How many hours do you work a week (come on vote!! - it only takes a second)

[nostatic]

MRM, my wife's minimum billable is 2000 hours (she billed 200 last month). On the plus side (maybe), salary and bonuses are lockstep for associates.

And it could be worse. I've read about some firms with minimums up above 2300 hours. Totally nuts. Another reason I like slacking in academia...

[N11Porsche]

This Porsche community is a real "slice of life". From business owners to Cops & Firefighters, musicians to game wardens, business executives to Hollywood screen writers, college students to retired p-car owners, executives to mechanics, etc. We all have that common bond and no one's talking down. Only a "few" attitudes. Those are the factors that keep me comming back here.

Oh, me. Retired firefighter (30 years) and owned a business for 20 years. What do I do now, at57, the p-car thing, ride my road and mountain bikes 8000 miles a year, play with the grandkids and smell the roses with Marilyn

[campbellcj]

I'm kind of in the same boat as Curt, i.e. as CEO/partner in a small family-owned company, work, play and day-to-day life all blend together to a large degree. I solve work problems while eating dinner or even in my sleep, and I play on the Pelican BBS and window-shop race car parts while taking a breather at the office. Some weeks are 70-90 hours and others are barely 30. It all seems to balance out reasonably well...

As Mel Brooks said "it's good to be the king". It would be very, very hard to go work a normal day job reporting to some faceless corporate bureaucracy at this point.

[carreradpt]

When I am home 40 hrs a week is the standard. On the road is slightly different. Just returned from a "typical trip" with 24+hr days being the away standard. Operating out of Gemany this go around helped us keep our sanity. Just can't get enough of those P-cars zooming on by, hefeweizen, brats and rumpsteak! Work can be hell.

[Milu]

As I work for myself I put in crazy hours for weeks at a time and then have the luxury of goofing off for weeks at a time.

[Isabo]

Milu
I see you goofing off for weeks at a time, I'm just a bit curious about you working. Have you ever tried it?

[Milu]

I don't believe in working for the sake of it or in "make work".

I work no more than necessary to earn enough for my simple, basic needs.

What's your excuse?

[Isabo]

MY EXCUSE?

Marrying one of those men my mother warned me about and working for another one!

[atlporsche]

I put my time in on the race team.

having been unemployed for a year, I've been working again for 6 months designing rainwater runoff sampling equipment.

my motto "8 and skate"

sjd

[cstreit]

Hmm I work in software sales... Previously consulting.

My hours change during a fiscal quarter. Usually 60 hours per week ramping up to 75-80 per week as the weeks of a quarter go by.

I primarily work from the home office or am out on the road. Used to be 4 days per week travel, now averages 3 I would guess...

Perfect job, keeps me out of an office (did that corporate drone thing in downtown CHicago for 7 years) and always changing.

I think the last time I worked less than 45-50 hours per week was 6-8 years ago.

[gregk1]

I work 40 hours and that's ALL FOLKS!!! They ask me every week, But I turn them down, I leave it for all the Married Guys or more yet all the divoriced guys there are a lot more of them now days I havent worked a weekend in almost 4 years YAHOO!!

[Drew_K]

MRM & Nostatic,

I'm an associate at one of the large national firms. My minimum billable is 1950, which is better than the firm I used to work at that required 2000 (but really wanted 2200) and paid me about 20% less. I'm so used to leaving work after 7 that I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had an 8 to 5 job, but I'm sure I would figure it out.

[lendaddy]

Huh, ineteresting. Although I've noticed zero time for Porsche wrenching lately I hadn't really added it up (when it's your business, your mindset changes and you just don't think hourly anymore). Anyway usually 50 -55 I would say for the last 10 years or so. this year has been horrible for business and we are finally coming around but I have been here every day for 3 months straight. Probably 75 or so per week during this period. Whatever, I dont have any kids and I kinda enoy it really. Plus I always cut out a little me time to surf here etc. This reminds me that I have my 930 engine on a stand in the garage!! egads

[rvanderpyl]

Well I picked less than 20, but is pretty variable. I work for myself and if I have a big project going I might do 10 hours days, 6 days a week for a couple of weeks then slack off and put in a day a week for a while. About 8 years ago I did a project that took 6 months, I was working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, and this was basicaly a 'spec' project that paid very little while I was doing it, but had the possibility of a big payoff. Well it never happened and ever since I have decided that that level of investment just wasn't worth the return, even if it does pay off. So know I only do what people are willing to pay for, and I put work about third in my priority list.

Although for the last 6 months I have been building a house which is more than a full time job in itself. Guess that's different though.

[Vipergrün]

Recently laid off from the tech industry, so free time for now. Actually, between a new baby, job hunting, work around the house, a 2 year old son, Porsche projects, I don't have *that* much free time. Dang, how did I fit a job in before

Anyone hiring a unix/oracle dood?

[DByers]

I am in the 40-50 hour + club depending on projects. Right now with some of my guys on vacation and out sick I'm stuck in the office more than I should be. Lets me surf Pelican though.

[Randy W]

As a professional location photographer, my hours vary and blend into everything else I do - similar to Curt and others. I'll admit my actual hours are less now than they were when I started my photo career 20 years ago: worked 40 hrs a week as an optometrist plus 40 hours a week as a photographer, in the same week. That was rough. Not as rough as the 120 hours a week I did as a King Crab fisherman in the Bering Sea in '80 though! Of course, I've never had a bank manager ask if he could personally help me when making a deposit since then either! Unbelievable, now that I look back on it...

Glad I have some "free" time to play now, thanks to the investments I made while working my ass off earlier. I hope all you guys are as lucky as I've been.

[Sarah]

I'm in the Monday-Friday 8am-5pm traffic to and from work group.

I can be busy all day long doing layouts and tracking orders to job sites or it can be really slow and I have lots of time on my hands and have to look for misc. things to do.

BUT...I used to have a very stressful job where I was M-F, on-call evenings and weekends and would have to drive or fly places on short notice......Boy do I love not having a beeper anymore!!

[pbs911]

I've read about some firms with minimums up above 2300 hours.

That's nuts for anything less than half a mil a year, and I know no one who works for someone else who makes that. IMHO, it's just not worth the loss of personal time if you are working for someone else. If it's your own business that's another story. I have friends I NEVER see or are canceling appointments at the last minute because they have 2000 plus billible hours.

not being in the office, answering the phone, responding to inane questions

And people wonder why their phone calls are not returned. It's because those subjected to billable hours don't get paid for it.
IMO, if you are working your working, it shouldn't matter how long someone else thinks it should take to do a job. It takes as long as it takes and the firm should bill accordingly.

The funny thing is this sort of lunicy perpetuates itself because there are people who will put in these hours. If everyone said 40 hours and that's it, that would be it. It's time to thrown the tea in the harbor!

End of rant, but this really disturbes me.

[Porsche911NYC]

Let's see,
I have my own Investment Management firm on Wall Street;
I'm an Adjunct Professor at a major University; and
I'm working on my Ph.D.

I've never been a clock-watcher (read 9-to-5er).
There's plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.

Semper Fi to all my fellow Marines; 227-years-old and still going strong.