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

  1. #1
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    What is the maximum number of hours you will work a week?

    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

  2. #2
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    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.
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #3
    Yppej
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    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.

  4. #4
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    I've done 55-60. It's too much. I've done 24. It's too little. 36-45 is my sweet spot.

  5. #5
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    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.

  6. #6
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    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.

  7. #7
    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    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.

  8. #8
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    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.

  9. #9
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    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.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Gardenarian's Avatar
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    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.

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