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Ask HN: Work-life balance?

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Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#31

Post by toomuchtodo »

pc86 wrote: post #22
IloveHN84 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Unless it's your own activity, you shouldn't work more than what's written on your contract. If you work more, you get abused and low-balled by salary negotiations

There's a fine line of course. Just like you don't want to be the guy working 20+ hours of free labor every week, you also don't want to be the guy who is out the door at 5:00:01 every evening and not a second before or after. I think most people in most jobs will have something come up where they do a little extra, if only to help out a team member or something.

I am the guy out the door at 5 every day, not a second later. There are too many open positions to not do so. I don’t see it as a fine line, free labor is free labor whether it’s a minute or 20 hours.

If I need to help a team member, I skip lunch to pitch in.

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#32

Post by mcv »

I work 8 hours per work day, of which I have 4 per week. In the morning I bring my kids to school, on Friday I pick them up from school, because that's my day off. My wife picks them up on her day off: Wednesday. Other days, they're picked up by afterschool child care, and my wife picks them up there when she gets home from work.

I've got a day with the kids, she's got a day with the kids, we've got a weekend with the entire family. On Thursday evenings once every two weeks, we get a babysitter and have an evening for the two of us.

I completely neglected exercise until recently (I'm 44), but since a few months I'm doing cross-fit twice a week (aiming for 3 times).

Main productivity trick: sleep well, keep work hours limited so you can give it your undivided attention during that time.

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#33

Post by AndrewKemendo »

I disagree with the conceptual basis for the concept of work/life balance. The entire concept of this bifurcation assumes that "work" must be defined as a drudgery in service to some ill-defined hedonic or Eudaimonian "life."

I wouldn't dispute that the vast majority of people do live in a cyclical state of drudgery and leisure.

However, if you have the luxury of being able to "balance" these states, then you're likely not doing the same kind of drudgery that seems to be descriptive of the concept. I've had those jobs and been in that position, my shift leader didn't care about helping me make time for my hobbies.

So my answer is, there is no "right" balance and what others do will only serve to create many different "greener pastures" in your mind.

At different times in my life I've worked 90 hour weeks for months at a time, and others 10 hour weeks. I've spent long periods (almost a year) as a stay home dad, at other points I spent almost a year completely away from my family.

The distinction is, I have made my life my work (ever hear of a "life's work"?), in that there are things that I want to achieve and I have created my career around progress toward that goal.

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#34

Post by Anurag8701 »

Haul4ss wrote: post #16

Midlife single parent, so my answers are going to look a lot different than the average HN reader. I average 40/week. Some weeks I need to surge, rarely I need to work weekends, but my ability to put in long hours is capped by my home situation (and my desire not to be a workaholic). I wake my kids and get them ready for school each day. Sometimes they need homework help. We eat dinner together every night, and of co…

Thanks, very helpful and more power to you.

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#35

Post by throwaway123x2 »

pc86 wrote: post #15

I work 8-5 as a software engineer (incl. lunch so only 40 hours a week) plus a short ~15 minutes highway commute each way. If there's an accident though that could easily be an hour, it's a congested area and there aren't many alternative routes. It's a crap shoot unfortunately but rarely an issue. My SO is a resident physician so averages 80 hours a week Mon-Sat. My "family" time is largely dependent on her schedule…

What kills me at work is down time. Better to be on HN than just watching a half hour build ...

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#36

Post by vasilakisfil »

I work 9-5, 8 hours per day including lunch (I hate companies that try to squeeze an extra hour basically telling you that they don't pay for your lunch time, yet they require 1 whole hour for your lunch, forcing you to stay 9 hours in the office..). Sweden. I work 50% from home 50% from the office. When I work from home, I play once a week tennis nearby (I have a car) during lunch time. When working from the office, I go regularly to the gym before work. Sometimes I start my work from a cafe and then switch to the office or the opposite. After work, I will probably do a side project for a couple of hours and then spend some time with my SO and housework.

My tip would be to go to the gym just after work as it relaxes your mind a lot, especially if you are a developer. Unfortunately doesn't work in my case since my gym is fully packed at that time. So I take a half an hour break then walking outside or something similar before I jump in my side projects. Another tip would be to wake up and spend time on your side projects before starting your work (ideally if you can start a bit later as well) since your mind is working at 100% at that time. Of course this requires that you are a morning person..

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#37

Post by throwaway123x2 »

Haul4ss wrote: post #16

Midlife single parent, so my answers are going to look a lot different than the average HN reader. I average 40/week. Some weeks I need to surge, rarely I need to work weekends, but my ability to put in long hours is capped by my home situation (and my desire not to be a workaholic). I wake my kids and get them ready for school each day. Sometimes they need homework help. We eat dinner together every night, and of co…

How much sleep do you get?

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#38

Post by rb808 »

I've always had office hours 9am-7pm, with some on call. I rely on SAH wife to look after children, but family time 8-10pm and weekends. Work on learning and projects some nights. We try to do active stuff together - biking, skiing swimming, but wish I was fitter.

Re: Ask HN: Work-life balance?

#39

Post by esoterica »

I work around 55ish hours a week on average. I have a very short commute (<10 min walk) and I pay for services that reduce the amount of time I spend running errands (I use a cleaning service, I get my groceries delivered, etc.), so I probably have around the same amount or almost as much free time as the average person who works 40 hours a week.
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