Do you *really* work 60+ hours per week?

[Anonymous]

I do, but I own my own business and I hate it. No matter how tired I am and how much I just can't keep going, I don't really have a choice. So many day feel like marathons, and I'm just so burned out on it. It's not healthy to work that much.

[Anonymous]

My husband does. He usually works 60-80 hours per week. It's insane. He has clients in Europe and Asia so sometimes he will wake up in the middle of the night to jump on a conference call he doesn't want to miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The majority of people that "work" more than 60 hours a week tend not really use their time efficiently. They also tend to be the type of people that think it is a badge of honor to say they work a lot of honors like it wins you some sort of award.

Pre-pandemic I may have agreed with you, but I've worked 40 or less for the past 16 months while actually my wife actually does 60, and still her work is never done.

And yes, she should get an award. The 10% raise she got in December wasn't bad in lieu of an actual award. Still, she longs for a job where she could work less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of people that "work" more than 60 hours a week tend not really use their time efficiently. They also tend to be the type of people that think it is a badge of honor to say they work a lot of honors like it wins you some sort of award.

Pre-pandemic I may have agreed with you, but I've worked 40 or less for the past 16 months while actually my wife actually does 60, and still her work is never done.

And yes, she should get an award. The 10% raise she got in December wasn't bad in lieu of an actual award. Still, she longs for a job where she could work less.

For a lot of jobs, the work is never done. You pick your spots.

[Anonymous]

My husband, a physician, worked that and more.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've had jobs like this (Cap Hill) in my 20s. But I wouldn't do it again. Not sustainable in the long-term for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of people that "work" more than 60 hours a week tend not really use their time efficiently. They also tend to be the type of people that think it is a badge of honor to say they work a lot of honors like it wins you some sort of award.

Pre-pandemic I may have agreed with you, but I've worked 40 or less for the past 16 months while actually my wife actually does 60, and still her work is never done.

And yes, she should get an award. The 10% raise she got in December wasn't bad in lieu of an actual award. Still, she longs for a job where she could work less.

But then she'll probably get fired, like all of her 50+ colleagues seem to have happened to them. She's now 49, and i can only imagine the job market sucks at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of people that "work" more than 60 hours a week tend not really use their time efficiently. They also tend to be the type of people that think it is a badge of honor to say they work a lot of honors like it wins you some sort of award.

Pre-pandemic I may have agreed with you, but I've worked 40 or less for the past 16 months while actually my wife actually does 60, and still her work is never done.

And yes, she should get an award. The 10% raise she got in December wasn't bad in lieu of an actual award. Still, she longs for a job where she could work less.

For a lot of jobs, the work is never done. You pick your spots.

+1 I work at an NGO and the work is never done. My average week so far this year is 59 hours, so not quite sixty. The more work I do the more work there is...really considering quitting because it's not as if the pay is good.

[Anonymous]

Not 60, but definitely 45-50 depending on the week. Much of it is because we have meetings all over the world, and sometimes they start at 6 or 7 am for one country, and then I have other countries where we have to start at 9 pm.

[Anonymous]

I generally aim to have four hours of focused, productive work each day. If I dedicate that time to focus and singletask, that’s more than enough to stay on top of my work and produce good work in reasonable enough time frames that no one complains. I do have periods of time than can span a few months at a time where I’m putting in 8-10 hours of concentrated work for discrete time sensitive matters (such as during covid), but that’s not sustainable for me long term. I do notice when I put in longer hours during non-adrenaline rushes, I unfocused/bored/easily distractible and everything takes much longer to complete than it should.

[Anonymous]

I certainly have enough work to consistently out in 50 hour weeks, but I’m just not capable of that for more than two consecutive weeks. A solid, focused 40 hour week is what I’m willing to do consistently, with an occasional up to 50 hours. When I was younger 50 hours wasn’t so tough, but now that I’m 45, I’m just fried after a week with longer hours.