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I worked for 3 years at a FAANG and only worked more than those 40 hours a week occasionally, perhaps something in the order of 10% of worked weeks. Even then it'd be 50 hours a week, tops.
This is well researched, but unless I missed something it doesn't answer the basic question: just how many people work over 40 hours? It just kind of assumes that "this is what happens". But how often? I worked for 3 years at a FAANG and only worked more than those 40 hours a week occasionally, perhaps something in the order of 10% of worked weeks. Even then it'd be 50 hours a week, tops.
Is checking email working? Answering a Slack message? Taking a phone call? Those things don’t feel like work to me, but I don’t think everyone feels that way.
If “being available” is working then I’d say I work close to 17 hours per day. If we’re talking hands on keyboard development, management etc, it’s closer to 8.
But I regularly work 60 hours/week anyway because I'm the lead on a major project and want it to succeed and anyway, I love doing it. I'm not sure if I would do it if the company said I had to work 60 hours. I think the productivity of working extra hours is entirely based on the context.
Don't ostracize unions and 40-hour week will be back.
However I worked for UPS for a few years, and teamsters is the worst organization. You can't advance by merit, only seniority, and job performance is not required to be promoted. You can't get fired except for very specific offenses like sexual harassment. No call no show.or regularly being 20 minutes late weren't cause. Made work a nightmare, with no incentive to work hard and advance. When I became a supervisor and was no longer in the union, it made running your section of the building impossible, unless you managed to trade your poor performers for others.
Life work balance is on you. Regardless of who you work for or with in the US.
If you still want to whine about it, join the armed forces, serve your country, and get back to us about work ethic and life balance. I’ll wait.
Don't ostracize unions and 40-hour week will be back.
Unions got ostracized for a reason. They in many cases evolved past reasonable worker protection. I've seen examples of both, my dad has a good union as an elevator mechanic, with strong benefit bargaining power, but which allows for advancement by merit and not only seniority. However I worked for UPS for a few years, and teamsters is the worst organization. You can't advance by merit, only seniority, and job perfor…
Yet with unions, so many people think "Unions sometimes do bad, therefore it's just better not to have unions, and all the downsides of not having unions we'll just have to live with".
This is well researched, but unless I missed something it doesn't answer the basic question: just how many people work over 40 hours? It just kind of assumes that "this is what happens". But how often? I worked for 3 years at a FAANG and only worked more than those 40 hours a week occasionally, perhaps something in the order of 10% of worked weeks. Even then it'd be 50 hours a week, tops.
I think the data is really hard to gather. I work remotely for a startup and my hours vary drastically week to week. Is checking email working? Answering a Slack message? Taking a phone call? Those things don’t feel like work to me, but I don’t think everyone feels that way. If “being available” is working then I’d say I work close to 17 hours per day. If we’re talking hands on keyboard development, management etc, i…
Don't think it is so hard that we have to just throw hands in the air and only focus on the story part.