Depends on too many factors to count; industry, work environment, specific manager/supervisor, workload, current phase of your career...(and yes, probably culture, although I know you were being funny, Jeff :) )
I've been a software engineer for the last 20 years. In that 20 year period I've gone through more layoffs than I care to count. It's a meat grinder of a profession where absolutely no loyalty exists. We're mercenaries, selling our "swords" to the highest bidder. I do have friends in the industry who routinely work 50-60 hour weeks, but I've found that you HAVE to set personal boundaries or your employer will chew you up and spit you out. I work *no more* than 40 hours a week. Period. End of discussion. I'm not saving lives, I'm writing code. The problem will be there the next day, and no one will die as a result. If it's a one-off situation that really deserves my attention, I'll consider it, but I better not get the feeling that the extra hours are slowly becoming routine or my boss will hear about it. There will always be another job...but I only have 1 family, and they get first shot at my quality time. Because of my experience and skill set, I get at least 3 calls per week from headhunters looking to place me into other, often better positions, so I'm fortunate enough to be holding most of the power. When my boss threatens my lifestyle, I just find another boss. And that usually comes with at least a 10% salary bump :) I have friends who work in the banking industry, and it's a very different situation there. 50 hour weeks are usually a minimum for those guys, in my friend's estimation. I have a friend who works on construction crews. His schedule is brutal...while he's employed. Nat On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Jeff C Goodhall <[email protected]> wrote: > Guess we Brits work harder than the avergage American :) > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Raymond E. Feist" < > [email protected]> > To: "feistfans-l" <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 4:36 PM > > Subject: Re: Midkemia on tv > > > > On Apr 20, 2012, at 6:32 AM, Jeff C Goodhall wrote: > > Raymond most people work 60-70 hours a week at normal jobs. :) >> >> > > Nonsense. The people I know who work hardest are pulling 9, 10 hour days, > maybe going in for a half-day Saturday, that sort of thing. That clocks > out to 45-54 hours a week. In 1966 our standard work-week at 20th Century > Fox was 60 hours, five 12 hour days. Anything over that and we were > getting double overtime, which was not permitted unless someone > green-lighted a special allocation of hours for a project in trouble. Now, > I was a grunt, so to speak, an apprentice film editor, and when I walked on > the lot the admin building was already running at full throttle, with > producers (like my dad) having been there an hour or two already, and some > of those guys were still working after I left. > > If you're a film maker, you LIVE with that project from pre-production > until final edit and post-production are finished. That's why film makers > often take a year or more off after finishing a project. > > Best, R.E.F. > ---- > www.crydee.com > > Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by > stupidity. > > > > > > > > > -- Sent from my Crappy Laptop (tm) using a poor excuse for a web browser.
