Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nymag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 243 posts

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

#191

Post by cocochanel »

balfirevic wrote: post #156
seppin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And even if they do spend 75 hours at their workplace, they're probably spending far less than 40 actually working. Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. In America you are expected to physically stay longer but being on FB/Reddit is no big deal. Sounds like a bad way of doing things.

> Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. No, you're not. Also, Europe is large and diverse. Source: European.

Seconded from another European. HN and Reddit are big chunks of the work day. Heck, people even watch YouTube.

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

#192

Post by drilldrive »

balfirevic wrote: post #156
seppin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And even if they do spend 75 hours at their workplace, they're probably spending far less than 40 actually working. Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. In America you are expected to physically stay longer but being on FB/Reddit is no big deal. Sounds like a bad way of doing things.

> Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. No, you're not. Also, Europe is large and diverse. Source: European.

Most people unfortunately refer to Europe when they mean north-west Europe or even the Nordic countries alone.

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

#193

Post by perfunctory »

Theodores wrote: post #12

What is work anyway? If you are a programmer then work is different. Sure you are not on your feet all day at the beck and call of customers, however, if you are not working then your computer is. Waiting is not supposed to be part of the job. Learning on the job is also verboten. Very little time that is on the company clock is spent travelling. I have colleagues in sales that do lots of travel, then, when they are…

> Or if you are a taxi driver working with half the day spent waiting for a fare.

This is a good example. Suppose the driver spends 4 hours waiting for a fare out of total 8 hours working day. Now, they obviously cannot reschedule their time as to drive 4 hours non-stop and then take 4 hours off. In that sense waiting for a fare is also work.

I would define work as everything that holds you back from doing non-work.

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

#194

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

balfirevic wrote: post #156
seppin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And even if they do spend 75 hours at their workplace, they're probably spending far less than 40 actually working. Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. In America you are expected to physically stay longer but being on FB/Reddit is no big deal. Sounds like a bad way of doing things.

> Interesting, in Europe the hours are less but you are expected to work every minute you are there. No, you're not. Also, Europe is large and diverse. Source: European.

The GP is right about Germany, at least.

Probably not right about Ireland or the UK though.

Can't speak for any other European countries.

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

#195

Post by speedplane »

I used to be a practicing attorney, where we tracked our time meticulously. My craziest month was 360 hours. I remember it well, I didn't cheat on a single hour, if anything I may have under-reported. That was a hell-month, but I do think many other people could do it for one month.

I later started a company, where I also worked insanely hard, but did not keep track of my hours. The big difference is that with my startup, I loved every second of it. On countless nights, I would get upset whenever I saw the sun start to rise because it meant I probably ought to go to sleep soon. Five hours can go by without looking up from what you're doing.

All that said, without a time sheet, it's impossible to know for certain which job I worked more hours.

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

#196

Post by jammygit »

wvenable wrote: post #56
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…

Small bits of crunch time can be fun. You really get to stay in the zone and it's really liberating. I enjoy an occasional crunch (it's very rare in my job) but after the crunch I'm done and productivity falls to near zero.

I often catch a cold the day after a crunch period

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

#197

Post by jammygit »

otakucode wrote: post #149
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…

>Adrenaline? Likely cortisol as well. Cortisol is the bane of modern society. We evolved to benefit from short intense bursts of cortisol and adrenaline, but our health suffers tremendously from extended elevated levels. And practically everything in the way we have structured society maximizes cortisol levels, especially in the workplace. It's particularly destructive to cognitive abilities, which is why I hope that…

Stress just kills focus and creativity. Then, when you can't focus or imagine, you have to somehow find a way out.

I found regular hiking made the biggest difference to me personally. Wish my list of remedies was longer than that but... Yeah. Mountains

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

#198

Post by jammygit »

TheOperator wrote: post #103
mwfunk wrote: post #13

In my experience, when a workplace has a perpetual crunch time culture, little if any additional work gets done that wouldn't have gotten done if everyone stuck to 40 hour weeks. I'm very curious how true this is in 996 places. When someone knows that they're going to spend 12 hours in the office regardless of how much work is actually required, that time gets padded out a LOT with non-work stuff, both to preserve th…

In my experience 996 is a scam to get compensated for doing tons of hours of work while often doing no more work than the employees on a regular schedule. I've seen plenty of people working two jobs who just do the needful and rest every minute they can who do far less work tha their "less hardworking" peers. You CAN take a 40hr week worker, make them work extra, and their productivity will spike pretty hard. It's ju…

I know of two truckers personally who fell asleep at the wheel because of that attitude/culture/expectation, leading to crashes. They were okay but it was scary stuff.

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

#199

Post by nprateem »

I've recently been working a lot, but not all of it has been desk time. I think it's fair to include time spent thinking about work as work time - once I've worked out how to solve a task I can churn it out, but something particularly complicated might take a few days of thinking (fast and slow) to work out.

A survey like the one in the article may be too simplistic because I could be in the gym while mulling over a problem, out for a walk, doing my shopping, playing games, etc. but in the background I'm still mulling things over. It's not pure relaxation time like when I'm not trying to work something out, but still leads to that "Aha!" moment, even if it happens in the shower or while doing the washing up.

I think it's reasonable to include all that thinking time as work time.

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

#200

Post by krageon »

nprateem wrote: post #199

I've recently been working a lot, but not all of it has been desk time. I think it's fair to include time spent thinking about work as work time - once I've worked out how to solve a task I can churn it out, but something particularly complicated might take a few days of thinking (fast and slow) to work out. A survey like the one in the article may be too simplistic because I could be in the gym while mulling over a…

It's not work time in the sense that you will be paid for it though, which is usually the metric people use. Unless I am missing something.
Post reply on HN