What's the longest you've ever worked
 

without a day off?

I'm at 70 days straight now working average 10 to 16 hour days, 2 of which only got 2-3 hours of sleep.

Have to work all weekend but taking it easy.

Shaun,

Sounds like "par for the course" when you are in business for yourself. I've had too many stretches like the one you describe over the years--especially when you're dealing with construction and other opening-related issues with new businesses.

I've got to say though that even though the price you pay for that many days and nights in a row is great; the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment is usually well worth all the time, effort and loss of sleep.

We're in one of these cycles now--a second business open less than a year and a third in planning and permitting. Sleep? Nah.

Best of luck to you and cheers for being so committed to your work.

You need to go on strike and demand better working condition from that lousy no good boss of yours. Demand a raise as well!

Can't think of my longest stretch, but have gone for weeks on end like that. It wasn't as bad when I was working for myself but exhaustion is exhaustion. Have worked many all-nighters including one 38 hour stretch.

I think 10-12 days. But then I've never worked for myself.

Sorta germane...I went 8 yrs. w/o a vacation...self-employed.

At least several years.

I've stopped keeping track. Too depressing.

I typically work at least 1/2 days on weekend days. Perhaps a bit less on holidays.

This is not all that unusual these days, either because one is self-employed, or because employers can demand it because the job market remains so bad in many areas.

Btw, my workday, excluding commuting, is typically at least 12 hrs. My alarm is set for 4am.

I don't mind the long hours so much, but the lack of sleep scares me. On the drive to and from work I've found myself nodding off and lane drifting.

Btw, I'm working right now, multitasking on (3) PC's.

Depends on the criteria...

Worst week: Didn't leave building for 7 days except to run home shower and change. Caught cat-naps in my office. I was running some prototype programs on massive data sets that needed input every 2-3 hours.

Worst month? 400 hours billed. Honest actual working hours.


...and THIS is why I don't have a lot of sympathy for the folks that expect to thrive working 40 hours per week without education and training. Need more money? Get a second JOB!

I never kept track. I know I worked and raced which made the weekend as much work as ever and was back on the job Monday month after month.

Define "a day off".

The nature of my position with the company requires that I am accessible by phone or email 365. And I do get email and calls 365.

I stop by the office every day of the week. Once in a while it is a short stop, but usually I am there for at least a few hours a day.

Even the day I was in the hospital after a plane crash, I was lying on my back answering emails.

A day off? Really, really OFF?
I think the last time I had one of those was in 2009.

Yep! Last "vacation" I recall having was October 2006. Even that was partially work related.
Last day off I remember having, where I did nothing related to work, would have been Christmas.

Be careful, Shaun.

Do deployments count?

Three months, seven days a week, 12 hour shifts.

Also, a 26 hour workday... Not funny...

+1...

angela

Heh...I used to work a job with 24 hour workdays. We'd rotate a 12 hour day, then a 24 hour day, then 2 days off, then repeat. Fun!

I hope the money was good.
Sounds like hell to me. :eek:

Years.


Sounds like you work for someone as bad as I do.

Back when I was a Power Generation Field Engineer, I worked lots of OT. The startup at Pawtucket RI was an OT bonanza.

Let's see. Dec 27, 1990 to March 29th, 1991. And I had been working straight since Thanksgiving. I got "2 days" off for Christmas. And I lost a week of vacation!

5+31+28+29=92

All of January was 100+ hour weeks. I'm pretty sure I maxed out at 108 one week. And yep, I was paid for OT. 1st-wife stole it all!!!

Four + months of 12 on 12 off 7 days a week knowing that if SHTF during the 12 off, I was expected to work/respond anyway.

That was the longest I ever spent out to sea between ports while in the Nav.

I did get a "Beer Day" out of it in the middle of the IO.:D Two lukewarm Buds but, they were GLORIOUS!

171 days of 8hr patrol and 4 hours in TOC every day....we finally got some leave time.....good thing to.....we were about ready to start shooting eachother just to get some down time in medical

Probably 2000 for me, though it might go back to '95.

Today was a vacation day. I was dealing with email starting at 8:30am and set up a couple of pitch sessions this afternoon. Finding money has no down time. I'm forcing myself to take two vacation days a month as I'm maxed out on accrual and am losing days (that is our only "severance" though). If I can get a few more contracts in the door the goal is to try and really take 3 weeks off at xmas. Or I'll be unemployed which could force the issue. As it stands I'm likely letting go of 5 members of my team come end of Oct. The govt is really screwy right now... SmileWavy

Remembered being at Guam AFB (Andersen) in late '65 during the first months of Rolling Thunder (B-52s) and working 18 hrs. on and 6 hrs. off for 4 months straight...then getting 2 full days off. Everyone was constantly pissed off. :mad:
We had a squadron patch that said, "Guam Is Good - by order of the Base Commander"
.
Andersen AFB w/152 B-52s:
.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1377903796.jpg

A half day to a 1st and 2nd generation Greek is 12 hours. Five years ago, I was on a corporate project where we were working 7 days a week for 2 months. We had food catered working till 9pm. On Sundays we started a 5am so we finished at 12pm so the group could go home and watch football.

We finished the project right before Christmas and I came down with a bad case of vertigo. I went to my ENT and helped me get thru it. I asked him if this could be brought on by stress and he said yes. He asked me what I was doing and after hearing my story he asked, "and when are you going to stop?" I don't do that any more. I put my health first. I still work on projects with very tight deadlines but I won't do what I did five years ago.

Shaun - long hours does catch up with you. Be careful.

I had a seven week stretch last year where I billed over 100 hours each week. +1 on it catching up to you, there is a difference between simply not taking days off and working yourself to exhaustion.

I did 6 weeks of 24 hour shifts, day on, day off. At the hospital every #^*%~ day for 6 weeks.....Ah, those were the days!

I had a few runs of 21 days x 10/12 hrs but I nipped it in the bud quickly. I own my own business and these periods made me realize that it was not what I want. I believe in work hard, play hard, and rest easy. My job is pretty cool but it ain't that cool that I am willing to sacrifice everything else for it. The world is simply too grand a place to miss out on. I went on a mission to charge more $$, delegate more, and grind my suppliers more to find a balance between work/play/rest I can live with. So far so good.

I have several friends that work all the time and are very successful but never take time to spend their hard earned cash. That is simply not the life I choose to live. YMMV

83 days straight at sea before hitting port during a 7 1/2 month deployment. However, I was 20 and we went to Australia where the women kept calling me Randy. I never corrected them as apparently Randy gets a lot of sex.

Prolly 5 minutes

7+ months (Desert Shield/Storm) with the USMC...

Iraq deployment. All you had to do was work.

As soon as I saw the words "Do deployments count?" I felt like a heel for complaining about my working hours.

And my time in the service was no comparison to the guys in the sandbox & other places over there right now.

I was in during peacetime, and I either had pretty good (but boring) shore duty or was shipboard with division officers & CPO's who didn't have their heads up their asses - they recognized that extreme fatigue makes for mistakes.

And, of course, I was young, stupid, and invincible.

I was self employed in an industry that closed only on Christmas day for 10 years, 14 hour days 5 days per week, 8 hour days Saturday Sunday........I feel your pain.... and...I love working for someone else now.....do you know they PAY YOU to take THREE WEEKS holidays.....EVERY YEAR!!!!!!!!:D
(the worst, is thinking about all the things and opportunities/vacations my daughter missed out on during that period.....I don't recommend it to anybody)

Yup,I'm like you guys. I have no idea what a vacation is anymore. I don't even take holidays like thanksgiving or Christmas off anymore.

93 hrs since last Sunday, and I barely made it through today with my sanity. looking forward to a day off

It does catch up with you, you change a little, become one-dimensional, and ornery. I was smart enough this August show to stop 3 times for naps while driving to NY, so I learned something.:D Worked all weekend, this is my last week of non-stop work. I can't wait.

Great stories here. Love the picture Don!