How long can the body/mind handle 80 hour work weeks?

[BurnItDwn]

That's really sad. Without a retirement plan for work firmly in place, he'll most likely die within months of retiring.

He made over 200K USD yearly many of the years.

He could easily have retired a millionaire several times over ...

He divorced my mom in 1990, it was fucking ugly, big custody battle, messy messy battle. He took up gambling, my mom had mental health problems, disaster.

He remarried in like 95 or 96. this time to a gold digger.

Around 2000, they divorced, he managed to get stuck paying lots of alimony to wife #2 who he was with for less than 5 years, and whom he did not have any kids with. She had a job when they met, but quit her job since she was a lazy gold digger bitch.

He was depressed after his second failed marriage, and pissed off about being stuck with alimony, so he fucked himself over at the casinos and lost hundreds of K and dug himself so deeply into debt that he lost his house.

After bankruptcy he continued to work a lot, bought a house, then bought 2 more houses at worst possible time, and now he has 3 houses, worth about 550K, with 600K in mortgages since he had spent about 750K in the purchase prices ...

If he wasnt so damn self destructive every time he got upset .. he would be a multimillionaire... he knows how to invest and save, he taught me a LOT about investing when I was like 5 years old. I own stock, and have owned stuck since I was about 8. He bought me 10 shares of stock as a gift to teach me about investing and saving. Those shares at the time might have been $200, but now they are worth over 7500.. I havent touched them... even after making some bad choices of my own with real estate ... (though thnkfully no bad choices in the last 8 or so years)

 

[Zeze]

80 is brutal.

I've had my share of 80/hr work week. Go figure, it was also super hard- very soul crushing with all the leadership yelling at you and the entire floor.

You gotta have a thick skin for that emotional beat down. We also had two people who ended up crying in front of all.

I wasn't immune. At one point, I almost had a mental breakdown and wanted to just say 'I quit'. Strangely enough, when that happened, it also came with a moment of clarity.

The feeling came from within me that, if I can't handle this anymore, let THEM be the one to fire me. I'll mother effin' stay here until THEY let me go. _I_ won't be the one quitting first.

It was like a... motivated 'fvck all' attitude. A few months later, I survived it. And I can't believe I did it. That was one of my proudest accomplishments not only as a career, but on a personal limit level. The implementation was completed successfully and I left with tons of excellent references. (this was a contract gig)

 

[Vdubchaos]

He made over 200K USD yearly many of the years.

He could easily have retired a millionaire several times over ...

He divorced my mom in 1990, it was fucking ugly, big custody battle, messy messy battle. He took up gambling, my mom had mental health problems, disaster.

He remarried in like 95 or 96. this time to a gold digger.

Around 2000, they divorced, he managed to get stuck paying lots of alimony to wife #2 who he was with for less than 5 years, and whom he did not have any kids with. She had a job when they met, but quit her job since she was a lazy gold digger bitch.

He was depressed after his second failed marriage, and pissed off about being stuck with alimony, so he fucked himself over at the casinos and lost hundreds of K and dug himself so deeply into debt that he lost his house.

After bankruptcy he continued to work a lot, bought a house, then bought 2 more houses at worst possible time, and now he has 3 houses, worth about 550K, with 600K in mortgages since he had spent about 750K in the purchase prices ...

If he wasnt so damn self destructive every time he got upset .. he would be a multimillionaire... he knows how to invest and save, he taught me a LOT about investing when I was like 5 years old. I own stock, and have owned stuck since I was about 8. He bought me 10 shares of stock as a gift to teach me about investing and saving. Those shares at the time might have been $200, but now they are worth over 7500.. I havent touched them... even after making some bad choices of my own with real estate ... (though thnkfully no bad choices in the last 8 or so years)

Most wealthy people I've met usually had to work extremely hard (have 0 life) and ignore their loved ones in the process.

Thank GOD I learned this lesson early on in life and was able to adjust and enjoy my children early life/my parenthood.

Same applies to the famous/rich......Rockafella, Vanderbilt to Steve jobs......they were all negligent and none existent parents consumed by "work".

No thanks

 

[Vdubchaos]

80 is brutal.

I've had my share of 80/hr work week. Go figure, it was also super hard- very soul crushing with all the leadership yelling at you and the entire floor.

You gotta have a thick skin for that emotional beat down. We also had two people who ended up crying in front of all.

I wasn't immune. At one point, I almost had a mental breakdown and wanted to just say 'I quit'. Strangely enough, when that happened, it also came with a moment of clarity.

The feeling came from within me that, if I can't handle this anymore, let THEM be the one to fire me. I'll mother effin' stay here until THEY let me go. _I_ won't be the one quitting first.

It was like a... motivated 'fvck all' attitude. A few months later, I survived it. And I can't believe I did it. That was one of my proudest accomplishments not only as a career, but on a personal limit level. The implementation was completed successfully and I left with tons of excellent references. (this was a contract gig)

You look at that as an accomplishment?

I find it rather sad.....

 

[Imp]

What I see is quite opposite. People like you are considered "suckas" and are never promoted or get anywhere.

Mind you, there ARE some companies out there that treat their employees fair and reward them proper. Companies that make you work 50-80 hours a week are usually NOT those companies.

:biggrin:

I was a sucka. It was at my casual job. The guy knew I wanted to leave my full-time job. He kept telling me he would like to hire me full-time. Finally, he told me he didn't have the money after the date I told him I was going to quit by. Luckily, I realized that before putting in my notice. I still stupidly played nice because I wanted a reference -- his reference was inadequate, I had to find others.

I wasn't immune. At one point, I almost had a mental breakdown and wanted to just say 'I quit'. Strangely enough, when that happened, it also came with a moment of clarity.

The feeling came from within me that, if I can't handle this anymore, let THEM be the one to fire me. I'll mother effin' stay here until THEY let me go. _I_ won't be the one quitting first.

That'll wear you down. At my main job, I once had a shit supervisor who didn't tell me I had to do all of this extra work. I kept asking him what else I could help with for months. Then one month to deadline, it's my fault for not doing the shit. Almost rage quit. Instead, I did 70+ hour weeks for a few weeks, stayed another two years hoping they'd fire me or lay me off before leaving.

 

[SketchMaster]

I made it six months working 84Hr weeks while working a contract overseas. 12 hour days, seven days a week, for six months.

I physically could not take it anymore. After two days of being home the adrenaline wore off, and I collapsed. After an afternoon in the hospital, I spent the next month and a half trying to find out what was wrong with me. I was always tired, my joints felt like they had sand in them, my guts were on fire, and I couldn't think straight. A doctor finally looked at me and said it, I was burnt out and needed to just rest.

It took me about six months to start feeling better, and a full year to really recover.

I'll never work like that again. 250K/yr was not worth it, even at 26.

 

[GeekDrew]

I'll never work like that again. 250K/yr was not worth it, even at 26.

Holy christ. I would so totally go through all of this again for that much money. Idunno that I would survive, but it would be worth it.

 

[Zeze]

You look at that as an accomplishment?

I find it rather sad.....

I guess that's a difference between you and me.

 

[Ns1]

I guess that's a difference between you and me.

capitalist pigs unite.

 

[KMFJD]

My Dad almost got to 40 years before he had his stroke

 

[Ruptga]

they exist, and you don't even have to work 40hr/week. not sure about in your field though. in mine (software dev) they sure as shit do though.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

As someone who has been probably averaging ~65 hours a week worth of work since January so I can defend my dissertation in May, I can say that my mind cannot handle 80 hours. I'm already exhausted and just ready to turn it all off for a month after I defend and submit my dissertation next month.

My advisor has been a real hard ass, and just overall difficult to work with, but I am going to end up with well above average rate of publications in the years it took me to get my PhD (like ~9 or ~10 in 3.5 years - I really don't know or even care anymore) because I was pushing and even broken beyond my limits, but I cannot do this long term. I've already broken down once and had to leave the university for 6 months (went to work for a government lab where I was just as productive working ~40 hour weeks in a nearly stress free environment) and it recharged my batteries so I could finish up. I was really considering not returning to the university at all, but I saw I had the energy and figured I give it one last hard push. Now it looks like it might pay off. But as soon as I'm done, I'm done. I have no interest in sticking around academia being a part of some ridiculous publications count competition that results in an abuse of graduate students. I've seen how it has affected me first hand, and I will never ever be that type of manager (and no I'm not going to do the complete 180 because I've seen how that can be even worse).

What's your PhD in? I'm two years into my biochem degree and being in a smaller and less competitive lab I don't think there's quite as much stress for me as on you, but I definitely can empathize on some points. Occasionally I'll see random job openings in my campus mailbox, "40/wk 4 days 10hours $70,000 salary" for basic analytical government work and just think "I could do that for the rest of my life and be happy". The continued academia/post-doc route definitely scares me a bit.

 

[slag]

You do what you have to do. If 80 hours is necessary to survive, you do 80 hours. If you're just doing it for 'mo money', you're an idiot.

More like, If you have to work 80 hours just to survive, you're either in the wrong field or wrong location.

 

[lxskllr]

More like, If you have to work 80 hours just to survive, you're either in the wrong field or wrong location.

Probably. What I had in mind with that statement was an African subsistence farmer, or a North Korean factory worker. There's no reason for that nonsense in the west.

 

[Aharami]

Did it once for three months as a summer job. Took on double shift. At $9/hr + OT, I was making bank for a high school kid. I was young, so I didn't care. But I remember being really cranky and tired all the time toward the end of the summer. Haven't really worked more than 50 hrs/week since then

 

[Aharami]

Yeah I think i'm pretty well paid for my position and i'm hoping to get a promotion. Problem is I live in NYC. Unless you're making 300-500k a year, it's very difficult to feel like you're making sound fiscal decisions here no matter what you do. That aside, I have heavily considered industry (i.e. in-house) jobs but I think the hours are sort of endemic to the location more than the individual company. Don't get me wrong: I love NY for everything else it offers but people here just have that "work your ass off" mentality. It's exhausting after having worked in it for 10 years.

::EDIT:: To clarify, I've visited fellow team members in my same group but different offices and they have a completely different work ethic. That's why I think the hard working 60-80 hour a week schedule is more endemic to location than any individual company.

I have to agree. Seems like every one of my friends working in the city starts at 8 and gets off at 6 or later. And they're proud to be working so much. It's nuts!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Forever.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

What's your PhD in? I'm two years into my biochem degree and being in a smaller and less competitive lab I don't think there's quite as much stress for me as on you, but I definitely can empathize on some points. Occasionally I'll see random job openings in my campus mailbox, "40/wk 4 days 10hours $70,000 salary" for basic analytical government work and just think "I could do that for the rest of my life and be happy". The continued academia/post-doc route definitely scares me a bit.

You have to do what makes you happy. I was in academia too and got burned out and switched careers. I'm not sure I'll ever really "love" a job, but it could be much worse and I make good money and have plenty of time for my interests.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have to agree. Seems like every one of my friends working in the city starts at 8 and gets off at 6 or later. And they're proud to be working so much. It's nuts!

I'm not saying this is universal, but some of these "80 hour per week workers" are actually very inefficient workers and you'll see them walking the halls, chatting in cubes, etc. instead of doing their jobs. I've seen some of the work product delivered by these folks and let me tell you, if it took them 80 hours/week to produce that, they should be canned.

There are also folks who pretend to be extremely busy just so they won't get more work. At a previous job, I got work dumped on me because a guy on another team (this was a cross-functional project, don't remember the details) whined that he was "so busy" and just couldn't "add anything to his plate." Keep in mind, he was the Unix admin for like 5 boxes whereas I had overall responsibility for a global network (150+ servers, 2500 workstations, network, etc) and was managing a global technology upgrade.

I looked at my boss and said "Come on Doug, you and I both know he doesn't do anything and the stuff he does do is busy work that takes him five times longer than it would anyone else." My boss just smiled and said "Well, uh, yeah, but you need to do the work." The same "super busy" guy was the guy they caught napping in the bathrooms during work hours.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I have to agree. Seems like every one of my friends working in the city starts at 8 and gets off at 6 or later. And they're proud to be working so much. It's nuts!

Suckaaass

 

[Vdubchaos]

You have to do what makes you happy. I was in academia too and got burned out and switched careers. I'm not sure I'll ever really "love" a job, but it could be much worse and I make good money and have plenty of time for my interests.

There is no such a thing as LOVE and JOB.

The vary definition of a job = place where you go and do bunch of things you don't want to do....to get paid.

I never met a person in my life that LOVES to wake up on Monday morning and go to work.

I'm sure they exist (don't get me wrong), but chances are the ratio is something like 99.999/.001 or something ridicules.

ANYTHING you do becomes old and stale, no matter how much one might enjoy it. IMO it's just human nature.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I'm not saying this is universal, but some of these "80 hour per week workers" are actually very inefficient workers and you'll see them walking the halls, chatting in cubes, etc. instead of doing their jobs. I've seen some of the work product delivered by these folks and let me tell you, if it took them 80 hours/week to produce that, they should be canned.

There are also folks who pretend to be extremely busy just so they won't get more work. At a previous job, I got work dumped on me because a guy on another team (this was a cross-functional project, don't remember the details) whined that he was "so busy" and just couldn't "add anything to his plate." Keep in mind, he was the Unix admin for like 5 boxes whereas I had overall responsibility for a global network (150+ servers, 2500 workstations, network, etc) and was managing a global technology upgrade.

I looked at my boss and said "Come on Doug, you and I both know he doesn't do anything and the stuff he does do is busy work that takes him five times longer than it would anyone else." My boss just smiled and said "Well, uh, yeah, but you need to do the work." The same "super busy" guy was the guy they caught napping in the bathrooms during work hours.

Every single place I ever worked at is FILLED with these people. Lazy slacker actors.

People that do good work/work hard end up with their work/overloaded. And you already know there is NO Limit to how much a company will overload a useful guy.

Why wouldn't they? They have very few useful people.

It's how it goes (unfortunately). I see this EVERYWHERE.

I blame the management, like your boss Doug. If he had a 1/2 a clue he have the guy fired pronto. Unfortunately WAY too many companies allow slackers to thrive......our corps are FILLED with these people.

 

[purbeast0]

There is no such a thing as LOVE and JOB.

The vary definition of a job = place where you go and do bunch of things you don't want to do....to get paid.

I never met a person in my life that LOVES to wake up on Monday morning and go to work.

I'm sure they exist (don't get me wrong), but chances are the ratio is something like 99.999/.001 or something ridicules.

ANYTHING you do becomes old and stale, no matter how much one might enjoy it. IMO it's just human nature.

i like my job a lot. you are correct that anything can get old and stale though, however, due to the industry i'm in, there is always something new to do and learn, so it doesn't really get stale at all to me.

well it DID get stale to me at my first job out of school, which is why i left it (and salary sucked) but now i'm in a place where i can work on a new project at will, so whenever i get tired of the current one, i can move onto the next thing.

sure, my M-F are pretty much "coding" the whole time, but it's never coding the same monotonous thing day in and day out, it's always something new that i'm creating and developing, and iv'e grown a passion for it over the past decade. i genuinely enjoy it.

 

[Vdubchaos]

i like my job a lot. you are correct that anything can get old and stale though, however, due to the industry i'm in, there is always something new to do and learn, so it doesn't really get stale at all to me.

well it DID get stale to me at my first job out of school, which is why i left it (and salary sucked) but now i'm in a place where i can work on a new project at will, so whenever i get tired of the current one, i can move onto the next thing.

sure, my M-F are pretty much "coding" the whole time, but it's never coding the same monotonous thing day in and day out, it's always something new that i'm creating and developing, and iv'e grown a passion for it over the past decade. i genuinely enjoy it.

That's fine and normal.

I like my job too.

There is a HUGE difference between LIKE and LOVE though.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I blame the management, like your boss Doug. If he had a 1/2 a clue he have the guy fired pronto. Unfortunately WAY too many companies allow slackers to thrive......our corps are FILLED with these people.

Doug was this guy's best friend, but he also knew this guy was full of shit about his workload. The guy did not report to Doug either.

Actually, now that I think about it, almost EVERYONE knew he (the Unix guy) was full of shit including his boss. Someone once told his boss that they asked him to help with something and he said he was "swamped" and "overloaded." His boss just rolled her eyes and said "I'll talk to him."

The only deliverable I actually ever saw from the guy were the weekly KPI reports for his servers, which hung on a wall in the IT department. It took me (supposedly) DAYS to compile this report (5 boxes, remember?) and he would go around and nag others about their reports. He nagged us one time and a coworker said "Scott, you can do our reports if you'd like since you obviously have time on your hands to complain."