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

[Milu]

Billed hours do not always relate to clock hours.

You know the story about the management consultant who died and went to the pearly gates and met with St Peter, St Peter checked the files and asked hin how old he was when he died. The man replied 70.
St Peter then said: well according to your billing records you should have been here 30 years ago.

Sometimes it's a con, sometimes experience teachs us a lot of shortcuts. Sometimes the client sees half an hour, is charged for a morning complains about parasites and the reality was a lot of midnight oil and professional consultation that goes way beyond what the client was charged.

[GeorgeM]

There wasn't a category for the number of hours I work... 24 a day.

As Leland, FA-18C, and those of you who were/are in the military will attest, it's not a job, it's a life. My only personal experience is the Navy (as a Navy guy and son of one), but I'm sure the other branches are similar.

Whether we like it or not, when it comes down to it, the Navy comes before anything else in our lives. If the boss says go, we go, regardless of anything else that is going on in our lives.

To me, that translates to 24 hours a day.

[rvanderpyl]

2300 hours?

"There is no such thing as 1/4 of an hour, it's 1/2 an hour"
"Photo copying takes time"
"I want to bill as much as I can before I die"
"Phone calls never last less than 1/2 an hour"

Some of many managing partner sayings....

In actual fact if I bill 4 hours I may have actually only spent 2 hours doing work. However I have been programming for 24 years, I have a huge data base of re-usable code, and I know the software I modify better than the programmers at the company who writes it. If I can do something in 1/2 the time as someone else I see no reason to not charge the same amount of money that they would. Reality is that I should be charging far more per hour than I do, but I could never sell a new client telling them that my rate was that much. Not when other companies would be 1/2 the price. So it all works out, I make the same money as a less experienced programmer, but I work half as hard. And I like it that way.

[MRM]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts and send my regards to the others who are working away on billable hours even as we speak. Nostatic, send your wife my best, DrewK, I feel for you, I've been where you both are. 200 hours a month means that out of 30 days in a month, you worked 10 hours a day in 20 of them.

I did not mean to say that my current situation is bad. I actually enjoy what I do and enjoy working (alsmost) as much as I do. I have been a government lawyer, associate in a large firm, and am now corporate counsel to a large insurer, so I've seen quite a few different ways to skin the same cat. I am in-house, but I still have to bill my time just as though I was in a private firm. But life is good; I have a steady employer who expects me to bill the time I actually spend doing the task (with a little cutting back to show I am giving good value) gives me a pension and a 401(k) with match, a reasonable salary and potential bonuses. And with a little planning, I can get my hours in and work done by getting in at 8, working steadily until 5 or 6, and a couple of weekend afternoons each month. So that leaves me enough time for the family and some cruising with Baby. I've been where it was worse.

So if I do this for about 10 more years I can retire early and the rest is mine. In the mean time, I have a 5 year plan to trade Baby in for a 930 . . . .

[makaio]

I work a 72 hour work week (3 days straight) every week. During a busy summer it's common to work 3-4 weeks straight, with no time off. But then again, I love my job

[LeeH]

How many hours do I work. Hmmmm... I don't see my situation represented on the poll.

I'm a full time stay at home dad to a 2.5 year old. So either I don't work at all, or I work all the time - depending on your definition of work.

I've worked for two different start up communications/marketing companies (that both flopped) and I've owned my own business (which was a great success). Selling my business was probably the closest I'll ever come to winning the lottery.

[Jeff]

I'm sort of in the same boat as Lee. 7yrs ago my wife and I started a business and worked 90-95 hours a week. Almost 3 years ago, with our business stable and a newborn, I had the opportunity to start a business out of my home. This worked out well, my wife and I don't work together anymore (although we were great business partners we found we had nothing to talk about when we were home) and I can be at home to raise our two kids.

My work load varies. Sometimes no hours a week (except for kid duty), to working late into the night after the wife can releive me of my duties.

[dd74]

But then watching and writing about cartoons can in no way be called work, so I have little idea what my real hours are.

To be sure, 10-5 goes by pretty fast when you're splitting your sides in laughter.

[Wayne 962]

Where's the 80-100 hours a week category?

Of course, scrolling on this BBS is considered work (at least it is by my wife...)

-Wayne