Poll: What schedule would you rather work?

[pcgeek11]

10 hour days or maybe even the 13.3 one for sure. The biggest pain in the ass about work is simply the commute time. It sucks. It costs me about 45 minutes each way, so approx 1.5 hours every day is dedicated to commuting. Waste of time.

That said, I'm salary like most Americans, so I tend to work 10 hour days anyways, I just don't get anything from it =/

I haven't seen any studies on the subject, but I don't think that "most Americans" are salaried employees. I believe the vast majority are hourly.

After a quick google search:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/american-workers-paid-hourly-59-percent_n_1659001.html

Three in five American workers are now paid on an hourly basis, according to the Labor Department.

In 2011 on average, 59.1 percent of American workers were paid by the hour. That is an increase of 0.5 percent since 2010 and 1.5 percent since 2008, according to the Labor Department.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I haven't seen any studies on the subject, but I don't think that "most Americans" are salaried employees. I believe the vast majority are hourly.

Ok, most white collar American workers are salary

 

[pcgeek11]

Ok, most white collar American workers are salary

That I would agree with!

 

[clamum]

I've always worked 8 hours, 5x a week. Two jobs ago I had tons of ridiculous overtime off and on but the last two jobs thankfully have been run by more sane managers/people.

It seems like 10 hours, 4x a week would be great. Even at 8 hours a day my chances of getting things done (errands that need to be done during business hours) is shot in the ass, not counting lunch (depending on the place it can be ridiculously busy, and fuck wasting lunchtime on that), so with the 10 hours 4x a week that day off can be used for any errands, if necessary. It doesn't seem like an extra two hours each day would be that much different than the 8 hours, but it is true for me that when 8 hours rolls around I definitely wanna GTFO.

 

[Ruptga]

You mean like most Americans who work for poorly ran companies. Good companies don't do that to their employees.

So like he said, most Americans.

Ideally I think I'd like six sevens, but ideally it would take five minutes to walk to work. Given realistic commute times of 20-40 minutes and how awful the typical driver is, I would rather do four tens.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

4x10 is amazing. Extra two hours doesn't feel like much longer and the business day off you can go and take care of doctor and bank stuff.

 

[jlee]

4x10 rules.

 

[Carson Dyle]

4x10. And I would take wednesday off.

That would be an awful way to break up a four day week, unless you just don't like your job and can't stand it for more than two days at a time. Probably also means you have nothing to do on weekends. I'd much rather have 3 day weekends so I could get away whenever I like. Add in M/F holidays and you have a number of 4 day weekends through the year.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Out of those choices 13.33 hours x 3 days easily.

Rather work more hours and get more days off. Whether I work an 8 hour shift or a 12, it's still a full day of work. I still have to get up for it, I still have to show up, etc. I can't plan anything for that day etc. May as well work more hours and get more time off.

My current schedule is a mix of 8 and 12. Basically have to cover 160 hours in a 4 week period, so the more 12's you work the more days off you get. It's typically 4 on 4 off but it's kind of mixed around a bit, depends on vacations, holidays etc. Sometimes I may work like 6 in a row, other times 2. I've actually had it fall where I have like 7 days off. That's without using any vacation time. Love it.

I would hate having to go back to 8 hour days again.

I've also done 10x4 and that is pretty nice too. It's more consistent than my current schedule and still gives you 3 day weekends. I still prefer my existing schedule even though it's more sporadic, but if I had to pick between 5x8 or 4x10 I'd take 4x10 hands down. It's even better for labour/physical jobs. When I had a 4x10 it was a labour job and time goes by so fast you really don't notice the 2 extra hours and it really feels like an 8 hour shift.

 

[RossMAN]

4x10

 

[purbeast0]

As nice as 4x10 could be, I just don't see myself wanting to give up getting out of work around 2-2:30 every day. It's pretty nice to be home after the gym by 4pm every day, especially in the winter when it gets dark by 5. I still get some daylight.

 

[smackababy]

I love my schedule. We work 12 hour shift on a 14 day rotating schedule. Work Mon./Tues. off Wed/Thurs work Frid-Sun off Mon/Tues/ work Wed/Thurs. off Fri-Sun. Sounds complicated but it's awesome. Every other weekend is a three day weekend. Can take two days off and have seven off. I wouldn't want to work any other schedule. Only bad part is we change from days to night every two weeks.

I used to love panama schedule when I was in the military. Sure, you worked every other weekend, but it just felt great having that time off.

 

[RandomTask09]

I used to work 4x10 which was nice, but after a few months I started taking the extra day on the weekends for granted. The 3 day weekend began to just feel like any other 2 day weekend.

I always thought a 4x10 schedule with alternating Mondays and Fridays would be amazing. Work Tues-Fri, Sat & Sun off, work Mon-Thurs, Fri-Mon off. Every other weekend would be a 4 day weekend which would allow for some decent weekend trips/mini vacations without having to burn through PTO. Sadly I don't think a single employer in the world operates this way.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You mean like most Americans who work for poorly ran companies. Good companies don't do that to their employees.

If poorly ran are the largest (and most successful) accounting firms.... then I guess?

It's just the type of work culture - which often relates to the industry you work in. The overall employee structure is overall somewhat of a pyramid scheme to a certain extent. It's often described as "Up or out".... meaning you're going to be working excessive hours, if you can keep up with it - you can easily shoot up to the top ranks (which are definitely nicely paid). If you can't keep up you're essentially going to be given the boot. There are rarely instances where you can maintain your position unless you have some kind of valuable rare skill.

 

[Ruptga]

If poorly ran are the largest (and most successful) accounting firms.... then I guess?

It's just the type of work culture - which often relates to the industry you work in. The overall employee structure is overall somewhat of a pyramid scheme to a certain extent. It's often described as "Up or out".... meaning you're going to be working excessive hours, if you can keep up with it - you can easily shoot up to the top ranks (which are definitely nicely paid). If you can't keep up you're essentially going to be given the boot. There are rarely instances where you can maintain your position unless you have some kind of valuable rare skill.

Those businesses are successful, but even net profit is a gross number. When you consider every employee that they hire, not just the ones that make it up the pyramid, and how many of them get burned out or used up, the success of those firms is less impressive. In general, it's just not that hard for a business to succeed when it has a resource that's basically free to it, whether that's employees' souls or the entire Chinese landscape doesn't matter.

 

[Chaotic42]

I think I'd like the deployed schedule of 7x12 for a few months and then several months off. Those are hard to get though. I tend to get on rolls and work tirelessly for a while and then want a long break. I want to be able to go wander in the mountains for a few weeks to decompress.

 

[Captante]

Worked 4x10 for year & liked it.

Imagine 13.33x3 would be decent too.

 

[purbeast0]

If poorly ran are the largest (and most successful) accounting firms.... then I guess?

It's just the type of work culture - which often relates to the industry you work in. The overall employee structure is overall somewhat of a pyramid scheme to a certain extent. It's often described as "Up or out".... meaning you're going to be working excessive hours, if you can keep up with it - you can easily shoot up to the top ranks (which are definitely nicely paid). If you can't keep up you're essentially going to be given the boot. There are rarely instances where you can maintain your position unless you have some kind of valuable rare skill.

Any company that makes you work more than 40 hours a week (and specifically ones that don't pay you for more than 40 hours) are poorly ran companies. I don't care how much money they make or how "successful" they are. That doesn't mean anything about how a company is ran.

Look at EA (Electronic Arts) which is the most successful 3rd party video game development company by a huge margin. Now go google them and you will read countless horror stories about what it is like to work for the company and how bad it is.

Calling it a "industry culture" thing is just an excuse that you believe because you are brainwashed. I work in software and many people think it's "normal" to work nights and weekends, especially in "crunch time". It's true for a lot of companies, but those companies are shit. I haven't worked more than 40 hours a week in nearly 5 years at this company nor do I ever plan to. And they don't expect me to, because it's a well run company.

All "crunch time" means is that management planned poorly and promised stuff quicker than it could be done, and now people have to rush and work more hours to get it done before the deadline. Had management planned properly there would be no crunch time since it would be running like a well oiled machine.

In job interviews one of the first questions i ask is what the typical work day and week is like, and I ask if working more than 40 hours a week is common. I'd say like 25% of the companies do say it's common, and those are companies I quickly cut ties with because it just tells me immediately they are poorly ran from the top down.

 

[Ackmed]

Like most, I'd prefer 10x4. That is what the majority at my work has. I am however on a rotating shift from days to nights

 

[Chaotic42]

In job interviews one of the first questions i ask is what the typical work day and week is like, and I ask if working more than 40 hours a week is common. I'd say like 25% of the companies do say it's common, and those are companies I quickly cut ties with because it just tells me immediately they are poorly ran from the top down.

Yeah, I was happy to hear that there aren't a lot of 40+ hour weeks with my new position. Quality of work just goes down so quickly after you hit 40. I worked a lot of extra hours on my current project last year because we were spinning it up and, being brought back on late (I had worked on the proposal team a while back), found that a lot of absurd promises were made by vendors and no one called them out on them.

At least I've gotten paid straight time for a good bit of my work over the standard 40. It sucks that the company did away with comp time. I loved taking a week or two off after a big project.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Any company that makes you work more than 40 hours a week (and specifically ones that don't pay you for more than 40 hours) are poorly ran companies. I don't care how much money they make or how "successful" they are. That doesn't mean anything about how a company is ran.

Look at EA (Electronic Arts) which is the most successful 3rd party video game development company by a huge margin. Now go google them and you will read countless horror stories about what it is like to work for the company and how bad it is.

Calling it a "industry culture" thing is just an excuse that you believe because you are brainwashed. I work in software and many people think it's "normal" to work nights and weekends, especially in "crunch time". It's true for a lot of companies, but those companies are shit. I haven't worked more than 40 hours a week in nearly 5 years at this company nor do I ever plan to. And they don't expect me to, because it's a well run company.

All "crunch time" means is that management planned poorly and promised stuff quicker than it could be done, and now people have to rush and work more hours to get it done before the deadline. Had management planned properly there would be no crunch time since it would be running like a well oiled machine.

In job interviews one of the first questions i ask is what the typical work day and week is like, and I ask if working more than 40 hours a week is common. I'd say like 25% of the companies do say it's common, and those are companies I quickly cut ties with because it just tells me immediately they are poorly ran from the top down.

Again, not knocking on you but you simply don't know the industry.

The company charges incredibly large hourly fees to the client, thus the more hours we work the more the company makes.

At the same time, efficiency is key because we're fighting tooth and nail to get more clients opportunities. Believe me, there are plenty of smaller firms that will do it for way less - but majority of big name clients still go with the likes of us because of our reputation. There is absolutely nothing worse than a failed project, and you're much more likely to get that going with the smaller boys.

If you're working in a factory making widgets, I would totally agree with you. But this just isn't the same, you're comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Murloc]

Again, not knocking on you but you simply don't know the industry.

The company charges incredibly large hourly fees to the client, thus the more hours we work the more the company makes.

At the same time, efficiency is key because we're fighting tooth and nail to get more clients opportunities. Believe me, there are plenty of smaller firms that will do it for way less - but majority of big name clients still go with the likes of us because of our reputation. There is absolutely nothing worse than a failed project, and you're much more likely to get that going with the smaller boys.

If you're working in a factory making widgets, I would totally agree with you. But this just isn't the same, you're comparing apples to oranges.

well I guess his argument is that if so, then it applies to the whole industry.
I've read some stuff about big 4 consulting on the internet because I have a difficult time understanding what it really is (I mean, how do they give meaningful advice using 25-35 years old people?), it's not all nice.

 

[malbojah]

I'm working 5x11ish right now (with an occasional 12 thrown in) and my boss hates me for it. I've managed at least 50 hr /wk since I can remember. It's just what I'm used to and any less throws me off.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

well I guess his argument is that if so, then it applies to the whole industry.
I've read some stuff about big 4 consulting on the internet because I have a difficult time understanding what it really is (I mean, how do they give meaningful advice using 25-35 years old people?), it's not all nice.

Because typically in the Big 4 you are tossed into all kinds of projects that you have very little experience in. Well, that depends actually if you do mindless boring tasks like file returns or audits it can get repetitive....

But the majority of projects, consulting, and advisory is a new situation each time. Might be a new industry you haven't worked with (oil and gas one year, Healthcare the next). It may also be a new type of project implementing or using a new type of software you haven't directly used. YMMV. Basically from the start your mind is going to be a sponge. Constantly learning new skills, it simply cant compare to any other type of industry job, because they are more well defined as to what your role and tasks will be. As much as the work culture is annoying, I can't deny it will increase your skills tenfold, and recruiters will be crawling at your feet. That's also why plenty bite the bullet and work at them for a bit all to jump ship to a more comfy industry job.

Believe me, the people that do the talking know their shit, and they are likely going to be towards the older ages in your range - with plenty being even older. Any Partner or Senior manager knows their shit or they wouldn't be there. People at the lower ranks, particularly kids out of college aren't going to open their mouth much if they know what's good for them. Towards later senior years to manager level is when you start getting more confident with certain industries and tasks.