Hours in your work week

[The Brain]

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.

And your actual "work" is sitting around smoking pot with long-haired buddies and screwing women with hairy armpits.

[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.

And your actual "work" is sitting around smoking pot with long-haired buddies and screwing women with hairy armpits.

Hey, someone has to do it.  Plus there are the demonstrations against bad things too!

[Iormlund]

Salaried, 40 hours a week.

It's a bit of a problem because it is a cyclical job (we are much busier during launches). Company will never pay us overtime, though.

So we take time off if going over 40 hours. With my previous bosses that was fairly straightforward: "Hey, be warned that I'm taking this and that day off since I had to stay late to solve X". My current boss is one of those MBA types with a background in consultancy firms, so I don't know how that'll work out with him. We also have time tracking now, courtesy of our government. Thanks Pedro. 

[Razgovory]

Raz feels left out in this thread.

[11B4V]

I work for the govmint of 'Merica......

[merithyn]

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.

Both my coworker and I have talked to her. She told my coworker, who said that her preference would be to work 40-hour work weeks, "I'd like you to challenge that expectation."

[Habbaku]

Time to find another place to work.

[merithyn]

Time to find another place to work.

We're both applying.  We are a two-person team and they've just hired a third. (She started today.)

[Habbaku]

I hope you tell the new hire to run away screaming when you line up another job.

[Monoriu]

I easily work over 50 hours per week.  Even after getting off work, we check our mobiles and emails often. 

[Napoleon XIV]

Self-employed as to a couple of businesses, so no real steady hours as such (nor is there any steady or predictable pay outside of certain clients).  It's a question of work quantity in relation to the deadlines set either by the client or law.

[viper37]

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.

Since I am now salaried... I have a 35hrs work week and a flexible schedule.  Although, due to training I will have to work on friday afternoons, the usual schedule for unionized employees that most officers follow are 8:15 to 16:45, no break in the afternoon (it is paid, as in, you get to leave 15 min earlier) and 8:15 to 12:00 on Fridays.  I am required to do occasional overtime (like city councils) or be at the office at specific times (this part hasn't happenned yet except for training) and I have no overtime, but I get 9 paid days of extra vacations each year, on top of my other holydays&vacation time (3 weeks by the second year, 5 by the 5th).

I've skipped dinner time entirely early on, because there was a lot of work and I couldn't be there everyday, but I tend to get tired toward mid-afternoon when I don't stop at least 30 minutes, so now I usually take 45 minutes.

My previous schedule was 7:30 to 17:30-18:00 then 19:30-20:00 to 21:00-22/23:00 sometimes even to the wee hours of the morning, depending on workload plus most saturdays of late summer and fall.  January&February were usually below 40hrs, march-july 45-50 depending on the number of projects running and if I had an assistant.  August through the first permanent snow could be... grueling.  I usually took less than half an hour to eat, sometimes eating at my desk, with my plate on my knees, so to speak.

It pays less for now, but I like it that way, much less stressful.

[viper37]

While looking around, in the private sector, I know it's officially 40hrs, but they expect you to work between 40-45hrs a week without compensation other than your base salary, no special days off except with calendar holydays, no vacation at all for the 1st year and no full break during Christmas time.

My salary could have been a tad higher, had I managed to find a decent job, but such jobs would have likely be in Quebec city and would have required me to get an appartment/flat as remote work was not authorized full time for any prospective employer.

So, a bit less money than I made, a lot less hours in a week, a lot more vacation time/time off during the year

All in all, a good compromise in my situation.  But I totally respect and applaud those who want and like to work longer hours.  I used to be there.  It's just not for me anymore and I don't think I could do it again on a regular basis, even though I'm feeling better since a couple of weeks.

[Monoriu]

Self-employed as to a couple of businesses, so no real steady hours as such (nor is there any steady or predictable pay outside of certain clients).  It's a question of work quantity in relation to the deadlines set either by the client or law.

Long time no see! 

[viper37]

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.

Isn't the norm in the US?  I mean the >40hrs workweek, not the dumb management?  I believe people in the video game industry, devs, namely, often do a lot more and can spend a year in "crunch mode", I kept hearing stories about Google were engineers were spending their entire night in the office, not going home to sleep because there was too much work, and it seemed to be widespread to a lot of industries.  I seem to recall some petition to get a 50hrs workweek in some big US bank, instead of the typical 80hrs per week.