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How much work do you actually do on any given day?

Deacsfan27

Deacsfan27

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Not going to make a poll because I'm more interested in just discussing the issue.

I've seen from a lot of publications that talk about how millennials like to work from home, and not on a structured 9-5 basis (which is perhaps a good secondary topic, because I don't necessarily like painting millennials all in the same brush), but an underlying point is that it allows more structure, and when you are down the work you have been assigned you are good to go until you get more work.

I work in an office that is heavily dependent on outside brokers contacting us for information to get done quickly. There will be lulls of time where I don't have a lot of things to do, but then spend 2-3 hours in a row without a break getting everything done in a hurry. I would say I do about 3 hours of total work the entire day. Meaning, if I had all the stuff I needed at 9, I would be done by 12 without all the other BS that comes with being in an office (shooting the shit, wasting time, etc).

Tell me about your jobs and your lives members of the Pit.
 
My day is so interrupted with meetings, that I won't start working on something if I have another meeting in 30 minutes, so I likely lose a couple of hours a day.
 
Internal strategy group. Everything is project based and most projects last around 3 months. 3 out of 4 weeks each month is usually about 35 hours, 1 week of each month is usually about 60 hours when a deadline is approaching. Often work from home 1 day a week.

As for actual hours, when not actually in meetings, creating slides, etc., I spend about 80% of my time not exactly working but doing things that support my work. Reading articles/whitepapers, participating in external discussions, networking with start-ups and others in the industry, writing blog posts, etc.

And I'd say I'm travelling on average one week each month. SF is most common, NYC and DC are second.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Not going to make a poll because I'm more interested in just discussing the issue.

I've seen from a lot of publications that talk about how millennials like to work from home, and not on a structured 9-5 basis (which is perhaps a good secondary topic, because I don't necessarily like painting millennials all in the same brush), but an underlying point is that it allows more structure, and when you are down the work you have been assigned you are good to go until you get more work.

I work in an office that is heavily dependent on outside brokers contacting us for information to get done quickly. There will be lulls of time where I don't have a lot of things to do, but then spend 2-3 hours in a row without a break getting everything done in a hurry. I would say I do about 3 hours of total work the entire day. Meaning, if I had all the stuff I needed at 9, I would be done by 12 without all the other BS that comes with being in an office (shooting the shit, wasting time, etc).

Tell me about your jobs and your lives members of the Pit.
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My situation is somewhat similar to this; my timeline is largely dictated by when financial information becomes available and when that lines up with the monthly directors meeting. Some days and weeks are nose-to-the-grindstone all week, others are reaaaalllly quiet. I'm working on developing more self-initiated projects to fill that void time because right now it just seems largely like a waste... I say self-initiated rather than asking for more, because if I ask for more work I worry that I'll not be able to accomplish it if something else comes in that I have to tend to (ie: if my boss's boss says they need an analysis done on something, I do it right then at the compromise of whatever else I might have been working on). I don't want to get into a situation where I can't do everything that's asked of me (especially if I volunteer for it).

The only thing that really bothers me about my current situation is that I would LOVE to work a 4/10 schedule and there is really zero reason why this is not a possibility as far as my work is concerned, other than the ultimate decision-maker feels that "people should be in the office when someone else might expect them to be there" (meaning, 'during business hours'). That's all well and good, except for the fact I have very, very few outside 'customers,' and those folks nearly all have 4/10 schedules themselves and would totally understand if I was no longer in on Fridays or Mondays or whatever.

As to the overarching question, I'd say I actually work maybe 5 hours a day once you cut out all the rest of everything (chatting, waiting around for things, lull before a meeting and not wanting to start on a new project, etc.).
 
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I do 8-10 hours of solid work per day, usually 8:00-5:00 and then another hour or so at night. I work from home and don't really take true breaks other than like 15 minutes to eat and a few othe 5 minute breaks throughout the day to check email, etc.
 
It really depends.

I work 2 jobs and both vary a lot as to actual work (and the type of work, which is nice) that needs to be done at a given time.

There are days when new arrivals are low and and I do maybe 2 hours of real work, but usually use excess time for relationship building in the community, so it's real work, but enjoyable. Then there are times when I put a solid nine hours in one one job, go home and have to work 3-4 on the other. And for either job, I'm never really completely off the clock.
 
As a software developer for a standard company, when I have a project: 8 hours a day. When I don't have a project, just casual maintenance and what not, I couldn't do more than 4 hours if I wanted to. I have wanted to, but there isn't always something to do. So, I try to spend the rest of the day reading up on new or existing software to pad my portfolio/resume.

I took a standard, in-office position with a fairly large company because I wanted at least a couple of years in a structured work environment. I'll probably try out some of the more laid back working methods once those few years are over.
 
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WFfb115 said:
I do 8-10 hours of solid work per day, usually 8:00-5:00 and then another hour or so at night. I work from home and don't really take true breaks other than like 15 minutes to eat and a few othe 5 minute breaks throughout the day to check email, etc.
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Lawyer, right?
 
WFfb115 said:
I do 8-10 hours of solid work per day, usually 8:00-5:00 and then another hour or so at night. I work from home and don't really take true breaks other than like 15 minutes to eat and a few othe 5 minute breaks throughout the day to check email, etc.
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I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
 
Depends on how busy the business is on a weekly basis, and how much I have to travel. I have worked 30 hour weeks, and I have worked 72 straight hours staring at a computer taking cat naps on the office couch or server room. Typically I travel to about 6-8 different cities across North America a month so that can become very time consuming as well.

Really though i do only as much work as to not leave any money on the table.
 
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I'm about to go put in some work on the driving range right now.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Not going to make a poll because I'm more interested in just discussing the issue.

I've seen from a lot of publications that talk about how millennials like to work from home, and not on a structured 9-5 basis (which is perhaps a good secondary topic, because I don't necessarily like painting millennials all in the same brush), but an underlying point is that it allows more structure, and when you are down the work you have been assigned you are good to go until you get more work.

I work in an office that is heavily dependent on outside brokers contacting us for information to get done quickly. There will be lulls of time where I don't have a lot of things to do, but then spend 2-3 hours in a row without a break getting everything done in a hurry. I would say I do about 3 hours of total work the entire day. Meaning, if I had all the stuff I needed at 9, I would be done by 12 without all the other BS that comes with being in an office (shooting the shit, wasting time, etc).

Tell me about your jobs and your lives members of the Pit.
Click to expand...

If you replace outside brokers with lawyers my job is eerily similar. I work in IT at a law firm and I could be busy all day or some days I only have to resolve 3-4 minor problems. I'd say the number of hours worked is pretty spot on for me too, I'd say I average about 3 hours of actual work in a day out of my 10-6:30 schedule.

Sometimes I like the idea of working from home because I'd be able to do about 90% of my job remotely from the office. But then there are situations where if I wasn't here in the office then things could just fall apart so it is rather necessary for me to be here.
 
Do you define meetings as will work? Most of my meetings aside from 1 a week is to deal with issues.

Today I worked a full 8 hours, plus I will spend my evening responding to emails.

I do try to do 1 professional development workshop every week for 1-2 hours.
 
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