1

Last week we asked about how much money everyone makes, and dwo1064 suggested that we should also ask about how many hours people work, since that is related. If you are working so much that you don’t have time to breathe, that salary likely has less value to you. There are a few polls from the past where we have asked that in the past, but Computer MD made a good point that Covid has changed a lot, including our work hours, so good to ask again.

So here goes… how many hours do you typically work in a week? I decided to break the numbers down a little more narrowly than has been done in the past so that we can tell the difference between working an extra hour and an extra ten hours more easily, especially around the 40 hour mark, which is generally the full-time expectation in the US.

Note: if you are working IT as a volunteer for a non-profit entity, those hours count as working time for this poll, since we are not tying it directly to salary. We’re trying to get a comprehensive idea of the number of hours that people work, not just work that makes money.

How many hours do you work?
  • I don’t currently work.
  • 0-5 hours a week
  • 5-10 hours a week
  • 10-15 hours a week
  • 15-20 hours a week
  • 20-25 hours a week
  • 25-30 hours a week
  • 30-35 hours a week
  • 35-40 hours a week
  • 40-42 hours a week
  • 42-44 hours a week
  • 44-46 hours a week
  • 46-48 hours a week
  • 48-50 hours a week
  • 50-55 hours a week
  • 55-60 hours a week
  • 60-65 hours a week
  • 65-70 hours a week
  • 70-75 hours a week
  • 75-80 hours a week
  • Over 80 hours a week
  • Something else that requires an explanation (see comments)
0 voters
105 Spice ups
2

40 hours a week, and it’s the first job I’ve had that wasn’t 37.5, so that was a little annoying.

13 Spice ups
3

40 hours most weeks. It has been a lot higher if I’m working on a project or if things go really sideways/need done after hours.

16 Spice ups
4

Pretty much STRAIGHT 40 unless something goes wrong…which NEVER happens at 6:15 this morning!!!

18 Spice ups
5

I average 10 hours every day. But it balances out well as the after hours is extremely rare and pays well when it happens.

4 Spice ups
6

I try to limit myself to 40.

4 Spice ups
7

I hover around the 40, but my org is very flexible with my team. We get the job done, and that’s what matters, not whether we’re tardy, have an excused or unexcused absence, and have our butts in the seats when class starts (which is a very applicable analogy since my org is a public K-12!).

8 Spice ups
8

straight 40 but on occasion i get there a bit early if needed (vary rare)

4 Spice ups
9

Past 2 IT admin jobs over 10 years = 40 hours per week. That’s 40 hours of sitting in the office, not 40 hours of work. Plus some weekends, of course.

Current IT admin job = 15-20 hours per week in the office. I do a bit on evenings and weekends still.

The only difference is expectations. Not sure if COVID/WFH era was the trigger or if it’s just because I set expectations and sold my services well at the beginning.

I still get just as much actual work done btw.

12 Spice ups
10

Technically 35 hours in my contract, but most of my team are on 37.5 (due to different contracts from various acquisitions), so I tend to do a little over my contracted hours, prob between 36 and 37

4 Spice ups
11

40 hours at my job, with occasional OT when I have to cover a Board meeting, then a few hours a week between my church and my wife’s salon.

4 Spice ups
12

Interesting to see several people at 35-37.5. Is that normal in the UK/Europe? All the salaried jobs I have ever had were 40 hours/week, although it depended on the company and the boss whether that was a minimum, they required a lot more, or that was just a general guideline, as in “as long as you get your work done, you are fine” … although that last line can be used both to give people a break but also to overwork them, depending on how much “your work” is seen to be.

8 Spice ups
13

I work at a municipal office in the US, and our salaried hours are 37.5/week for full-time non-union workers. I guess the hours are counted after lunch and break time.

6 Spice ups
14

All my previous jobs have been 9-5:30, with an hour for lunch. My current one is 9-6 with an hour for lunch. It just feels a bit Victorian workhousey to me.

3 Spice ups
15

With the current two part-time jobs counting only the hours I get paid for 31.5 hours but if you include the hours I also work when I am supposedly taking a break then closer to 40 hours (about 37 hours) not counting outside hours. Sometimes I have to do remote work here and there which can be additional hours for the week.

3 Spice ups
16

As stated earlier, 40ish unless there is an issue or after-hours work.

3 Spice ups
17

I get paid for a 42 hour week, but most weeks it creeps up over 45 hours or so.

3 Spice ups
18

Once upon a time in my younger IT days it was probably 60 hours average (salaried so no OT), with 80 during project delivery and a record of 122. As I came to realize that nothing I was actually killing myself to do was actually all that important, I started aiming for a 50-hour week, although the occasional dumpster fire required extra effort. As my roles transitioned from purely technical into the more managerial I was afforded the luxury of 40 hour weeks.

10 Spice ups
19

40 hrs a week, assuming nothing goes wrong.

3 Spice ups
20

Mon to Fri 9am to 530pm, with an 1hr for lunch, some people have requested to reduce the lunch hour by 30mins and go home at 5pm instead but HR declined the proposal.

4 Spice ups