What is the maximum number of hours you will work a week?

[gimmethesimplelife]

Just curious what the maximum number of hours other people will work......today I am off again and the exhaustion from picking up 30 plus hours of overtime the past several weeks is catching up with me. I am sitting here with my cat content to do very little today - it's like my body is calling for a time out. I am not complaining here - many of these hours I voluntarily picked up without pressure to do so - it was mostly my choice.

Just wondering when other people consider enough work enough - at what threshold? Rob

[ApatheticNoMore]

I've always tried for and generally gotten a 40 hour week (sometimes there has been an on-call component though). Yes there are times I have worked LESS than 40 and IT IS GOOD, however it's not easy to pull off. Overtime though, what's that? If I do put in overtime it is very seldom paid.

[Yppej]

Once I worked 60 - 40 at a first job and 20 at a second job.

I have also done the sort of second shift Arlie Russell Rothschild writes about as the single mother of young child.

[Tammy]

I've done 55-60. It's too much. I've done 24. It's too little. 36-45 is my sweet spot.

[sweetana3]

It depends on the job. For 25+ years, my husband worked his 40 hours at work and then another 10-30 additional hours at home on the computer. He was paid well, could fit it in and did not have a physical job. I could not consistently do 10 hour days. Too much to do at home and enjoyable side activities.

[ToomuchStuff]

Less then I used to. I worked for three years straight, two jobs, with three days off a year, each of those (Easter Sunday, Christmas day, and Thanksgiving). I was averaging close to 90 hours a week (made mowing fun), but that was after I came so close to being homeless and I was working on getting ahead.

[rosarugosa]

I was doing 55 - 60 hours plus an hour commute on each end, although I got to work from home as many as 2 days per week near the end so no commute on those days. I was salary so extra hours did not = extra pay.

[Gardnr]

In the past year as much as 60h/week. My sweet spot is no more than 9h/days. In my role I'm required to work a 5d week. If I can leave at 9h or less, I have some energy left to do some things I enjoy. By the time I hit 10h I'm trashed. I don't even want to cook dinner. 5 of those and I'm trashed for the weekend too in order to recover for the next week.

In the 90s I had a boss expected 70 if she assigned me the work. I put my foot down and said no more than 50 for the last year I worked for her. And I wasn't 40 then.

I'm 56 now. I can't work like I used to plus I have a bad knee that's getting replaced this summer.

[bae]

When I was at my last startup, I was putting in 80+ hour weeks. Usually 6-7 days of the week. No vacations for years. I was in my 30s then. It was unhealthy, and as soon as I had a child, I switched gears.

Now I work 24/48/72 hour shifts, with days off in between. I can often juggle my schedule and trade shifts to arrange to have a week or more of free time in a row. In December, I did 24 24-hour shifts in the month, which saved me up lots of trading credits.

[Gardenarian]

I worked a lot in my 20s & 30s, 40 hours plus freelance textbook editing. I enjoyed it, had lots of energy, and was learning new stuff constantly.

Now I'd be hard pressed to do 20 hours. I still enjoy work but it's pretty routine, and there are other things I'd rather be doing. I know I would quickly grow to resent my job if I worked more.

[Teacher Terry]

Most of my life it has been 40 with a few rare exceptions when were were really short staffed and I worked 50. Now I probably work about 10-15/hours/week.

[Reyes]

I routinely work 50-55 hours per week, more as needed. Salary position so no OT.

[Float On]

I haven't worked full-time since '95. Currently 25 hours a week.

[lmerullo]

My reply poofed!

Worked 30 years @ 40 hrs with few times of OT. Semi-retired to 10 hours two and a half years ago. Recently picked up what started as another 10 hour job and bloomed to 24 hours. So currently 34.I

Slightly OT...they say the more money you make, the more you spend. We were ok financially on my 10 hrs and hubby salary.
We were going to bank the second job. Then, Dh had a health event and I thought we needed money. Actually MONEY! zinto the hundreds of thousands! After many appeals with insurance, our obligation is about the salary I've made in these few months of extra work. Hallelujah!