Are You Working Too Many Hours?

If you are salaried, you are what is known as an “exempt” employee. Some say that means you are “exempt” from getting paid for all of the hours you actually work. There is some truth to that for those of you who have fallen into the trap of working insane hours for a fixed annual salary.

There are a couple of things to consider here. If you are exempt and fulltime you usually are required to work a 40 hour work week, The Europeans think we are crazy working 40 hours a week and maybe we are. But think about how many hours you are really working. I bet a lot of you are working 50 hours. Some maybe 60 or 70 hours.

Early in my career I worked almost 90-100 hour weeks for about 6 months and then another 10 months at least 80 hours a week.

Why?

Because I was young and stupid. And my company rewarded me for my stupidity by giving me $500 worth of hotel and restaurant money. I was supposed to get a $12,000 bonus, but the $500 and a rock with the project name on it was all I got. The rock went in the garbage and so did my attitude. I was peeved.

I learned something through that experience. I was going to get my life/work balance straightened out. There have been times since then when I have fallen back into the trap of insane hours, but not anymore. My kids are growing up so quickly and life is too short.

Besides we are being paid for the job we do, our expertise, how well we perform and our value. So our work hours and salary should be balanced.

There will be times when you have to give that extra push and put some extra time in. It should be the exception and not the norm. If your boss is asking you to work crazy hours on a regular basis, I would be looking for another job. You cannot sustain those long hours forever and you are being taken advantage of.

Companies that think they can work their employees to death only get half of the productivity and creativity, if even that much. They typically lose them within a year as well. It ends up costing them more!

So ask yourself, “Am I working too many hours?”

If you answer yes, you have some extra hours to work to correct a serious problem.
5 Previous Comments:

At 1/28/2006 08:02:00 AM, chench said…

I put in alot of 60 hour work weeks when I didn’t have a family but not anymore. And I enjoy my job!
Life is too short. Absolutely.
Ken

At 1/28/2006 01:41:00 PM, Jetting Through Life said…

I have been there and done that… Working the usual 9 to 5 then coming home and working during the week, going into the office on the weekends… For nothing. Not even a thank you or a bonus. I too was young and stupid. I have learned a lot and am looking to change the employer status within the very near future.

I really like your site!!

*And thanks for swinging by mine with your lovely compliment!!

At 3/03/2006 10:42:00 AM, MTR said…

about 35 hours is ideal. I’m not kidding. Life is about other things, not this stupid career.

At 7/20/2006 02:22:00 PM, Anonymous said…

My boss likes to tell us how she works on her lunch and stays late - to guilt us into working extra “More is being asked of everyone!”. Good, I think to myself, you can work all those extra hours b/c they will just expect that of you.

I really hate bosses who complain like that. Why do you think you’re the boss? I don’t want that job.

At 8/19/2006 02:39:00 PM, Anonymous said…

I want to share some comments about what I am going through right now at Shop Rite of Kearny. I started in November of 2005 in the Appy Department. Things have been going well until I started working more hours due to the summer (since there were no important classes to take at MSU during the summer months!). In our store there is a policy regarding hours, which says that “no body has the same hours each week” and no body has a “set schedule” However, during those months, I have had similar hours each week for almost the entire period. For example, I have had to work 4-11:15 PM every Monday or something similar, 4-10:30 PM every Tuesday or something similar, 5:30-11:15 PM every Friday. On the week of August 6, I had to work five nights, stripping me of working in the early mornings. Another concern for many weeks was working Friday nights and getting up to work Saturday mornings and even mornings and afternoons, most of the time being asked to stay because some selfish employees do not want to work, and ABUSE the calling-in sick policy (one day I had no choice but to work an extra night because my manager refused to asked anyone else bu me) Meanwhile, some of the new probationary employees, mostly female have yet to even learn how to close and the store manager fails to schedule them at night; these people are some of the most talkative that fail to do a lot of work. I do not know if this is true, but I truly believe (regardless if it is a lie or not) that is seems to be that the store manager is giving favors to these female employees by scheduling them early, while screwing the men into working evenings constantly. Some men had to work as many a five nights at one point in succession! Even the people that have worked several evenings who have gotten fired, the following week I had to work all evenings shifts for them. It is sickening.It is a mandatory thing that the new employees learn to work, because I believe that right now not having been taught how to close, if some of the women, and evey new employees such as TY and CM (for anonymity) were to close, either the place would look like it was destroyed by air raids in World War II or if they did close, it would take almost ninety minutes total. More nights mean more depression, something I do not know how to recover. The more nights I have worked, the more depressed I feel because I cannot spend a lot of time in activities or with my family, and they mean the world to me more than anything and everything else. I want to spend time with my family, but working thirty to thirty-five hours. I understand people need to work, but I can tell that the manager is fondling with a sexist ideology to have men in the evenings because men can carry more items than women. I am not asking for an investigation, but it is a good idea and something that should be considered. If I do get fired from my job because of these comments, I know my family will be upset, but I know I can live on because I only want to work with the best. However, the best do not want to teach me. I did not want to tell this to my managers. They would never believe me, and think that I am full of it. They are just selfish!

Keeping the appy department open to 11:00 PM for six days is sickening, and something should be done. I do not want to always be working every night. My focus is writing music after college, not spending another day after college serve some selfish egos.

Sorry for the outburst. I just could not contain my emotions any longer.

All in all, if you want a job, I recommend doing something from online, or from at home and always part-time. THere are websites that will let you make thousands of dollars even working part-time. That is something to not pass up.