How many hours a week do(es) your breadwinner(s) work?

[Tsuga]

I believe in "work hard, play hard". However, it has also been my experience as a professional that you work 50 hour weeks as a matter of course in the private sector, more like 60, really--just add on 30 minutes here and there and then an hour at night and a few on Saturday. Working in the non-profit sector is the same.

 

Right now, I'm typing this while a report runs and I wait for a call (they have to call back). This is in the middle of a 60-hour work week (some of it is consulting unrelated to main job). I'm working two jobs right now and squeezing stuff in because I want to pay off debts. I'm fast so I can usually do in 60 what many people require 80 to do. Every day I work 8 hours in the morning and eat at my desk, then go home, and work at night for my second job. My partner works an 8 - 9 hour day and usually has an hour or so of work and e-mail at night. We consider ourselves lucky and we don't work all the time. When I think about my neighbors, 50-60 hour weeks seem to be the norm if you factor in e-mail time in the evenings.

 

I do feel bad for the moms who are with kids all that time, because god knows I've been there and it's super hard! So don't get me wrong, I get the venting, I really, really do. Vent away.

 

However, my question is--is a 50, 60, or 70 hour week that unusual for a person in a management position making a middle to upper-middle class salary?

 

Seattle isn't known for its long hours, but our family's making up for lost time and most people living in our high COL area do have to pay a mortgage.

 

What is your experience?

 

Editing to clarify: I'm counting any regular, phone-work, butt-in-chair, second-job time in this as well. So if like me and many of my public sector colleagues, you put in a full day and then go home to do consulting and work on the side to make up the gap, yes please do count those hours spent waiting for a call, on-call, or writing a report for a client that you do graphic design for. I guess the only thing I would not count is volunteer work, only because I'm thinking about what people are doing to get by and get ahead.

[Anne in CA]

When DH worked in the corporate world he sometimes worked more than 60 hours, although he is a very fast worker and when he was between big projects or waiting on other people he might only work about 20 hours in a week, but he would fill in that time with personal stuff that needed to be done so that he looked busy at the office. He is such a fast worker that he never worked more than 60 hours a week and got done more work than people in his office who actually divorced over the amount of time they spent working.

 

With the two restaurants we work ALL the time, but we are with each other and our friends and we enjoy it and it is an unusual work/play cocktail, lol.

[fairfarmhand]

My dh works about 60 a week.

[Liz CA]

I believe in "work hard, play hard". However, it has also been my experience as a professional that you work 50 hour weeks as a matter of course in the private sector, more like 60, really--just add on 30 minutes here and there and then an hour at night and a few on Saturday. Working in the non-profit sector is the same.

 

Right now, I'm typing this while a report runs and I wait for a call (they have to call back). This is in the middle of a 60-hour work week (some of it is consulting unrelated to main job). I'm working two jobs right now and squeezing stuff in because I want to pay off debts. I'm fast so I can usually do in 60 what many people require 80 to do. Every day I work 8 hours in the morning and eat at my desk, then go home, and work at night for my second job. My partner works an 8 - 9 hour day and usually has an hour or so of work and e-mail at night. We consider ourselves lucky and we don't work all the time. When I think about my neighbors, 50-60 hour weeks seem to be the norm if you factor in e-mail time in the evenings.

 

I do feel bad for the moms who are with kids all that time, because god knows I've been there and it's super hard! So don't get me wrong, I get the venting, I really, really do. Vent away.

 

However, my question is--is a 50, 60, or 70 hour week that unusual for a person in a management position making a middle to upper-middle class salary?

 

Seattle isn't known for its long hours, but our family's making up for lost time and most people living in our high COL area do have to pay a mortgage.

 

What is your experience?

 

Not unusual at all. Due to the nature of some businesses, the number of hours worked during certain times of year is often higher than what you post. Also, when working with people "in distress" one can simply not just walk away when the clock hits a certain time.

 

 

[kristi26]

Hmm...DH works an average of 60 hours a week and that includes ONLY the hours he is spending at work, not at home. If you factor in the emails, phone calls, etc, he works far more than that. He is the general manager for a waste management company so I guess it's to be expected, but it has almost always been like this. He is always on call. His phone is never off and never away from him. It's normal for us at this point. I stay home with the kids, no out-of-the-house paying job for me. ;)

[creekland]

Hubby is pretty much always working unless we're traveling or he's taking time off for meals or other planned activities with me or the family.  He will take most Sundays completely off, but that's it.  I don't know how many hours it adds up to, but it's a ton.  We benefit from it financially as he's self-employed so if he's not working we're not making anything.

 

The other benefit is he can take time off when we want it for the most part.  This included almost all kid activities, our travel (though he works on many of our long trips - just takes time off when there to sightsee or whatever), and spur of the moment "let's do this" things.

 

He gets up around 7am and does or assists with critter chores, fixes and eats his own breakfast, then starts work (often during breakfast).  He doesn't come to bed until midnight most nights.  He'll take breaks for lunch if I'm home and supper + walks or other normal (for us) activities, but none of those add up to oodles of time.

 

Contrast that with my subbing at school... I leave at 6:45am and return about 3pm always getting half an hour for lunch and sometimes getting a little over an hour for "prep."  It's a huge difference and can make me feel rather lazy when I think about it.  (I tend to do more of the house chores though, but it still isn't comparable, esp now when we're empty nesting.)

 

Real teachers do more in the evening with prep, grading, and school events.  I do those too when I'm long term subbing (and rarely got home before 4pm during those times), but they also get paid more for full time.

 

I like part time.  I like having lazy times or time to research that next trip or plant things or whatever whim hits me.  There's no way we could live off my income though, and we certainly couldn't travel with it.

[Pink and Green Mom]

My DH puts in 60-70 hours per week.  This is a corporate job.

[displace]

60-70.

[Pawz4me]

DH is in IT.  He's really not management, but his company classifies him as that.  He makes over six figures.  He typically works 37.5 hours a week, although it can certainly vary wildly.  If he's on a big project he might stay up half the night for many nights in a row.  But that's much more the exception than the norm.  And he's pretty much always on call.  But overall his company is very good to him (to all of their employees) and very respectful of family time.  He doesn't average anywhere near 60 hours a week.

[The Girls' Mom]

On paper he works 38 hour weeks.  In reality, he works 40-50.  We know he has it good though.  In the past he has worked many, many 80+ hour weeks.  

[Miss Peregrine]

36/48 alternating weeks. 

[Annie G]

Dh worked long, stressful hours for years. In 2006 he had a heart attack and now he's the proud owner of 8 stents.  Stress almost killed him, literally. His boss called my cell the morning after dh's heart attack- to ask him what his contingency plan was to keep his test  lab running while he recovered.  At that moment, dh and I decided not to let work come before his health and since then he works between 40 and 45 hours a week.  

 

His boss had a cancer scare a few years later and he has completely changed- he is not the same awful man who called me that morning.  

 

If he was a younger man and was trying to climb the corporate ladder,  he would have to work more hours, as it seems to be the standard.  

 

 

 

 

[Chris in VA]

Hmm. Well, dh is a priest. He works 6 days a week and some evenings. He usually goes in Tues-Friday around 9:15 and comes home around 5:30ish. On Sat, he goes in at 8 for Men's group, and stays for meetings until around 1. He is on call all the time except Mondays.  Every 3rd week he has a sermon so he writes most of Saturday (all of July he has the sermon every week as the assistant is on vakay and the seminarian is not in school). He has a meeting or service about 2 nights a week for about 2 hours or so. He researches during the evenings when he has a class to teach, an article for our monthly post to write, etc.

Sun he works from 7:30ish to about 2.

 

It's a lot of hours.

[kitten18]

We own a company and DH generally works 70-80 hours a week.

 

 

Before we started our business, he was an executive with a large company.  He worked about 60 hours a week there.

 

DH has never worked less than 60 hours per week but he's always been well compensated.

[Guest]

Suddenly DH looks like a slacker. He is a contractor. He leaves at 7 and is most often home by 3-4. He takes reasonable amounts of time to eat lunch. Some of this time is also spent commuting to job sites. So actual work is usually "only" 40 hours. He does take calls and answer emails off-clock, but not wpexcessively; generally only for emergencies.

[Arcadia]

Officially hubby works 40 hours as an engineer. However sometimes he is idle in the office waiting for results. Sometimes he has conference calls at 9 or 10pm. If he is to count only the hours working and not the hours waiting for test results or for test specimens to arrive by plane, then it is easily less than 40 hours. His pay is about lower middle income range for our area.

 

My dad easily worked more than 70 hours when he was a teacher. I had to help him grade test papers or he won't have time to sleep. His class size is 45 kids and he teach 3 classes per day of Chinese in public school.

 

For management work, the hours are rather fluid. Time doing financials, flying for events, taking out of town clients for dinner. Doing employees end of year performance review reports. Doing hiring interviews. Wading through the pile of resumes. There was a technical position where my boss received more than 200 resumes in a day. It was challenging scanning through resumes. Hard to put a number on what was the time spent working per week. New Year's Eve is quarter closing for some companies and Year End closing for others. My ex-bosses work on New Years Day from midnight when the final financial reports could be churned. The Stock Exchange "love" financials.

[Butter]

My husband works 40 hours a week technically, but often works more than that.  He works for the government.  When he worked private sector and then at a non-profit, he almost never worked over 40 hours.

[Night Elf]

I wonder if it depends on where you work and what kind of business you're in. DH works for HP, Inc. and it's a typical 8am to 5pm job. Once a month he's on standby for the weekend but it's super rare that he's ever needed. For being on standby, he gets one comp day off. So he takes the following Friday off just because he can. He doesn't do any work besides standby outside working hours. He's not in a management position but he's on a team of software support personnel that gets a lot of work. They've just always had enough employees to make it work, I guess.

 

I can think of two times in 20 years that he was required to work many hours per day until a specific problem was resolved.

[mamajag]

At least a 12-hour day but as many as necessary to keep oil flowing for 28 days in a row but home 24 days in a row. Four days are travel to/from work.

[Tsuga]

Officially hubby works 40 hours as an engineer. However sometimes he is idle in the office waiting for results. Sometimes he has conference calls at 9 or 10pm. If he is to count only the hours working and not the hours waiting for test results or for test specimens to arrive by plane, then it is easily less than 40 hours. His pay is about lower middle income range for our area.

 

My dad easily worked more than 70 hours when he was a teacher. I had to help him grade test papers or he won't have time to sleep. His class size is 45 kids and he teach 3 classes per day of Chinese in public school.

 

For management work, the hours are rather fluid. Time doing financials, flying for events, taking out of town clients for dinner. Doing employees end of year performance review reports. Doing hiring interviews. Wading through the pile of resumes. There was a technical position where my boss received more than 200 resumes in a day. It was challenging scanning through resumes. Hard to put a number on what was the time spent working per week. New Year's Eve is quarter closing for some companies and Year End closing for others. My ex-bosses work on New Years Day from midnight when the final financial reports could be churned. The Stock Exchange "love" financials.

I am definitely counting hours that you have to be in the office as work, even if due to inefficiencies you aren't actively achieving anything. Same with conference calls. That counts!

 

If I don't count waiting or phone checking or reading or shooting emails I am sure I could lower the hour count but then those hours are lost.

[SKL]

On average, 60 hours per week.  The range can go over 100 hours when I have a big deadline/crisis, and down to maybe 30 when I can get away with it.  ;)

[Arcadia]

I wonder if it depends on where you work and what kind of business you're in. DH works for HP, Inc. and it's a typical 8am to 5pm job.

My first job was with HP. It was a 8:15am to 5pm job and most go to their Masters in Computer Science/Engineering classes after work. So the whole office is empty except for the dept head and his secretary after 5pm.

However those who were promoted to escalation engineers (hardware and software) have their pay almost doubled and they work weekends as needed with Monday's off. So same company, same division, just different job scope.

 

I started in the tech industry in the mid 90s. The joke in my social circles was that if the employer pays for your cell phone, mobile and data plan and international roaming, forget about your job being 9-5.

 

ETA:

My HP boss was nice. We could do homework and study for exams if there were no customers. We have slow days a few times a month and slow hours almost daily.

[purplejackmama]

Hmmm never calculated it, but it feels like 1000 some weeks.

 

Sigh. Who knew being an adult would be THIS much fun?!

[DawnM]

45 hours a week during regular season, far more during busy season.   Add in an hour commute each way and an hour for lunch and breaks, and he is rarely home.

[Loowit]

DH works about 50 hours a week, but it varies a lot, never really less than 40 unless he takes a day off.  His boss works a lot of hours and was happy when DH was hired because his boss was actually able to take a few days off here and there.  When DH worked at Microsoft as a contractor he usually only worked 40 hours a week, because they didn't want to pay him overtime.  They let the salaried guys do all of that.  Before that he worked IT at a major construction company and was listed a management.  They paid him an okay salary, but expected him to work 60-80 hours weeks and a lot of travel.  He was hardly ever home and they treated him pretty bad.  He got vacation time on paper, but in reality they never approved much because they needed him at work.  He was glad to leave that job.

[Amira]

8-5, no evenings or weekends.   Dh has almost never had to work outside those hours, and if he does, it's something that really needs to get done like hurricane relief.  I love this current assignment.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Depends on whether you count both of dh's jobs or not.  His main job is now 40 hours with very occasional overtime.  He used to be in management and worked much more but gave that up due to the stress.  But he also works about 20 hours a week on the side for almost no money as a pastor.

[Laura Corin]

Husband, at various points in his career has worked up to seventy hours a week.  He now works for himself and puts in many more hours than he is officially paid for (no way round that - he's building a business).  It's not as bad as it used to be though.

[MEmama]

40 hours per week. No weekends or evenings, gets all state holidays. He does have a 40 minute commute though. We'd love to decrease that.

[Mergath]

Dh works for a manufacturing company and is actually at work running machines 50-60 hours a week. Thankfully, he can't exactly bring any work home with him. ;)

[lauraw4321]

DH works around 50 average, I'd say.  He's an engineer.  There have been many many times where he's working closer to 80.  He rarely works just 40.  He comes home for the kids dinner, but as soon as they are in bed, he's back on the computer.  He does get some paid overtime, but generally I tell him it's not worth it because I'm afraid he'll die of a heart attack.  We couldn't both work the hours our professions require.  I really hate how much he has to work.  He met with some German engineers who told him how one of them accidentally went over the LEGAL limit of 50 hours a week because of an emergency and he had to fill out a ton of paperwork to avoid fines for his employer.  It made me laugh/cry.  I'd really rather live a simpler life and have him only work 35 hours a week.  Doubt that will ever happen.  

[lailasmum]

About 50-55 hours is seems to be normal, he is on a rota to do an extra 1/2 day every 5 weeks so that week it's 55ish. He works is the entertainment industry so some periods of the year get busier like now when it's festival season and hours can go up by a few extra every day. The company he works for have some acknowledged management issues and nothing is well planned so they're often short staffed and it's often all hands on deck getting them out of a hole.

[AnnE-girl]

DH is an attorney in a small firm. His official office hours are 8-5, but he has before and after work meetings sometimes. He will also leave the office at 5:00 or so to have family time and then be back on his computer for a while after kids are in bed. He always has his work email on his phone when things come up when he's out of the office, too. His firm is very family-friendly though. I know it could be much higher stress if he was in a corporate environment. We could probably have a bigger house sooner if he was, but I'd rather spend time with him.

[hjffkj]

My dh work 50 plus hours a week but does not make a good salary. If he did I wouldn't have a problem with him working his hours. I especially have a problem with his hours because it is due to his boss who I believe is a bad businessman. His is a very sore subject in our marriage and has the potential to destroy it if something doesn't change

[Lolly]

Dh works over 70 hours most weeks. He owns his own company and seems to be working all the time. He is/does take off whenever he needs/wants/but only if something dire doesn't come up... And, when we are on vacation, he is still working even if he is with us. I sometimes hate cell phones! However, he is in the process of semi-retiring. He will move with whatever customers he decides to keep (only the ones that are nice and don't require too much of him!) to our basement for his office. All employees have been let go (as of today). I will be his only help from here on out. (Works since I just graduated my last kid.) We plan to work about 4 hours a day. That will start as soon as we get everything moved out of his warehouse/office space!

[MeghansMom]

My husband is corporate only out in the field now and works 11:30 to 8:30pm Tuesday to Friday but regularly takes about an hour to ninety minutes to get home. On Saturdays he works from 8:30 to 4:30pm.

 

His second job he works from 6pm until 2am on Saturdays, 11am until about midnight on Sundays and Mondays. Also on holidays off.

 

During the spring and fall he goes to college part-time too.

 

He does have four weeks paid vacation, he has been with the corporation for 11 years.

[Guest]

My husband works forty hours a week at his job. Thing is, he works multiple other jobs here out off ur home. So he's probably working closer to 80 hour weeks all told. The only one that makes any real income is standard workweeks, though.

[Guest]

I believe in "work hard, play hard". However, it has also been my experience as a professional that you work 50 hour weeks as a matter of course in the private sector, more like 60, really--just add on 30 minutes here and there and then an hour at night and a few on Saturday. Working in the non-profit sector is the same.

 

Right now, I'm typing this while a report runs and I wait for a call (they have to call back). This is in the middle of a 60-hour work week (some of it is consulting unrelated to main job). I'm working two jobs right now and squeezing stuff in because I want to pay off debts. I'm fast so I can usually do in 60 what many people require 80 to do. Every day I work 8 hours in the morning and eat at my desk, then go home, and work at night for my second job. My partner works an 8 - 9 hour day and usually has an hour or so of work and e-mail at night. We consider ourselves lucky and we don't work all the time. When I think about my neighbors, 50-60 hour weeks seem to be the norm if you factor in e-mail time in the evenings.

 

I do feel bad for the moms who are with kids all that time, because god knows I've been there and it's super hard! So don't get me wrong, I get the venting, I really, really do. Vent away.

 

However, my question is--is a 50, 60, or 70 hour week that unusual for a person in a management position making a middle to upper-middle class salary?

 

Seattle isn't known for its long hours, but our family's making up for lost time and most people living in our high COL area do have to pay a mortgage.

 

What is your experience?

I think it is unusual in some salaried jobs, but againl my spouse does the same, he just does it in different positions like web design, private engineering, remodeling, what have you. We work more hours than almost anyone else I know in a similar income bracket, so it's a little unusual, but not unheard of even in higher incomes.

[KatieJ]

DH works at least 50 hours and is on call always. All managers at his plant work at least that amount.

[Kari C in SC]

My dh works 40 hours as a mechanic for the state. He has lots of paid time off, etc. At least once month, he takes a half a day off. Having said that, he took a $12,000 pay cut to work for the state because we needed health insurance. When he worked in private auto shops, he always worked a 50 hour week. In the beginning of his state job, he always worked a side job at home each week to make up the loss of salary. Now our rental houses fill that gap and he doesn't do as much side work.

[Jane in NC]

My husband is a software engineer who works about 45 - 50 hours per week, although during the annual "spring slog" he can easily put in 60 - 70 hours weekly.

 

He mostly works sort of normal hours--four 10+ hour days Monday through Thursday, often extra hours on Friday.  Sometimes he does some work at home on the weekends or he can be called in for an evening/weekend emergency.

 

He is well paid with four weeks vacation.

[SparklyUnicorn]

My husband is the lead in his department, but he is not really a manager.  He works in IT.  He works 40 hours a week 95% of the time.  Once in a blue moon they need him to work more and sometimes ridiculous amounts more (which they always pay them more for through bonuses).  It's pretty rare though. 

 

He won't get into management for this reason though.  He makes a decent salary.  Yes he could make more in management, but he really is not interested in it and does not want to work more hours.  Money isn't everything.

 

He gets 4 weeks paid vacation and 5 paid sick days plus holidays.  After so many years they give another week of vacation. 

 

 

 

[gardenmom5]

First would you define middle/upper class salary?

We're in this area, dh works much less than 40 (some parts of the year are many more. Average is less. and makes comfortable salary for this area.) He loves it.

Dd works 40 and salary is similar. Enough to buy a real house close in.

2dd should be similar once she gets her license.

Field matters.

[Mimm]

My husband is a software developer working for a corporation with offices around the world. We live in a low cost of living area. He works about 45 hours a week, but will sometimes work on stuff in the evenings or weekends if a project is due soon and estimates were off on how much time things would take. There's pressure around the office to be accurate in how long you think things will take and to plan wisely. We are very lucky. He has never worked 60+ hours a week for long periods of time. Every so often but usually 40-45. We also live close to his work, and he has had a less than 15 minute commute for most of our marriage.

[KungFuPanda]

DH works about 40 hours per week. We're one income in a HCOL area, so we're not fancy, but we pay our bills and get by. If we HAD to have ALL the suburban trappings that some consider non-negotiable, he'd need to work another ten hours a week, but Time is what we value most. He recently took a pay cut to work from home, but he loves the freedom and reduced stress.

[Ripley]

I wasn't sure what constituted the different classes, so I googled and found this article: http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/which-income-class-are-you.aspx

 

I retired two years ago, but worked a non-traditional schedule of 3-on/4-off away from home. It ranged from 65-75 hours per week, included an interstate commute, and according to the article earned lower middle class wages. It was typical of my colleagues, even across the industry, but not for my friends in other industries at lower middle class wage jobs. They worked less hours, for sure.

 

My ex-husband is considered our breadwinner, I guess. When he switched from active duty to civilian, his pay went up enough to where he could match my former salary - which he does, in the form of spousal support, and which allowed me to retire. The article puts him at upper class income. He works a standard 40 hour work week, at a job he can't bring home with him. 

 

He's not typical of our friends in the same earning bracket, though. They all work 8-10 hour days, and intermittently at home in the evenings and on weekends.  We were talking about that the other day, how I'd hate to feel tied to my job (emails, texts) but how companies are increasingly expecting it and are blurring the line between work and home - while we not only allow, but unwittingly encourage it through (over)use of and Pavlovian responses to technological advances.

[kroe1]

Right now, I am working 9 twelve hour shifts in a row so that is 84 hrs/ week. Not every week is like that, however. DH works 10 hour days, thirty days a month. He has not had a day off in about 3 years. He is a workaholic, however. Luckily, he works from home so we still see him.

[amy g.]

My husband is at work for about 45 hours a week with an hour commute.

 

He travels almost 50% of the time, and he is always on call. Every once in awhile he will need to do some work from home on the weekend, but he needs to always be available by phone, and he needs to be ready to drop everything and come in if there is an emergency.

 

Thankfully that has only once happened on Thanksgiving day.

[lllll]

nm

[goldberry]

When DD was born, DH actually changed jobs because of the hours he was working.  Working 60-70 hours a week, he had no time to be a dad.  He came to work in a different department at the company I worked for, which thankfully was a good company.  The owners were LDS, and lived their values at work also.  VERY RARE overtime, an occasional Saturday, nothing too big.  We were so grateful to have that and be able to make the money work.  (I went to part time after DD was born, they let me work out a schedule as well.)  I know most people don't have that luxury.

 

I am sad that is just the standard now though.  Most companies I think will just use employees for however much they can get, without really caring about the implications.  Don't want to work the hours?  There's a line waiting to take your place...

 

We're self employed now.  DH works in a field that you could still work yourself to death if you wanted to be "well off".  Well, we work enough to take care of things, and would prefer more family time than more money.  Again though, most people don't have that luxury.  Sad.