Ask Slashdot: Is Logging Long Hours a Recipe For Burnout or the Only Way To Get Ahead? (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Over the weekend, I came across this story on Bloomberg that illustrates a common dilemma that many of us face ourselves: are we sure we're working enough? From the article: "Earlier this month, venture capitalist Keith Rabois set off a Silicon Valley firestorm about what it takes to succeed. When another tech investor wrote on Twitter that working on the weekends and burning out isn't cool -- and doesn't work -- Rabois fired back. "Totally false," he said. Rabois cited icons like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Belichick as proof that dogged dedication (usually measured by long hours) was the only way to reach the top of your field. Lots of people objected to this assessment, for reasons ranging from VC privilege to its gendered implications." I was wondering where Slashdot readers find themselves in this debate.

Comments

Not to state the obvious, but

[BarbaraHudson]

Burning out is certainly a way to not get ahead. And eventually lose your job, and your career, and then everything else.

Re: Not to state the obvious, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Nearly a century of evidence says that working more than 35-40 hours per week makes you less productive, not more. Workers get trapped in a cycle of working longer hours because they're less productive, from fatigue, to make up the shortfall in their productivity.

Re:Not to state the obvious, but

[serviscope_minor]

A bit extreme, perhaps but yeah kinda.

First you are not going to succeed like Zuckerberg or Musk. Doesn't matter how smart or hard working you are, the chance of succeeding like only the most cherry picked individuals is basically nil. The people who do get to that position are also phenomenally lucky, had skills in areas which happened to be important at the right time and were in the right place at the right time, in addition to any other attributes.

And anyway, it's only working on your own thing which will lead to that kind of success, not working for anyone else.

Hard work will certainly get you ahead to some extent, if you measure purely in career progression or money. Burnout can be recovered from too.

But really, what's the point? chances are you'll work 80 hours per week, have a thoroughly miserable time, be unable to enjoy being ahead the burn out!

Re:Not to state the obvious, but

[rijrunner]

I have rarely met an engineer who has put in those hours who has "gotten ahead". In most small businesses, IT is a dead-end and there is rarely any sort of management track for an engineer. You're putting in those hours to just tread water. And, start-ups are a lottery and most people barely break even. Developers are in the same boat as most of IT in that regard also. And, in large enterprise, very few businesses have any sort of advancement that means much. You stay an engineer or become a manager - and established businesses tend to favor business or marketing in terms of management advancement.

He's identifying a small subset of survivor bias. For every name he mentioned, there are tens of thousands who got nothing for their time.

False dichotomy

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't it be both?

It's a different thing when it's your business

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a different thing to slave for a company you own, and may one day reap the benefits of and to work your ass off just so the bossman can buy another supercar.

Too many hours...

[Oswald McWeany]

Too many hours and you don't produce quality of work. Studies have shown extra vacation and time away from the office INCREASE productivity.

Even if the above were not true. "Getting ahead" is not worth missing out on time with friends, family, and ..."me time". Happiness will always trump "getting ahead".