For me 32h/week is fine. Sweet spot would be at 24h/week but that’s pretty unrealistic if you want to pay your bills.
it totally depends on the person and their life
what should be the maximum according to you for white collar jobs?
40 hours in a week. After that it will start to affect your life
I know a lot of people here are fans of the 4 day workweek idea, but personally I think a 5-day work week, with 1 week per month off is a better schedule. Having 9 uninterrupted days off is very stress reducing and allows for working on multiday personal projects or doing some limited traveling.
For that sort of schedule, five 8 hour days is a baseline, but even going up to 9 or 10 hours as needed feels a lot more doable. As long as that flexibility to stretch hours is factored into the salary of course. If that’s done I think it is better for both the employees and the business in terms of getting projects done and people staying motivated.
Making this sort of schedule more common would require more expectations put on managers to properly organize schedules, since businesses I see doing this rotate through who is off so that the business is open the whole month.
For me, 40 hours (legally 37.5) was too much. I got home drained every day and neglected my personal life.
I’m not sure what my true sweet spot is. Right now I’m part time with multiple jobs and it changes week to week.
35-40. My new work gives me such a healthy balance of activities and incentives to work, as well as a home day. My previous work it was closer to 30, with summers off (unpaid). I needed the downtime to recover mentally. The home day does that for me and now I get paid all summer.
I think it depends on the environment.
if it’s 40, then why do people get tired by 9 to 5 jobs?
A lot of 9 to 5 jobs are pretty terrible. The worst work I ever had was behind a computer all day (reservations type of gig). It was incredibly mind numbing.
but it’s 40 hrs, it’s within your threashold according to your previous comment
“I think it depends on the environment”.
I like the job I’m doing now at 40 hours. I would not want to do that mind numbing job at 40 hours.
The context is important.
oh damn i work 50 hrs a week i feel you
Monotony and lack of flexible time off. A job that you don’t mind and can still prioritize important life stuff works just fine for me
For me, it depends how those hours are grouped. I currently work five 8-hour days and hate it. I miss working three 12’s. I only work a few more hours per week doing 8’s than I did with 12’s, but I have two thirds more commute time, and never have a weekday off, so it feels like I work almost twice as much. And it’s a pain trying to schedule appointments for anything, since I work the same hours as doctors, banks, etc.
Was working 32 for a bit. It was amazing. Now we got bumped to 36, not bad, but I do miss the extra time off.
I have worked 40 for most of my life which is tolderable but not ideal. A few years ago, it was 45-50. I really, really don’t ever want to be over 40 again.
I did 36 (4x9) until I had kids. Then I switched to 32 (4x8) so I would be home earlier.
I switched from 40 to 30 (6h @ 5 days) two years ago and it’s been magical. I get the same shit done in 6 vs 8 hours (because realistically I can’t concentrate for 8 hours straight, so there is some empty time in there anyway) and have more time in the day for myself. And I still make good money even with the pay cut.
My first full time job job out in the wild was as a retail manager. I was expected to work 54 hours and during the Christmas season I basically was at the store if it was open, period. My record at that job was 80 hours in one week.
That was between the ages of 21 to 24. By the time I was 23 I was already completely burned out. Unable to enjoy life, making next to no money to boot. Seemed like every year there was some excuse why my bonus sucked, even though I ran the most profitable store, by percentage and dollars, in the entire region. It culminated in my regional manager forcing my district manager to demote me to another store because I didn’t run the sales gain numbers he thought I should… Even though my store was both profitable and I ran sales gains every month. They handed my clean, well sorted store to a god damn thief who they ended up pressing charges against within the next year. But hey, he ran big sales gain numbers. The regional manager was an absolute prick and he later got fired for stealing carpet…
The company is out of business now and good riddance.
40 hours is more than enough time to devote to making a paycheck. Honestly, 32 hours is enough too, especially since these employers expect you to commute. Concepts like “Rush Hour” only exist because of the insanity of making a buck.
I left retail to enter the IT industry, which can have some crazy hours too. I did my stint being on call and doing changes at 3am on Sunday mornings, working outages that lasted for days. Those days are behind me too. Today I work from home and my boss only cares if my work is done and that I’m available to answer emails.
My work won’t let me take more than 37 hours a week.
I want to, but because of the union, they can’t let me. Instead, they call in extra help.
The cool thing is when they can get extra help and they need to ask me if I want. I get doubled up in my wage and sometimes a bonus just for taking the shift.
I won’t complain as I can also take a second part time job but for now it’s fine
Some weeks I enthusiastically work 60 hours and sometimes I really have nothing to give except like…10. It really just needs to be more flexible all around.
This all depends on your life. Health. Relationships. Etc.
I do more than 40 most weeks and don’t burn out because I have help at home, take time to exercise, take my PTO.
I read once “more than 4 hours a day of work is not conducive to spiritual development” and think they have a point. My ideal workday really would be 4 hours. Probably noon to 4 so that I could manage to be productive.
32
idk if it’s feasible for living wages, not where i live
Fair but that’s a slightly different question
