Does anyone actually work 80 hours a week?

[Anonymous]

My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

What a waste of a life. I'm sure you enjoy his money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

[Anonymous]

I have worked for not-for-profits my entire career. There is usually one month per year or a couple of weeks per year that I work 80 hour weeks (7 days a week, not in 5 days), but certainly not every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

What a waste of a life. I'm sure you enjoy his money.

Yes, it enables me to twiddle my thumbs all day, when I'm not posting on DCUM. That's definitely why I support this lifestyle, and not because he likes it and he appreciates me taking care of the family. Sometimes I shred cash for fun.

/S

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

Yes. He works very hard. He does work from home sometimes, and I run a calm and happy household. We don't really do vacation or time off, but we enjoy our daily life. We have 4 kids.

Let's say he works 10 hours in the office and 2-4 hours after coming home every night. On weekends, he likes to work in the morning and do things in the afternoon. It doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.

It's not about the money. It's a lifestyle that works for us. I also happen to be a very hard worker, even as a sahm, and we work together well.

[Anonymous]

DH is former LEO and definitely had weeks , often multiple weeks in a row, when he’d pick up a ton of overtime. I am a former special Ed teacher, and the first month of the year was often 80+ at a minimum. Also, I’ve chaperoned overnight trips where I get maybe 6 hours of sleep and am otherwise on every minute, if those trips start at the end of a school week then I am way over.

I have a family member who is a big law partner. She works a lot of hours, and does some work (takes a call or reviews a document via email) every day, but it’s not 80 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

Yes. He works very hard. He does work from home sometimes, and I run a calm and happy household. We don't really do vacation or time off, but we enjoy our daily life. We have 4 kids.

Let's say he works 10 hours in the office and 2-4 hours after coming home every night. On weekends, he likes to work in the morning and do things in the afternoon. It doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.

It's not about the money. It's a lifestyle that works for us. I also happen to be a very hard worker, even as a sahm, and we work together well.

So the schedule you have is what, he's in the office from 8am-6pm and then works from 8-10pm/12am during the week? When do you see him during the week? When do your kids see him during the week? I'm not the PP being nasty about the money. I'm sure that he's well compensated for working as much as he does. I wondered mostly if he is a person who just REALLY loves the law or if it's about the firm community or (as the nasty PP said) the money. That's a lot of time to choose to spend away from the family he presumably also chose.

I think the takehome here is that working these kinds of hours ONLY works for a family if they have one spouse who is entirely dedicated to family, but it's not my life. Do you think that your lifestyle and the satisfaction you get from it would be possible if you also worked outside the home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Traveling, thinking about problems and arguments, being available to answer a client's or coworker's call at any time, etc. this is work too. Some jobs never stop. Even in the shower, you can't stop trying to figure out the answers to issues. Some people only stop working when they are asleep.

Its a big part of why kids and spouses complain that "even when you are here, you aren't here."

This isn’t what Op is talking about. If this is what people call 80 hours, then it is BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

Yes. He works very hard. He does work from home sometimes, and I run a calm and happy household. We don't really do vacation or time off, but we enjoy our daily life. We have 4 kids.

Let's say he works 10 hours in the office and 2-4 hours after coming home every night. On weekends, he likes to work in the morning and do things in the afternoon. It doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.

It's not about the money. It's a lifestyle that works for us. I also happen to be a very hard worker, even as a sahm, and we work together well.

4 kids. Damn lady you must be hot. He clearly wasn’t into having a family, but wanted a wife so this was the deal, eh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Traveling, thinking about problems and arguments, being available to answer a client's or coworker's call at any time, etc. this is work too. Some jobs never stop. Even in the shower, you can't stop trying to figure out the answers to issues. Some people only stop working when they are asleep.

Its a big part of why kids and spouses complain that "even when you are here, you aren't here."

This isn’t what Op is talking about. If this is what people call 80 hours, then it is BS

I think OP's point was that it seems like at least some of the people claiming to work 80 hours a week are including things like this because it's not sustainable for most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

Yes. He works very hard. He does work from home sometimes, and I run a calm and happy household. We don't really do vacation or time off, but we enjoy our daily life. We have 4 kids.

Let's say he works 10 hours in the office and 2-4 hours after coming home every night. On weekends, he likes to work in the morning and do things in the afternoon. It doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.

It's not about the money. It's a lifestyle that works for us. I also happen to be a very hard worker, even as a sahm, and we work together well.

So the schedule you have is what, he's in the office from 8am-6pm and then works from 8-10pm/12am during the week? When do you see him during the week? When do your kids see him during the week? I'm not the PP being nasty about the money. I'm sure that he's well compensated for working as much as he does. I wondered mostly if he is a person who just REALLY loves the law or if it's about the firm community or (as the nasty PP said) the money. That's a lot of time to choose to spend away from the family he presumably also chose.

I think the takehome here is that working these kinds of hours ONLY works for a family if they have one spouse who is entirely dedicated to family, but it's not my life. Do you think that your lifestyle and the satisfaction you get from it would be possible if you also worked outside the home?

You made a good point about the take home. We are a team, because I also work for the family full time! It's impossible to do this and have a job out of the home.

He sees the kids for at least an hour both morning and afternoon, and there's weekends. We also don't travel very much. When we are home, we are home.

[Anonymous]

I nanni3d for an EY partner and I was at their house M-F from 7:30am-7:30pm and I say him maybe once a month? He was definitely working at least 8-8 and I know they had a weekend nanny from 7am-1pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has done this since joining biglaw, with my full support at home. I'm proud of his hard work. He did end up making partner. His schedule hasn't changed in the slightest.

So he works 12 hours M-F and 5+ hours each weekend day? Consistently? What about that is working for both of you? Does he really love his work? Do you prefer not to see very much of him? Do y'all have kids?

Yes. He works very hard. He does work from home sometimes, and I run a calm and happy household. We don't really do vacation or time off, but we enjoy our daily life. We have 4 kids.

Let's say he works 10 hours in the office and 2-4 hours after coming home every night. On weekends, he likes to work in the morning and do things in the afternoon. It doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.

It's not about the money. It's a lifestyle that works for us. I also happen to be a very hard worker, even as a sahm, and we work together well.

4 kids. Damn lady you must be hot. He clearly wasn’t into having a family, but wanted a wife so this was the deal, eh?

There are a lot of weird stereotypes on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

I worked those hours fairly consistently when I was a capital markets associate. Similar to what another PP said it probably would have been more efficient to split the work among two people but that's just not how it worked. I made it three years and then got out, it wasn't a healthy lifestyle for me. The only time things really slowed down was at the end of December because the markets were really slow then.