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

 

[lacajun]

Why should some positions require longer hours? If someone has eaten seven meals at home in the last four months, is that a measure of success or failure?

 

[Careful]

The more you have to keep track of, the more hours you generally have to put in. Robert Oppenheimer, for instance, probably had to work more than 40hrs a week to complete his project on schedule.

There are two ways I can think of,generally, to measure success: What you've accomplished, and how much you make. I guess the measure of success or failure for your example would be what they sacrificed and what they accomplished by not eating at home, and which was greater in their opinion.

 

[SNORGY]

lacajun:

I personally believe the answer to your last question is "failure". Did that last year, got nothing for it - and I mean NOTHING - and basically lost a year that I could have spent with my wife.

Never again.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[lacajun]

Careful, what about delegation? Hiring other worker bees?

A former manager's father-in-law was the vice-president of a major company. He told my manager that younger people were crazy for working so many hours. He didn't understand it. He never worked more than 40 in a week. If he couldn't get his job done in 40 and he was giving a good effort, they needed to hire more people. If he was goofing off, that was his problem.

Shouldn't managers be evaluated on their ability to identify the need to hire?

SNORGY, I hear ya'. I was criticized last week for not being something I've been criticized for being not enough of by others. You can't win sometimes but you have to keep plugging away. I agree with your answer, too, by the way. Are you doing OK?

Knowing men whose children were neglected because they worked or traveled with work too much helps me realize the responsibility men have in the home. Rearing children is not the domain of the mother only.

I also know being a workaholic destroyed my personal life. I wouldn't do it again.

 

[SNORGY]

lacajun:

I am doing fine - thank you for asking.

Fortunately for me, I have a very understanding wife. She often works very long hours as well. We simply went through a period of work-imposed disconnect.

It was really, really stupid - and completely worthless.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[lacajun]

SNORGY, good to hear! I'm glad it's over for you and all is fine. Life can be that way sometimes.

I spent years working too much and traveling for work too much. I've been single a long time so a spousal unit wasn't an issue. However, when my friends began to drop me from invite lists, that really hurt and was the beginning of realization of self-inflicted damage. :-( That's why I am so sensitive to excessive work. I couldn't take care of me and my personal life, which caused a great deal of latent resentment.

But, it's spilled milk and you don't cry over that.

 

[SNORGY]

I only cry over spilled beer - and that's only when I can't recover it.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

If you wring the carpet, most of the beer comes out.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[knight185]

I work in a power plant and a normal work week 47.5 to 50 hours per week. I am required to be on site for a daily 630am meeting and I normally leave at 4pm. I could leave at 3pm but over the years the culture has been to leave at 4pm.

During major overhauls I will work 12 hour days, 7 days per week, for several weeks. It wrecks your family life. I worked like this for many weeks during my wife's high risk pregnancy and it took 2 years for our relationship to recover. As a project manager I could be flexible with my hours and I was not willing to work more than 12 hours but some of the millwrights on various proejcts were forced to work 16 hour days. After working those kinds of hours I was always found it difficult to stay awake during the drive home.

 

[RunSomewhere]

I was working 50-60 hours a week (mandatory overtime with weekends). After working four full weeks straight, I put my foot down and said 'enough.' I come in at 8 and leave at 5. I am willing to come in for emergency situations (equipment failure for example), but that is it. Things got to the point where every task was considered of the highest priority. Most of the time I busted my back to get things done, only to sit around a wait or have the scope changed completely. Not worth the time away from my family. Life is too short.

 

[knight185]

I am fortunate to be compensated for most of my overtime...at a straight time rate, no 1.5x or 2x rates. We don't always get paid OT. When the economy tanked, OT pay was cut but we still had to work crazy hours to complete projects on time.

I don't really understand the whole "Learned Professional" exemption. One of the reasons I decided to major in engineering was that it paid a good salary. I knew engineering jobs were salary jobs but I never liked the idea of not getting paid for my overtime work. Working 12-16 hour days for weeks and not getting any extra compensation is a hard pill to swallow. Also, getting called in the middle of the night or during family outings and being asked to stop your personal life and attend to the issue at the plant without extra compension is tough. This wouldn't be so bad if the salary was far above what I could expect to earn in a hourly wage job. Many of the hourly workers in my plant have higher annual incomes than I do due to their overtime rates. One guy asked me why I became an engineer if there is a chance to make more money in an hourly craft. At the end of the day, it is about the quality of the work. I would rather do engineering and manage projects than repair pumps, valves, etc.

 

[Gerez]

Piping Engineer
Location: Argentina
7+ yr experience, in between Jr and Sr.
While working at main offices I´d say 40-42 hrs/week with no paid pvertime.
But when going abroad to be in the field living on project compounds, that will steeply increase to 78-80 hrs/week for 2-3 months periods. Of course the wages for "going field" are bigger, but sometimes if you make the math, the hourly rate you get is the same.

Of course, the average salaries for engineers here are much lower than in the US or EU, so many people like me will at least consider to earn those extra bucks.

Regards
Gerez

 

[JohnRBaker]

With new laws currently being considered by Congress (see news item below) providing corporations with new and additional criteria by which they are allowed to classify who is and who is not an 'exempt' employee, the idea that compensation will continue to be based on an 8-hour day or the 40-hour week will become nothing more than a faded memory. Think about what this could mean for America's industrial sector as most all engineering and manufacturing personnel are already using computers in their work, not only in air-conditioned offices, but out on the shop floor and even into the field with new mobile information devices. Granted, most professional positions have been considered 'exempt' for years (it's been nearly 40 years since I worked where I earned over-time pay of any kind), but with these broad new classifications being considered, soon even machine tool operators, draftsman, technicians, even mechanics, could all be classed as 'information workers' and thus 'exempt' under the provisions of legislation similar to what's discussed in the article below, which could result in many non-professional workers being legally denied compensation for anything over 40 hours a week, let alone time-and-a-half pay.

http://www.truth-out.org/corporatio...-overtime-computer-and-web-workers/1321894342

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

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

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

 

[Jetgirl8]

I peaked at around 50-60 hours a week about a year and a half ago. I has sustained that for almost a year and a half straight and burned out (I worked most weekends and "off" Fridays if even for a few hours, never feeling like I got any separation from work). I cut down to an average of 38-40 hours a week, but I'm back to an average of 44 or 45. It seems that while I'm salaried and only get paid for the average of 40, I don't mind working a bit extra as long as I get a few days away from work each week.

When the future's architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You'd better lie low

 

[Mr168]

Seems my old 44 hour weeks have crept up into the 55-60 range thanks to new nuclear construction. Oh well, at least I'm getting paid straight time OT after my boss put his foot down with the project sites and said you're paying for their work, or you're not getting it.

Biggest regret is that the only time I've started the race car in over a year was to drive it onto the trailer when moving it to the new house.

 

[rlflower]

I am averaging only 10 to 20 hours per week. Sigh. Sign of the the times...

Richard L. Flower, P. E., LEED Green Associate
Senior Structural Engineer
Complere Engineering Group, Inc.

 

[metman]

I am currently working as a Mechanical Engineer (Product Development Engineer). Education is Metallurgical Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering Technology.

New job 4th week with agressive schedule for new product line so I have been working 55-60 hrs/week but hope to slack off to 45-50hrs eventually.


Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[jgailla]

I worked on salary averaging 50 hours a week for years, putting in whatever the job needed, weekends, late nights, and so on.
As soon as work slowed a little they cut me back to hourly part time and then laid me off.
I will never work more than 40 hours a week again unless I get comp time or I'm working for myself.

 

[CheckerHater]

46 hours. Salary. Recently passed 4-year anniversary of "temporary" unpaid 6 hours overtime. On the happy side - 5 years of steady job in Michigan.

 

[metman]

I would like to share some thoughts about working long hours but I also would like to see:

curiousmechanical (Mechanical) reach a conclusion with the stat’s. Therefore when I can find a few minutes, intend to start a new thread, e.g., “why I work so many hours” or a similar heading where we can all share our thoughts and reserve this thread for its original intention.

If curious and/or others do not agree, let me know and I will not start a new thread. Maybe it makes more sense to share right here?

Avg hrs/week: 53 currently
weekends/yr: TBD probably about 6/year
discipline: Metallurgical/Mechanical/Mfg
region: North Idaho, USA

I forgot to list region. That is why I am re-posting here.


Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability