What's your preferred work-life balance?

[A S U]

I'm an hourly employee so it's 40 hrs a week for me. The boss recently asked if I would like some overtime, so i've been working 50 hrs/week. That is about as much as I can do without getting burned out.

[somethingstupid]

Jesus I must be in a tiny minority. I like 60 hour weeks, it makes the weekends better. I don't feel like I can relax or party unless I've been working sufficiently hard.

[solids]

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The stunned silence was fun, but also I got a rep as being a dick.

I guess the challenge is to come off as "Important guy too busy to have his time wasted" as opposed to "Jerk who thinks he's the only one with important things to say".

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha, I wouldn't have thought twice about your comment. But if your coworkers are half as judgmental as some of mine are, you likely would've gotten this reputation. It's a very thin line.

[CappyAA]

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Jesus I must be in a tiny minority. I like 60 hour weeks, it makes the weekends better. I don't feel like I can relax or party unless I've been working sufficiently hard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can enjoy the weekends no matter how much or little I work. I do, however, prefer to enjoy my nights after I get home from work. Getting home at 9 or 10 is no fun as you have to go right to sleep then get up and go back.

[mosdef]

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Ha, I wouldn't have thought twice about your comment. But if your coworkers are half as judgmental as some of mine are, you likely would've gotten this reputation. It's a very thin line.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was the point of my second paragraph. But the reality of working in an office with other people is that if you want to have a good time you sometimes have to say "no" and "I want" and other things that will make at least some people think you're a jerk.

[Case Closed]

[solids]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ha, I wouldn't have thought twice about your comment. But if your coworkers are half as judgmental as some of mine are, you likely would've gotten this reputation. It's a very thin line.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was the point of my second paragraph. But the reality of working in an office with other people is that if you want to have a good time you sometimes have to say "no" and "I want" and other things that will make at least some people think you're a jerk.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I know that was the point of the second paragraph. All I'm saying is that it's a thin line, and I wouldn't even take the risk (that's just my opinion, though). It seems like it would be just as easy to make up some random excuse.

[BuckyK]

I work 8 hours. If I have more than 8 hours worth of work and it needs to be done in that day, then I'll stay late. I see no reason why I need to stay as late as my boss if I don't have the same workload as him. Also, if he does not feel it's necessary to task me with his workload, then I have no problem leaving at 5pm.

Much like OP, I enjoy my free time. I may leave work at 5-5:30, but I'm not home until 8 or later because of what I do after work that lets me wind down from the day.

[samsonite2100]

I used to work office type jobs. That last one I had--the one that made me vow never to go back to them--had that type of hour competition going on. I got hired to work 9 to 5, expressly, but soon found that it was frowned up to actually leave at 5. Most of the people had been intimidated/peer-pressured into working until 6 or later, and for no good reason other than improved image, since everyone was on salary.

I always left at five, and thought it was really bs to be made to feel bad for it, although I understand now that this sort of thing is extremely common in American work culture.

[z28dreams]

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Jesus I must be in a tiny minority. I like 60 hour weeks, it makes the weekends better. I don't feel like I can relax or party unless I've been working sufficiently hard.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is ridiculous. You don't enjoy your weekends anyway?

My typical schedule looks like this -
Wake up around 7:30
Commute a long ass way to work
Work from 9-7pm
Arrive home a little before 8pm
Eat dinner

It's now 9pm, and if I want to be able to wake up and not feel like crap all day the next day, I really need to be in bed by midnight. That leaves only 3 hours a day to unwind/etc, and doesn't include any other crap I might have to take care of (grocery shopping, side projects, etc).

Maybe I'm just being idealistic, but my idea of life isn't spending 3 hours a day doing what I want to do and the other 21 hours working or sleeping.