How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#1

Post by vemv » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:03 PM UTC

After 3 in-place jobs, I've been working at home for three months now. One thing I have noticed is that I can deliver a comparable ("samey") amount of progress in less hours of pure work.

At my office-located jobs, I waited to complete 7-8 hours of work (excluding chit-chat, etc) in order to feel satisfied. Now I can do with 4:30 on average. For me being interruption-free is a huge boost.

Personally I do believe in measuring effort in work-hours. Assuming you feel optimal (which I constantly make sure of), the more time you spend the more you get done. Also, 90% of webdev does not require that much creative hard-thinking imo.

My question simply is - do you find 4:30 of work a day acceptable (for you)? And marketable (for employers to accept it)?

Anyway, feel free to post how many hours you work, and what you think about it.

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#2

Post by cvs268 » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:12 PM UTC

about 8hours a day.

2hrs independent technical reading.

2hrs independent design/development.

4hrs code-review/training others/discussions.

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#3

Post by pratikch » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:21 PM UTC

cvs268 wrote: post #2

about 8hours a day. 2hrs independent technical reading. 2hrs independent design/development. 4hrs code-review/training others/discussions.

I believe this should be the typical day of every developer.

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#4

Post by cvs268 » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:23 PM UTC

pratikch wrote: post #3

cvs268 wrote: post #2

about 8hours a day. 2hrs independent technical reading. 2hrs independent design/development. 4hrs code-review/training others/discussions.

I believe this should be the typical day of every developer.

Hmmm... no wonder i feel immensely satisfied at work nowadays. ;-)

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#5

Post by colinbartlett » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:34 PM UTC

I work from home about 8 hours of billable work per day.

Whenever I step back into any office, I am astounded at the lack of productivity in comparison to my own. I feel I can easily accomplish 2x to 3x the work in the same 8-hour day at home compared to an engineer of equal skills and experience.

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#6

Post by cturhan » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:38 PM UTC

I work 9am-6pm with a 1h launch break. Apart from that, I code some side projects mostly between 9pm-12pm

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#7

Post by StavrosK » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:46 PM UTC

colinbartlett wrote: post #5

I work from home about 8 hours of billable work per day. Whenever I step back into any office, I am astounded at the lack of productivity in comparison to my own. I feel I can easily accomplish 2x to 3x the work in the same 8-hour day at home compared to an engineer of equal skills and experience.

Same here, 8 billable hours (four days a week), 6-8 productive hours, depending on how stressful the day is.

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#8

Post by JshWright » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:48 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #7

colinbartlett wrote: post #5

I work from home about 8 hours of billable work per day. Whenever I step back into any office, I am astounded at the lack of productivity in comparison to my own. I feel I can easily accomplish 2x to 3x the work in the same 8-hour day at home compared to an engineer of equal skills and experience.

Same here, 8 billable hours (four days a week), 6-8 productive hours, depending on how stressful the day is.

"Oh hey... someone else working 4 day weeks, just like Stavro... oh..."

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#9

Post by twelvenmonkeys » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

per day;

8 hours working full-time

4 hours on dev/devops for kihi.io

2 hours learning something new (go, rust, etc.)

rest walking the dog or sleeping

seems normal

Re: How many hours do you work a day (developers)?

#10

Post by q845712 » Sat, Apr 11, 2015, 7:00 PM UTC

i think part of the challenge is how to count hours spent in the office but not coding. Some amount of discussion is necessary to get a group on the same page, and some time socializing about things that aren't work lubricates those discussions by letting people feel comfortable and familiar with their coworkers.

That being said I worked remote (from home) for ~5 months and felt like a got a ton of work done, most days coding for 5-6 hours, 1/2 - 1 for communication, and 1 hr for technical reading / self-training.

Currently i'm working at a shop that thinks i should arrive at the office at 9 and leave at 6. to me, that adds up to 45 hours a week (per above, imo lunch with coworkers is an important part of teamwork and counts as working): that's too many hours each week at a place that also strictly counts PTO days! and those two factors combined certainly discourage me from ever putting in more than the odd hour or two of self-study on the weekends & evenings.