Sue

How many hours per day do you work, what field are you in, and what's your specialty?

I work anywhere from 7-9 hour days, with one day off during the week, and an occasional half day one or 2 saturdays a month. I'm a Certified Medical Assistant in a pediatric office. My hours will be cut drastically in a couple months as I'm going back to school for Nursing.

Also, I'm not a parent, but kids are so exhausting. I'm going to bed.

__________________
Teg yw edrych tuag adref.

Tully Mars

I don't work any regular job. Retired a couple years back. But I do some home repair and maint. work on the side. Also give tours and help out at a dive shop, mostly during the winter months. Too hot to work here in the summer, well other then diving. I'd say in the last 6 mos. I've probably worked maybe 20-30 days. Though when I do work it usually long days 12-16 hours.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Plan9

I'm in college. I don't work at all. I stay up 'til 4 AM and sleep until 1. Then I go to classes.

Occasionally employed by myself to listen to the universe turning smoothly on it's celestial gyros.

...

When The Man (TM) pays your way in life you have nothing to worry about except your grades.

My weekends are periods of dead time where I do pushups, pullups, and eat a lot of breakfast cereal.

I used to be in the army. I'd be at up 4:30 doing inspections and checks. Now? I'm compensating.

I secretly covet many of the boring lives that people here on TFP complain about.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

bazkitcase5

I have a standard 8-5 job, M-F with my weekends off

working as a computer programmer for a bank's operations center

single and no kids, so things are great for now, but am looking to settle down in the near future

Sorcha

I work 12-16 hours per week, 3-4 days. Depends on if it's my turn to work Saturday. I work retail, but I am in nursing school as well. Starting my clinicals in May.

Oh and I was informed today that I'm losing my job in March, so then I'll exclusively be a nursing student.

__________________
Ew gross germs! It's all icky and corpsey!

Moyaboy

I work Tuesday-Saturday 7-3. I work in a copy center. I'm in charge of the production part of the center.

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"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
- Steven Weinberg

Daniel_

Officially: 9am to 5:30pm, with an hour for lunch, five days a week

Actually: Start at about 8am (or 8:45 if I'm taking my daughter to school that morning), about a 20% chance I'll take more than a short lunch, and leave at about 6pm.

The sad thing is that people (not the management, I hasten to add) get sniffy if I'm not about to provide my unique brand of advice and encouragement.

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╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Glory's Sun

it just depends for me, 2 kids, wife in school but in the production field it could be a standard 8 hour day to a 19 hour day depending on deadlines and render times as well as last minute changes or someone requesting a format for broadcast only to find out their equipment doesn't handle that format.. then having to redo everything in a downconvert *sigh*

lunches.. well.. yeah.. lunches are a perk not a practice..

healer

Amen, brother.

I work 8-5, Monday to Friday, with two 15-minute teabreaks (that never happen) and a 30-minute lunch (that lasts as long as it takes to eat my food, while sitting at my desk working).

I do tech support at VW.

__________________

PonyPotato

As long as I work 40 hours (or more) a week, I'm good. I can work 4 10-hour days and take a day off. Do a couple of 2-hour days and then three 12-hour days. Work some hours on the weekends. It doesn't usually matter to my boss, as long as I get my 40 hours a week in.

That said, I usually do 9-3 in the office and an hour or two in the morning before going in and some time again in the evening, making up whatever hours I'm missing on the weekend.

__________________
"Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark."
— Henri-Frédéric Amiel

girldetective

I work 24 hours a week - 8 hrs x M, T, Th - in MH research and admin. Frequently I consider starting school again, sometimes for my own pleasure and other times with more of a goal in mind, such as midwifery. My specialty is love and kindness, something just about everyone can do.

(Frequently I considered starting school again, but then I read TullyMars' above. Now Im thinking maybe he needs an assistant and I will have to relocate.)

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As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

dlish

too late. the jobs mine!

i usualy work about 9-10 hrs a day. work dependant. but ive been known to work anywhere from 9-20 hrs per day.

i work in construction management

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An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Strange Famous

5 days a week, my contracted hours are 9 to 5:30, 1 hour for lunch. I usually work through lunch but take a break to check my Facebook and eat a bowl of cereal for 10/20 mins and probably leave off about 6:30 on average. (when I had a car I used to start about 8 and mostly leave on time, but now I dont have a car I get in for 9)

I also am on call 24/7 (but get maybe 1 callout out of hours a week which I can deal with by signing in from home) - for which I get paid an extra £100 a month and have to sign in for about 1 hour every Saturday (again from home)

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

The_Jazz

Start at 6:30 or so and go until 5 every day, which makes for about a 50 hour work week. If I'm traveling, that probably goes up to 60 with out even a blink. I'm a wholesale insurance broker, so my income is directly tied to my commission and fee revenues. I'm a casualty broker who specializes in product liability and construction, but with a few other odds and ends thrown in there (pollution and OLT).

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

dogzilla

I work usually 40-45 hour weeks although I find I'm working more hours lately thanks to picking up extra responsibilities running the team I'm on. I have some flexibility in setting my work hours and get to telecommute a couple days a week. Those days I start early and end early so I have afternoons free.

I work as a computer software designer/developer. No real specialty since I've bounced around doing so many different types of software. The last few years have been dealing with performance analysis and programmer productivity aids for large systems.

Baraka_Guru

In my regular job, I work 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. So that makes a 40-hour work week.

I should be working upwards of 60 hours/week overall, however. This extra 1 to 20 hours per week would be filled up with freelance work, career development, and other related things.

I'm lazy, and I have a fear of success.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

snowy

I am a college student, work part-time in childcare, and I am also doing a practicum at an area middle school this term. I log 12 hours in class a week, plus the 10 hours required for my practicum. Typically I go straight from class to the middle school four days a week. The childcare job takes up a couple evenings a week (the schedule is extremely variable), plus Sunday mornings; I work a minimum of 5 hours a week, but it is usually more. Add to that the couple of hours I spend studying every day, and you end up with a 40-hour plus week. I also babysit occasionally.

If I were to become a middle school teacher, my workday would start at 8:00am and go until 4pm, with a 45-minute lunch and a prep period. I'd also get summers off, and regular holidays, plus sick leave AND personal days. Sounds good to me. And 8th graders aren't that bad.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

girldetective

No, Snowy, the 8th graders arent bad. Its the 7th graders that will make your life hell. i worked for years in a Portland middle school, all grades, and I suggest that the 7th graders be sent to outdoor school for the year to learn all important survival skills. The problem of course is that it seems to me the ones these cannibals are the worst to are their own peers, making it unclear whether all the children who left would be comng home.

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As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

snowy

Note to self: Avoid 7th graders.

I've worked with 6th and 8th grades, and I must say, I really do like 8th graders. They're a little rambunctious at times, but they make me laugh so much it's almost impossible to go through an entire period with a straight face.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Charlatan

I regularly work a 50 to 55 hour week. I am officially supposed to work 45 hours but that just a rumour on paper.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Plan9

Same paper with your pay range?

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

uncle phil

you'd like high school more better...

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

Bear Cub

I work at least 7:00-4:30 M-Th, 7:00-3:30 Fridays with alternative Fridays off. Supposed to be 44/36, but it's always more. Sometimes I go in at absurd hours for overseas conference calls, if I'm traveling and at a job site, I lose the Friday off but make straight time OT.

When I move in July, it will be 55-72 hour work weeks regularly.

__________________
Living in the United Socialist States of America.

Lindy

I manage some investment portfolios for a denominational pension fund. I also do some investment work for myself and a couple of partners. I work part of the time at home, since all I really need are some publications and good internet access. Most of my work time is spent researching and analyzing. It probably looks like I'm not even working, but I am. Altogether probably something over 50 hours per week, but only about half of that actually “at work.” I get paid based on the performance of my portfolios, not by salary or by the hour. That’s scary sometimes, but at least I don’t feel tied to a timeclock. I do find it easier to discipline myself at the office. I can also be very disciplined when traveling, and I’ll get up early and work until check out time and then hit the road. But at home, I tend to futz around. Some days I just need to go to the office or I won’t get a damn thing done.

Lindy

little_tippler

my main job (art gallery assistant) I work 9 hours per day on average, some days more (like on opening nights, the day goes on till 1 am), Monday to Friday. That makes a 45 hour week. I also sing in bars, currently every Friday and Saturday night, and that's about 3 to 4 hours each night, so add on 8 hours. Come April I expect to be doing that about 5 nights a week until September. I am currently taking my masters and though I have finished classes, I am trying to write my dissertation now, so I put some hours a week towards that. I also work as an artist so the rest of my free time goes towards my art work.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Anxst

I work 40 hours a week, 7:45 am to 4:15 pm Monday through Friday. I'm a Quality Assurance Manager at a call center. If I accidentally rack up any overtime, I get yelled at by my boss for cutting into the profit margin, so no extra work for me. I just have to find a way to pack it all into the 40 I get.

__________________
Don't mind me. I'm just releasing the insanity pressure from my headvalves.

telekinetic

I work 6-2:30 M-F with a half hour lunch that ends up being closer to 45 minutes/hour.

It'd be a sweet schedule except for one thing...I have a 48-mile, hour-long commute on both ends, meaning I'm out of the house 5 to 3:30.

__________________
twisted no more

Tully Mars

I don't know if that's a blessing or a bummer. Overtime is nice but it sucks if it's not paid. The last job I had where I worked for someone else I work for the state of Oregon in a salaried position. It was not at all uncommon to work 60-70 hours a week even though the scheduled hours were 8-5 M-F with 1 hour lunches. It was a job with a lot of windshield/driving time. They supplied the vehicle but you really didn't get paid for most of the driving. I regularly put 3500 miles a month or more on a Jeep.

I did that for roughly 20 years. At the same time I also ran a small construction, really small- me and one employee, for the last 13-14 years. I worked one Christmas putting new floors in a restaurant, was the only day they were closed. The next Christmas it dawned on me I'd worked close to two years without a day off. Not long after that I started thinking about cashing it all in and moving to Mexico.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

SabrinaFair

I work part time right now, as I'm in school full time...I work 20 hours a week, and am taking a 15-hour (law school) class load. My life is about to change a lot in the next few months, though....check back with me in a couple of months when I'm a first year associate, I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune. ;-)

__________________
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-Desiderata

braisler

I work a pretty standard schedule of about 40 hours a week. I have a good bit of flexibility as I run my own lab, so I pretty much decide when I need to be here based on what needs to get done and when. Most days I'm in by 8-8:30 and out around 4:30-5 with lunch at my desk while working.

I guess what strikes me as odd or off-putting is the ridiculous number of hours that some people work. Whether they are required to by their job, or require it of themselves, it just seems excessive to me. I pretty much enjoy my job and the work that I do, but I would venture that a lot of people don't enjoy their jobs. If it wasn't for the need of income, most people wouldn't work as much as they do currently... or wouldn't work at all.

It seems to be a largely US based problem, but I'm sure that other countries suffer from it as well, that we work and work and work putting in more and more hours without seeing any benefit to ourselves. I have colleagues in Italy and Germany who do similar work to what I do and they typically take off for 2-3 months a year during the summer. That kind of break here in the states is absolutely unheard of in most professions. I consider myself fortunate in my current position to get 3 weeks paid vacation per year.

Does anyone else feel that people typically work more hours than they should have to just to make a living?

__________________
---
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
- Albert Einstein
---

Tully Mars

I tell you it's no way to live. I found myself working not out of need but simply because it's what I did. I think I kind of freaked when I got out of the Navy and had to be responsible for a child. I started out just working the government job and doing school. Then I needed to pay for school so I started a small weekend construction business. But even after the student loans were repaid I just kept going. For a long time I never took vacations. With the state if you built up more then 200 hours vacation you started to loose it. I lost a ton of vacation hours the first ten years or so. I finally woke up to how stupid that was and started taking 3-4 weeks a year, after 15 years with the state you got four weeks. I used them all and went to some really cool places. But I still ended up calling work once a week just to check in.

Trust me it's no way to live. Take vacations, enjoy your days off and spend time as much time as possible with friends and loved ones. Life's just too damn short.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Banshee

i "work" the normal 40 hour week, 8-5 with an hour lunch. Most of the time i'm surfing or IMing coz my job is that slow. I do get busy from time to time but not that often. My boss goes to Europe a lot so it's nice to not have him up my butt all the time, but again it can and will happen from time to time. I too have an hour long commute, but only live 20-25 miles from home. My dream job is to be a radio DJ don't know why just always has been.

braisler

My wife has a theory that I tend to agree with. If people were given the choice of working from 9-3, 5 days a week, they would get the same amount of work done, be able to drop off and pick up their kids at school, and have more time at home with family or just have time off to themselves. They would be happier overall and therefore better equipped to do their jobs. Like Banshee above, and I'm sure like many more of us, a lot of workers spend their time at work doing things that aren't work. So if you had a more favorable schedule where you only were required to physically BE at work for say 32 hours instead of 40 per week, would you be able to get the same amount of work done? I suspect that for many of us the answer is yes.

I fully recognize that there are jobs where this idea does not apply. Clearly, if a factory worker is on an assembly line making parts at 30 units per hour, cutting the shift by a hour or two hours would translate into making that many fewer parts. Likewise, a cashier at a retailer can't just leave early or people won't be able to ring out.

I guess the question becomes, does a 40+ hour work week lead to the demoralizing of the workforce and ultimately destroy a good work-ethic? To paraphrase Office Space: Do we only work hard enough to avoid getting fired?

__________________
---
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
- Albert Einstein
---

Hyacinthe

Depends on what day of the week it is - Monday to Thursday I work anywhere from 6 - 10 hours at the hospital depending on my shift (trying to sort out different line of work atm though, something with regular hours so I can work on changing my career path) then if it's a Friday or Saturday I do from 8 - 12 hours at the club.

For example my Roster this week will be:

Monday (Yesterday): 6am - 3pm
Tuesday (Today): 6am - 3pm
Wednesday : 3pm - 9pm
Thursday: Off
Friday: 6am - Lunch / 9pm - 5am
Saturday: 9pm - 5am
Sunday: Off

The week after my days off shift to Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday but I do longer shifts at the hospital to make up.

My commute to both jobs is very short though - technically I could walk to the club, but well really not a good idea, you would be surprised how often you get hasseled walking out of a strip club and a block to your car. Least the bouncers are good and walk with us, and they're ridiculously protective of me cause I'm apparently the most stable dancer mood wise (which is a worry!).

__________________
"I want to be remembered as the girl who always smiles even when her heart is broken... and the one that could brighten up your day even if she couldnt brighten her own"

"Her emotions were clear waters. You could see the scarring and pockmarks at the bottom of the pool, but it was just a part of her landscape – the consequences of others’ actions in which she claimed no part."

cadre

Well, my schedule has changed a lot in the past 6 months. I've gone from being a full time student working 40 hours a week, to working 25 hours and going to school full time, 15 hours and school full time and then I was laid off. So now I'm going to school full time and then some, and thankfully I don't have to work..though the money would be great. I used to work in a motorsports dealership and my schooling is in photography.

At the moment my work is school. My days start at 9 am and end at 12 am. It's probably about 80 hours a week. Of course, I'll be happy to be done in a few months!

__________________
My life is one of those 'you had to be there' jokes.

Plan9

Damn, everybody here works too much.

Time to move to Europe.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Anxst

Yeah, I know that end of things too. When I was young, I owned and operated a retail business, and regularly put in 75-80 hour weeks. That wouldn't have been so bad, but I was just getting the thing up and running, so for the first three years I was paying myself about 9k a year. I would take every Sunday off and go to a friend's place, unwind, and get roaring drunk on rhine wine.

It was a great learning experience, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

__________________
Don't mind me. I'm just releasing the insanity pressure from my headvalves.

Sue

I'd vacation there, but I like it here in CO too much to want to move out of the US.

__________________
Teg yw edrych tuag adref.

blktour

this sounds like an eharmony ad! haha.

as for I.

I sell cable, i work 10 hour shifts 4 days a week, but it turns out to be 12 hr shifts.

my specialty is to sell cable, phone, internet, long distance, cellphone services.

That part is easy. my bread and butter is to make customers NOT feel like a number. I talk to them, I give them eye contact, I ask questions, I give them all the best deal possible and I thank them for their time, patience and for stopping in. I make jokes. I dont ever make them feel rushed.

I

Altavoz

I'm a full time student right now, but work at a restaurant on weekends. Shifts are usually around 5-6 hours long and I work 4 a weekend.. Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. About 20 hours a week.. It's not a bad gig!