Ask HN: Typical work hours
As an engineer in the US what is a typical work day? Mine is 9 hours including an hour unpaid lunch. Is that normal or are there people that really get to work at 9 and leave at 5?
Now that I work from home (for a different company), I probably work roughly 60 hrs per week. But my time is much more flexible, I typically work 8am->5pm most days, with one or two evenings of actual work (not just answering email) from 9pm to 1am, and often a few hours on the weekends. But somewhere in those 8-5 hours, I'll often take my son to school or pick him up, or take him to an athletic practice, or help him with homework, or have lunch with my wife, etc.
Given that my office is steps away, the line between home and work blurs. I find that it is hard to resist checking on things almost obsessively, and I often go into my office intending to just spend 2 minutes check the progress of something only to emerge 3 hours later.
There's no pressure to work more, and I really value and appreciate that.
Still, I feel like admitting to enjoying your free time and working ~35 hour weeks is a scandalous taboo that would ruin your chances to get hired elsewhere, so I posted this on a throwaway.
I had come to Google from a small company where I was in the critical path, with a feeling like if I didn't put in 110% all the time, the company could go under. The transition from that environment to being a tiny cog in a giant machine was very liberating. The main reason I answered email in the evenings was that it was a habit from the previous job.
I also feel no pressure to work more. I feel like I'm valued by the team, and frankly more time typing wouldn't make me more productive. I feel like the work/life balance team does a great job of advocating time off, so I don't feel guilty about my time off.
I've been at places that expected 60 hour weeks, and I've found that setting realistic expectations from day 1 were key to me doing my ~40 guilt free.
One thing I've learned about people is that they like to say they work 10 hour days, but they do about 30 minutes of valuable work. Does that describe you?
I usually come in at around 8:00, take maybe an hour lunch at around 11 or 12, and leave at 5. If I get called in the middle of the night, I'm always happy to help out.
When I worked for the government my hours were a strict 8:00 - 4:30 with a 1 hour lunch.
When I worked for Toshiba, it was 45 hour weeks; I hated that job so I would come in at 6:00 and leave at 3 without taking a lunch.
I think a big part of working a lot of hours is enjoying the work involved. I greatly disliked Toshiba and the government, so working less / more hours was just awful.
The extra hour is making me both miserable and palpably less effective, but it's what I undertook, it's what they want, and the money's good.
I'm going to try and avoid jobs that expect more than 40 hours on an ongoing basis after this.
Now, I work from home, so I usually work something like 8am-3 plus 8pm-9 so I can play with my kids after school. Highly recommended.
But if you're asking this question, then what you probably need is advice about how to talk about this with your boss.
My lunch is anywhere from 0 to 90 minutes but I probably average about 30 minutes.
During the day I'll sometimes go for a 30 minute walk. I keep a guitar at work so if I get hung up on something I'll play for bit.
While WFH, I usually start around 8:30 so I can get emails and stuff out of the way before our standing 9:00 sprint meeting. I have quite a bit of flexibility on when I take lunch (some times I eat at my desk while working, some times I eat in the living room watching tv). I wrap up my day around 6ish. Often I am multi-tasking between work and cooking dinner between 5-6.
On Fridays I usually try to get in before 8 because parking is cheaper if I enter before 8. Group lunch is usually about an hour (give or take... depending on how many people are there). I usually leave around 3-4. My boss understands my commute isn't great (neither is his) so he's cool with me cutting out a little early on Friday. He does too. He also works from home most days. If he isn't going to be in on Friday, then I usually don't go in either.
My boss is big on letting your work product show how much you're working. As long as I'm getting my crap done, he doesn't really care if I take a 3 hour lunch and then work at 9PM. Most of the team I work with is spread out, with only three in our office. So working from home is not much different than working from the office. Even at the office, meetings are online, taken at my desk. (Which is weird some times since my office is right next to my boss's office and I can usually hear him through the wall half a second before I hear him on the call.) But it is nice to get some face time with my boss (and coworkers from other teams I'm not on) once in awhile.
My first few years full time I worked from 7 - 3:30, with a half hour lunch. During this time this I was working to live. I had an overly active social life, and night classes at College.
My next few years I worked from 8:30 - 6:30, with a two hour lunch. This was nice because I could do all those little errands, that require banking hours. Most days I got to take a nap, surprise the wife with lunch, or eat somewhere where they actually cook the food.
For the last 9 months I have been working from 8 - 3, with an hour lunch, and 8pm - 10pm.
I have been working for the same company for 10 years. They have two rules:
1. If I am working that day I need to be on the clock or reachable during "core hours". For us, core hours are from 10am-3pm.
2. Keep a consistent schedule. I can't just show up whenever.
My lunch periods are always unpaid. Occasionally I go out to lunch with a coworker, and if we talk shop more than half the time we are encouraged to charge our meals to the company credit card. This happens about once every three or four of months.
I leave the house at 6:45 or so to get to the office by 7, work til 11, take an hour long lunch, and then leave at 4:30 or so.
I also occasionally work a couple hours on the weekends. All this is so that I can take off super early (ideally, by like 2 PM) on Fridays. Gotta love that 40 hour work week.
My first 3 hours of the day are uninterrupted bliss until everyone else gets there. Then I generally alternate working alone and either pair programming or meetings about every hour I'm there til I leave.
My company allows for ridiculously flexible hours, the only rule is that you have to be in the office 10-2 at least 3 days a week so people can schedule to meet with you in person if necessary. Beyond that, so long as you work at least 40 hours and are properly supporting all your projects, you're golden.
It's not rare that I work in the evening, or during weekends, but I am never required to (although when paper deadlines are due, there is a strong expectation that you will in order to finish things up).
Now I generally get close to 40 hours in a week, but rarely hit it. Hours are very flexible (today I'm in at 6am, yesterday 9).
Both jobs were smaller companies (<50) in Vancouver, Canada.
Could easily go 9-5 but I am very much a "morning" person and my productivity usually nose-dives after about 2pm (so I choose to have a very short lunch or eat at my desk, but could easily take a full hour if I wanted)
M/W/F I work from home and at the moment T/Th I drive to the office about 30-50 minutes away depending on traffic.
Edit: Work as Senior Software Engineer for a startup in the US.
Just started a remote job, so now nobody cares about my hours, just my results. Too early to say what the typical day is.
In reality, I get in as early as I can (When somebody unlocks at ~8:30ish, has occasionally meant sitting outside waiting), and then go home after about 8.5 hours (not including lunch break).
Most other people get into the office when I do, and then leave sometime after.
They don't pay any more than 40 hours, and pay at the very end of the statutory 30 day payment terms. If they want to be sticklers, I can be too.
(Silicon Valley/salaried)
I also have flexibility to leave when I want too - there have been days where I left at 3 pm to go running with friends.
8am-12/1pm-3pm
7pm-9pm
Leaving work at 3pm gives me time to hit the gym, make dinner, and hangout with my wife for a bit. I'll typically pick back up around 7pm and work for another hour or two depending on how busy we are.
My evenings after 9pm are then open for whatever, which is nice.
I'm a really hard worker and I'm really smart so I like the long work hours. When I see people coming in before me and leaving after me, its a nice reminder of what a good employee I am.
Oh you poor sweet summer child. I hope you're being sarcastic, or you're gonna get pulled down real soon. The professional world is rough :/
> a nice reminder of what a good employee I am
Remember, you are much more than your job, and if you're staying late to please the company you're not doing yourself any favors. Do it to make extra cash, or to land a big promotion, or maybe to brown nose with your boss, but don't ever think that you staying late is going to so massively help the company that it'll come back to you. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I just hear a lot of the same things I said my first few months as an engineer and they depressed the shit out of me for a while.
This is busy season for us, in the winter, I'd probably leave around 5:30 instead of 6:30.
That's the thing I've seen about a hierarchical company structure, the further up the ladder you go the more that's expected of you and the less return you get.
28 days paid holidays
I normally grab lunch at my desk except on Wednesdays were we have a staff lunch which normally takes an hour.
Thanks, I am glad to hear that at least someone works the schedule I expected though.
"What--another half day?"
btw, when school is off, i get to come in at 6am. on school days, i come in around 7:30
9am-5pm.
Time for lunch - not specified.