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If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

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Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#21

Post by hungryforcodes »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #16
sharadov wrote: post #12

Why do you suppose that people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week? My dad regularly worked 70 hour weeks - had multiple careers doctor/businessman/public figure. But he had a ton of help - manager, personal assistant, chauffeur. Everything on the home front was outsourced. He loved it. But he had a lot of control. Most people, I observe who burn out, do because of other reasons - work politics, poor health and ultim…

Most people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week.

You're not most people. I'll work 40 or 50 hours a week then spend another 30 on side projects happily! That's 80 hours just working on "stuff". No TikTok. So it really depends. Elon Musk famously claimed he worked 100 hours a week.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#22

Post by GDC7 »

The only true answer is that out there are 8 billion people waking up every day.

And all they do is seeking social relevance, and by doing so they are inadvertedly diluting your own social relevance.

There is not a mechanism which allows you to stop working and freeze your social relevance in place as some sort of videogame checkpoint type manner.

You stop working and your relevance is eroded away...hell you could keep the amount of work constant or even increase it and your relevance would be eroded away if you are in a sector or a country which is not performing well.

The biggest lie that those at the top of the social pyramid have ever managed to pass onto the rest of us is that "it ain't a zero sum game"

Well, matter of fact it is.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#23

Post by RIMR »

sharadov wrote: post #12

Why do you suppose that people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week? My dad regularly worked 70 hour weeks - had multiple careers doctor/businessman/public figure. But he had a ton of help - manager, personal assistant, chauffeur. Everything on the home front was outsourced. He loved it. But he had a lot of control. Most people, I observe who burn out, do because of other reasons - work politics, poor health and ultim…

If you want to enjoy working 70 hours a week, you have to enjoy doing what you consider "work".

If "working" to an executive means attending parties, trade shows, and numerous business events, that 70 hours could be a lot of fun, and totally worth it. I can think of a few roles I'd like in the future that would have me working that much and I'd be all-in for it. There are hard parts, certainly, but as you described, you have control over it.

However, if you are sitting at a desk laboring in front of a screen for 70 hours every week because your boss (who works as described in the previous paragraph) thinks that's what defines work ethic, then you're going to get burned out and alienated from your friends and family because all of your emotional energy is being sapped out of you by your employer. You don't have control. Your job isn't exciting and dynamic. There is a limited amount of it that you can tolerate before it starts to harm you.

If the ultra-high-earning executive types enjoy their life-encompassing careers, let them have it. If I have the opportunity at a career like that I might take it myself.

But if you're laboring to meet an end (and yes, most software engineers should be thought of as laborers), you need work/life balance otherwise you're just being exploited by people who don't care if they bring you misery in the process of delivering a product.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#24

Post by itisit »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #16
sharadov wrote: post #12

Why do you suppose that people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week? My dad regularly worked 70 hour weeks - had multiple careers doctor/businessman/public figure. But he had a ton of help - manager, personal assistant, chauffeur. Everything on the home front was outsourced. He loved it. But he had a lot of control. Most people, I observe who burn out, do because of other reasons - work politics, poor health and ultim…

Most people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week.

Do you have the data to back that up? /s

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

inetknght wrote: post #17
neogodless wrote: post #15

The headline itself is an example of a question that answers itself. Another example would be "if you've saved up a lot of money, why don't you spend more?" Well because I saved it by not spending too much. And in this case, "success" is working long hours, because of what these workers believe. Success is the appearance of working hard, and having put the effort in. The article doesn't really address income/spending…

No, I don't think people work 70 hours because they're successful. I think they work 70 hours out of necessity and others think that makes them successful. If I were successful then I definitely wouldn't be _working_. Yet here I am working many hours and others claim I am successful.

[deleted]

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#26

Post by RIMR »

I have, since the beginning of my career, refuses to work for anyone that expects more than 40 hours per week of me. I ask it as part of my interview. I'm not against the occasional crunch, or traveling for work on occasion. Those are fine. But if an employer expects more than 40 hours per week consistently, I will simply not work for that company.

And so far, I have remained upwardly mobile, and more importantly, happy with the work that I do and satisfied with the amount of time I am afforded for friends, family, and hobbies.

Everyone searching for a job should be asking their employers hard questions. Job offers aren't worth it if you're being exploited.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#27

Post by hulitu »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #16
sharadov wrote: post #12

Why do you suppose that people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week? My dad regularly worked 70 hour weeks - had multiple careers doctor/businessman/public figure. But he had a ton of help - manager, personal assistant, chauffeur. Everything on the home front was outsourced. He loved it. But he had a lot of control. Most people, I observe who burn out, do because of other reasons - work politics, poor health and ultim…

Most people don't enjoy working 70 hours a week.

Most people do not really work 70 hours / week. They just are present at work.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#28

Post by paulpauper »

Wages for professionals, such as law, medicine, tech, finance, consulting, etc., have really ballooned over the past decade, since 2008 especially, even after accounting for student loan debt and inflation. This makes working long hours more attractive, as the financial payoff is so great both in terms of wages but also by investing one's income in rapidly appreciating assets such as stocks and real estate (the post-2009 bull market is the biggest and longest ever). Consequently, there are many people on Reddit and Hacker News on popular subs such as /r/personalfinance , r/investing, /r/financialindependence, /r/wallstreetbets (a lot of gambling, yes, but also many rich people who have 6-figures to play with) and /r/fatfire who have amassed considerable wealth by late 20 or 30s. Putting in long hours in your 20s and 30s to have a massive nest egg that will last you the rest of your life by your 40s seems like a good trade-off.

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#29

Post by Clubber »

justwalt wrote: post #18
hintymad wrote: post #14

It's as if work is just toiling, but in reality it is not. Some people may just love meeting people and calling the shot. Some people may just love reading papers and tweaking and building systems. Some people may just love deriving equations and writing papers and giving talks. They call such activities work, but they enjoy doing them. What matters is not hours but choice: can one choose to use her time at her own w…

This is completely tangential to your point, but why did you choose to use “she” as the pronoun in your last sentence? I see this more and more frequently, and I assume it has something to do with being more inclusive (so as not to imply only a man could be the subject), but I don’t want to assume. Why not use “they” instead?

>If she can, then I don't see any issue at all.

>Why not use “they” instead?

It's been 30 years since I've studied formal writing in earnest, but "they," is, or at least was, grammatically incorrect in that sentence, unless you are referring to more than one person. English doesn't have a proper gender neutral singular pronoun. People have bastardized "they" to fit that role though because they don't know the gender, or because changing social and cultural pressures.

https://style.mla.org/using-singular-they/

Re: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?

#30

Post by RIMR »

Nursie wrote: post #8

I don’t, I work about 35, and right now I’m taking a three month hiatus. Always take time to see the bigger picture.

This is certainly good for you, but take a moment and reflect on how difficult this would be for 99% of working people in this world.

Our need for labor should not be allowing us to harm the wellbeing of their laborers.

You are clearly in a very privileged position, but it's not a position I can disagree with, only one that needs to be universal.

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