the worst I ever worked was when my asshole bosses wife was in the hospital after she drank herself into a liver failure. He “had to be by her side” all the time and we had a corporate tv studio to run. I did 6 weeks, 7 days a week at 14 hours a day, one month of hours totaling 434.
The best part is that when I took my girlfriend to visit his wife in the hospital, he acted weird. Then, the next day he came by to tell me he was planning on fucking her no matter what (my girlfriend that is).
I did just under 360 hours a few times in the 90s. Can’t do that anymore. Over the past 4 week period I put in around 240 hours and it about killed me.
I’ve worked in IT for 15 years and haven’t even come close to the crazy in this thread! Wow!
Worst I ever did was a few years back for my previous company. I was rolling out a new production server that was going to host all the client files for the company. I spent a couple of 60 hour weeks preparing, then did the rollout over the Christmas holiday. Christmas was on a Wednesday that year, and the company always closed Christmas Eve day and Christmas Day, but they were kind enough to follow my recommendation and close that Monday as well. That gave me Friday night-Wednesday (Christmas Day) to get things moved over. I spent the entire weekend pretty much living at work. I was back that Monday, thought I had things worked out, went home, came back early Tuesday because of a problem, worked that out, was able to spend Christmas morning with my kids (thankfully, or my wife would have killed me!) and went back that afternoon to make sure everything was good to go for the following morning when all the employees would be returning. Total time worked that week (including 10 hour days that Thursday and Friday was around 100 hours). Total for the month was around 260. No overtime pay.
One month later, the company let me go. It was completely unexpected, as I’d worked for them for seven years. The reason : stabbed in the back by my boss. He apparently took offense to something I wrote in an email to him not long after the 100 hour week. Needless to say I was barely coherant at the time and in bad need of some downtime or at least a little assisstance, and yet the asshole took something personally and decided to shitcan an employee with seven years of sterling service and a family to support. He was a total prick like that all the time, so it’s no real surprise in retrospect. He did me a huge favor though, as my job now is far better.
Hm, guess the worst for me was the final months of trying to finish up Matrix Revolutions, a 911 chunk Sony couldn’t handle, where we worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week for about 4 months. I really can’t complain, since hours like that are routine at some studios, which is why I don’t think I can work anywhere else at this point. Friends tell me people at Dreamworks or Weta expect hours like that routinely, and even if they’re paid well for it … it’s not for me.
Well, isn’t that the kicker? Hasn’t it been proven the worker is most efficient at 35 hours a week, and after that you lose productivity to mistakes, loss of creativity, problem solving, etc? I keep thinking that out of my standard 10 hour day, I routinely waste minutes here, minutes there knowing I can still hit all my deadlines, but if they gave me an 8 hour day I’d be working non stop, because a) less time to dawdle and b) thankful I get more home time and therefore spend work time actually working (harder).
I don’t think anybody accuse you of that, just inefficient.
As Spiffy says, with the amount of hours the average American works, you guys should have more to show for it, yet the per worker productivity is below Norway and only slightly higher than Denmark, where we, as you know, work short days and spend half the year on paid vacation.
On a more serious note, since we have at least one Norwegian and one Englishman weighing in here, it’s not just an US thing. Probably has more to do with the line of work you guys are in.
I know that when I worked a daily newspaper, the simple rule was, that you didn’t go home before you were finished, and if big stuff happened then that wedding anniversery or whatever could wait - it was well compensated though, and you could slack off at other times.
But it was hard not really being able to commit to anything.
My first two years of residency were a minimum of 320 hours a month, with the occassional month that was up to 440-450 hours, depending on how many 30 hour in-house call shifts I had.
Thank goodness that is over. Now it is a perfectly manageable 240-300/month max.
I did mine because I was up for consideration for the job of the person whose place I was taking. It was a big step up in pay, title, responsibility, etc. This person was having health and personal issues, and it was hinted to me that doing their job well on a fill-in basis would be the best way to get myself for the job when or if it came to pass the position became available. I had taken on a fair chunk of the work anyway, (without extra pay) in order to keep us afloat operationally day to day, so getting to sit in the big chair wasn’t that much of a switch. It was a lot of work doing my job (which was regularly 50+ hours a week regardless) and this other person’s simultaneously but manageable and I reportedly was very well received. Of course, when that person I was filling in for was finally removed/left due to performance reasons, they completely step over me to hire someone from the outside. Whatever.
Insult to injury overtime is now when I try to go back to just doing what old job responsibilities entail, I am now perceived as a “troublemaker” for not wanting to do half of the new guy’s job for free. Job search, engaged.
40 hours of straight time, 44 hours of overtime (only 1.5x… sigh, I wish I was union), and 14 hours of travel per week. Grand total comes down to 98 hours per week, but 44 of those are overtime, so it counts as 120 hours of pay. Yum. Money.
Worth it a year ago? No. Worth it now, looking at just now? No. Worth it, looking forward 6 months when the global economy continues to sputter and we’re facing a multi-year recession or stagnation? Maybe. Depends if the company keeps me employed while the rest of the construction industry is sucking wind.
It’s not about brains in my job, though there’s some basic critical thinking involved. Productivity in a thinking job usually drops off significantly after about 7-10 hours per day IMO (depending on the person, their happiness, their age, etc.), but when you’re doing electrical work on an industrial construction site, it’s easy to stay productive for 12 hours. Well, productive by oilfield construction standards, at any rate. The obsession with safety and cleanliness in this field borders on the ludicrous.
432 was my hell-month. One week of which was 18+ hours every day.
Over 400 probably a dozen times. Also gross, but not even really comparable, as the 432 was basically like cramming an extra week of work into time you’d otherwise be sleeping.
Yeah, once you basically lose an entire “season” you reach a point where you realize that nothing is worth that lifestyle. It really just feels like you’re in a prison, especially when you realize that it’s not remotely normal or frankly even comprehensible to most people in the world.
Jesus Christ, I’m a line cook and I work around 150-160 hours a month, and I already feel like I’m in a prison (granted, these are really wacky shifts, one day will be 5PM-9PM, another will be 11AM-10PM, another will be 4PM-1AM). The most hellish day of my life was when I had to come in at 9AM, open the restaurant, and ended up staying until 230AM to close the restaurant (no breaks, especially brutal when your job involves standing with minimal walking), and a friend of mine essentially worked from 9AM to 9AM the next day (he had to stay to make dough all night/morning).
I could never imagine working this much in a month, I have great respect for you guys.
