How many hours do you work?
How many hours do you work?
Author
Discussion

ACEparts_com

Original Poster:

3,724 posts

271 months

Friday 8th June 2007
quotequote all
Just curious to hear about the working lives of others...

I tend to stoll down to my office (at home) at 9am (3 days a week I start at 11.30am) - stay till 2pm

2-7pm I spend with family

7pm - midnight back in the office

Weekends 9-10am and 7pm -

_Deano

7,414 posts

283 months

Friday 8th June 2007
quotequote all
out of bed at 5:50am to get ready for work out the door by 6:20 in work for 8am in london. there until 5pm then travel home to start on my own company from around 6:30pm to around 9 or 10pm.

Truckosaurus

13,281 posts

314 months

Friday 8th June 2007
quotequote all
AceParts said:
How many hours do you work?
About half of them.

lanan

814 posts

258 months

Saturday 9th June 2007
quotequote all
ACEparts_com said:
Just curious to hear about the working lives of others...

I tend to stoll down to my office (at home) at 9am (3 days a week I start at 11.30am) - stay till 2pm

2-7pm I spend with family

7pm - midnight back in the office

Weekends 9-10am and 7pm -
That must be the reason that you don't return customers calls, your too busy..!

arfur

4,016 posts

244 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
Out of the house at 0530 to drive to work. Arrive work either 0700 or 0730 depending on which office

Leave office at 1700 and arrive home either 2000 or 2030 generally.

Eat something and go to bed

repeat

The Griffalo

72,863 posts

269 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
About six hours a month on site, couple of hours a month of paperwork and that's it. I'm on call during the business day, but if there's nothing that needs my attention my time is my own. There's a lot to be said for downsizing yes

Fidgits

17,202 posts

259 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
lots.

it varies from week to week, but looking at last week:

mon 8am-7pm
tue left home at 4am, got into a hotel room at 10pm (CET)
wed 7am-9pm (CET)
thu 8am arrived home at 11pm (GMT)
fri 8am-4pm

Goochie

5,800 posts

249 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
Used to work 50 ish when I was in engineering - now I'm out of engineering, less than 40, for more money.

stevieb

5,253 posts

297 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
I am based in the office for 40hours a week but usually end up taking work home and at the moment currently working 60-70 hours a week.. To keep the office afloat!

paoloh

8,617 posts

234 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
If like myself you are in business for yourself, I would say the average is 10-12 hours a day. Slightly less on a weekend but not much.....

Oh the life but would I swap the life I have, I doubt it!

dcb

6,068 posts

295 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
stevieb said:
I am based in the office for 40hours a week but usually end up taking work home and at the moment currently working 60-70 hours a week.. To keep the office afloat!
Dear oh dear.

There is such a thing as the work / life balance.

60-70 hours a week doing work means other parts
of your life suffer [ wife, kids, social life].

Me, I work as hard as I can for forty hours
a week and then go home.

If I can't fit it into forty hours a week,
it gets given to someone else or doesn't
get done.

Depending on the type of work you do,
there is the case that you get tired and
make mistakes, which are more expensive
to fix than getting it right first time,
because you are fresh.

stevieb

5,253 posts

297 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
dcb said:
stevieb said:
I am based in the office for 40hours a week but usually end up taking work home and at the moment currently working 60-70 hours a week.. To keep the office afloat!
Dear oh dear.

There is such a thing as the work / life balance.

60-70 hours a week doing work means other parts
of your life suffer [ wife, kids, social life].

Me, I work as hard as I can for forty hours
a week and then go home.

If I can't fit it into forty hours a week,
it gets given to someone else or doesn't
get done.

Depending on the type of work you do,
there is the case that you get tired and
make mistakes, which are more expensive
to fix than getting it right first time,
because you are fresh.
I am a Civil Engeering and i wish i could do less hours when i started it was a 37-40 hour week. But in the last quite a few people have left recently and the work has ended on my desk to sort out!

See my other thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Like more recently i have been put on a Trainig course where i am expected to study in my own time for no pay.

Steve

Edited by stevieb on Monday 11th June 19:58

cardigankid

8,879 posts

242 months

Monday 11th June 2007
quotequote all
Man, I so agree. You wonder where its going to end.

[Edit-Its going to end in a thread about leaving for sunnier climes. Rather fear country now genuinely ed]

Edited by cardigankid on Monday 11th June 23:10

davidd

6,718 posts

314 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
I work hard at the work/life balance thing.

My business supports my life but my wife and children come first (otherwise there is little point), if I can grow the business to a sufficient degree then their lives will be better, if I screw it up then their lives will probably be worse..

To that end I try to work normalish hours in the office (5 miles form home), sort of 8 till 5:30, however there are usually a few early starts a week for meetings. I am however able to work remotely so I have a laptop and phone for email which means I can always do stuff, by being able to easily keep ontop of things whilst playing with the children/eating/sitting in the pub etc, it keeps the pressure off by letting me respond to stuff that needs me whilst letting me enjoy life.

D

twistedsanity

493 posts

268 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
im disabled so had to give up real work about 4 years ago, for my new buisness venture i start work at about 5am when i wake up and turn my laptop on, takes about an hour, ive started putting a few hours in during the day as well now, but ive designed my buisness so it is operable from a mobile phone, laptop and armchair, im taking a unit for testing within the next few weeks, as the boss i think im entitled to company "jollies" and have booked a weeks testing to do involving a 60ft twin diesel motor boat, the costa del sol and lots of aimless motoring about the med, im off to buy some new fishing gear to take this afternoon, the boat is provided for free with a pilot, my return airfair is £80, and the guy with the boat will want to buy my product at the end of the week, life is getting sweeter by the day, but im 38 years old, have spent the last 4 years in severe clinical pain and very depressed, previously to that i worked 60 hrs a week as an engineer, 6 days a week.

V8 EOL - Rich

2,782 posts

252 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
>How many hours do you work?

As many as I can get away with, probably 80+ most weeks. It is hard with a wife and a 4 year old and sometimes I feel like a w*nker but I am much happier now than I was being employed.

I am hoping to spend 3 or so years building up the business to then take a step back and let someone else take over.

Easier said than done!

SGirl

7,924 posts

291 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
V8 EOL - Rich said:
>How many hours do you work?

As many as I can get away with, probably 80+ most weeks. It is hard with a wife and a 4 year old and sometimes I feel like a w*nker but I am much happier now than I was being employed.

I am hoping to spend 3 or so years building up the business to then take a step back and let someone else take over.

Easier said than done!
This could've been written by me! redface (Except maybe the w*nker bit! hehe )

I'd love to downsize, but I can't see any logical way of doing it at the moment. The demand is there, and many times it's "but you did the last job for this client so you have to do the next one, we'll lose the contract if we can't get you to do the work." Another problem is that I don't have time to source other translators to subcontract work (and even if I did, it's not really ethical for a freelance translator to sub work to others, although I know it does happen).

I absolutely dread sending out sets of invoices or mailings to tell people I'll be out of the office, simply because it reminds so many people I'm here, and then I end up inundated with mails which it takes me all day to answer, so compounding the problem...

Still. I'd much rather complain about having too much work, instead of having the time to complain I don't have enough. smile It's been busy ever since I first started freelancing, but this past 9 months or so have been extreme. At the moment, I'm turning down about 6 times as much work as I accept.

And the moral of this tale, boys and girls, is: "when looking for a shiny new career, consider Scandinavian > English translation". wink

doc3

483 posts

245 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
About 50+ on site. But i'm on-call pretty much 24/7 which is rubbish. I haven't really sussed the work/life balance thing, but i hope to in the future! I do like my job (broadcast engineer) so i suppose that's a good thing.

classiccooper

9,073 posts

240 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
Into work at 7:30am, leave at 3:30pm normally, 37 hrs a week!!!

freddies_dad

12,689 posts

287 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
quotequote all
40 hours per week (attendence) or thereabouts.