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People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

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Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#181

Post by ryandrake »

avinium wrote: post #168
321yawaworht wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminded me of this Amazon video about life as an SDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1P-gGqNjo All of them seem tired, with strong dark circle under their eyes.

Hah! Interesting video, never seen it before. Maybe I'm being suggestible because you raised it, but they all seem to have that shell-shocked, thousand yard stare that only comes after months of crunch time and no rest.

Both hilarious and sad. Their words are polished PR but their eyes say “I’m close to divorce and my kids don’t know me.”

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#182

Post by tootie »

yibg wrote: post #45

Many years ago I was working for a small consulting firm and had a stretch of time with a lot of overtime; aka "crunch time". Since these were billable hours, time was tracked daily, even if they weren't all actually billed. The tracked hours varied over the ~6 month span, but ranged from 55 hours a week to 93 for one week. Of course not 100% of the time was spent on actual work but it was pretty close. The 93 hour w…

I just had this week last week. 12 hours of work straight through two weekends and a few drinks every night. It's like one super long day where you're locked in. Then I slept 12 hours and spent 5 full days home with kids.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#183

Post by tootie »

gwbas1c wrote: post #87
radicalbyte wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make that 6 months into two years and the sleep time to an average of 5 - 5.5 hours a night and you have parenthood of a crybaby. You have to add in a boss who spends 2/3rd of the time you're home screaming at you to the mix.

As a parent who added a second child when my first was 2 and a half, I think you're doing it wrong. A year later, both children are still extremely demanding. It's all about setting limits and knowing when to bend them, like last night when my daughter finally figured out how to wake herself up in the middle of the night to go poop. That's one of the rare sleepless nights that's worth it. Otherwise, knowing how you s…

None of those techniques work consistently. We plied out first kid with all the tricks and nothing worked. Second kid we just relaxed and accepted reality and he slept way better.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#184

Post by sidlls »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #157
Robotbeat wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing something that’s essential to society but which requires enormous amount of individual sacrifice and cost. Voluntarily.

And That's where we disagree. Having kids is not essential to society. Actually, society would be better off if we just maintained our current population level and learned to live with the resources at hand instead or ever expanding and depleting the ocean, the underground and the forests until there is nothing left. If you consider having kids as an individual sacrifice, then maybe you are having kids for the wrong…

Having kids is not essential to society.

Could you please explain what happens in, say, 80 years (or so) if we collectively stopped having kids? The answer is this: human beings cease to exist. Now, that may be something you view as a goal to achieve, and in the absolutely trivial (and meaningless) sense that everything (including our existence as a species) is optional you'd have a point. Beyond that trivial and meaningless sense, however, you're simply arguing about how many children we should have.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#185

Post by croh »

When I got my first job, I did similar. 9 am to 2 am straight for 2 weeks with 6-days week. Reaching home back around 3.30 am. Then waking up at 7.30 am and reaching office again at 9 am.

I was replacement for senior dev, who was leaving on very short notice. Noticeably, I used to eat very little than usual. Caffeine and nicotine helped me go thr' it. But now I feel like stupid for being so naive that time.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#186

Post by agumonkey »

There's something about work.. I always felt better at low level producing jobs (bakery, burgery) because I knew that my work was quantifiable (and predictable). It felt like a robot to many but to me it felt like the difference between superstition and arithmetic. There I couldn't say I worked N but in reality only worked M because there was no way to be confused; it was obvious and there were traces of my work that were function of time.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#187

Post by warp_factor »

I met a couple subgroup of people that were weirdly proud of working a lot. And I caught a lot of them inflating their work hours (for example pretending they work 70 while they work a normal 40). To them it was a way to show off how important they supposedly are.

I really think that most people that pretend to work > 40 hours a week are not really working those hours. They might stay a lot at the office but are usually the least productive people ever

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#188

Post by reachtarunhere »

hobs wrote: post #53
yibg wrote: post #45

Many years ago I was working for a small consulting firm and had a stretch of time with a lot of overtime; aka "crunch time". Since these were billable hours, time was tracked daily, even if they weren't all actually billed. The tracked hours varied over the ~6 month span, but ranged from 55 hours a week to 93 for one week. Of course not 100% of the time was spent on actual work but it was pretty close. The 93 hour w…

Very common to have an "in the trenches" mentality and to even miss it - the shared stress and common purpose drives people close together, but mostly for the wrong reasons. I still am actively in contact with the people from "that job" and never made as strong of a bond with others, but I still wouldn't go back.

You are so right about the "in the trenches" mentality. I really crave for it sometimes.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#189

Post by isoskeles »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #157
Robotbeat wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing something that’s essential to society but which requires enormous amount of individual sacrifice and cost. Voluntarily.

And That's where we disagree. Having kids is not essential to society. Actually, society would be better off if we just maintained our current population level and learned to live with the resources at hand instead or ever expanding and depleting the ocean, the underground and the forests until there is nothing left. If you consider having kids as an individual sacrifice, then maybe you are having kids for the wrong…

Let's not forget the most devastating aspect of overpopulation, more and more people around to spout the same unproven theories over the last 50 years about "forest" and "underground" depletion.

Re: People Who Claim to Work 75-Hour Weeks Usually Only Work About 50 Hours

#190

Post by langitbiru »

jnbiche wrote: post #139

I worked 60-70 hours a week for 6 months and destroyed by health ( actually programming for 50+ of those hours, tracked time since it was billable hours for a consulting firm). Finished the project by the deadline I was hired for, but quit soon afterwards and within 2 months I was in the ICU, and then in and out of the hospital several times with some serious chronic health issues that I'm still recovering from 2 yea…

I think society needs to push more this part-time culture. There are many people who prefers part-time jobs but with additional free time. They may want to take care children or old folks. Or they want to pursue their dreams, like writing novels, building indie games, etc.

Maybe I should build a startup based on this premise. :)

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