Working hours | How many are too many?

[Uruhara]

most people in my country they work 8 hours in a day. and weekends off. so about 8 hours X 6 days = 48 hours in a week. even if they are working in government then they only work 6 hours in a day. and weekends off. Likewise, the red date is a holiday. so only 36 hours in a week.

but at my job the time is very flexible. because we are not limited by time. but we have a production target that must be completed. so as long as the target can be completed then the work is done and can rest.
even sometimes i can finish my work in 6 hours. but I don't have a day off. even though it was a sunday. I still have to work. but for workers who are still learning in this field of work. so they sometimes 8 hours is still not enough to complete this job. I myself have more free time. because my speed at my job allows me to finish work early.
even if the week is not off. but actually I can take a day off anytime. For example, if you want to take a day off tomorrow. so today I have to reach the production target equivalent to 2 days. so I can take a day off tomorrow.

[Darker45]

It's so sad to hear this. But this has indeed grown common among the working class. As a matter of fact, there are those who are working hard labor 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Some are even working physically tiring jobs day and night just to make ends meet. So your 100-hour weekly work setup is probably more tolerable if it isn't too demanding and you could even manage to create good posts in the middle of it.

The usual number of working hours per week here in my country is 48. But that's as far as the contract is concerned. In reality, it could easily extend to 60 without getting overtime pay. But that's in the private sector. In the government, it is usually just 40 hours per week. And in reality, it could easily be just 10. The rest of the hours, government employees are just normally sharing gossips, scrolling posts on social media, watching videos, running personal or family errands, attending to their kids, browsing Tupperware or Avon brochures, and so on and so forth.

The problem is that if you are working for someone else and you are working unwanted hours then it is a problem for sure, but if you are working for yourself and you are spending way too much, then it should be fine because the more you work the more money you could make from it.

"Way too much" is way too much. Anything too much isn't fine. Even if you love your job so much so that you feel like you aren't working anymore and so you immerse yourself in it all day long everyday, it probably isn't a healthy life. You know what's worse than working long hours on a job you don't love? It's when you really love your job that you devoted your whole life into it, and your job has become your entire life. Everything gets even worse if you put money into the equation.

I do not work for myself, I work for someone else as a freelancer and I can easily say that the best thing about my life is my boss and my work, I love working in this job and that is why I can say that even if I ever work 15 hours a day I would be happy, however life is not like that, for the past 1 year I had probably one of the worst years of my life and it doesn't look like it will get any better, and that's why I couldn't work too much unfortunately, I am hoping that I could go back to days when all I did was just working.

I'm sorry to hear that. But I think something isn't right when you hope that things "could go back to days when all I did was just working." I mean, there must be a lot more to life than just work.

[xSkylarx]

How many hours/week is the typical in your country? How many hours are you actually working and how does a 4 day work week sound?

The typical working shift here is 8hrs per day/5 days a week. I am freelancing so I have no specific working hours. What I have on my work is only a deadline and it doesn't matter how or when will I finish it as long as I finish the task before the given time.

4 days work week is a lot better for me even if it's 12hrs per day. It's less stressful since your number of work and rest day is almost even so you have enough time to your family or go somewhere for mental healing.

[cheezcarls]

Right her in the Philippines, most of the office working hours are 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Same thing if you are work from home. But sometimes, they wanted to do overtime to at least increase their wage a bit.

I have experienced working that routine years ago but sometimes I need to overtime and double duty due to the absense of that co-managers who is suppose to work in their respective shifts.

In my opinion, working more than 40 hours a week is too much based on my previous experiences. But it really depends on the person though if he or she wants to work more and be happy, then that’s on them.

[virasisog]

Unfortunately, in our country, the four days of working days aren't granted yet. We can't blame those who have switched to work from a home setting because workers can save and have better rest than those who are working more than five days a week. The stress of traffic jams and restlessness is too tiring and as a result, employees couldn't give their best performance at work.
40 hours is just fine but they should also grant employees at least three days' rest every week for them to relax and have enough time for themselves. That is also necessary for them to have a better performance at work. They should value their employee's mental and physical health.

[milewilda]

How many hours/week is the typical in your country? How many hours are you actually working and how does a 4 day work week sound?

Usually it do plays around 40-48 hours per week if we do speak on working hours but it would be depending on what type of work you do have because there are jobs which do have 7 days a week
and having no day-off or something like that.If you are on that managerial type of work then it would be usually less but if you are working on other jobs like call centers or BPO
then it would be more.Lots of jobs does have different numbers when it comes to working times but for me 8 hours maximum per day should be standard.
4 days work? It would be great but i dont think companies would really be seeing this to be efficient and effective on making up revenue.

[coupable]

It depends on the nature of the work to determine the hours it requires. In many countries, the hours worked in jobs that require physical activity are much longer than jobs that require mental effort. Determining working hours is subject to more social controls than what is legally approved.

[dark1234]

It depends on the nature of the work to determine the hours it requires. In many countries, the hours worked in jobs that require physical activity are much longer than jobs that require mental effort. Determining working hours is subject to more social controls than what is legally approved.

we can't determine a working hour except for a factory employee, while their manual labor tends not to know working hours because there is no definite standard for a job and is measured by the work until it is finished so there is no benchmark, so it's true what you said the working hours were adjusted to agreed customs, laws and regulations

[harizen]

Lots of jobs does have different numbers when it comes to working times but for me 8 hours maximum per day should be standard.
4 days work? It would be great but i dont think companies would really be seeing this to be efficient and effective on making up revenue.

Here in the Philippines, the idea of considering a 4-day work was being suggested to conserve energy due to the continuous rise of fuel costs.

However, there should be an adjustment on the standard 8-hours working time. From 8 hours, the employee should now work for 10 hours and overtime pay will just start obviously after the 10-hours period. However, I don't see that it will really have a big impact to save fuel as a whole. Working for 8 hours is already stressful and imagine adding 2 hours from it, that will be worst.

That extra day off might be useful but imagine how much stress that employee will get on that whole 4-day work especially those who are experiencing daily big problems on their way home and coming home e.g heavy traffic, high fare, pollution, etc.

[coolcoinz]

40 days a week is normal in the EU with optional Saturdays where you can spend another 6-8 hours depending on the business you're in.
During the pandemic I've observed a number of my friends having to work from home and some of the companies liked it so much they allowed them to continue working in this format. The companies like it because they save up a lot of money on AC and other stuff like cleaning services. The employees like it because they don't have to drive to work so they save up money as well and they can work naked if they want to and eat and drink whatever and whenever they want. One of my friends even manages to have a workout break and is able to do 5 min of cardio every hour or so and nobody cares if he opens a beer while working, which is something he wouldn't be able to do at the office.

It's possible to work 10 hours a day provided that nobody is breathing down your neck. 6 hours of hard office work with your boss screaming at you is much worse than 10 hours of working from home, while listening to music and drinking beer.

[coupable]

It depends on the nature of the work to determine the hours it requires. In many countries, the hours worked in jobs that require physical activity are much longer than jobs that require mental effort. Determining working hours is subject to more social controls than what is legally approved.

Yes the nature of work is very important and sometimes extra time can be added to make the salary or wages bigger than normal. People that can working in the office can spend from 6 to 8 hours working while those that are working out like in the field can spend lesser hours or more depending on the agreement of the work. Stressful work do not take much hours.

Can you name a non-stressful job? Every action we repeat periodically will become stressful over time, even if it is something we love.
Almost no job is easy and comfortable, including the most important jobs in the world. Repeating the same thing daily, weekly, or even monthly will cause a kind of boredom, because the human soul, by nature, always yearns for renewal.

[STT]

48 is a good maximum for regular hours.   I can speak on this subject as Ive worked over 90 hours in one week.   48 shouldn't be required regularly because its nearly an extra day every week and for every week of the year that would be quite harsh, however I believe in business freedom so to have that as a maximum is quite lax and favorable to the ease of business.
    More then 48 starts to eat into the good health and wellbeing of employees.   The extreme I did of 92 hours in one week was voluntary and because of overtime was worth it to me at that time.   The job ended not that long after (temporary contract) so I recovered my lost hours of sleep but in any case I would only state the obvious that excessive hours becomes dangerous and unstable to both employees and the work place environment.

[andriarto]

Can you name a non-stressful job? Every action we repeat periodically will become stressful over time, even if it is something we love.

A non-stressful job is someone else's job that we don't do so it always looks good when we see other people working. Even though the person who works is also experiencing stress, it's just that he never complains and tells other people around him. I don't think there is a job that is not stressful, because even people who sell on the beach which is very beautiful also experience stress because they often see that beach.

everyone who sees other people certainly looks happy with the achievements he has, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have problems, everyone certainly has their own problems, even comedians also have stress levels at work, especially when he is sad with his problems, he is actually required to entertain others. so I think we should be able to deal with our problems wisely, so that we can manage stress levels so that it doesn't become a big problem. and don't forget to always pray and be grateful

[bakasabo]

I am working at the office and the amount of working hours, that I find proper, is dependable from the amount of work I have. Sometimes 8h working day from 9 to 6 is not enough and I am forced to stay for extra hour or two. And sometimes during 8h working day I spend hour or two doing nothing. I would say, that 40 hours per week is enough, but it would be better, if I was able to leave job before official working time ends and spend time more useful. Because working extra is not rewarded, as I get monthly salary, but leaving job before 6 is not preferable.

[Kakmakr]

A 4-day work week will not work for many people, because most people are neck deep into debt. A 4-day work week will reduce their income and that will sink many people financially. 

A lot of businesses are also struggling financially now, because they lost a lot of money during the lockdowns in the Covid period. They need their workers to ramp up production now... not to reduce their working hours. 

I say, make the working hours per day.. a little bit shorter and give people regular breaks during the day. (8h00 to 16h00 with 3 breaks of 20 minutes each) 

[bakasabo]

A 4-day work week will reduce their income and that will sink many people financially. 

That is true. I have noticed that on a day without work I tend to spend more. Free time = more spending. Maybe this is more individual and I only spend more because I spend time with my family, try to diversify their life and routine.

I am sure that employees wont like that4 day work week either. For example, are you ready to receive 1/5 less salary, because employees wont pay same as 5 day work week. It looks like it is unprofitable for employee also. 3 days of rest is disastrous for business. A lot of business will hire extra employee for that period, and that means more taxes, more expenses.

[Moneyprism]

48 is a good maximum for regular hours.   I can speak on this subject as Ive worked over 90 hours in one week.   48 shouldn't be required regularly because its nearly an extra day every week and for every week of the year that would be quite harsh, however I believe in business freedom so to have that as a maximum is quite lax and favorable to the ease of business.
    More then 48 starts to eat into the good health and wellbeing of employees.   The extreme I did of 92 hours in one week was voluntary and because of overtime was worth it to me at that time.   The job ended not that long after (temporary contract) so I recovered my lost hours of sleep but in any case I would only state the obvious that excessive hours becomes dangerous and unstable to both employees and the work place environment.

90 hours in one week? so you spend as much as 13 hours a day a week working without a day off? that's pretty crazy,, because i just worked for 8 hours in front of the computer for 6 days it's already quite tiring let alone working for 13 hours,, i'm definitely going crazy

[jrrsparkles]

8 hours a day is the constant all across the world for common employee but the hours doesn't relatively proportional to the productivity, it solely depends on the individuals that is why new generation companies are offering convenient working hours and most of the jobs are task based not hourly based so the individual has to work until the task done no matter he is doing it in a day or a week and in my opinion this is more effective than increasing or decreasing the working hours.

[coupable]

Can you name a non-stressful job? Every action we repeat periodically will become stressful over time, even if it is something we love.

A non-stressful job is someone else's job that we don't do so it always looks good when we see other people working. Even though the person who works is also experiencing stress, it's just that he never complains and tells other people around him. I don't think there is a job that is not stressful, because even people who sell on the beach which is very beautiful also experience stress because they often see that beach.

everyone who sees other people certainly looks happy with the achievements he has, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have problems, everyone certainly has their own problems, even comedians also have stress levels at work, especially when he is sad with his problems, he is actually required to entertain others. so I think we should be able to deal with our problems wisely, so that we can manage stress levels so that it doesn't become a big problem. and don't forget to always pray and be grateful

One of the most important basic principles in the field of business is to diversify the sources of income and thus work in more than one field. There is a group of businessmen specialized in creating successful projects for a certain period of time and then selling them at a profitable price before moving to another project. This method ensures that the person maintains a greater incentive to continue when he knows that he will not continue the rest of his life with the same task.
Of course, not everyone is able to do this, and entrepreneurship specialists represent a very small percentage of the active groups.

[Leviathan.007]

According to the country you live in and the job you have, the situation can be very different. For example, if I were to tell you about my job and country, the working hours would be more than 40 hours per week, which is very much for a normal person who has almost no technical knowledge, whereas I work 28 hours per week and earn a lot more money than what they do in 40 hours, so if you have more knowledge, you are more likely to get a better job with fewer hours. However, regardless of that, many people will not sell their time or their everyday job and they think that having a 9-6 job is just like selling your time to someone else and that having a 9-6 job is just like selling yourself to them.