Work Hours... (1 Viewer)

[Strike1st]

Since im sitting in the office on a Saturday, I was curious if anybody drew the proverbial line in the sand at how many hours you work. The only thing that benefits me is even tbough im technically salary (which in my industry means nothing...you work 30 you dont get paid for 40) is that we get paid straight time o.t.

So when and where does one if you do say to hell with this shit!

 

[David O]

I spent years working extra but finally realized one needs to find a work - life balance. I had a job that would keep me busy throughout the day and then out being entertained at night. It gets old and realized that at some point you need to find the things at work that can wait until tomorrow. In this day everyone thinks everything needs to be done right now. Find time to prioritize and learn that at a given time you are "off the clock" and go home. Learn that there are many things that can wait until tomorrow which frees up your time today. Be careful not to be a procrastinator but yes many things can wait.
Hope this makes sense. It took me years to learn and have taught this to several young professionals. In the long run you will find you get more done and done correctly when you find that balance.

 

[Jambine]

I spent years working extra but finally realized one needs to find a work - life balance......

Time is the one thing that nobody controls. You can always get more money, but that balance is hard to get. Take time for yourself, your family & friends (it's a far better investment)

 

[detroitdad]

When I started my job in the mid 90's I was working 60-70 hrs a week (mandatory OT). It was horrible. Now I work as little OT as possible. I'd rather be at home with my wife.

What's funny though, 94-2000 I made more money than I make now and my salary is more than double because of all the OT, lol.

 

[Strike1st]

When I started my job in the mid 90's I was working 60-70 hrs a week (mandatory OT). It was horrible. Now I work as little OT as possible. I'd rather be at home with my wife.

What's funny though, 94-2000 I made more money than I make now and my salary is more than double because of all the OT, lol.

The bitch is i have no choice. Also this company expects minimum of 50 hours.

I know im not a high Roller and the money helps but i also miss out on shit...like family time and degenning around card tables in ypsi and rochester

 

[Big Jilm]

I work 4 tens. I would do 3 twelves if they let me. My time (and how I spend it) is the MOST important thing to me.

 

[David O]

The bitch is i have no choice. Also this company expects minimum of 50 hours.

I know im not a high Roller and the money helps but i also miss out on shit...like family time and degenning around card tables in ypsi and rochester

What profession are you in?

 

[12thMan]

I work 4 tens. I would do 3 twelves if they let me. My time (and how I spend it) is the MOST important thing to me.

I'm trying to build a small business so lolofftime but when I was working for someone four tens would have been sooooo awesome, it was always my dream to work that schedule. Bonus points if I could pick the day of the week I had off and could change it every week.

 

[bergs]

I work in IT, so pretty much salaried, no overtime, and work as many hours as required. My record was 122 hours over 6 days (big outage with a very large Global 25 customer).

 

[David O]

I am in Texas and employers have to be very careful with salary exempt employees. I am not sure of Michigan law but you might check out this link which may help

http://zomichiganemploymentlaw.wnj.com/?cat=8

 

[JFCJ]

In 2011, I was a consultant traveling to the client's home office every other week. Not including travel time, I had over 2900 hours logged that year, billed over 2000.

I actually enjoyed it.

 

[Strike1st]

I work for an Architectural/Engineering/Civil firm.

Ive had a few 80 hour plus weeks at my last firm. Here its 50 plus and it could be 8 one day and 16 the next. Like a damn yoyo.

I am a Designer/BIM Coordinator. Mostly doing Mechanical and Electrical. Im a jack of all trades and master of none!

On that note Im leaving the office!

 

[Chicken Rob]

I have 2 jobs. A salaried position in a 500 person company, and a 4 person consulting company. At my day job, I work about 15-20 hours/week for 9 months out of the year. If I were to work more, the company couldn't keep up with my work product. The other 3 months I work 30-45 hours per week. This is a full time salaried position.

In my consulting business I have 1 long term contract that requires 5-10 hour per week except twice per year when I have to travel. Small jobs come in sporadically, and I figure $2k/day when doing the bid proposals, and most the time I get it done in a fraction of the estimated time. Since we bill for the deliverable and not based on time, any efficiency gains are my benefit, not the clients. I have had a few miraculous gigs where I've made more than 2 stacks of high society in a single day.

I'm pretty lucky. My field is very inefficient, and people qualified to do the work are not great technology users. Since I'm a capable programmer, I automate many parts of my job and reap the benefits. My company does as well, since the tools I build allow us to have fewer PhDs to support the number of contracts we have than most of our competition.

I have great work/life balance and a high income by most standards.

 

[Tommy]

Since im sitting in the office on a Saturday

I'm in the office every Saturday. (and Sundays too) Those are just normal work days for me. Equivalent to a Thursday and Friday for most. Mon/Tues are my weekends.
I also work on holidays but do have the option to take the day off. I usually don't because it is hard to pass up 8hrs OT with the 8hrs holiday pay.

They allow us to work 16 hrs a day if there is an open shift to fill in the office. We normally split it 4 and 4 but I have worked 16 hrs a day for 15 days straight when a co-worker was out with pneumonia and we already had a vacant shift.

If I was working in the field on signal equipment (switches, signal and track circuits, crossings, etc.) I would fall under the FRA's Hours of Service rule. I could only work 12 hrs and must have 10 hours off before returning to work. When working in the field, you get a lot of TPNW (time paid not worked) because you are guaranteed your 8 hours of regular pay if they send you home early (to have 10hrs off) to come back in later to work OT.

 

[Gear]

...this company expects minimum of 50 hours.

That's messed up, imo.

 

[Chicken Rob]

My dad worked at the phone company as a central office technician. It was a union job. Any call out after 8 pm was a guarantee of 4 hours pay. After midnight it was a guarantee 12 hours pay. During winter storms he could get called out 4-5 times per night for an hour at a time. Make a weeks pay in one night of call outs. Those kinds of union jobs with good pay for full time work, good benefits, and good overtime policies seem rare today.

 

[Tommy]

Time is the one thing that nobody controls. You can always get more money, but that balance is hard to get. Take time for yourself, your family & friends (it's a far better investment)

Definitely this. (y) :thumbsup: Since my little one was born, I have turned down lots of OT and took a few holidays off. The only time I really hit the OT hard now is when I have a big expense. (roof, home improvement project, chips, etc.)

 

[tommythecat]

I work 4 tens. I would do 3 twelves if they let me. My time (and how I spend it) is the MOST important thing to me.

4 10's for me as well. I advocated for it for 2 years before my boss finally approved my proposal. I love having 3 day weekends all the time. It's nice also when the occasional OT happens and I still get a full weekend.

 

[phaze12]

best hours i ever had was while i lived in CO. (near aspen) 4 tens fri, sat, sun and mon. 3rd shift at a grocery store. 10pm till 7:30am. after work go home, shower, eat then hit 1st chair at 8:15 or so. ski till noon or 1pm. then home to bed. what a great life at the time. skied every day during the season.

also i could get everything done on tue, weds and thurs because everyone else was at work.

now that i have a child i went back to working 3rd shift (i dont know how anyone affords daycare these days) 10pm till 6am. have friday and sat nights off. i work minimal ot now. i would rather spend time with my kids and wife.

the key to a happy life if finding what really makes you happy, then finding balnce.

 

[krafticus]

I'm in IT. Right now, I'm on the bench, so I'm not working but getting full pay. When I go back, I have to work 8 hours per day, 40 per week...no more. Gotta love government contracts.

Mark

 

[Payback]

During the school year when classes are in session I'm usually at around 60 hours of work in the classroom plus some hours grading over the weekend or in the evening. Due to my current job location I don't have nearly the grading I've had in the past which keeps that to a minimum thankfully. I also am usually doing some type of part time job (teaching classes at the university, side music gigs, etc.). During summer time I'm usually working on curriculum stuff and getting the classroom things taken care of while taking on more part-time work from a variety of things. Overall, the summer things usually amounts to 30-40 hours a week.

 

[Strike1st]

Well, I was curious to what other fellow chippers went through...we are required to also work "core hours" 8:30 to 3:30...but they base everything off 50 hours a week so if a project runs behind or some asshat project manager double or triple or doesnts communicate with other Pms quadruple or Quintuple deadlines your screwed. Last week we had 3 projects due on the same day.

I don't mind the 50s but my wife detests the super late nights and weekends

 

[Strike1st]

I work in IT, so pretty much salaried, no overtime, and work as many hours as required. My record was 122 hours over 6 days (big outage with a very large Global 25 customer).

Damn Bergs...that's Rockstar hours right there.

 

[trever]

I work about 40/week, I could make more if I went back on the road or if I put in more time with sales/back office work, but I have breakfast and dinner with my kids everyday and I don't want to give that up.

 

[bergs]

Damn Bergs...that's Rockstar hours right there.

'Twas a really bad outage and very complex. I've had a number of 24 hour days managing problems and customers - less now that we're no longer managing messaging and core IT infrastructure.

IT is a field that can absolutely suck if you don't have a flexible and understanding boss. I was an engineer before I managed people so I know how it is, and I try to give the people that work for me all the flexibility they need, as long as we cover core hours of service for our customers and people realize that they can (and are) brought into issues after business hours via escalation. It's a demanding space within IT but it's rewarding and I fortunately have an exceptionally good team.

 

[Michael Bohling]

My office is a plastic injection molding factory. I work a 2-2-3 schedule, work every other weekend. One week is 48 hours, the next is 36. My hours are 6:20pm-6:30am. I don't mind it as I have no responsibility other than a mortgage and a gf, not sure which is more expensive.

 

[stocky]

Use to work 12hr days 14 days straight at a mining camp. But then I got 7 days off so wasn't to bad.