How Many Hours Do You Work in a Week?

Gnight asks: "After reading a recent article at ABC News stating that U.S. citizens work more than any other industrialized country, I have started to wonder more about the subject. So my question is, how much does the average slashdot reader work in a week? Where do you live? and What do you do?" Slashdot did an informal poll on this a long time ago, but it was more from the workday standpoint, though it looked like the majority of us were working 9-10 hour days. Is it still the same today as it was almost 2 years ago?

Comments

reflective of American values

[ragnar]

I think this simply reflects something about the American value system. Some Americans will regard other nations as being lazy, but it really just comes down to how you define personal accomplishment. In America one of the early questions people ask is "what do you do", and invariable the answer beings with "I'm a [insert profession here]" instead of "I do [insert profession here]" In America, you are what you do professionally, and it is natural to have some pressure to do it well.

I have lots of issues with this, and the 40 hour workweek is simply a mental trap for making good students into good consumers. Consider this for a moment... if there was some device that you could use at work that would increase your productivity by 20%, why do you still work 5 days a week. Why not be happy and work 4 days, assuming that the cost of the device were recovered.

My take on this is that the length of the workweek has nothing to do with the work that has to be done. There is always more work that can be done, and there are always ways of shirking off the task of getting stuff done. I know both from experience. ;)

My point here (and I do have one) is that this is a reflection of American values to work and consume. It is a value system I don't like very well, but I'll confess that I buy into it implicitely. This is an interesting topic though.

Re:reflective of American values

[Raven667]

I think the "When are you going to do something with yourself" crowd is the same as the "Look at the nice clothes on he Emperor" crowd. Subconsiously they are asking themselves "If he can live a happy, productive life without breaking his back at work, WTF am I doing?" Other people don't want to see a happy, well adjusted person working 20 hrs a week because it is a slap in the face, showing that they have chosen the wrong lifestyle and value system. Nobody likes to be wrong.

Re:reflective of American values

[aussersterne]

I think you're absolutely right; working long hours and spending money on useless consumer items is probably the most clear expression of Americanism that I can think of. It's a value system I personally hate, mainly because I feel the compelling need to exist outside of any possesions I own or job I perform.

But (and here's the point of my post) it's going to take a lot to change this. I know first hand that people aren't at all tolerant of those who have succeeded in not working a 40-hour week. I am a freelance writer. I make enough to live. I became a freelance writer specifically because I was tired of working long hours at a job that I felt was taking over -- that was becoming somehow enmeshed with my identity. I didn't want that.

But even though I make enough to live, I have become a social problem for many people. I have had a number of relationships end almost entirely because I wasn't "trying hard enough to be successful" and members of my family continually call to badger me about when I'm going to "do something with my life" and why I'm not "working harder to make something of" myself.

Credit agencies and businesses of all kinds -- sometimes even for little things -- don't want to sign contracts with me because as far as they're concerned, not working 40 hours PLUS is synonymous with "irresponsible" and therefore dangerous in any financial sense.

Put simply, there is no tolerance right now in American culture, not just in the technology industry, for anyone who feels satisfied to live outside of consumerism. Only lazy bums feed the ducks in the park... the responsible people would never be caught doing anything so worthless.

So please -- before you mod this down as trolling or flamebait, at least stop a moment and consider putting a little less pressure on yourself and (especially) on your family members and loved ones to buy things, earn money, get advancements, etc. After all, this is not a real-time strategy simulation! This is LIFE and it's the only one you've got!

Re:I work 40 hours a week

[RavenWolf]

Please, keep in touch, and give us your view on the subject after 7 years of marriage.

Re:this might just be me...

[ConceptJunkie]

It's not just you. Furthermore, some of us even figured that out before the "bubble" happened.

I've got a wife, 4 kids, and lots of hobbies, and while I enjoy work, I don't enjoy it more than the rest of my life. I left my last job in part because my peers were almost all single guys who thought little of 60 or 80 hour weeks (and the chaotic, poorly-managed environment made that necessary way too often) whereas if I'm as little as an hour or 2 late coming home, my kids are disappointed and my wife has to do extra work (feed the kids, get them ready for bed, reading stories, etc), so I place a high priority on a job which requires relatively few long days. Fortunately, I have found a place which doesn't (for a change) operate in perpetual crisis mode, with great pay no less. Also, the company has been around for several years and isn't walking a razor-edge of venture capital and market hiccups to stay in existence.

Rick

Hours worked in a week

[Calimus]

As a Systems/Network Analyst in Georgia US, I work an average of about 45-55 hours durring a normal week. If it's a week that I'm on call it can be anywhere from 45-55 all the way to 70+ pending on what kind of problems occure (server crash/router failure/switch blows a blade). The hours arn't the real killer, it's something that has been covered here many times and thats the lack of pay for the extra hours. As a salaried worker, I see nothing past 40 hours in my paycheck :-(

this might just be me...

[kootch]

but I'd be willing to believe that the majority of us follow this general model comparred to 2 yrs ago...

1)we're more likely to work 9-5 (okay, maybe 9-6 but NO weekends)
2)we expect more compensation and but have a greater realization we're not going to be millionaires (no options for me, thanx, I'll take the cash)
3)we enjoy our work environment much less than we did before the bubble burst
4)we continually update our resumes and have our eyes open about better opportunities
5)we take much more down time away from our work and from our computers now that we're burned out from the past few years and haven't seen the reward we deluded ourselves into believing we were going to receive.

I work 40 hours a week

[SirWhoopass]

I work 40 hours a week. My contract says that I work 40 hours a week, I get paid for working 40 hours a week. I, therefore, work 40 hours a week.

I know people who work 60+ hours a week. I even can think of one or two who get a lot done.

For the most of them, however, they are just unorganized. They don't make efficient use of their time at work. They don't have any sort of plan to indicate what they hope to do and how it will be accomplished. They are in the office until 8 PM or later and wear it like some badge of honor.

They can have that "honor" all to themselves. I rather like going home at 5 to have dinner with my fiancee, play with my dog, and whatever else seems interesting at the time. I doubt I'll be on my deathbed wishing I spent more time at this desk.

Cultural Prejudice

[Glowing Fish]

(Slightly offtopic)
It doesn't surprise me that Americans work more hours then any other industrialized nations. Or that, as an addendum to this, that the majority of Americans are probably sleep deprived.

It seems to be that many Americans, even those in the medical field, don't realize how serious sleep deprivation is. Do you think that we, as a society, would think that about half of our citizens going hungry most of the time would be acceptable? Probably not. Yet when that many Americans lose sleep regularly, no one sees it as a bad thing.

Take this for example: a college junior goes around bragging to her friends and family about how she hasn't eaten anything but water and carrots for the past two weeks. Would people think this was a sign of maschismo? Or would they think this was a person who was endagering themselves, and needed medical attention? Now, take the same college junior and say that she has been going around bragging about how she has been pulling all nighters and has averaged 4 hours of sleep for the past two weeks. For a lot of people, this would be a normal sign of collegeiate bravado.

The point of all of this is, is that many people, including doctors (who have to go through their own intiatory period of losing sleep, but that is another subject) don't seem to realize that a wealthy society where the majority of the people don't sleep enoug is just as ludicrous as an industrial society where people don't eat enough.

Philosophically Unsettling

[Bluesee]

I have formed a value system that actually considers the impact on the quality of life and tries to balance it with the need to become a multi-millionaire by 30. It's hard to maintain these values in the face of dotcommers speeding by me on the freeway in their jags with bleach-blonde babes at their side, but I figure it all balances out in the karmic universe. I get to drive my Yugo home every night. The prevailing attitude of engineers around here that we are expected to put in our 42 hours (in fact, we were told that it is expected of us - hey, I only signed up for 40) each week, and it's some sort of badge of honor to say that you have already put in 60 hours by Wednesday infuriates me, frankly. What sort of mass self-hypnosis have you bought into? What a stupid, unenlightened, lemming mentality! Now, I have never said that you shouldn't be allowed to work however long you want, and I have been known to stay until 1am if I am enjoying myself (I love debugging my code, go figure), but this work ethic only serves the corporation, and not the individual.

In my business we analyze rocket trajectories. I asked my boss the other night, over beers after softball "How many trajectorites could you analyze in a workday, twenty years ago?" He told me "We used to be able to do 3 kilofeet in a day (about 1/30th of a flight)!" So I told him "Well, I can do 200 trajectories in an hour, can I have the rest of the week off now?" hah, hah, hah...

Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.

So, please don't brag at how many hours you unwillingly have to slave over your keyboard. All I can think of is "what an idiot."

As a final note, I can only attribute this to the ills of capitalism that we should all understand by now. Remind yourself that the capitalists now have control of the schools, and that they are training you to be net slaves. If you don't fight the power today ("I'm a human being!" versus "If you don't work 80 hours, we'll find someone who will."), you have only yourself to blame, guys.

Working hours...

[glebite]

I live in Canada - I typically work 50 hour weeks... I found a good 10 hour day beats out some of the fools who try to do 18 hour stints every other day. They look run-down, burned-out, and at generally, have made critical mistakes because of their fatigue. On a few occasions, a breakthrough has happened, but usually the code had to be reworked again to clean up really ugly hacks.

And to be honest, although I used to do some of those 18 hour stints, I listened to an older co-worker who asked, "So how productive are you now after working 18 hours?" I answered, "Not really I guess - stuck on a stupid problem." His response was simple and clear: "Go home!"

I did, got plenty of sleep, found a decent balance between work, sleep, homelife, hobbies, reading slashdot, and I found 10 hours to be great.

I take a .5 hr walk at now noon to really clear the cobwebs out of my head...

hours per week.

[saintlupus]

i work zero hours per week... i've been laid off. thanks, new economy!

--saint
----