How does one work 50+ hours a week? - Page 17

I know few people who are very successful who are not willing to work hard and to work a lot of hours. Hours worked varies drastically by industries, but it seems fairly constant in my experience that leaders and successes are willing to put in the hours it takes to get the job done. At least in the legal industry (not talking about just attorneys), I think you are niave not to expect that 50+ hours is going to be fairly normal.

Personally, I do not mind it. I feared the idea when I was younger, but at least for me as I got older work increasingly matters to me. I'd work 100 hours a week if it meant providing a certain lifestyle for my family. My main anxiety now is if and when my S.O. and I have kids, that change will make the work/life balance thing a little more important than just wanting to get home early to go for a bike ride.

Manton hit on two things that bug me though: 1. a relatively recent attempt at many businesses to get the work of two people out of one due to the poor economy. I'm all for busting my ass to get a raise/promotion, but busting my ass so the company can employ half as many people and my reward is getting to keep my job..
2. The "blackberry" issue. Increased connectivity has a ton of upsides. The chance to work from home occasionally or have a flexible schedule is something really awesome for so many people, but I get annoyed at the expectation I am available 24/7 because I have a company blackberry. If there is a true emergency I don't mind putting out fires, but I don't think I'm alone in getting annoyed by the expectation that I will respond to mundane work emails at noon on a Sunday.

One additional thought. A friend of mine works for a large healthcare organization. His senior manager said something to the effect that if employees cannot get all of their work done in 45 hours, either they are not working effectively or the organization has an imbalance in how work is distributed. I definitely see his wisdom applying to many situations/organizations.

As an up and coming college graduate I do fear the lifestyle of working so many hours a week. I know I want to afford some nice things in life, and have my retirement all set up. But what I fear is that I will be working so hard to get the ball rolling that I wont be able to enjoy the things in life when I am still young and active. Like going on bike rides, rock climbing, running, camping with the friends, and so on. Life is meant for a reason, and not to sit behind a desk and be inactive all day long. That's what I am scared about.

 

Question for people who love a healthy active lifestyle:

 

How do you balance work and being active and maintaining a healthy physique while working all the time?

You'll find time to do the things you want to do. You may not be able to go rock climbing, camping, or whatever else you do every week but you'll learn to enjoy the time you have. Same thing with maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You'll find time to workout or you'll eat healthier than your regular diet if you know you wont be able to workout and maintaining your physique is important to you.

Don't fear it. I spent a lot of time fearing it and I can honestly say it is a waste. Spend your energy enjoying the flexibility you have now. If you are anything like me, you will probably want to throw yourself into your work when the time comes that you need to put in the hours.

as Txmade says- you'll make time if it's important to you to do the things you love.

50 hours a week isn't as tough as it sounds. My Creative Director had to

tell me to gtfo out of the office because I was an intern and paying interns

overtime was not in the company budget.

If you love what you do, and do what you love, 50 hours isn't eternity. I

usually eat lunch at my desk, powering through projects like a lunatic

while the rest of the team slowly backs away from me.

Even with just simply not taking a lunch hour, you'll find yourself

clocking at 40 hours at 1PM, Friday (assuming you arrive to work

at 9AM)

I've done 50-60 for about three years. You get used to it to the point that you aren't quite sure what to do with your free time. It feels awkward when you have have 3-4 hour spans without any sort of productive output to show for it. Working on weekends is also a good way to tack on quite a few hours without noticing. And then work you do remotely from Starbucks or somewhere like that. You reach the 50 hour threshold really quickly.
 

 

Oh yeah, and also I don't have a life outside of my fiance. It's pretty much work and fiance. Twice a month I make sure to go out with friends just to maintain those friendships.

50-60? Come on!

My first year as an investment banking associate, I regularly pulled 90-100 hour weeks. How do you do it? Internal acceptance.

I had a dream job to most people here a while back.

I got to work from home 5 days a week, a tough week was about 20 hours tops. Some days, I wouldn't even bother checking email. A typical week was like 5-10 hours. I was getting paid $70,000+ and could have kept it for at least another 5 years.

I willingly gave that up.when most people thought I was crazy and wanted to know if it was still available. But honestly, it was one of the scariest times for me because I was in my 20s and this was a dead end career.

It feels a lot better having a full work week now.

I don't know how you guys do it, I can't manage to stay in the office for more than 4 hours. Matterfact I'm out now.

this is truth, btw.

What kind of job was it?

That strikes me as kind of sad. I have no problem working long hours, but I'm glad I had my fun and have had some time to idle.

What the hell is the point? You pissed away your youth... so you can work away middle age.
But you planed on being miserable so its all good!

Come on now.

mkarim is the kind of guy that says how dating is the same as prostitution you just pay for sex in a different way. Sad indeed.

I've done the 72 hour workweeks before, not bad when you get paid OT for everything over 8 hrs or over 40 hours a week. I didn't have a social life or any hobbies during this time however, working 6pm-6am 6 times a week, with Saturday nights off and being too sore to party.