How many hours a week do you work?

I'm going to a Linux Sys Administrator interview tomorrow. Today, the recruiter called because I had a query about hours. Apparently the role is 8am-5pm and other weeks it might be 9am-6pm. This seems like a long working week (with an hour for lunch, so it's a 40 hour week)

How many hours per week do you work? Would you consider hours like this?

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OctalDump

In Australia, "standard" work week is 38 hours, some places are 35 hours, some are more. But unpaid overtime is pretty common, or time in lieu (ie do 2 hours extra today, and take 2 hours off later). The IT infrastructure roles I've had usually end up with me working later, getting some time off, and doing some unpaid overtime, so maybe some weeks are 38 hours, some are 35, some are 44.

I wish I had the research to hand, but the relationship between hours worked and productivity isn't as straightforward as we popularly imagine. If you work too many hours for too long, you are less productive than you would be on normal or even shorter hours. Tired people make more mistakes, and are less creative in solving problems. They can also just work slower. For jobs where you have to use your brain, this fatigue can kick in sooner than the repetitive industrial work that gave us 40 hours as an optimum.

Anecdotally from people who have worked in situations where 12hour+ days are common, a lot of that time isn't actually productive at all, and is more about the appearance of working hard than actually getting stuff done.

So when I hear about IT people working 40, 45, 50, 80 hours, I wonder how productive they actually are and if everyone would be better off doing 35 hours.

EDIT
OK, so this is not the most academic work, but is interesting and easy to read. There's a few links in the sidebar, and they do talk a bit about software development in particular.

Slightly more in depth, and harder to read. It does have more sources at the end of the article.

Kinet1c

I'm employed for ~40 hours of work per week, there is however about 20-25 hours of work there for me to do.

si20

Kinet1c wrote: »

I'm employed for ~40 hours of work per week, there is however about 20-25 hours of work there for me to do.

This is kinda what i'm dreading. I currently do 37.5 hours per week and there's around 10 hours (maybe 15) of actual solid work to do. After that, you've got to go looking for work, or if there's still nothing, you're going to be very bored. I'd prefer a 35 hour week where 30+ hours were busy rather than my current 37.5 hours a week with 10 hours being busy.

UncleB

why not use the time to get studying to learn more about the systems you support.
It makes a lot of difference to have the systems available that you are learning about so you can put the new skills to good use and start to produce recommendation for improvements (think of ITIL Continual Service Improvement), and do your best to quantify the benefits as accurately as possible to justify the changes.

This will give multiple benefits:
1 - you show the business where it can save money (and may even get a piece of this or pay rise)
2 - you develop your skill set substantially
3 - your environment should improve with more features to support or develop
4 - you raise your profile for promotion through the initiatives shown and new skills learned

Once you come close to exhausting the avenues you can train on, ask your manager if there is scope to grow elsewhere and if the answer is no, start looking for another job where the skills will get you a better challenge.

Just a thought...
Iain

Kai123

My hours are amazing. I have a 36 hour week and then a 48 hour week. Its 4 days on 4 days off, 12 hour shifts.

The first two days are day shifts, followed by a 24 hour period and then two nights. The days go quick and the 24 hour gap is really nice. The night shifts go fast and before you know it...you have 3 and a half days off (I sleep the first day following a night shift, from around 9am to 4pm).

I've never not worked overtime though so its normally an extra 12 hour shift somewhere in the week. In October last year I worked a 75 hour week but it helped me get my NOC role.

JoJoCal19

Straight 40 hours here. My schedule is 7a-4p, however I loathe traffic so I come in at 6a and leave at 3p. I get an hour lunch break so I work 8 hours a day, M-F. No overtime as I'm salaried.

v1ral

40hrs

Can be more depending on special projects and if IT is working with a customer facing group. I've done 60 hours. Thank god I get overtime otherwise I wouldn't have the energy to go past 40hrs.

Mow

45-60, depending on the project needs and how busy we are. There is not much of a comp time policy here, typically the manager will give you about one hour for every three or four you work extra and you have to almost beg for that. Lots of different customers means lots of different needs based on time of day.

actionhank1786

si20 wrote: »

This is kinda what i'm dreading. I currently do 37.5 hours per week and there's around 10 hours (maybe 15) of actual solid work to do. After that, you've got to go looking for work, or if there's still nothing, you're going to be very bored. I'd prefer a 35 hour week where 30+ hours were busy rather than my current 37.5 hours a week with 10 hours being busy.

Honestly, I would prefer to be at work getting paid to not be busy, than to be sitting at home not making money. Maybe that's just me. I work at least 40 hours a week, and depending on what work needs to be done after hours, I may have a bit of OT. I've had to dial the OT back recently, as they have been having their money slow down a bit. But, now if I need to come in at night to work, I will generally just take a half day and balance it out. So, I still get my 40 hours, and sometimes maybe a little extra.

Kinet1c

actionhank1786 wrote: »

Honestly, I would prefer to be at work getting paid to not be busy, than to be sitting at home not making money. Maybe that's just me. I work at least 40 hours a week, and depending on what work needs to be done after hours, I may have a bit of OT. I've had to dial the OT back recently, as they have been having their money slow down a bit. But, now if I need to come in at night to work, I will generally just take a half day and balance it out. So, I still get my 40 hours, and sometimes maybe a little extra.

I do understand what you're saying but how I approach work is that I'd like to be learning something new every day/week/month. If i'm doing the same crap day in and day out then I'm going to get bored pretty darn quickly which is where I can tell si20 is at too. I don't just want employment or a job, I want to be challenged regularly to be better at what I do. I take this approach with most things in life tbh, I want to be a better worker/husband/father etc. (no particular order btw

) - it's what motivates me.

Danielm7

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Straight 40 hours here. My schedule is 7a-4p, however I loathe traffic so I come in at 6a and leave at 3p. I get an hour lunch break so I work 8 hours a day, M-F. No overtime as I'm salaried.

Same here, the company has core hours between 9-3, you can flex around those. I skip as much traffic as I can with 6:30-3. If I wait until even 4pm it can take significantly more time to get home.

thaiguy314

Being a contractor is pretty nice because I get exactly 40 hours a week. No more no less. So compared to my prior job, the stability is nice especially with grad school and a baby on the way. Even better we're moving to a flex schedule so I'll hopefully be getting every other Friday off.

As far what Kinet1c said, I get it. I'm in the middle. There's times where I love being able to take a breath but I don't want to be stuck in purgatory either. Luckily my boss is great. If we're not busy, he doesn't mind me studying for certs or doing homework for grad school but that's also because he knows as soon as I get work, that's my first priority until it's done and it's done right.

DunklerEngelVNV

Exactly 40 hours per week. M-F. Overtime opportunities (time and a half) come around a couple times a year and are not mandatory. They will round up volunteers as needed for those big projects that need OT.

bhcs2014

40. Five 8 hr shifts. Actual work on average about 20. Have had weeks where I had like 5 hours of work, some all 40.

I remember the last time I saw this type of thread (3ish years ago) a lot of people reported 50-60 hours of work even while salaried. Good to see this time most people are at around 40.

pcgizzmo

Wow. I'm blind sided that the OP thinks that 40 hours is a long work week. No offense but are you a person in your twentys? What type of work week were you hoping for? 40 is normal but 50 is more the standard and possibly 55-60 if there is lots to be done.

goobacks

I'm desktop support and I'm scheduled 40 hours a week 7-4, Mon-Fri. I normally don't take lunch though and end up with anywhere from 45-55 hours a week depending on if we have any projects/expansions going on.

coreyb80

I just started a new position about a month ago and I'm 8-5 Mon-Fri only. Gig before this had an on call rotation.

UnixGuy

I slack a lot, it's hard to measure....for sure less than 40...

the_Grinch

Typically 35 hours a week. Sometimes a lot more, but that is pretty rare.

lsud00d

It's been about a year since I was at the standard 40 hrs/wk...since then it's been an average of 50-55, sometimes up to 70+. But, pay is good so I don't complain when it comes to crunch time. Job is also really flexible in that I can come/go whenever as long as I get things done (although most of my days are filled with meetings). If I had a family I don't think I could keep up this pace but I don't so it's nbd. Work hard now for things to be easier later!

chmod

45 a week plus around 25 to 30 OT.

I make a lot of money but i also work all the time.

OctalDump

pcgizzmo wrote: »

Wow. I'm blind sided that the OP thinks that 40 hours is a long work week. No offense but are you a person in your twentys? What type of work week were you hoping for? 40 is normal but 50 is more the standard and possibly 55-60 if there is lots to be done.

OP is from the UK. Hours tend to be shorter generally compare to what I'm reading about the US.

Also, if you glance at the research in this area, it's likely that the average IT worker would get more done in a 38 hour week than in a 60 hour week. That's more done in total, not just per hour. At a certain point you get negative productivity.

When you think about it, linking pay to hours worked is pretty clumsy way to do things.

fullcrowmoon

When I was a UNIX/Linux SysAdmin, I often worked 60 hour weeks, and that wasn't counting when it was my turn to be on-call for overnight. I kept it up for 11 years but eventually I burned out, and moved over to a NOC where at least I had steady hours even if it was shift work. Now I'm doing Cybersecurity Audit and it's 40 hours all the way. It feels like vacation.