Anonymous wrote:I did investment banking worked 80-100 hours/week. A few times I went home just to take a shower. It was miserable.

omg I can relate. I worked at a big law firm, and at one point called my mother and begged her to drive three hours to my house to do my laundry for me. And I bought 100 pairs of underwear and nylons (this was back in the day when nylons were required) to deal with my inability to get laundry done. I didn't date for TWO years because I had no social life, no friend network--not sure I even went out socially unless it was law-firm related. I was miserable because I couldn't see how it would ever change, and I was too busy to take any steps to make it change. I was fortunate in that there was different kind of job that I had previously laid the groundwork for, and on one of my routine calls to that company, I found out they had an opening, which turned into my escape route!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I definitely was pulling more than 10 hours a day, thank you very much. Don't tell me I was not. And 12 hours was a good day.

Ugh. At a $50k salary, that's less than $22/hour for 190 days. You'd be better off tending bar.

If you don't mind having pretty much no benefits and if you don't mind working when everyone else is off....yeah, bartending may be the job for you.

I'm a lawyer who does 50 billable hours a week at a tiny firm, which usually takes me 60-70 hours to get done without being a jerk to my coworkers. I have the math down to a science. For me, that is 9-6ish M-F with a 30-minute break. So 42-45 hours in the office. Two nights a week, I do 4 or so hours at home, putting me around 50. To get the rest in, I usually work two more nights or a long Sunday in the office.

It bites, and I'm incredibly accurate about my time.

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I definitely was pulling more than 10 hours a day, thank you very much. Don't tell me I was not. And 12 hours was a good day.

Ugh. At a $50k salary, that's less than $22/hour for 190 days. You'd be better off tending bar.

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I definitely was pulling more than 10 hours a day, thank you very much. Don't tell me I was not. And 12 hours was a good day.

I believe you!

As a teacher, I definitely was pulling more than 10 hours a day, thank you very much. Don't tell me I was not. And 12 hours was a good day.

Anonymous wrote:I did back in my 20s and 30s before kids. Work hard, play hard. Fortunately, it paid off and I don't need to work as hard as much these days.

Same. From about 24-37 I worked a ridiculous number of hours. Sometimes multiple jobs & grad. school, etc.

Once I had a kid there was no way. At that point, I valued time over $$.

Anonymous wrote:Dh does this but luckily it's on travel. He's gone 2-3 weeks a month and daily he puts in 15 hour days. He'll call me from the office at 3am. When he's in town he gets home by 7, but that's still a long day (8-6:30/7). Oh yeah and he's a fed, so no overtime, it's a sweet gig.

Surely you jest.

I did back in my 20s and 30s before kids. Work hard, play hard. Fortunately, it paid off and I don't need to work as hard as much these days.

Dh does this but luckily it's on travel. He's gone 2-3 weeks a month and daily he puts in 15 hour days. He'll call me from the office at 3am. When he's in town he gets home by 7, but that's still a long day (8-6:30/7). Oh yeah and he's a fed, so no overtime, it's a sweet gig.

My husband did it for three years working for Jones, Day & Night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had four years where I worked 8:30-5pm M-F at a law firm, then 6:45-11pm at a fitness club four nights during the week and Saturday, and 11-6:45pm on Sundays.

So my free time was one night during the week, most of Saturday, and Sunday mornings I'd meet my grandparents for breakfast. During the week I'd get home from work, change my clothes, breathe, and leave for the second round.

Sure, having two part-time jobs is different, though, than claiming to work 70 hours in one job.

I used to teach school from 730-330, wait tables from 430-930 4x/ week, and on the other 3 days, I had class from 7-10. I would then do schoolwork and work prep from 1030-1230 most nights. I don't miss it.

I did NOT have two part time jobs. I worked full time at the law firm. It was the fitness club that was only part time.

Sorry. Point still stands.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had four years where I worked 8:30-5pm M-F at a law firm, then 6:45-11pm at a fitness club four nights during the week and Saturday, and 11-6:45pm on Sundays.

So my free time was one night during the week, most of Saturday, and Sunday mornings I'd meet my grandparents for breakfast. During the week I'd get home from work, change my clothes, breathe, and leave for the second round.

Sure, having two part-time jobs is different, though, than claiming to work 70 hours in one job.

I used to teach school from 730-330, wait tables from 430-930 4x/ week, and on the other 3 days, I had class from 7-10. I would then do schoolwork and work prep from 1030-1230 most nights. I don't miss it.

I did NOT have two part time jobs. I worked full time at the law firm. It was the fitness club that was only part time.

eh, I'm a woman and I had to go into the office on some Saturdays, maybe even on a Sunday or two. Plus, some holidays. I wasn't playing golf or having an affair. Really.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the OP that "most" (not all" people who say they are working these hours are in part exaggerating. People are rounding up, including travel time, turning a 30minute after hours email into 1-2 hours in their brains. They work out, have lunch, chit chat at the office, follow espn and dcum. They do long days 3 days a week and round up for all 5 days. They have periods (weeks or months) where they work those hours and then use that as their bragging threshold for the rest of the year. Women on here who say "my DH definitely works 70 hours a week" are perhaps the most deluded. When your law firm partner goes into his office on sunday to work 5 hours, he's not really working that much. Sorry you had to hear it this way.

I'm a wife of a corporate attorney who earlier said he works 70+ hours a week. I would agree with you in some cases. Fortunately, my dh never goes into the office to work on weekends. Weekend work is always at home, and most typically it's late at night (9pm - 2am or so) after the kids go to sleep. He sacrifices sleep so he can maximize his time with us. But yes, there are other lawyers at his office who regularly stay late, wasting time, to wait until the kids are already in bed, or who go have dinner nearby and then return to continue working. It's one thing if it's an all-nighter situation, but it's another thing when they break from 6-7 and then go home to their family at 9.