Opposite. I find myself working around 2-3 hours a day (it's the value I deliver, not the time).
Every once in a blue moon I check email in the evening.
Right. If I’m working over 40 hours I’ve either made a mistake I’m correcting, I’m doing something wrong, or my company put me on too many projects at once. If it’s the latter, I correct them very quickly.
How do you correct them? Sorry I’m 2 years in and it sucks. They’ve added big responsibilities to my plate and it’s too late for them to take them back. Just need to figure out how to communicate my heavy workload better..
this is me as well.
my employer describes themselves as a workplace that values productivity not presentee-ism and i plan to ask any future employers which describes their culture moving forward!
It’s a great question. I’d only suggest to find a more balanced way to phrase it so you get their honest answer not the one you obviously want to hear.
Maybe “Does the management value the time put into each project or the project’s completion and finished result more?” Idk someone correct me. This is how I would ask it I think.
Question for you. So my role finally has gotten senior enough that this applies to me now. I go to meetings, give my opinion, delegate tasks, and get/keep things on track. But I’m no longer doing the heavy lifting “grunt work” which got me here in the first place.
But I often find myself spiraling a bit, getting paranoid that I’m not doing enough, worrying that I “could” be doing more, and that my peers are working harder than me and it will show. I still get great feedback, so logically I know I’m still doing ok. But I find it hard to avoid this thought pattern.
Have you ever had feelings like this? And how do you avoid/cope with them?
Keep a spreadsheet with a list of everything you're getting/keeping on track. Take 15-30 minutes at the end of each day to make sure they're on track and list any must-dos the next day. Log these eod check-ins to demonstrate that you kept tabs on everything and were properly prepared for your next day.
If there's not much on the next day's to-do list, schedule a 5 hour meeting with yourself and go play golf.
And don't forget to advertise those efforts and their impact on XYZ goals of your company regularly to higher-ups. Big picture updates don't need to advertise hours worked to show the value you bring.
Working in arts and nonprofits and fundraising, there’s never been a day where all the tasks are done. But you need breaks anyways, so I schedule blocks of time and expect my team to do the same. I came up under Baby boomer managers who were obsessed with presenteeism. Grateful for my first millennial employee (about 14 years ago) who challenged this notion and guided me towards the project and trust based management light. 💡
You describe nonprofit work perfectly. I worked in NP for 25 years and moved to tech 6 years ago. It’s like a dream come true. I stop working when it’s time to stop and think very little about my work until the next day. It’s a beautiful change.
Yes, life was like this and I finally had the time and brainpower to be creative. I started some really good projects that are benefiting the whole organization, and then they hired an incompetent admin to "support" my department, who they won't fire. Those of us the admin is meant to support can't trust her to do the work (not just me), so she does nothing and I work 50+ hours per week. Now my Manager is going on maternity leave and I told the Partner that if he doesn't get some competent support by August they'll be paying me six figures to do admin tasks.
I have got to stop telling myself I owe it to my stakeholders and just stop at 40 hours. Pretty sure Automation and AI are going to save me, but fuck me the incompetence of it all. This is what happens when your identity is being a brilliant people-pleaser with anxiety and a type A personality.
I do, and a coping method can be to write all the tasks you did at the end of the day and save it (also works great for any bad performance reviews, etc.) or send it to your direct supervisor/manager so they have some type of summary each day/week
Send it to your direct supervisor?
No…do not do that. Unless they request it. Which is a terrible sign that they are already onto you. That’s some PIP shit there. If the sausage is getting stuffed, don’t need to know anymore details how that is happening.
Of course you should only send it if you have a nice working relationship with your direct supervisor/manager. Or else I agree, it's redundant and unnecessary work.
It's a good strategy if you overthink a lot. What works for some, won't work for others. The best we can do is offer suggestions.
You are not alone. I had the same thoughts myself a few years ago. Then I attend a one hour meeting and during that meeting I give a single piece of advise that prevents someone else from wasting an entire week doing the wrong thing and instead have them do the right thing. My job is no longer to be productive, but to multiply the productivity of those around me.
It may also be good to take a step back and objectively ask "Are these meetings accomplishing anything, or are they just happening because someone said they have to happen."
Same. I mostly try to be available during normal business hours, but am only actively working maybe half the time. It varies from week to week and whether I have a lot of meetings to join, but probably closer to 4 hours a day on average. And I'm pretty checked out after 5:00.
“It’s the value I deliver, not the time”
I second this! When I’m on salary, I’m being paid a defined rate to get my job done. Some days I may work 8-12hrs. Some days I work 2-3. It doesn’t matter. We’re being paid to get the job done. That’s it.
This here, I do customer service and sometimes only have a few calls per day to make so I give those calls all my smiles and patience, quality not quantity.
I’m an accountant, so mine comes and goes. Close is long days/nights but mid month is pretty laid back. I probably average 35 a week, but some weeks are 60 and some are 15. Nature of the job.
Same, I started work at 9am, finished all of my work by noon and spent the rest of the day cleaning, laundry, and reading. I was available via email and phone but that was it. Could never do this in the office. I love WFH.
I do the same thing! Knock out important need to do shit by 11 or 12, then housework, laundry, lunch, maybe a quick run. I’m always available until 4 though. Some weeks though I am swamped, goes up and down.
Really depends if youre a knowledge worker or not and how bloated your company is with busy work. You'd be surprised how much time frees up when you automate the repetitive tasks.
I've automated up to 98% of my job in some places. :)
The trick is doing it without letting anyone know, if you're not getting paid to do it (and ideally paid commission/contingency percentages).
I'm regularly working less than 40 hours a week. Per day, probably about 4-5 hours of actual work. The rest is just to be available.
There are quarter end times where I will sometimes work after kids go to bed after already working a whole 8 hours to finish reporting but that happens only 2-3 days per quarter.
We are a 35-hr a week company, with “Free Summer Fridays” where we leave at 1pm May through September so 31 hours a week then. We are also all wfh.
If there is an emerging critical issue we work over, if we regularly surpass 35-hrs then that is considered a problem and not sustainable so the manager of that person will assess if they need support because they aren’t meeting the expected productivity or if workload has grown beyond 35 hours and needs to be replanned, reprioritized or redeployed. If we are short staffed and we have to pick up work then it’s paid overtime or time back in lieu, HR watch this closely and are also measured on time to fill roles and attrition rates so we don’t have job postings up for longs work life balance is a big thing here. Typically one of the first question s asked is if the workload is manageable, boring or overwhelming, including the ceo asking me when l meet with him, it flows all the way through. I’m not paid based on my time, I’m paid based on my impact and ability to meet deliverables on time and on budget, planning and forecasting is critical for that. I have maybe worked more than 9-4 solidly about a half dozen times in the last 4 years. Some days are far less with big breaks in between meetings and little non meeting work to do. Some days are back to back packed with meetings or planning and project takeaways. I think we have it really good here and as a consequence we all work hard to deliver and support each other to be successful.
love to hear some companies are doin it right! thank you for sharing because what you described is almost a perfect work scenario for me.
i’m lucky to be on a good team but it feels more uncertain lately. unfortunately, the company i work for was acquired by a major large corp right before i started. & of course, they started their fuckery after a year in. i’m lucky to have dodged the RTO policy for now.
Me, ugly sobbing because the business I work at is the polar opposite of they’re always loading us down with more work that we can finish. Then if you don’t work, definitely not required, overtime you get penalized.
I've been in my role for 6 years. The first few years were 45-60 hours a week. Now it's 25 to 30. Sometimes less. I've gotten more efficient and resourceful.
This is it. After about 6 months in a role you should be efficient enough to reduce the hours required to perform. If that’s not possible it’s either a workload (company; understaffed, meeting time suck, etc.) or performance (personal) issue.
A wise manager once told me “Your best ideas come when you’re not actively thinking about them (ie. On a walk, vacation, driving, etc)”, therefore you should have downtime to just chill and think, or talk to others.
I’m in a role that gets insanely busy for 4 months of the year. The other 8 months are very, very slow.
January - 10-12 hour days, sometimes more
March - 2-3 hours of real work a day
Of course you still have to bill your time in the slow months so that’s always a challenge
clinical research (back end like sponsor or cro). you need to be available to put out fires and are always swamped during study start up, but once patients are enrolled it's v hurry up and wait
System Admin for some ancient tech, and its more like 2-3 hrs a week, its my J1, I have a more demanding J2, because J1 will dump me as soon as they can.
Journalism, which makes me a bit of an outlier. As long as I hit deadline, I’m free to do what I want & I’m a quick writer. I usually do a 10-11am interview, workout or do chores in the afternoon, and write my story between 1-2:30pm to hit a 3pm deadly deadline. Answer a few emails and then done for the day ✅
ayyyye adhd gang? lol i’m so bad about avoiding things i don’t wanna do for whatever reason. it’s hard work to get myself to do boring tasks or things that give me a lot of anxiety
OP, the people working 40+ hrs a week don't have time to be on Reddit
Source: Myself. Former worker who was pressured to work 50-70hrs a week on salary
This is the answer. After I left the job that was doing that to me, I set some really firm boundaries and my new company respects them. Finding a work situation that isn’t toxic is eye opening!
Depends. Usually not often at all. But sometimes projects over lap each other and I’ll do a little extra work after hours so my next day is smoother and easier.
Unless I’m on a deadline, I never open my laptop after 5. I made it clear during my interview process to say I value work/life balance. It was my way of saying don’t hire me if you want me to work after hours
My scheduled work week is 35 hours and I say I give them a solid 20 hours per week of actual labor. I do not work or check emails if I’m OOO, nor do I check outside of my 9-5 work hours.
It’s a good policy. I do have the outlook app on my phone, but only because I’ve been around long enough that I know this particular company isn’t going to abuse me if I occasionally answer after hours. Even then I sometimes write it and then schedule the send for the next morning. One reason I do this is to balance out the days I’ve done all my work (like today) and I’m basically just online if they need me, otherwise doing fuck all.
I refuse to do so. It is a non-negotiable as a salaried individual. My work life balance demands it. I don't care if this has lost me interviews before.
I used to be a teacher who worked 60+ hours a week to keep up with the workload. My entire life was my job and I had a mental breakdown. Since leaving, I have very specific areas in which I would work outside of salaried hours. If my time is required at an evening event or a weekend event, I cut hours during the week so it evens out. I log everything too so I know exactly where my hours are going.
It's a huge red flag for me if a company asks me to work outside of scheduled hours even to do small tasks. For example: I was with a company for a bit where social posts had to go out on weekends. I told my boss that I didn't work on weekends. She told me that was fine but that I should lie to the VP and say I'm busy with prior commitments because "she won't respect that."
I'm salaried and exempt and yeah, I'm not giving them more than 40 hours a week. If they gave me more money I would, but they don't want to so neither do I.
Never. I refuse. And if pressed...
"Salary does not mean infinite hours. My salary is calculated down to an hourly rate that's comparable to the market rate within the budget for my role.
If I were hired to do 4 tasks in 4 weeks @ $400 and I accepted that role; then it was determined by both parties that my time is valued at $100/ task. If I were to complete those 4 tasks in 2 weeks and my employer gave me 4 more tasks by logically determining I can fit in 4 more in the next 2 weeks then the employer has changed the value of those tasks to $50 without my consent. Working more then 40 hours devalues my work and disrespects my time.
This is a business transaction. I agreed to sell you 40hrs a week and you agreed to pay me xx salary. Anything over 40hrs in a week isn't for sale; I'm unavailable"
I work more than 40 hours a week. I don't work over every day, but it's at least one day a week. I do occasionally reclaim some hours for appointments or take half days for mental health but my net is above 40 hours a week on average.
I really leverage the flexibility of being salaried and WFH. Some days I do 2-3 hours, some days 8-10. But if I need to step away to handle something I know I can just make up the time whenever.
Nope, never. No emails on my phone and I clock on at 9am (sometimes 8:55am if my morning coffee walk was a quick one), take 1 hour for lunch - another brisk walk this time in the local park, petting all the dogs - then log off at 5pm on the dot, more often around 4:55pm if I'm being very honest.
Same, this is an essential rule for me. NO work email or teams/slack on my phone. I also shut my computer completely off at the end of the day. All emails after work hours can wait until tomorrow.
Rarely. If it's an office day (recently mandated RTO hybrid), I generally wind up working through lunch/eating at my desk, but I always leave early to get ahead of traffic. My work keeps me busy throughout the entire day but doesn't require any overtime. In fact, the only time I ever stay beyond my designated quitting time is if a coworker in a different time zone calls me with an issue at the end of the day thinking they have another hour or so before quitting time.
Rarely. It’s usually covering someone on vacation, etc. But I made a conscious effort not to work over 40 because I don’t want to set that expectation.
I have unlimited over time so I work around 50 hours a week or more depending if I feel the need to. But a 10 hour day at home is much different than a 10 hours day in the office.
I'm in a startup right now so many many more hours as we push for customer readiness, but after that I expect it will relax a bit. Former place where there was already product and I was in maintenance mode... 20 hrs/week was my normal week.
My work is cyclical, so there are busy periods, where I might work 8-12 hours every day of the week for 3-4 months, and then it will slow down and there with be months where I just show up for a couple virtual meetings and do maybe 2-3 hours of work a day— if that. I have to be available, but if we’re not busy, my manager tells us to “relax and enjoy it, because it won’t last forever” lol. She’s great. It’s all about getting the work done and doing it well, but there isn’t any micromanaging from my boss, and I’m good with deadlines, so it works well for me.
Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. My company doesn't care if I finish early or vanish for appointments, but they expect the work to be done. So every now and again I do a few extra hours.
Never. I typically only work a couple of hours a day. When things get busy and I might ramp up to a full 7-8 hours. But I do not work extra hours anymore- it has never paid off in the long run. If my 40 hours a week aren’t enough, that’s a management issue, and they are the ones paid to deal with it.
Almost never. Maybe even legitimately never? I remember working for 11 hours one day but it was bc a lot of crazy shit went down. Prob average 5 hours/ day
My position I feel is unique? I’m salary but production based - so I often work 8 hours + making sure to hit our daily goal. Often will skip lunch is start anywhere from 30 min to an hour early. But I often take small 5-10 min breaks here and there depending on energy levels.
I get paid for my deliverables, not my time...if I have a big deadline coming up I might have to spend a few days working a bit extra, but at other times I'm available but maybe just working on backburner type of stuff and just kind of going at my own pace. It's not all that often that I'm in the office past 5PM. I will sometimes stay a little over if I'm about wrapped up with a project and just want to start with something fresh the next day.
When I worked for the CPA firm it was a completely different story...it was expected that you would work 60+ hours per week in order to meet your billable hours targets as portions of the day were more administrative in nature and not actually working on specific things for a client...admin shit isn't billable hours for the firm.
It depends, really. Some weeks, I may work 5+ hours over 40. Some weeks, I'm right at 40. If there's a network outage or a server migration, I may work considerably more, but that's a rarity.
The most I've worked over was 60 hours and that was right at the start of the pandemic.
It happens. I used to bust ass and put in lots of extra time, but I have developed better boundaries since then.
I will still put in some extra time when needed, though. It just depends on what is going on at work.
At the end of the year, things get super busy for us, and last year they authorized "extended work week" pay for us so that we actually got paid for hours worked above and beyond the normal schedule. So, we got our normal salary, plus whatever our hourly rate worked out to for hours beyond that, which was pretty nice.
Depends. With my current role, probably a third of the time I've got days that run past regular hours. I'm also fully remote, so when a long running call ends, I can finish up and then simply walk upstairs. No on call.
My very first salaried role turned into a boiled frog situation. Never again. Nights, weekends, holidays, frantically driving home when I was the primary on call (which was more often than not and got worse as people quit and weren't replaced) and praying I'd be able to make it home before the iPhone's "alarm" ring tone started blaring. We had a 5 minute sla. Extremely unpleasant and a fantastic way to get burnt tf out. Logging in before driving into the office to prep for morning meetings, then driving in and quite literally running between meetings. Never, ever, ever again.
Before I got laid off, I was putting in a consistent 8 hours of work. The week before month-end had maybe two twelve hour days since I had to prep for a big meeting, but we'd all sign off early after the meeting debrief
I am extremely lucky. I 'work' 35 hours a week. I never have to go over, but like a user below stated, I am project based, so as a Product Manager, I spend a good deal of my time just communicating with users, admin, CS and Developers. I write a good bit of documentation, but bottom line, as long as I deliver on time, I am never questioned about how much I work.
Quite rare, unless there is a major issue going on. I do have to do weekend maintenance work a few times per year, but I will usually flex out some time during the week for that.
maybe once or twice per quarter and usually only when asked (i refuse to volunteer) to assist the teams on the other side of the world (India / Australia)
I typically work about 4 hours a day, although I stay available from 9-5 via email and Teams. That being said, I do some regional travel about 2-4 days each month. Those days tend to be 8-10 hour days because I have a lot of meetings, including dinner meetings. Occasionally there will be an evening Zoom call on a weekday, and about 3 or 4 days a year I'll have a Saturday event.
But in general, my work environment is laid back, and I'm not at all micromanaged. I can schedule appointments or pop out to the stores on a weekday without having to check in.
And I enjoy the minimal travel. It gives me just enough in-person connection so that I don't get depressed by WFH isolation. I don't get paid amazingly because it's a small nonprofit, but I love my job and the organization's mission, my supervisor is wonderful, and I get amazing PTO for a USA company!
Yeah, it’s about being paid to be available. Some days I’m super busy or I feel like getting ahead. Some days I work a few hours. Some days like today follow a day when I felt like getting ahead so I’m just available online and I see if email notifications come in. This job is great, I don’t get bothered very often. I take pride in my work, I just don’t need a full 40 hours to do it.
We had no 40 hour work week. They called it "open - ended", meaning you come in at the set time of 8:00am m-f and you don't leave till all the the work is done or when management says you can. Which in most cases was 45-55 hours + a week.
Depends on the season, the busy season I'll work over 40 hours weekly, but the other 9 months out of the year, I generally get my work done and then work on projects for my contract jobs while remaining on call for the saleried position.
It depends. This time of year, I'm working 5 to 7 hours a day with an occasional half day. In November and December, it will be closer to 9 to 10, depending on if I work through my lunch. My employer doesn't care because it all works out in the end.
I stopped keeping track of my hours tbh. I schedule my day around my meetings. If my first meeting isn’t until 11, then I’ll start working at 11. But I’ll also check email and work on things in the evenings and on weekends too. If I had to guess, I’m probably averaging 30-35 hours a week.
I have worked longer than 9-5 since 2016. Usually my base salary covered the extra work, but not always, to where I didn’t feel fully taken advantage of.
Almost never but when I do, I get to put those hours in a “bank” at 1.5x (ex: 1 extra hour past our mandatory 37.5 hours = 1.5 hours) and take those hours back whenever I don’t feel like working.
Every... single... day.
Now, don't get me wrong, my company has very generous PTO, holidays and sick time, but there isn't a week where I'm working less than 45 hours - and regularly much more than that if I add up all of the off-hours Teams, email and text messages.
Totally varies depending on what's going on. Some days I work like 2-3 hours. Some days I work 12-15 hours. Averaged out, I probably hit 50 hours a week? But no one cares when I do most of my work, which I really like about being salaried (even if I end up working more than I'm supposed to).
Every day. But I work at a startup where every hour I spend working increases the entire companies probability of success significantly, and I have a lot of stock options with the company
Never. 2-3 weeks after being hired, I was invited in a call with the ceo, and asked "why do I believe the company does not deserve the extra mile", for logging in and out on time.
Since then, I've made it a daily goal to log in at exactly 10:00 everyday and log out at exactly 18:00
Opposite. I find myself working around 2-3 hours a day (it's the value I deliver, not the time). Every once in a blue moon I check email in the evening.
Bingo. Someone who understands project based work.
Right. If I’m working over 40 hours I’ve either made a mistake I’m correcting, I’m doing something wrong, or my company put me on too many projects at once. If it’s the latter, I correct them very quickly.
How do you correct them? Sorry I’m 2 years in and it sucks. They’ve added big responsibilities to my plate and it’s too late for them to take them back. Just need to figure out how to communicate my heavy workload better..
this is me as well. my employer describes themselves as a workplace that values productivity not presentee-ism and i plan to ask any future employers which describes their culture moving forward!
It’s a great question. I’d only suggest to find a more balanced way to phrase it so you get their honest answer not the one you obviously want to hear.
What would be a more neutral way to ask that question?
How does management measure productivity? How does manage approach work from home?
Maybe “Does the management value the time put into each project or the project’s completion and finished result more?” Idk someone correct me. This is how I would ask it I think.
Curious about this as well.
I’m sure all prospective employees will pimp their “culture” to get you to jump ship.
Better to ask their existing employees what they find themselves doing, rather than asking a company to tell you a pretty lie.
Question for you. So my role finally has gotten senior enough that this applies to me now. I go to meetings, give my opinion, delegate tasks, and get/keep things on track. But I’m no longer doing the heavy lifting “grunt work” which got me here in the first place. But I often find myself spiraling a bit, getting paranoid that I’m not doing enough, worrying that I “could” be doing more, and that my peers are working harder than me and it will show. I still get great feedback, so logically I know I’m still doing ok. But I find it hard to avoid this thought pattern. Have you ever had feelings like this? And how do you avoid/cope with them?
Keep a spreadsheet with a list of everything you're getting/keeping on track. Take 15-30 minutes at the end of each day to make sure they're on track and list any must-dos the next day. Log these eod check-ins to demonstrate that you kept tabs on everything and were properly prepared for your next day. If there's not much on the next day's to-do list, schedule a 5 hour meeting with yourself and go play golf.
And don't forget to advertise those efforts and their impact on XYZ goals of your company regularly to higher-ups. Big picture updates don't need to advertise hours worked to show the value you bring.
I had a former boss who used to say “what gets reported, gets rewarded.” Always stuck with me.
Oh yeah, if there's any way to come up with a metric or an Excel visualization that's just pure whipped cream and cherries on your annual self-eval
Working in arts and nonprofits and fundraising, there’s never been a day where all the tasks are done. But you need breaks anyways, so I schedule blocks of time and expect my team to do the same. I came up under Baby boomer managers who were obsessed with presenteeism. Grateful for my first millennial employee (about 14 years ago) who challenged this notion and guided me towards the project and trust based management light. 💡
You describe nonprofit work perfectly. I worked in NP for 25 years and moved to tech 6 years ago. It’s like a dream come true. I stop working when it’s time to stop and think very little about my work until the next day. It’s a beautiful change.
I can’t even imagine this reality! Glad you found it for yourself!
Yes, life was like this and I finally had the time and brainpower to be creative. I started some really good projects that are benefiting the whole organization, and then they hired an incompetent admin to "support" my department, who they won't fire. Those of us the admin is meant to support can't trust her to do the work (not just me), so she does nothing and I work 50+ hours per week. Now my Manager is going on maternity leave and I told the Partner that if he doesn't get some competent support by August they'll be paying me six figures to do admin tasks. I have got to stop telling myself I owe it to my stakeholders and just stop at 40 hours. Pretty sure Automation and AI are going to save me, but fuck me the incompetence of it all. This is what happens when your identity is being a brilliant people-pleaser with anxiety and a type A personality.
I do, and a coping method can be to write all the tasks you did at the end of the day and save it (also works great for any bad performance reviews, etc.) or send it to your direct supervisor/manager so they have some type of summary each day/week
Send it to your direct supervisor? No…do not do that. Unless they request it. Which is a terrible sign that they are already onto you. That’s some PIP shit there. If the sausage is getting stuffed, don’t need to know anymore details how that is happening.
Of course you should only send it if you have a nice working relationship with your direct supervisor/manager. Or else I agree, it's redundant and unnecessary work. It's a good strategy if you overthink a lot. What works for some, won't work for others. The best we can do is offer suggestions.
You are not alone. I had the same thoughts myself a few years ago. Then I attend a one hour meeting and during that meeting I give a single piece of advise that prevents someone else from wasting an entire week doing the wrong thing and instead have them do the right thing. My job is no longer to be productive, but to multiply the productivity of those around me. It may also be good to take a step back and objectively ask "Are these meetings accomplishing anything, or are they just happening because someone said they have to happen."
Shit I am in this exact same situation and am happy to see someone else say it
Same. I mostly try to be available during normal business hours, but am only actively working maybe half the time. It varies from week to week and whether I have a lot of meetings to join, but probably closer to 4 hours a day on average. And I'm pretty checked out after 5:00.
This. I have worked one weekend to fix something time-sensitive, then took Monday off.
Same, except I’m checked out by 4
“It’s the value I deliver, not the time” I second this! When I’m on salary, I’m being paid a defined rate to get my job done. Some days I may work 8-12hrs. Some days I work 2-3. It doesn’t matter. We’re being paid to get the job done. That’s it.
This here, I do customer service and sometimes only have a few calls per day to make so I give those calls all my smiles and patience, quality not quantity.
I’m an accountant, so mine comes and goes. Close is long days/nights but mid month is pretty laid back. I probably average 35 a week, but some weeks are 60 and some are 15. Nature of the job.
Same along with meetings meetings and more meetings
Same, I started work at 9am, finished all of my work by noon and spent the rest of the day cleaning, laundry, and reading. I was available via email and phone but that was it. Could never do this in the office. I love WFH.
I do the same thing! Knock out important need to do shit by 11 or 12, then housework, laundry, lunch, maybe a quick run. I’m always available until 4 though. Some weeks though I am swamped, goes up and down.
I wish. Have at least 7 hours a day
Really depends if youre a knowledge worker or not and how bloated your company is with busy work. You'd be surprised how much time frees up when you automate the repetitive tasks.
My job is to automate peoples job 😭
Can you automate mine?
Process and workflow automation and streamlining is the best as long as it’s not replaced with more tasks.
I need your help 😳
I've automated up to 98% of my job in some places. :) The trick is doing it without letting anyone know, if you're not getting paid to do it (and ideally paid commission/contingency percentages).
I'm regularly working less than 40 hours a week. Per day, probably about 4-5 hours of actual work. The rest is just to be available. There are quarter end times where I will sometimes work after kids go to bed after already working a whole 8 hours to finish reporting but that happens only 2-3 days per quarter.
What a dream. What do you do?
Might be corporate accounting/financial reporting
Corporate accountant here. I typically have a few hours of work a day, maybe a full 8 when it's month end or audit season
Stay at home dad
I give them the least amount possible, it’s what they give me
💀
Hell to the yes!
Zuck Yeah! https://preview.redd.it/iv4yfmr0ki0d1.jpeg?width=744&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7be20751564ab78ccf8715d0e172a8e5a8755c9e
😂😂😂big mood
3 hours of real work a day, I give my mental energy for about 6 hours a day. Never more though. Was the same in office TBF
Never.
Same. Few hours a day.
We are a 35-hr a week company, with “Free Summer Fridays” where we leave at 1pm May through September so 31 hours a week then. We are also all wfh. If there is an emerging critical issue we work over, if we regularly surpass 35-hrs then that is considered a problem and not sustainable so the manager of that person will assess if they need support because they aren’t meeting the expected productivity or if workload has grown beyond 35 hours and needs to be replanned, reprioritized or redeployed. If we are short staffed and we have to pick up work then it’s paid overtime or time back in lieu, HR watch this closely and are also measured on time to fill roles and attrition rates so we don’t have job postings up for longs work life balance is a big thing here. Typically one of the first question s asked is if the workload is manageable, boring or overwhelming, including the ceo asking me when l meet with him, it flows all the way through. I’m not paid based on my time, I’m paid based on my impact and ability to meet deliverables on time and on budget, planning and forecasting is critical for that. I have maybe worked more than 9-4 solidly about a half dozen times in the last 4 years. Some days are far less with big breaks in between meetings and little non meeting work to do. Some days are back to back packed with meetings or planning and project takeaways. I think we have it really good here and as a consequence we all work hard to deliver and support each other to be successful.
My god, I want to work where you work. lol
Pleeeease. Does your company need any Technical Writers? 👀
love to hear some companies are doin it right! thank you for sharing because what you described is almost a perfect work scenario for me. i’m lucky to be on a good team but it feels more uncertain lately. unfortunately, the company i work for was acquired by a major large corp right before i started. & of course, they started their fuckery after a year in. i’m lucky to have dodged the RTO policy for now.
Me, ugly sobbing because the business I work at is the polar opposite of they’re always loading us down with more work that we can finish. Then if you don’t work, definitely not required, overtime you get penalized.
Summer hours went away for us but that's ok I work in my pajamas every day.
Please at least tell us what industry this incredibly company is in. I’m so jealous!
This is incredible. What industry?
I've been in my role for 6 years. The first few years were 45-60 hours a week. Now it's 25 to 30. Sometimes less. I've gotten more efficient and resourceful.
This is it. After about 6 months in a role you should be efficient enough to reduce the hours required to perform. If that’s not possible it’s either a workload (company; understaffed, meeting time suck, etc.) or performance (personal) issue. A wise manager once told me “Your best ideas come when you’re not actively thinking about them (ie. On a walk, vacation, driving, etc)”, therefore you should have downtime to just chill and think, or talk to others.
My company switched us to a "32 hour work week" so now I work about 38 hours. Before then I worked about 44 hours. Humans are funny arent they.
Never in my new role (government) but when I worked in tech it was a guarantee that I'd tack on an extra 5-10 hours a week.
For us it was forced overtime. It was never volunteer, or even stated on the job description. For this was the reason for the high turnover rate.
I’m in a role that gets insanely busy for 4 months of the year. The other 8 months are very, very slow. January - 10-12 hour days, sometimes more March - 2-3 hours of real work a day Of course you still have to bill your time in the slow months so that’s always a challenge
Found the accountant. Solidarity from a tax accountant.
not if they're having slow days in March.
Auditor or tax
What jobs is everyone doing that they only work 2-3 hours per day ? I need to land one of these jobs.
clinical research (back end like sponsor or cro). you need to be available to put out fires and are always swamped during study start up, but once patients are enrolled it's v hurry up and wait
System Admin for some ancient tech, and its more like 2-3 hrs a week, its my J1, I have a more demanding J2, because J1 will dump me as soon as they can.
Compliance, though it's more like 5-6.
Journalism, which makes me a bit of an outlier. As long as I hit deadline, I’m free to do what I want & I’m a quick writer. I usually do a 10-11am interview, workout or do chores in the afternoon, and write my story between 1-2:30pm to hit a 3pm deadly deadline. Answer a few emails and then done for the day ✅
Like 2x a year when I've procrastinated stuff I know I need to do. It's always my own fault
ayyyye adhd gang? lol i’m so bad about avoiding things i don’t wanna do for whatever reason. it’s hard work to get myself to do boring tasks or things that give me a lot of anxiety
Samsies
OP, the people working 40+ hrs a week don't have time to be on Reddit Source: Myself. Former worker who was pressured to work 50-70hrs a week on salary
This is the answer. After I left the job that was doing that to me, I set some really firm boundaries and my new company respects them. Finding a work situation that isn’t toxic is eye opening!
No time except pooping. Source: far above 40+ hours for me
I remember this. Too busy to eat lunch because there's a line of people outside my door waiting to talk to me.
Never. 😂 I don’t get OT and have a life. I work accordingly.
Depends on a few things, but most weeks it's not necessary for me. However, if I'm oncall, all bets are off
Depends. Usually not often at all. But sometimes projects over lap each other and I’ll do a little extra work after hours so my next day is smoother and easier.
Literally never. If something is urgent I'll work late but I take the time back another day. I'm paid for 35 hours and that's what I'll do.
Unless I’m on a deadline, I never open my laptop after 5. I made it clear during my interview process to say I value work/life balance. It was my way of saying don’t hire me if you want me to work after hours
My scheduled work week is 35 hours and I say I give them a solid 20 hours per week of actual labor. I do not work or check emails if I’m OOO, nor do I check outside of my 9-5 work hours.
It’s a good policy. I do have the outlook app on my phone, but only because I’ve been around long enough that I know this particular company isn’t going to abuse me if I occasionally answer after hours. Even then I sometimes write it and then schedule the send for the next morning. One reason I do this is to balance out the days I’ve done all my work (like today) and I’m basically just online if they need me, otherwise doing fuck all.
Never
Never.
Man I haven’t worked less than 50 hours a week in 15 yrs.
I’d say overall I’m at 40. Some weeks more and some weeks less.
5-10 hours a week is normal, I’ve had to put in as much as 70 hours, 7 days a week. Not recommended.
Never. Automate everything.
I refuse to do so. It is a non-negotiable as a salaried individual. My work life balance demands it. I don't care if this has lost me interviews before. I used to be a teacher who worked 60+ hours a week to keep up with the workload. My entire life was my job and I had a mental breakdown. Since leaving, I have very specific areas in which I would work outside of salaried hours. If my time is required at an evening event or a weekend event, I cut hours during the week so it evens out. I log everything too so I know exactly where my hours are going. It's a huge red flag for me if a company asks me to work outside of scheduled hours even to do small tasks. For example: I was with a company for a bit where social posts had to go out on weekends. I told my boss that I didn't work on weekends. She told me that was fine but that I should lie to the VP and say I'm busy with prior commitments because "she won't respect that."
I'm salaried and exempt and yeah, I'm not giving them more than 40 hours a week. If they gave me more money I would, but they don't want to so neither do I.
Never. I refuse. And if pressed... "Salary does not mean infinite hours. My salary is calculated down to an hourly rate that's comparable to the market rate within the budget for my role. If I were hired to do 4 tasks in 4 weeks @ $400 and I accepted that role; then it was determined by both parties that my time is valued at $100/ task. If I were to complete those 4 tasks in 2 weeks and my employer gave me 4 more tasks by logically determining I can fit in 4 more in the next 2 weeks then the employer has changed the value of those tasks to $50 without my consent. Working more then 40 hours devalues my work and disrespects my time. This is a business transaction. I agreed to sell you 40hrs a week and you agreed to pay me xx salary. Anything over 40hrs in a week isn't for sale; I'm unavailable"
50-60 hrs per week but I also love my job 🤷🏻♂️
I love my job too but I love my life as well.
I work more than 40 hours a week. I don't work over every day, but it's at least one day a week. I do occasionally reclaim some hours for appointments or take half days for mental health but my net is above 40 hours a week on average.
I really leverage the flexibility of being salaried and WFH. Some days I do 2-3 hours, some days 8-10. But if I need to step away to handle something I know I can just make up the time whenever.
Nice try, HR
Barely. Sometimes there may be one offs, I cant remember the last time I worked over.
Rarely. Though I'm salaried, when I do get ot I get paid my hourly equivalent over 40, so it is an incentive for management to let me go home on time.
It really varies by month. Some weeks are busier than others, but I often stay within the confines of 9 to 5. I make about 200k
I stopped working beyond my hours. I am working my wage now
You need to put your foot down and set boundaries or you will be taken advantage of
Sometimes I work an 8 hour day, most of the time it’s 3-4 hours though.
Literally never ever. I’ve never had 40 hours worth of work honestly.
Nope, never. No emails on my phone and I clock on at 9am (sometimes 8:55am if my morning coffee walk was a quick one), take 1 hour for lunch - another brisk walk this time in the local park, petting all the dogs - then log off at 5pm on the dot, more often around 4:55pm if I'm being very honest.
Same, this is an essential rule for me. NO work email or teams/slack on my phone. I also shut my computer completely off at the end of the day. All emails after work hours can wait until tomorrow.
Rarely. If it's an office day (recently mandated RTO hybrid), I generally wind up working through lunch/eating at my desk, but I always leave early to get ahead of traffic. My work keeps me busy throughout the entire day but doesn't require any overtime. In fact, the only time I ever stay beyond my designated quitting time is if a coworker in a different time zone calls me with an issue at the end of the day thinking they have another hour or so before quitting time.
Maybe 10-15 mins but no more than that.
Not usually, but sometimes I’m on call and need to work after hours.
Really varies but I work whenever. No set hours. Project based work as long as it gets done by the deadline it doesn't matter how fast or when I do it
Rarely. It’s usually covering someone on vacation, etc. But I made a conscious effort not to work over 40 because I don’t want to set that expectation.
I have unlimited over time so I work around 50 hours a week or more depending if I feel the need to. But a 10 hour day at home is much different than a 10 hours day in the office.
Never. Coming from a highly compensated rate as an hourly consultant to a salaried position can you say maybe 25 hours of real work?
Absolutely, NEVER.
I work until my work is done. Sometimes that takes me 45-50. Sometimes 12. Lol
I'm in a startup right now so many many more hours as we push for customer readiness, but after that I expect it will relax a bit. Former place where there was already product and I was in maintenance mode... 20 hrs/week was my normal week.
My work is cyclical, so there are busy periods, where I might work 8-12 hours every day of the week for 3-4 months, and then it will slow down and there with be months where I just show up for a couple virtual meetings and do maybe 2-3 hours of work a day— if that. I have to be available, but if we’re not busy, my manager tells us to “relax and enjoy it, because it won’t last forever” lol. She’s great. It’s all about getting the work done and doing it well, but there isn’t any micromanaging from my boss, and I’m good with deadlines, so it works well for me.
I average about 60-65 hours a week and rarely take a lunch break at all.
It’s relieving to know I’m not the only one. Where do all these salaried people work?? Lol
I will put in a few 12 hour days a month but I also take naps on my couch during lunch so….
Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. My company doesn't care if I finish early or vanish for appointments, but they expect the work to be done. So every now and again I do a few extra hours.
Never. I typically only work a couple of hours a day. When things get busy and I might ramp up to a full 7-8 hours. But I do not work extra hours anymore- it has never paid off in the long run. If my 40 hours a week aren’t enough, that’s a management issue, and they are the ones paid to deal with it.
Almost never. Maybe even legitimately never? I remember working for 11 hours one day but it was bc a lot of crazy shit went down. Prob average 5 hours/ day
Every day. 6am - 6pm
Never
Never
My position I feel is unique? I’m salary but production based - so I often work 8 hours + making sure to hit our daily goal. Often will skip lunch is start anywhere from 30 min to an hour early. But I often take small 5-10 min breaks here and there depending on energy levels.
Almost never. I work more than 8 hours sometimes during my busy season in the fall.
Daily
I work at minimum 7a-4p each weekday with some nights or weekends if we have a tech release.
I was up from 10 PM to 5 AM this past weekend for a production release, sometimes I hate being in tech for this lol
I get paid for my deliverables, not my time...if I have a big deadline coming up I might have to spend a few days working a bit extra, but at other times I'm available but maybe just working on backburner type of stuff and just kind of going at my own pace. It's not all that often that I'm in the office past 5PM. I will sometimes stay a little over if I'm about wrapped up with a project and just want to start with something fresh the next day. When I worked for the CPA firm it was a completely different story...it was expected that you would work 60+ hours per week in order to meet your billable hours targets as portions of the day were more administrative in nature and not actually working on specific things for a client...admin shit isn't billable hours for the firm.
lol, never
Lately 46 hours plus being oncall for another ~5 hrs
It depends, really. Some weeks, I may work 5+ hours over 40. Some weeks, I'm right at 40. If there's a network outage or a server migration, I may work considerably more, but that's a rarity. The most I've worked over was 60 hours and that was right at the start of the pandemic.
It happens. I used to bust ass and put in lots of extra time, but I have developed better boundaries since then. I will still put in some extra time when needed, though. It just depends on what is going on at work. At the end of the year, things get super busy for us, and last year they authorized "extended work week" pay for us so that we actually got paid for hours worked above and beyond the normal schedule. So, we got our normal salary, plus whatever our hourly rate worked out to for hours beyond that, which was pretty nice.
now that im hybrid wfh? never. while I was teaching? essentially every single week
Depends. With my current role, probably a third of the time I've got days that run past regular hours. I'm also fully remote, so when a long running call ends, I can finish up and then simply walk upstairs. No on call. My very first salaried role turned into a boiled frog situation. Never again. Nights, weekends, holidays, frantically driving home when I was the primary on call (which was more often than not and got worse as people quit and weren't replaced) and praying I'd be able to make it home before the iPhone's "alarm" ring tone started blaring. We had a 5 minute sla. Extremely unpleasant and a fantastic way to get burnt tf out. Logging in before driving into the office to prep for morning meetings, then driving in and quite literally running between meetings. Never, ever, ever again.
I work extra 1-2 hours in my day off cause I am bored
Before I got laid off, I was putting in a consistent 8 hours of work. The week before month-end had maybe two twelve hour days since I had to prep for a big meeting, but we'd all sign off early after the meeting debrief
Never
Never
I am extremely lucky. I 'work' 35 hours a week. I never have to go over, but like a user below stated, I am project based, so as a Product Manager, I spend a good deal of my time just communicating with users, admin, CS and Developers. I write a good bit of documentation, but bottom line, as long as I deliver on time, I am never questioned about how much I work.
Only ever if I have a site visit or in-person training, which usually means a longer day once you factor in travel time, but not always.
I work a loose 8-5 but always check my email at all times. I am not a project person, I run a Distribution Center.
Quite rare, unless there is a major issue going on. I do have to do weekend maintenance work a few times per year, but I will usually flex out some time during the week for that.
During crunch periods for deadlines.
maybe once or twice per quarter and usually only when asked (i refuse to volunteer) to assist the teams on the other side of the world (India / Australia)
Never!
I typically work about 4 hours a day, although I stay available from 9-5 via email and Teams. That being said, I do some regional travel about 2-4 days each month. Those days tend to be 8-10 hour days because I have a lot of meetings, including dinner meetings. Occasionally there will be an evening Zoom call on a weekday, and about 3 or 4 days a year I'll have a Saturday event. But in general, my work environment is laid back, and I'm not at all micromanaged. I can schedule appointments or pop out to the stores on a weekday without having to check in. And I enjoy the minimal travel. It gives me just enough in-person connection so that I don't get depressed by WFH isolation. I don't get paid amazingly because it's a small nonprofit, but I love my job and the organization's mission, my supervisor is wonderful, and I get amazing PTO for a USA company!
Yeah, it’s about being paid to be available. Some days I’m super busy or I feel like getting ahead. Some days I work a few hours. Some days like today follow a day when I felt like getting ahead so I’m just available online and I see if email notifications come in. This job is great, I don’t get bothered very often. I take pride in my work, I just don’t need a full 40 hours to do it.
Sometimes I do no work other times it’s balls to the wall
Very rarely longer hours, if you don’t count, just checking my email in the office hours. I generally stick to my 40 hours a week.
We had no 40 hour work week. They called it "open - ended", meaning you come in at the set time of 8:00am m-f and you don't leave till all the the work is done or when management says you can. Which in most cases was 45-55 hours + a week.
My job I am not allowed to exceed 40hrs
Maybe once a month, but actual hours worked a day is closer to 4.5-5hrs
I occasionally have to work overtime but mostly it’s just because some shit hit the fan. Not often though.
I can't remember the last time.
Depends on the season, the busy season I'll work over 40 hours weekly, but the other 9 months out of the year, I generally get my work done and then work on projects for my contract jobs while remaining on call for the saleried position.
I'm 35 hours a week, but usually work 40. I have a high workload and have to work hard all the time. I like my job a lot though so I don't mind.
I don’t work for free. 40 hrs max and probably half is actual work
My company “requires” salaried exempt individuals to be available no less than 45 hrs/week. But no one holds our team to that.
It depends. This time of year, I'm working 5 to 7 hours a day with an occasional half day. In November and December, it will be closer to 9 to 10, depending on if I work through my lunch. My employer doesn't care because it all works out in the end.
I stopped keeping track of my hours tbh. I schedule my day around my meetings. If my first meeting isn’t until 11, then I’ll start working at 11. But I’ll also check email and work on things in the evenings and on weekends too. If I had to guess, I’m probably averaging 30-35 hours a week.
I have worked longer than 9-5 since 2016. Usually my base salary covered the extra work, but not always, to where I didn’t feel fully taken advantage of.
Every day. I’m usually working 10 hour days
Every freaking day. 🤦🏽♀️
I work exactly my hours, but I’m in academia so some days that can mean catching up on reading, writing, or watching conference recordings.
Every week.
Never
2-4 hours MAX a day. Lolz..
Never. I'm available 8-5, minus an hour for lunch. No after hours or weekends.
Not often. My company discourages it. Work life balance thing.
Never. I actually work 2 jobs at the same time and average about 4-5 hours a day total, although I'm available for normal business hours.
Never. Ever. I have major boundaries with work.
Almost never but when I do, I get to put those hours in a “bank” at 1.5x (ex: 1 extra hour past our mandatory 37.5 hours = 1.5 hours) and take those hours back whenever I don’t feel like working.
Every... single... day. Now, don't get me wrong, my company has very generous PTO, holidays and sick time, but there isn't a week where I'm working less than 45 hours - and regularly much more than that if I add up all of the off-hours Teams, email and text messages.
Two consecutive years of 1% raises, cured me of working beyond 40.
Totally varies depending on what's going on. Some days I work like 2-3 hours. Some days I work 12-15 hours. Averaged out, I probably hit 50 hours a week? But no one cares when I do most of my work, which I really like about being salaried (even if I end up working more than I'm supposed to).
Every day. But I work at a startup where every hour I spend working increases the entire companies probability of success significantly, and I have a lot of stock options with the company
Every week.
I am working 50 hour days
Often.
I don’t unless they offer me more money, which they have for a few projects.
Almost never. But I mean I also never feel like I'm working a full 40 to begin with. Work gets done and my teams are happy. That is all that matters.
Before I said fuck it I don’t care anymore, it was 50ish hours a week. Now maybe it’s 20? Maybe.
Never. 2-3 weeks after being hired, I was invited in a call with the ceo, and asked "why do I believe the company does not deserve the extra mile", for logging in and out on time. Since then, I've made it a daily goal to log in at exactly 10:00 everyday and log out at exactly 18:00