Who here actually works 8 hours/day?

[tiffany85]

OMG I sound so lazy for even questing anyone's ability to work 8 hours per day. But I've read that most people are only productive for like 5 hours per day. When I used to work in a cubicle farm, I found that to be true. People spent most of their days in pointless meetings, BSing with colleagues, going to the water cooler, or doing really easy tasks just to basically pass the time.

Is 8 hours a lot in your opinion? Do you find yourself working that much? Am I just lazy?

[tripods68]

OMG I sound so lazy for even questing anyone's ability to work 8 hours per day. But I've read that most people are only productive for like 5 hours per day. When I used to work in a cubicle farm, I found that to be true. People spent most of their days in pointless meetings, BSing with colleagues, going to the water cooler, or doing really easy tasks just to basically pass the time.

Is 8 hours a lot in your opinion? Do you find yourself working that much? Am I just lazy?

If you factor in meetings, going to lunch, breaks, etc...yes. I agree with that. I rather stay home and day trade for hobby--maybe when I retire

[disneysteve]

I got to the office at 7:30am today. I will be here until 5:00pm. That's 9.5 hours. Sure, some of that time isn't spent on work - eating lunch, using the bathroom, writing this post - but the vast majority of my time is spent on work so I'm confident that at least 8 of those 9.5 hours will be spent on work.

[Fishindude77]

Usually 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM most weekdays with the occasional weekend or evening. Doing some training tonight till about 7:00 PM.

Used to work a lot more when first got involved in business. Haven't worked an hourly job in 35 years, we do what it takes to get the job done and take care of our customers. Long hours and hard work is how many get ahead in life.

[tripods68]

If you are single, you should be working a lot more 40 hours. I remember in college FT student--went to school in the morning 7 to noon. Left for my 1st office job 1-5; went to my 2nd job delivering pizza 6-9 pm. My third job on weekend allowed me to sell Life Insurance. I had no life for 5 years The Good news I was able to bank roll my entire college cost myself.

[disneysteve]

If you are single, you should be working a lot more 40 hours.

I had no life for 5 years

I see no reason why someone needs to be working every waking moment unless their financial situation truly warrants it. Why be miserable and have "no life" if you don't need to? And if you do need to, it shouldn't matter if you're single or married. You do what you need to do to get by.

Some days I work a lot more than 8 hours because I finish my job, go home, and spend a couple of hours on the computer doing surveys to earn additional income.

[FLA]

as a nurse, in most positions I had, I worked longer than the shift (and we were not paid for that time even though we were hourly workers). I found the sweet spot to not have to do this in other types of nursing jobs. In home care and then hospice home care, you arranged your schedule daily, managed yourself and your time yourself and electronic charting could be done at home. Lowest comparable pay but best schedule was hospice 8-4 M-F, no weekends, holidays or on call. Some days you got home early, others late but that didn't happen often, some days no lunch, but there was always eventually a quiet day to make up for the crazy ones.

In the end, type of nursing and work schedule affected my quality of life. I chose what met my personal goals, fit my family's life and made me happy to do the actual work, and it was not the job with the biggest paycheck. Many days I was done an hour early, so used that as my lunch and went home, still on call but not working.

[FLA]

I see no reason why someone needs to be working every waking moment unless their financial situation truly warrants it. Why be miserable and have "no life" if you don't need to? And if you do need to, it shouldn't matter if you're single or married. You do what you need to do to get by.

I agree with this, determining what you consider to be a quality life, then finding a job that fits this may result in lower pay but if you are able to meet your financial goals in such a position, I say you're good. You spend so much time at work, quality of life, including hours spent at work, matter. If you've covered your nut, why have 3 jobs? If you have to have 3 jobs or gobs of overtime for years to cover your nut, maybe you need to re-examine what truly matters to you.

[Leo]

I am a software engineer. I work 8 hours a day + 1 hour lunch. 8 hours includes meetings, taking a break, reading news mostly about technology, doing some research regarding work, or sometimes if really slow doing non-work related stuff online. Meetings is work because our mind needs to share its ideas and innovations. Reading news or doing some research regarding technology is also work because it will increase our knowledge thus increasing the asset of the company.

Is 8 hours a day of work is too much? I agree it is. If I could recreate the world, I would say 6 hours of work per day is enough.

Do I want to work 8 hours a day? Yes but not for somebody, because my goal is to have my own business. I'm pretty sure most of the successful business owner works more than 8 hours a day.

[Fishindude77]

I agree with tripod68 that you should be working a lot more than 40 hours per week, however I would add that this should apply to anyone who is struggling financially, not just single folks.

I think people have gotten lazy. An (8) hour jobs still gives you another (8) hours of open time every day to get something productive done, plus still get your (8) hours of sleep. The weekends are wide open too for an opportunity to put in a bunch more time earning money.

Sheesh .... I worked 6:30 to 6:30 yesterday at my job, came home to the farm and jumped on the tractor, then worked till 9:00 and I'm an out of shape 55 year old. This is basic work ethic stuff. The folks I see that are really getting ahead financially put in lots of work hours.

[FLA]

maybe not everyone has the goal of "getting ahead", "having enough" is valid as well.

typical 8 hr jobs do not magically leave you 8 hrs of free time and 8 hrs of sleep. Most probably take an hour in the morning to get ready, if you're lucky a 30-45 min commute, then the return commute home. There's another 2 1/2 hrs gone that are not available to spend with your family or whatever you like to do.

"having enough" gave me time with my kids when they were little (they went to bed at 7:30, working til 6:30, commuting home, would've left practically no time to spend with them M-F), "having enough" gives me time with my terminally ill mother. Free weekends left time for fun with the kids, the inevitable chores, we visited my grandmother for years before she died, kids playing with cousins while parents took care of her. There is absolutely no amount of money you could've offered me rather than having that time with her. The grass was plenty green. Was I wealthy? Not monetarily, but the sacrifices made were ones I probably would've continued to do even if I were wealthy, they are just my values. We had an affordable home in a great public school district. Would "getting ahead" given me one of the McMansions around the corner from me? Of course. Did I want one? No way, in fact I downsized at 43. I cannot think of a single want or "need" that would've made me change my goal to "getting ahead", well, the only thing I can think of- the money to totally fund my children's education. But I'm not sure if I would've done that even if I could have, because I want them to have a similar work ethic, starting with helping to pay for your own education.

Had I not been derailed by sudden illness, had I kept up my same reasonable level of retirement savings, I was on target to have way more than I would ever need, probably because I started so young. My goal was if I wasn't gonna use up all my retirement, I would have a nice chunk of change to leave my kids.

So the picture changed, I'm still ok, I will have less to spend, the kids will get less. Yet after a true crisis, I can still say, I am very glad I chose "having enough".

As for people working 8 hrs being lazy and having a poor work ethic, that's pretty insulting. I had a great work ethic, ask the people I cared for and the company I worked for, just because it was 8 hrs, does not negate the quality of the work and the diligence of the worker. And I did not come home, sit on the couch, eat bon bons and watch tv. I have a good "work ethic" when it comes to family and children, as well. Instead of working 12 hrs and weekends, I had that time with the people I love most. I'm curious, how does one do that and work 12 hrs plus weekends?

[disneysteve]

I think people have gotten lazy. An (8) hour jobs still gives you another (8) hours of open time every day to get something productive done, plus still get your (8) hours of sleep. The weekends are wide open too for an opportunity to put in a bunch more time earning money.

What a sad life that would be. Work and sleep. Work and sleep. No thanks.

typical 8 hr jobs do not magically leave you 8 hrs of free time and 8 hrs of sleep.

True. I know plenty of people who commute 45-60 minutes each way to work. Two of my employees live 45 minutes away.

What about having a partner and a family? I like to spend time with my wife and daughter. I like to see my mom regularly.

Of course, there is a house to take care of too. When you're working 16 hours/day, when do you do laundry, wash dishes, cook meals, do yard work, fix up the house, etc? I'm on the executive board of our synagogue. I spend several hours each week doing work related to that. Just last night I was there from 6:30-10:00pm.

There's a lot more to life than work.

[Fishindude77]

If you are in good shape financially and able to take care of bills and do everything you want, more power to you if you can do it on (40) hours or less.

The point of my last post (maybe not written too well) was that folks that are struggling or not making ends meet, have opportunity to improve their situation or get ahead simply by putting more time in on the job. Many won't do it, and I don't get it?

[disneysteve]

The point of my last post (maybe not written too well) was that folks that are struggling or not making ends meet, have opportunity to improve their situation or get ahead simply by putting more time in on the job. Many won't do it, and I don't get it?

I agree that folks who are struggling need to work more/harder if they are able to do so. That wasn't how your post came across. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

That said, even someone who is struggling may not be able to work every waking hour for the reasons I mentioned. Commuting time, family obligations, chores that need doing, etc.

I have many patients who work at jobs where their hours vary week to week and they often don't know their schedule until a few days in advance. It's pretty tough to get a second job when you have no idea what your hours are going to be from day to day at your primary job. Or their spouse works varying hours so childcare becomes an issue. Or they only have one car so transportation is an issue. Very often, the folks who need those extra work hours the most are least able to actually accomplish working them - not out of laziness but out of circumstances.

[FLA]

I
The point of my last post (maybe not written too well) was that folks that are struggling or not making ends meet, have opportunity to improve their situation or get ahead simply by putting more time in on the job. Many won't do it, and I don't get it?

I took it very much the wrong way and I apologize for being snarky.