How many hours per week do you work?

[kork13]

While in the military we worked until the mission was accomplished. Sometimes that meant 18 hours / day, 7 days / week for weeks or months at a time. I made a rough calculation once while on cruise and figured I made about $0.05 an hour.

That sums up work for me. I normally do 45-50 hrs/wk, but it doesn't really matter. I'm salaried, and the mission may require longer hours, and that's just how it goes. On bad weeks (like when we get put into alert), I've done in excess of 60-70 hrs.

That's also one reason (of a few) that I'm strongly considering leaving active duty. The lack of predictably prevents me from making commitments, planning vacations, and even just being able to reliably pick up my kids on-time from daycare. Not to mention, I'd LOVE a job that stays at the office & doesn't force me to bring work issues home nearly every day.

[phantom]

I'm salaried, and I stay pretty close to 40 hours/week. Sometimes, I'll lose track of time or get busy at the end of the day and stay a few minutes late. Rarely, I'll have something really important to take care of in the evening or on a weekend. Sometimes, I'll work through lunch to get something done. But, there are other times I come in a little late. Sometimes, I'll take a long lunch playing a board game with co-workers or running an errand.

No one pays attention to exactly how much time I spend in the office, and as long as I'm getting things done and staying responsive, no one really cares.

[Fishindude77]

I was always self employed and usually worked at least 10 hours per day, plus a short Saturday or an evening pretty routinely.

Most of the good salaried employees were not clock watchers. They usually came in at least an hour early to have some uninterrupted time and often stayed late as well. They did what was needed to keep their projects under control. If they bailed out early on a Friday after a good weeks work or took off early one day for a kids ball game nobody cared as they were certainly putting in their fair share.

The clock watchers that come rolling into the office at 7:55, take the full one hour (or more) for lunch, then hit the door running at 5:01 were kind of looked down upon. Unfortunately, almost all of the younger generation now operates this way. If it comes down to staying late or just turning in a project late they won't make the personal sacrifice, the project will just be late.

[corn18]

I was always self employed and usually worked at least 10 hours per day, plus a short Saturday or an evening pretty routinely.

Most of the good salaried employees were not clock watchers. They usually came in at least an hour early to have some uninterrupted time and often stayed late as well. They did what was needed to keep their projects under control. If they bailed out early on a Friday after a good weeks work or took off early one day for a kids ball game nobody cared as they were certainly putting in their fair share.

The clock watchers that come rolling into the office at 7:55, take the full one hour (or more) for lunch, then hit the door running at 5:01 were kind of looked down upon. Unfortunately, almost all of the younger generation now operates this way. If it comes down to staying late or just turning in a project late they won't make the personal sacrifice, the project will just be late.

If everyone or anyone has to work more than 40 hours / week (2,080 hours / year) to get the job done, then there is something wrong.

At my plant last year, we used overtime to meet deliveries. Worked overtime every weekend. And paid them well for it. We assumed most employees liked it.

At the beginning of this year, we decided to do a better job of forecasting deliveries so we could level load the factory. The result was remarkable. We are now at zero overtime. We thought the workforce would be unhappy because the opportunity for overtime went away. A few grumbled initially, but now they are a much happier and much more productive work force. On Time Delivery went from 34% to 99% (this makes the customer happy). Roll throughput yields went from 64% to 80% (less scrap, saves money, good for worker moral when they aren't building scrap). And the workforce celebrates each day when they hit their production target.

We are now taking the same approach to salaried employees. I owe them a plan where their workload averages 40 hours / week. Anything more is me taking advantage of them. I do get an input on what we think can be accomplished in those 40 hours, so it's not a one way street.

[Budget Kitty]

Overtime just isn't sustainable for the long haul. Most people get worn down and don't want to do it anymore. When I was younger I didn't mind working lots of overtime, but now that I have kids and other responsibilities I'd rther be home.

That said, I am a manager of a team that works a lot of OT. I'd love to hire someone to ease the workload and we'd probably end up ahead of the game in the long run because overtime expenses would be reduced, but corporate America likes to run lean and squeeze everything they can.

[AJ444]

45-50 hours per week.

I'm a salaried manager so I put in 45 hours a week in the office to cover all of the time my employees are there with different start times.

The other 5 typically come at home with conference calls with our Global subsidiaries that happen outside of US business hours. I've been in a Global role my entire career so that has always been a factor.

[disneysteve]

The clock watchers that come rolling into the office at 7:55, take the full one hour (or more) for lunch, then hit the door running at 5:01 were kind of looked down upon. Unfortunately, almost all of the younger generation now operates this way.

When I was younger I didn't mind working lots of overtime, but now that I have kids and other responsibilities I'd rther be home.

I am not a fan of millennial bashing. It's always in vogue to blame everything on the younger generation but that really hasn't been my experience. I think what Budget Kitty said is much more accurate. I'm the same way. When I was younger, I worked as much as I needed to work. Now, I'm 53 and don't want to do that anymore. I want to have a life outside of the office. I want down time. I want family time. I want to have time for non-work pursuits, social activities, travel, whatever.

What I do think is true is that each successive generation arrives at that point a little earlier and that's largely due to steadily increasing affluence in our society. In my career, medicine, the old docs love to complain about the young docs not wanting to work 80 hours a week anymore like they did at their age. But why is that a bad thing? You have to be a special kind of stupid to do that willingly and happily. When those old guys were coming up, they never saw their children, never attended sporting events, school conferences, dance recitals, etc. They missed most big family gatherings. And vacation might have consisted of a few days at the beach. My generation and those that have come after me aren't willing to live that way. We want balance. We want to be involved in our children's lives. We want to spend time with our friends and families, travel, be active in our communities. Yes we could earn more money if we worked non-stop but that is not our priority like it was for our predecessors and that's a good thing.

[corn18]

The interns we have been getting at my company are fantastic. Creative, motivated and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Work ethic is also great. If they represent their generation, we are in very good hands.

[amarowsky]

Salary. Very very rarely work less than 40 per week. We don't get overtime.

I think I average closer to 45 a week. This doesn't include 1 hour lunch. So in reality, I'm away from home from 8:30 to 6 every day. And I am one of the people who works the least.

It's a Japanese company, so they have tons of employees who work 12 hours or more a day. I feel bad for my buddy who works next to me. He gets in at 7 and doesn't leave until 6 everyday. He just started coming in earlier (7 instead of 8:30 ish) so he would have more time to finish things and be home earlier... At that happened was he lost an extra hour and a half each morning. He still leaves the same time every night, some rare times 30 minute earlier leave.

No overtime either.

I am counting the days until I have enough invested to slash my salary in 1/3 and work part time anywhere that provides insurance.... I'd rather die tomorrow than work non stop like our Japanese expats... They are guilted / peer pressured into lives that to me seem nearly comparable to a prison sentence (speaking in hyperbole of course)

[amarowsky]

I just switched to this career a year and a half a go. I left the railroad as a conductor (labor) for this job once I received my degree.

The grass is never greener.... I miss the 2 hours a day I lost for the same damn pay.... And 1 billion head aches and requests I get non stop everyday.

[mo0n]

I'm salaried with OT. 50+ hours is the norm for me. Does it get to be a lot sometimes? Yeah...but I love what I do, and still have some of those days where I go "...I can't believe they pay me to do this."

[WDELTA]

40 hours a week for me. Anything extra and I get overtime.

Federal work is much better than active duty so far

[amarowsky]

I really don't like what I do for work, but they pay is pretty good so far.

I think my main complaint was based off it being a Monday.... I hate that that cliche is soo true now that I'm in an office job. But in Michigan, during the winter, I don't get to have any free time in daylight during the week. I figure if I'm only miserable ~52 days a year (maybe minus 4 for holiday / pto) that it's worth it to weather the storm until my investments reach "financial freedom-ish" numbers.

Just keep my head down, and continue the grind I guess....

Sorry if my posts seemed like downers... I really like everyone I work with. So I enjoy being at work, just what I do (pricing for an engineering company) is significantly lacking in my criterion for satisfaction or joy.

[disneysteve]

I think my main complaint was based off it being a Monday.... I hate that that cliche is soo true now that I'm in an office job.

One of the biggest adjustments to my new job in urgent care is that it doesn't matter what day it is because we're open 7 days a week. For example, I've worked each of the last 5 days - Friday through Tuesday - so Monday isn't anything special to me anymore. Neither is Friday, or Sunday. They're all the same.

This really confuses my wife. She can never keep track of what day it is anymore.

[dojo]

About 14-16, depending on how daughter's kindergarten schedule works and how I can manage the household chores. I'm a freelance web designer and it allows me to be very flexible with my schedule.