how many hours do you work a week?

Monday 13
Tuesday 12
I didn’t do it I wouldn’t have the job (salaried no O/T)

Whilst I applaud those who can restrict the hours worked for a majority that is not an option.
TJ I can only believe you are naive! or Citizen Smith

Will you get compensatory rest / TOIL? is this a regular thing? You are quite possibly working illegally and if you do this regularly you are certainly allowing your employer to abuse you at great risk to your mental and physical health.

I am neither naive or citizen smith – IMO people who work like that are naive. You are allowing your employer to get away with abuse ( unless its an occasional thing to hit a deadline or something else out of the ordinary.)

Have you bothered to work out your real hourly rate? Do you ever see your family / friends?

Whilst I applaud those who can restrict the hours worked for a majority that is not an option.

Majority? definitely not a majority, and those who do work extra tend to get overtime.

It is not until you move into offices and this weird presentism culture that you see people working extra hours for no money. And even in most offices i would say most people don’t do huge amounts of extra, an hour here or there but that is about it.

just another thought, do you really think when the $hit hits the fan and your employer needs to cut staff that working 80-90 hours will actually make the blindest bit of difference to their choices? If i company decides to shut a department they shut a department.

Commitment works both ways, why should i sell my soul when i know my employer doesn’t give a $hit.

TJ, I think the only thing we kind of agree on is whether you are compensated for the additional work. I wouldn’t put those many hours in unless essentially there was a financial incentive involved i.e.

O/T
Bonus
TOIL
Career progression
Stock / Profit sharing

The career progression one you need to monitor closely. I have had friends who have been working 60hr weeks for 2 years with the constant expectation of a promotion / raise which never comes. Always set yourself boundaries of what you are willing to except as a minimum.

28. Occasionally I get kept late, maybe 5 minutes or 20 sometimes. You don’t get paid until you have done an hour, then you are paid for it. So if you are there for half an hour you don’t get paid. On the other hand, if you are a bit late it’s ok (as long as you don’t do it all the time). Hour for lunch. No set breaks but you can make a drink any time. The lawyers work much longer hours – they get more money but I would be interested to work out their hourly rates – poor things.

6x13hr shifts. Rubbish eh? Take it or leave it at my work though. Im also experienced and fully qualified to work offshore but thats worse.

Karinofnine – Member

28. Occasionally I get kept late, maybe 5 minutes or 20 sometimes. You don’t get paid until you have done an hour, then you are paid for it. So if you are there for half an hour you don’t get paid.

Aargh… We had a similiar rule with a minimum half hour, which naturally a certain sort of boss instantly interprets as “make everyone work 25 minutes overtime every day”. But for some reason, they’re not as happy if you come in 25 minutes late and say “Hey, it’s not a full half hour so it doesn’t count”.

40 hours, why work more?

Totally echo what LHS says on keeping an eye on the reward for the hours but in some jobs this is not just salary as TJ seems to think. I may see less of my children than if I worked 10 hours a week less but I think the opportunities they get as a benefit of my work out weigh that time.

I am also counting myself massively lucky that I do something where I enjoy the job enough that sometimes I want to stay / see something through because of the personal satisfaction I get from seeing a job well done on time. Definitely in the minority on that one from what I can tell.

this week ive done 84 – 7 x 12 hour shifts

get my weekends back at my leisure and get paid a good day rate on top of a good basic for my days away so for me it works out nice as im saving for a house

once i have kids i wont be doing that shite !

3 x 11 plus 8 on a saturday. Not a bad 41 hour week with 3 days off 😀 AND I like my job!

I may see less of my children than if I worked 10 hours a week less but I think the opportunities they get as a benefit of my work out weigh that time.

I do wonder what your kids think though? would they rather spend more time with you or have more junk?

45 hours minimum. Rarely more than 64 hours.

About 55 hours. We are contracted for 40 but the more hours typically the more bonus but there is a cut off in terms of work life balance. The thing that p1sses me off the is the culture of having to stay till the boss leaves. He always wait till after 7pm to drive home out of central London (in the Porsche 911 we paid for) and everyone just sits there until that time even if they are not busy. I started leaving earlier and and get beady looks from people. Sod it is what I say.

Recently started working in auditing. It says in the contract that it’s seasonal work and it averages out at 40 hours per week over the year ;-). However once the season starts it will be around 60-65 hours. Then during summer we work shorter days and finish at 3pm on Fridays. Already had to stay longer and work till late or the whole weekend as well because if there is a deadline then the work must be done by that time end of story. However we can get time back/get paid for OT and get TOIL for weekends worked. Money is good as well so I can’t complain really. However most of the time delays in supplying documents from the client leads to staying longer and there is not much we can do about it TBH.

He seems to be talking about opportunities rather than objects though mrmo. Plenty of things cost money and are of great benefit to a child. Better education, more extra curricular activities, holidays where you experience other cultures. Totally fair point imo.

Contract says 38, but it turns into 50 pretty quickly, and often more. If we’re on a fieldtrip the hours rocket.

RichPenny – Member

He seems to be talking about opportunities rather than objects though mrmo. Plenty of things cost money and are of great benefit to a child.

Greater benefit than having a dad around?

Greater benefit than having a dad around?

Not mutually exclusive.

You can easily work an 11-12 hour day and still be around for your kids.

Its called proper time management, and not wasting your life watching crap on TV too.

I’ve long since decided that working extra hours (usually for no reward) generally makes **** all difference to the outcome of work.

I’ve also realised that, to a certain degree, time is greater than money.. so when I had the opportunity I reduced my hours to a 33.5 hour working week (Mon-Thurs).

Ok, so there are a number of factors that can make people work longer hours from reading all the above:

1. People who enjoy their job so put more hours in. (fair enough in my book)

2. People who get paid more to work the extra hours whether in their salary or in bonuses/overtime.

3. People who work the extra hours, because it whats done in their industry/culture of the organisation.

I would be intrigued to see peoples pay for all 3 categories. I earn slightly more than the national average but dont work an hour over 37.5 hours per week. No its not my dream job, but it gives me the balance I want between income/life. If an employer wanted me to routinely work 40+ hours per week and not pay me extra for it I would leave.

TJ you really dont work in the real world. Many of your colleagues in your broader company work many many more hours than they are contracted for.

37.5 per week for me.
However , we have weekend shutdown work which requires me to be here for the next 6 weeks, paid overtime, – 9 hours per day at the weekend,12 hours per day through the week.

I don’t do it for the love of the company – I’m purely mercenary.
I have helped them out when they’ve been stuck though.

Clearly if he was never there TJ, then no. But I can see that if you’re earning well then trading 5 to 10 hours for something worthwhile is ok. For example, it might cost £60 to take my daughter to the british museum. An incredible experience well traded for a few hours work.

To me this is about the price of everything and the value of nothing.

clearly a few hours a week extra that you get paid for is no issue – however 70 hr weeks are proven to be damaging to your mental and physical health.

I think there is a huge element of people fooling themselves here and a lot of folk are going to regret spending the best years of their lives working and neglecting their families and the rest of their lives.

How you can be as good a dad working 12 hr days as you could working 7 hr days is beyond my comprehension.

How you can be as good a dad working 12 hr days as you could working 7 hr days is beyond my comprehension.

Obviously! 🙄

It’s called time management

When the kids were growing up, they were at school for 9hrs of the day. They also went to bed early evening. And if you knew anything about kids you would also know that they don’t want to “hang” with their dad for the rest of their waking hours. Saying all that I would definitly say I spent the same time with my kids growing up as most adults do.

They are however very grateful when they were able to be educated at the best school in the area, and were taken on holidays abroad for 4 weeks of the year. Depends what motivates you TJ. Our motivations are obviously wildly different.

EDIT: TJ I just read your first post – you work 18hrs a week? Do you have any children?

Currently working a zero hour week….but this will change to an 84hr week (x2) when my rotation comes around.

We certainly don’t bust ourselves…A wise spark once said to me

Efficiency = Redundancy and Chaos means Cash 🙂

Generally 50+ per week at work but commuting time puts 3+ hours on that each day (admittedly I don’t work much on the train – great place to catch up on sleep).

That’s an interesting point isn’t it, about what money effectively gives the kids in place of their parents being there.

I was lucky enough to go to private school from 13-18 instead of the comp I’d have probably been in otherwise up to 16 which I was in before the private school and I really didn’t enjoy – bored out of my brain basically. So on that basis, yes, money (in an indirect way in my case since it didn’t actually involve my Dad working particularly long hours) definitely made me happier. I’m less certain that I’d have felt that way if it had involved my Dad not being around much. My Grandad ran the family business and worked long hours. My Dad always says that he’d have far preferred to have not gone on the amazing holidays and had all the nice stuff and to have actually known his Dad while he was a kid…

So, the other stuff like holidays, etc, I’m far less certain of the benefit to kids. And yes, obviously kids don’t want to spend all their time with Mum and Dad but that’s different to kids not wanting their parents to be around.

So your parents work hard to give you a better life, you work hard to give your children a better life, your children work hard to give their children a better life. When do the benefits actually materialise?

People have fallen into the classic trap, have no life of their own, and just believe the propaganda to keep them working (wasting) their lives away.

A point that just occurred to me – we tend to have friends with a similar outlook from a similar sphere of work – so the working / living patterns that we have tend to be similar to our friends thus appears to be the norm.

None of my friends that I see much of are involved in the long hours culture so it is not the norm to me. I guess if you work and live in that culture it becomes the norm

None of my friends that I see much of are involved in the long hours culture so it is not the norm to me. I guess if you work and live in that culture it becomes the norm

Do you have children TJ?

I have a wide variety of friends from stay at home mums and dads, doctors, teachers and traders. There are definitly differences.

So your parents work hard to give you a better life, you work hard to give your children a better life, your children work hard to give their children a better life. When do the benefits actually materialise?

At every step along the route.

Depends what motivates you TJ. Our motivations are obviously wildly different.

Clearly. I have no desire for material goods and don’t care about money so long as I have enough for the basics.

EDIT: TJ I just read your first post – you work 18hrs a week? Do you have any children?

Averaged over years No kids. Lots of time to play instead and I do all most all the housework and stuff so Mrs TJ has plenty of time to play as well. We took a drop of over £20 000 pa to do this and are much happier with far more time for stuff altho we don’t always make the best use of time. I have done up a couple of houses for us to live in – that sort of thing

I get a lot of pleasure out of simple things – a walk along the river on a spring morning and the like. costs nowt.

I work 37.5 hrs a week, even thats too much i reckon.

84 hrs a week, shove that right up yer chuff.

I don’t always agree with what TJ says but this

I get a lot of pleasure out of simple things – a walk along the river on a spring morning and the like. costs nowt.

hits the nail ont head.

TandemJeremy – Member
A point that just occurred to me – we tend to have friends with a similar outlook from a similar sphere of work – so the working / living patterns that we have tend to be similar to our friends thus appears to be the norm

You see, I don’t have that at all. I have friends who are classic slackers and others who work all the hours under the sun and earn lots. Some lefties, some righties, may centrists. Thing is they’re all nice people which is more how I try to identify people to be friends with rather than just sharing the same views/outlooks/work. I think that your friends all seem to be so homogenous says a lot about you as it goes…

Not that I disagree with your views on working hours, obviously.

I am still intrigued for all the other long hour workers with kids as to exactly what benefits there really are for your kids other than the better schools one (and only secondary IME).

This is getting on to a more emotive discussion, and could be a whole different thread.

I dont see why parents think they need to earn their childrens love/respect through monetary gifts etc. Mrs FD works long hours and already feels guilty to Jnr FD so buys him stuff to compensate.

Its a cultural thing that in her job she doesnt feel that she could stay on maternity leave for a year, or work shorter hours because she wouldnt get promoted etc etc. That is probably all true, but just sadly reflects how low the family life is reflected in society that work comes before family and therefore partly why society is going down the swanny.

Yeah, I know there’s a real risk of that. I’m not trying to point the finger at those who work long hours ostensibly for their kids – particularly as IME they’re often driven by having had poor childhoods themselves and wanting better for their kids.

I just don’t really ‘get’ the view, that’s what I’m trying to understand. I guess part of that’s down to my parents, my Dad in particular who managed to be pretty successful but in his view would have been much more so if he’d been willing to sacrifice (in his view) family life by working more hours, travelling more, relocating us, etc. He always said he didn’t think it was a sacrifice worth making.

TJ, you work an 18hour week and have no kids.

Seriously? How do you think you have the right to comment about working longer hours for the good/detriment of your family?

This is definitly a subject you are not qualified to comment on.

LHS – leave it out, you don’t have to have kids to be qualified to comment on this.

No benefits for kids if the parents are at work all day every day. All they really wish for un-till their teens is time spent with their parents. As adults we get too hooked up on this materialistic world and put to much emphasis on careers and ownership of things or keeping up with the jones’
All these 60-80hr weeks = early grave (and you don’t even have time to enjoy your short lives!!)