How many hours per day do you REALLY work?

this reddit thread is interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/sjhypt/how_many_hours_do_you_really_work_and_what_is/

I always wondered about this, and I know some of us count studying for certs at work as 'work' or 'researching' etc, but if we're honest, how many hours do we really work?

I'll start, since I'm in management/GRC/consulting, it varies, some weeks really busy but some not so much and I find myself wondering what the hell am I even doing

keen to hear your answers...

( I know the reddit thread is about cyber, but let's answer for any IT role..)

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Comments

JDMurray

What "work" is varies a lot in the "laptop employee" world. It doesn't fit the same model of work our fathers and grandfathers experienced. I might be writing, spread-sheeting, in meetings where planning or brainstorming is happening, having casual conversations that keep me "situationally aware" of the state of my team, or working with training materials. Whatever I'm doing during my work hours is "working" to me regardless of what I'm producing (or not). I think accurate Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to keep track of BAU work activity would be difficult/impossible to create for a manager and more appropriate for measuring the work output of task-based "assembly line employees."

Info_Sec_Wannabe

I also work in the GRC side of the house. Since the year started, work is a bit slack so I spend more or less 4 hours per day, sometimes even less. Its probably due to the budget for the year not being finalized yet, but last year, workload is a bit hectic so sometimes it is between 8 to 12 hours a day.

FluffyBunny

Security and Infra/Unix consultant.

My main contract is for 32h per week, but I frequently touch 36 or more which I end up needing to compensate in another week (since the contract forbids overtime completely).
My secondary contract is for 8h per week, teaching. But that's only for 20 weeks per year.
Next to that teaching, I require about 2h per week to prepare for teaching, per week, which is unbilled.
Next to that teaching and prepwork, I need about 10h per year to revise my teaching materials. Or actually 40-80h to make a completely new training.
Next to that I spend, on average, 0-6h per week studying for exams... Some weeks not at all, others 6-10h per week.

Let's say I keep busy.

E Double U

Interesting topic since it depends on what one considers "real work". For the past year I have moved out of operations into roles that require lots of meetings and I must say I do not always feel like I am doing actual work. People are still happy with my deliverables though, but I am not always convinced I am really working.

SteveLavoie

IT Service Director for a MSP(shareholder) and still active consultant

I work about 55-60 hours per week not including board meeting, some reading hour or research that I do for work, or special task related to work (by example, on Sunday afternoon, I had to deliver a voip phone and some equipment to a Covid-positive employee who needed it). So probably 70h per week.

UnixGuy

E Double U said:

...People are still happy with my deliverables though, but I am not always convinced I am really working.

Welcome to the world of Risk Management

TechGromit

It's either feast or famine, some weeks it's the watch grass grow competition, others it's not enough figgin hours in the day to meet all my obligations.

сyrus13

Well, officially I spend 8 hours at work, but I used to be very distracted from work until I installed a productivity tracking program. Now productivity has grown of course

I'm trying to add a few more hours of freelance work.

UnixGuy

@cyrus: what sort of 'freelance' are u doing during working hours?

E Double U

UnixGuy said:

@cyrus: what sort of 'freelance' are u doing during working hours?

Malicious insider

сyrus13

сyrus13 said:

Well, officially I spend 8 hours at work, but I used to be very distracted from work until I installed a productivity tracking program. Now productivity has grown of course I'm trying to add a few more hours of freelance work.

Hello again! You asked what kind of freelancing I have - completely different and not stressful

Recently, this has been maintaining pages on Instagram