Hours in your work week

[merithyn]

I had an interesting conversation with my manager today. She's obviously offended that I work different hours than she'd prefer, but can't really do anything about it because the agreement for when I work was made before she became my manager. For the record, I work 6am-4pm Pacific Time, which is 8am - 6pm my time (Central Time). I rarely get a lunch, so that's a solid 10-hour day, five days a week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am supposed to leave at 3pm PT (5pm CT) so that I can study, but that also rarely happens as people regularly schedule me for meetings well after those times.

Given her druthers, I would work standard hours of 9am - 5pm PT. Mind you, when I lived in Portland and worked in the office, my hours were 7am - 4:30pm, and I took a lunch every day, so my schedule hasn't really changed much, except that I'm working a lot more hours.

Today, I asked her what hours our new person was going to be working, since she's Mountain Time and because I was trying to set up some meetings with her for training. Her response was, "Salaried employees do not have schedules or hours." She followed that up with, "I will ask her what her preferred schedule looks like, but I just want to be clear that my expectations of all salaried employees are in line with [Company].  That is, your schedule is dictated by your workload.  There are no set hours."

Right now, on average, I work around 50 hours a week. Our busy season starts next month, where that will likely be upped to closer to 55-60 hours a week until the end of the year.

This got me thinking. What is the "norm" for salaried employees? I know that it will differ based on the type of work, the level of performance you're at, etc., but it would be interesting to know what the basic expectations are on average.

[HVC]

Salaried. Varies. Usually 45 hours, but spikes during month end.

[Sheilbh]

Salaries. Up and down but I'd say low 40s.

But moving to a new role and it'll be interesting to see what that is.

Edit: Although my contract hours were 0930-1730. And I am militant about lunch.

[Habbaku]

I'm hourly at my current position and do 40 hours each week, never less, and very, very rarely more.

My previous job was salaried and I did exactly 40 hours each week there as well.

[Grey Fox]

Salaried, they expect 37.5 over 5 days. I usually do that, no matter the workload. Some weeks I'll do up to 41.5 but I bank the extra hours.

My GF is salaried & her work week is 35h, she can bank up to 10 hours per 20 days period.

[Berkut]

I manage about a dozen developers, and my expectation is that in a normal week it is 40 hours.

I have no problem demanding more, potentially even a lot more, if some specific set of circumstances demand it - a deployment, some crisis with a customer, we have all worked over the weekend at times.

ON the other hand, I tell my devs that if they find they are consistently, without some kind of crisis, working more than 40-44 hours a week, something is wrong and they should talk to me and we will get it resolved.

[Maladict]

40 hours. Starting a new job in September where I'll make a fair bit more but I won't be able to bank overtime. If I find myself doing overtime regularly I'm prepared to take a 20% pay cut and work 4 days a week. Time > money

[Josquius]

Define work.
Procrastinating whilst trying to work or actual productive time?

[Zanza]

Not really sure what the difference between salaried and hourly?

My employment contract says I should work 8 hours a day and get x per month as salary. If I work more, I can bank that and take that time off later. Since I moved to a managerial position, it is my own responsibility to track my work time and vacation days.

[Admiral Yi]

Not really sure what the difference between salaried and hourly?

My employment contract says I should work 8 hours a day and get x per month as salary. If I work more, I can bank that and take that time off later. Since I moved to a managerial position, it is my own responsibility to track my work time and vacation days.

Generally if you're eligible for overtime you're hourly.

[Zanza]

That is, your schedule is dictated by your workload.  There are no set hours.

Fuck off. That's a shit attitude. If there is more work than your team can manage in the available time, you are a shitty manager. You need to either reduce workload or increase capacity then. Just whipping the team will not lead to sustainable results.

[Zanza]

Not really sure what the difference between salaried and hourly?

My employment contract says I should work 8 hours a day and get x per month as salary. If I work more, I can bank that and take that time off later. Since I moved to a managerial position, it is my own responsibility to track my work time and vacation days.

Generally if you're eligible for overtime you're hourly.

I see. Just googled it and that distinction does not have an equivalent provision in our labor law. Overtime pay exists, but it's not some seemingly automated thing like in the US.

[Berkut]

That is, your schedule is dictated by your workload.  There are no set hours.

Fuck off. That's a shit attitude. If there is more work than your team can manage in the available time, you are a shitty manager. You need to either reduce workload or increase capacity then. Just whipping the team will not lead to sustainable results.

Indeed. That is just dumb management.

[The Brain]

I worked hourly until I got into management, then it changed to salaried. Obviously I've worked weekends etc when the situation demanded it, but I've never worked an insane amount of hours. My impression is that I am reasonably good at prioritizing tasks.

[PDH]

I am exempt salary (no overtime).  UC expects me to get my job done each week.  If I am regularly working more than 40 or less than 40, the policy is to try and balance work out to be closer to 40.  That said, many (many, many) people here work far less than 40 hours per week for their 40 hours a week paycheck.