanksgiving.

8 1/2 years ago I joined this company and ago I had it made.
Making very good money and working what many would consider part-time. Basically an in-house consultant.
But I was too happy and companies don't like that ;)

three promotions later (that I didn't ask for and didn't really want) my annual income has increased 250% but my hours worked per week has almost doubled and it isn't anywhere near as fun as it used to be. Even when I'm at home I'm involved with the plant.
My e-mails and calendar etc on my phone are tied directly to my work computer.

I plan to do the early retirement thing in 2022 but wouldn't mind trimming down the hours before then.

Slacker! ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1417018310.jpg

Dude. No offense, but you ain't doing it right.
:eek:

last week was 102.75

i am tired

normal week for me is 50-

ran the engine to the red line and still made good decisions managing a full stage crew-

This is pretty much a good example of my day. Technology blurs the line, so work hours are subjective. I am in the office from 8:00 to 6:00 most days, but spend another hour or two each day using technology to answer email, review documents, and talk to people.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1417020121.jpg

40 hours a week every week for 7 years now. With about 40 days of vacation time annually (paid, unpaid, holidays). I love my job and my employer but my life is more important than my job!

I'm a designer in oil/gas.
Big number on just now designing the shale (Ethane) gas terminal that will bring the gas from the U.S. to Scotland.
Excluding travelling I'm 55 hour weeks but once this is out the way, reckon I'll spend a lot longer chillig.

That's not human.
Guy

This is not human either.
Guy