s/o on work/life balance thread-what full time jobs are just 40 hours a week?

[Anonymous]

Actually my experience in government is people work LESS than 40 hrs/per/week while being on the books for 40 hrs/week. Sweet gig, but horribly corrupt people. Unfortunately or fortunately OP, its a field requiring years of formal training, so not up your alley. Although there are people on the admin side that also always seem to disappear after lunch on Fridays...

[Anonymous]

My nanny works 40 hours a week, but that's the kind of HR OP probably would run from!

[Anonymous]

It varies from agency to agency, but I just put in a 12 hour day at my government job. Thank you budget cuts and no pay increases

[Anonymous]

I work for a nonprofit and I work 37.5 hours, but I am at work for 8 hours (they don't include the 30 min lunch as worked time). I rarely work overtime, but I also make a pretty crappy salary -- but it's acceptable. My benefits are not that great either, but at least I can go to work at 8am and know that I can leave at 4pm. It's insane that most jobs require more than 40 hours a week. It's unacceptable to me -- most European countries don't even work 40 hours a week. American culture in the work place is awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:most European countries don't even work 40 hours a week. American culture in the work place is awful.

And our economy is in the sh$tter whereas places like Norway, Denmark, Sweden are booming and doing really well even with their 18 month maternity leave policies and liberal vacation!

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on the agency or the company or even the department. I'm a tax accountant. Before moving to this area, I worked for a public accounting firm. The first year I worked in Compliance and worked some crazy hours. The next year I switched to a consulting group and stayed there for 4 more years. Many weeks I did not work over time. I moved to this area and got a job with a large company in their tax department. My hours were crazy - worse than public accounting. The first summer I worked there I worked from June through mid-October without a single day off and often worked until at least midnight (big project). After another year, I transferred jobs within the company - same department, but a different group. I only work overtime now once a quarter - usually only 1 or 2 evenings. Other than that, I work 37.75 hour weeks.

[Anonymous]

Banks offer good benefits and pretty stable hours. Residential real estate is flexible, but has weekend hours.

[Anonymous]

You can't generalizations. It depends on the federal agency (and within that, the actual department) just as it depends on the non profit. Some federal agencies are high stress/high burn and others much less so. Similarly, there are great paying non profits with fairly straight forward hours and there are non profits with long hours and very low pay.

OP - you might check the Great Places to Work list. Sometimes companies/organizations on that list have strong work life balance cultures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't generalizations. It depends on the federal agency (and within that, the actual department) just as it depends on the non profit. Some federal agencies are high stress/high burn and others much less so. Similarly, there are great paying non profits with fairly straight forward hours and there are non profits with long hours and very low pay.

this is true. Also some govt contract jobs are only 40 hours a week. My hubby works as a govt contractor and he works 7 to 4, with a one hour lunch. Not too bad. Let's hope the Republicans don't start cutting govt jobs!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually my experience in government is people work LESS than 40 hrs/per/week while being on the books for 40 hrs/week. Sweet gig, but horribly corrupt people. Unfortunately or fortunately OP, its a field requiring years of formal training, so not up your alley. Although there are people on the admin side that also always seem to disappear after lunch on Fridays...

This was my experience with some govt ppl as well. But not all of them. Some agencies are great and some govt workers DO work hard. there are some slackers, but it's good not to generalize. There are slackers in private sector too, but they get fired faster. lol

[Anonymous]

I currently work a 40 hour week with a government agency, but put in my time working 50-60 hour weeks, plus travel and rarely a full weekend off at another government agency. At my component, 40 hour weeks are the norm, but people in the field (litigators) work longer hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Federal Government.

LOL...it's true. More specifically, federal employee. Union dictates hours, breaks, hard to get fired, everything. Sweet deal!

Clearly you are not in government.

Unions do not universally apply to all government workers. It's not that hard to get fired, actually, if there are good managers. We -my small agency- have fired at least 1/2 dozen people in the last few weeks.

Also, as to the hours, almost every agency is expected to do more with less (and yes, your services will suffer. Thank you Eric Cantor and crew) with the current budget situation. And, your expected to do it with pay freezes, less staff, higher insurance premiums/retirement contributions on the horizon and with the contempt of people like this poster. 8 hour work days do not exist in almost every position in my agency -save for one particular business unit. But, keep perpetuating this myth. Because it is just that.

Agree! As I sit here still on my blackberry after working 10.5 hours today, then coming home and having my blackberry ring while I was trying to help my child with homework, I long for that elusive 40 hour per week government job!!!

The only people in my husband's agency who work 40 hour weeks are support staff. My husband never works less than about 55 hours a week. And it's often a whole lot more than that.

[Anonymous]

I work in nonprofit and second that it CAN be 40 hours. I have worked in nonprofit for a long time, and finally got to the point where I had some major bargaining on my side because of my experience. At my job that I have now, during the interview I actually said that they could expect my 100% attention during work hours, and that I will work very efficiently, but that I will not work 50 hours a week. THe job I had before this one (and when I didn't have kids) I routinely worked 50-60 hours a week, and it was expected. I didn't want that expectation on me, so I was very upfront about it. (It helped that I work in an area that deals with children, and they answered these "demands" with "we don't expect you to put other people's children ahead of your own.") I just had my first review with them, and I never had a better review in my career. So I would suggest you talk about it early.

[Anonymous]

It probably depends on the nonprofit, but I agree that HR at the nonprofit where I worked would be a great gig. Flexible and never more than 40 hours a week. That said, I made only $52K, nowhere near the $125K cited by another person, which is the reason I left. (I know, my parents would be offended that I just wrote "only 52K" but in this area...not worth the commute and paying for childcare.)

[Anonymous]

If you are up for going back to school, nursing jobs are typically 40 or less per week. Of course you have to deal with likely decreased pay, super stressful days, and generally being under-appreciated and overworked (physically). Can you tell I'm jaded?