Is 40 hours a week too much?

Post by bitL » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 10:34 PM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #152

bitL wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sure those companies won't pop on your radar but they will for Indians and other foreigners that want to earn average US salary in their own countries. And yes, you should completely avoid them, they have typically terrible reviews and treat devs as machines. I know one UK dev who took a job in one of those, moved there from some hotel booking company, earned $200k, lasted almost 2 years and then got unceremonio…

There is one that advertises heavily and comes up on job searches. I don't recall the name, but you can tell because of the weird range of salaries, like $50k for a developer while paying $300k for the manager. When I dug in I saw they use this kind of tracking software.

Post by brookst » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 10:35 PM UTC

version_five wrote: post #149

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these conversations seem to come down to weird definitions of "productive time". Most of us managers would consider meetings, mentoring, work-related Slack conversations to be productive time. Yet I read a lot of the comments here where people don't consider anything to be productive time unless they're actively writing code, which ignores the realities of working in a team environment. A better metric might…

There is a framework that we used to use for tim classification in manufacturing that was based around adding value to the product - in software that would be coding, testing, etc. Then there is necessary non-value add, like meetings and slack, that are needed (so are work as you say) but don't in themselves make the product directly, so you want to minimize time spent on them while still accomplishing whatever is ne…

Post by hu3 » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 10:39 PM UTC

Euphorbium wrote: post #146

Usually when there is a question in the title, the answer is no. Not this time. But 35h is also ridiculously too much. It needs to be 20h max, just because households are dual income, and personal work needed to be done did not disappear.

Post by swyx » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 10:42 PM UTC

thakoppno wrote: post #101

swyx wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah i was very surprised to see this on an okta domain. you probably shouldn’t be putting out posts like these unless you’re literally announcing a 4 day work week

okta may have among the best datasets to measure work at tech cos. some days it seems like my job at tech co is to authenticate.

Post by georgeplusplus » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 10:50 PM UTC

notacop31337 wrote: post #166

georgeplusplus wrote: post #144

Here's what I believe : the fraternizing and huddling around the break room during coffee breaks and distracting leisurely talks with coworkers at their desk, which all contribute to wasted time at the office would still happen in a 30 hour work week. Except, Workers would be demanding overtime pay to finish the work they have normally been doing in a 40 hour work week and employers would have to pay premium compensa…

I find it curious that you point out regular social interaction as a major culprit of lost time here but not the 4 different communication mediums that every workplace uses, or the egregious levels of ritualistic meetings, or the expectation of travel being on employee time, or the lessening of the value of our dollar resulting in multiple people having to work full time jobs in a single household to provide the same…