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Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

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Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#41

Post by giantg2 »

jonas21 wrote: post #34
giantg2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had no burnout or resentment because you had an enjoyable working environment with what sound like just rewards and you were able to learn valuable things. That's pretty rare in my experience. My anecdotal evidence is the opposite. I worked extra hours and volunteered for a long time. I took responsibility for things nobody else wanted. My raises and bonuses were trivial. I had one promotion early on from entry l…

Here's the thing: working hard doesn't just benefit your employer. It also benefits you because you'll learn new skills rapidly. If your employer doesn't recognize the value you're adding, don't just sit around hoping for a raise someday. Use your new skills to find one who will. At least in my experience (as an engineer in the US), this is relatively easy and is considered a normal thing to do in one's career.

"It also benefits you because you'll learn new skills rapidly."

Only if those skills are in wide demand. Moving companies can be risky and complicated depending on one's personal and family issues.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#42

Post by switchbak »

chollida1 wrote: post #2

I think this is more about manual labour but I'll take the opposite side when it comes to white collar work that working more hours can be better early on in your career. When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s. I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved ev…

This appears to be a Mexican publication talking primarily about jobs involving physical labour. That's a far cry from the desk jobs we have.

It sounds like you enjoyed your path, that's a good thing and it seems like you've been really successful. Most people aren't Jamie Zawinski however (thank god), and don't embrace such overwork. If someone demanded that of me, I'd quit on the spot.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#43

Post by giantg2 »

ponector wrote: post #36
giantg2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had no burnout or resentment because you had an enjoyable working environment with what sound like just rewards and you were able to learn valuable things. That's pretty rare in my experience. My anecdotal evidence is the opposite. I worked extra hours and volunteered for a long time. I took responsibility for things nobody else wanted. My raises and bonuses were trivial. I had one promotion early on from entry l…

Sounds like you stayed to long with one company. Learn new role, work for few months and jump to another company to the new role, new level and new salary.

Yeah, I should have. I'm too old and have too many family issues to do that now.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#45

Post by switchbak »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #23
Etheryte wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: > Of the 2.96 million deaths, 2.6 million are due to diseases derived from employment such as circulatory problems, cancer, and respiratory diseases. The remaining 330,000 are related to work accidents. It's hardly surprising a cushy office spares of you of most of these issues. I'm happy to hear your career has been a successful one, but what you describe is completely unrelated to the submitted ar…

Curious take. I would think that "a cushy office", which normally means sitting for very long periods, would directly lead to many of these issues over the long term. Indeed, I've seen many research reports and articles over the past decade declaring "sitting is the new smoking".

Sitting is pretty bad, yes. And it's also incredibly common - which is why it gets the press it does. Combined with a sedentary lifestyle, it's a recipe for serious and predictably poor health outcomes.

But it isn't half as hard as extended periods of hard physical labour, day after day, especially as you grow older. Doubly so if you don't have proper medical care, and your employer doesn't tolerate sick days.

These folks have it _much_ harder than we do.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#46

Post by switchbak »

jonas21 wrote: post #34
giantg2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had no burnout or resentment because you had an enjoyable working environment with what sound like just rewards and you were able to learn valuable things. That's pretty rare in my experience. My anecdotal evidence is the opposite. I worked extra hours and volunteered for a long time. I took responsibility for things nobody else wanted. My raises and bonuses were trivial. I had one promotion early on from entry l…

Here's the thing: working hard doesn't just benefit your employer. It also benefits you because you'll learn new skills rapidly. If your employer doesn't recognize the value you're adding, don't just sit around hoping for a raise someday. Use your new skills to find one who will. At least in my experience (as an engineer in the US), this is relatively easy and is considered a normal thing to do in one's career.

> If your employer doesn't recognize the value you're adding, don't just sit around hoping for a raise someday.

This is key. Staying at a company long-term is not a recipe for success. They're greedy and would lay you off swiftly if it was in their financial interest. You should be greedy too, and don't hesitate to improve your situation if such an option is open to you.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#47

Post by pwthornton »

Etheryte wrote: post #7
chollida1 wrote: post #2

I think this is more about manual labour but I'll take the opposite side when it comes to white collar work that working more hours can be better early on in your career. When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s. I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved ev…

From the article: > Of the 2.96 million deaths, 2.6 million are due to diseases derived from employment such as circulatory problems, cancer, and respiratory diseases. The remaining 330,000 are related to work accidents. It's hardly surprising a cushy office spares of you of most of these issues. I'm happy to hear your career has been a successful one, but what you describe is completely unrelated to the submitted ar…

I actually don't think sitting even more for working 12+ hour days and pulling all nights is good for any of this.

I'd love to know more about the OP's health history and physical fitness.

I agree that it is easier to work more and harder when you are younger. These are also the best years of your life to build a foundation of fitness for the rest of your life.

Pulling all nighters is not health for anyone. It's just when we are younger we are able to bounce back quicker from poor decisions like this.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#48

Post by switchbak »

tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #32
mrweasel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I have no reason to doubt your experience, please note that you're probably an outlier. One of the things I strongly believe that Extreme Programming got right is the max 40 hour work week. Some can easily do more than 40 hours and still function, some can do less but 40 hours seems like a happy average. Expecting more is unreasonable and won't lead to more productivity for most. That's not to say that those wh…

I'm not calling into doubt the above poster's work estimates, there are people that work those hours, but I have found that it is extremely, extremely rare. Across all of the teams I have worked with I have found that if you ask someone how many hours a week they work they will typically say 40+, usually closer to 50. If you ask someone how much they worked the previous week, every week, they will usually say 30-35,…

I track my time, and you're just not right in my experience. And not of the majority of people I've worked with. Maybe this is an American thing, but this is certainly not universal.

If you have enough experience and (something approximating) mastery of your craft, you can squeeze out a lot of good work in your 5-6 productive hours of work a day. I've never been impressed at the output from the folks working into the evening - lots of output, yes, but lower quality and a bad tradeoff.

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#49

Post by chollida1 »

fakedang wrote: post #40
chollida1 wrote: post #2

I think this is more about manual labour but I'll take the opposite side when it comes to white collar work that working more hours can be better early on in your career. When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s. I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved ev…

Let me challenge the findings of that scientific study with my highly specific anecdote which portrays me in good light.

> Let me challenge the findings of that scientific study with my highly specific anecdote which portrays me in good light.

I don't think I challenged any findings, I mearly showed how working hard in my 20s has helped setup the rest of my life.

I figured that could help people starting gout in their career.

Some of us like to help others around here:)

Re: Working more than 55 hours a week kills 750k people a year worldwide

#50

Post by chollida1 »

131012 wrote: post #13
chollida1 wrote: post #2

I think this is more about manual labour but I'll take the opposite side when it comes to white collar work that working more hours can be better early on in your career. When I was just out of school and in my early 20s I worked as much as I could, I probably did close to 12 hours days in my 20s. I think I probably averaged an all nighter a month for a few years and worked at least one day on weekends and I loved ev…

[flagged]

> Thanks for the environmental collapse, Mr. Overachiever.

Can you explain your comment? I think you may have responded to the wrong comment?

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