How many hours do you work per week? 31

[curiousmechanical]

Hello All,

I recently spoke with an old college friend and he said that he was working 60 to 70 hours per week. I feel this is way above average, but not unheard of. Anyway, this got me thinking...

I see a lot of salary surveys in trade magazines (Machine Design, Design News, etc.), but they rarely talk about hours worked. In fact, the only time I remember seeing any stats was in a Design News article back in 2008 (see attached). They reported the following:

Average = 49 hours
Median = 46 hours

I think this is important information to have. We need to know what the market trends are in order to know what is expected of us, stay competitive, and make sure we are not taken advantage of.

Would you guys like to trade stats? At the end, I'll work up our numbers.

I'll start us off. I think it would be useful to mention dicipline, region, and company size.

Mechanical Engineer
New Jersey, USA
Average = 45 hrs/week and 3 or 4 Saturdays a year

 

[curiousmechanical]

Thanks for all the great posts everyone!

I did our totals and our stats are as follows:

median: 45

mean: 47

That's pretty close to the Design News survey.

I didn't include unclear stats or numbers that appeared to be for part time work.

See attached if you'd like.

 

[cdxx139]

Mechanical engineer

50 hours averae, but I also get paid straight time for every hour. So if it rains, I go in the office and catch up, if its beautiful out, I dont.

knowledge is power

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I would say I average 45. Never less than 40, rarely more than 50. On a handful of occasions in the last 5 years I've worked 70+ but I can't keep that up for long.

 

[Radagast]

Mechanical engineer

55 - 60 hours and get paid time and a half for hours > 40. No weekend work and leave between 12 and 2 on Fridays.

 

[ewh]

Averaged 44 hours in previous salaried position, 40 now in a contract position. I would be more than willing to put in more hours if OT is approved, but no contractor works for free.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[MadMango]

Are we counting time lost during lunch or "breaks"? I am suppose to get 1hr for lunch and two 15-minute breaks during the day. I rarely take the entire hour (unless I have to run an errand), and ignore breaks. There are times that I'll launch a rubber band across the office though, or return a salvo of thrown stress balls, but that usually only happens on Fridays. Oh look, today is Friday!

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[JohnRBaker]

If we're going to start talking about 'perks' during the workday, while I've never experienced this my oldest son, who's worked since he was 16 years old (he's now 41), except for 4 years in Army, in the restaurant business, starting out as a grill chef (he's now the Directory of Culinary for his company which has over 90 stores nationwide) and back when he was working the line the only way that you could get a break was if you smoked. If you were a non-smoker you were expected to stay at your position since there was NO NEED for you take a break. But if you smoked, it was assumed that without a regular nicotine break that you would not be able to perform as efficiently as you could. I was shocked by this and frankly didn't believe him until our other son, who also works in the restaurant business (but for a different company) confirmed that that was pretty much how things were in the industry.

As for where I work, almost no one smokes but the few that do can be seen out in the parking lot 3 or 4 times a day puffing away. However my beef is with another common 'vice' and management's attitude towards it. I've worked 46 years in the engineering field and at virtually very employer, when I was working out of an actual office, it was just assumed that the company would supply free coffee to the office staff. When I was in a small office they paid for a coffeepot and supplies and someone volunteered to take care of making the coffee, clean-up and so on. But in a larger office, like where I'm located now, they have an actual coffee service which comes in once a week and refills supplies and cleans out the equipment and make sure that everything is working and while someone does have to remove the old coffee grounds and recharge the machine, but since everything is all prepacked and the machine is plumbed into the building's waterlines and runs automatically that's only a 30 second effort.

My issue is, I've never had a cup of coffee in my life! But if I want a soda or a juice I have walk down to the lunch room (note that there are FOUR of these 'coffee stations' located so that no coffee drinker will be more than about 100 feet from his closest caffeine fix) and BUY it from a vending machine or if it's during lunch hour, I can get a fountain drink from the cafe. And as you may suspect, I've never smoked either, so I can't recall the last time I've NEEDED to take an official 'break' ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Bester2]

Houston, TX
Mechanical Design Engineer
40 hrs maybe 4-5 times a year I will put in 45 or so.
No overtime, no reviews, no hope of advancement, but we do get raises pretty often and are paid rather well for what we do.


SW 2007 SP 5.0

 

[ewh]

Ah, Houston, where I am also currently working...
here they have a "sin tax" - diet soft drinks are 10 cents cheaper than regular ones, and contractors have to pay more for any and all food.
To save energy, the thermostats were raised to 76 degrees, except in private offices and guest areas where is remains a comfortable 72. Four degrees can make a difference in work efficiency.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[ewh]

... and if you want to smoke, you have to go walk along the roadway shoulder, away from the property (but not on any neighboring property). Thank goodness I'm still an ex-smoker, because that may have been a deal-breaker.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[zdas04]

When I was in boot camp in 1971, we got breaks several times a month. The drill instructor would walk through after 2 minutes and anyone not smoking was selected for whatever crap detail he had in mind (since they must be finished with their smoke). At the start of the 16 weeks about half the company smoked, by the end it was 100%. It sounds like the Restraunt business has kept that ancient tradition alive.

David

 

[Careful]

Generally 40 hours a week. If there’s problem and a project gets behind, I’ll work more. I understand we’re paid to get the job done (or “results” if you prefer), but if you’re given so many responsibilities you consistently need to spend 60+ hours a week to fulfill them, I think you’re getting taken advantage of, and your company needs to hire an additional engineer. If you love your work, and are ok with that, then good for you. I don’t, it’s pretty much just a job, and I’d rather be spending time with my family. I only got to watch 2 of my son’s HS baseball games because of working late (something I’ll forever regret), and still got laid off.

 

[SWmechE]

Currently working in the field at 77 hours a week,2 weeks on 1 week off with 45 minute commutes on each side of the work day. When I'm in the office it's 40 hours a week unless OT is dire and approved... OT doesn't count for an hour here or there to finish something that I want finished.

I take the attitude in general on salaries that as long as you feel you're being fairly compensated then that's all that matters. Me currently getting paid 1.5 OT for a set amount of hours a week is what makes my salary for the current job acceptable; I've also worked another job where I was straigt salary, I stayed longer than the set 38 hours on some days and took off early on others that were slow.

What's damning engineering as a profession is not how we get compensated but how we let ourselves and our work be viewed to the public, saying that a engineer that charges hourly is ruining that seems misguided to me.

 

[JohnRBaker]

An interesting article which appears to reinforce many of the comments posted here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-wor...rkweek-mainstreet?mod=career-worklife_balance

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.com/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lacajun]

If you have a "cash and carry" policy for material things and save your pennies, you can walk away from jobs that are unhealthy for you and/or your family. Live well within your means.

 

[bigTomHanks]

A person should be compensated for working overtime. A company will work you into the grave if you let them and won't look back a second if you are a gone.

 

[Pulpeng]

Alberta
Salary employee
7am -5pm / 4 days a week = 40. (Paid lunch/breaks)
Any overtime is typical taken in lieu days later at 1 for 1.

 

[Roadbridge]

Ireland.

Used to work a 60hr week Mon to Fri.(Highway construction.)
Then got a local government job
Now doing 35hr and have a life again.

 

[Crusader911]

Oil & Gas Mechanical Engineer. Large US consulting firm. Last job was 50+ hrs/wk management position no OT compensation, no bonus. Definitely was being taken advantage of. Currently work 40 hrs/wk with some paid overtime when necessary. I would guess average is not much above 42 hrs/wk.

I don't know about all this discussion about being a professional. All I know is that my parents taught me to always do my best. I have worked hard at every job I've had from the time I was a teenager sweeping floors at the theater. I have always given very good value for my time. People bringing up doctors and lawyers is a joke. Both bill for far more time than they actually spend. In fact, it is not uncommon for lawyers to bill more hours than there are in a week. They just use the hours to measure a unit of effort rather than literally. If we want to be more "professional" in that regard, then I should charge 10 hours for some tricky stress analysis that only took me 3.

 

[Careful]

After much consideration I want to amend my previous post: I believe you have to look at your level of compensation as well. Some positions (not mine) require longer hours. If you're in one of those positions, you should know about it going in, negotiate a reasonable salary based on what your project hourly pay would be ($$$$$$), and be prepared to work the hours needed. Of course there are people out there that could Never be worth what they're being paid, no matter if they worked 24/7 (thinking CEO types and such), so it's still all a personal decision.