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Comment by MrRiddle | Hacker News Reader

Well, you work too much. At least in Europe, 40 hour work week includes having lunch, going to bathroom, water cooler small talk and similar.

If you’re productive for 8-9 hours a day, you’re effectively working more that full time, and that’s where your energy goes away.

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On top of that, make sure to get some free time. Get a housekeeper to do the boring house work, the cost is negligible but it frees up your Saturdays.

The housekeeping can be gamed as a workout. It helps me immensely to see the chores done, its a tangible visible and high impact achievement. Do I need to say I thought myself to enjoy doing the dishes?

Breaks do not count towards working hours in Germany at least [0]. You may be confusing a week of e.g. 38 paid hours plus a few hours of unpaid breaks with a "40 hour work week"?

[0] "Arbeitszeit im Sinne dieses Gesetzes ist die Zeit vom Beginn bis zum Ende der Arbeit ohne die Ruhepausen", § 2 Abs. 1 ArbZG, see: https://dejure.org/gesetze/ArbZG/2.html

last i checked lunch break was in addition to the 40 hours of work.

As I said, in Europe, it’s included in 40 hours. And in general, even in US, people don’t work 40 hours productively.

Sorry, but lunch is not included in the 40 hours. At least in Italy.

Neither is it in Poland. The computer breaks totalling 15 minutes a day are.

Not true for Sweden and Norway.

Its true, as a software developer its impossible to have 40 productive hours a week every week of the year and its normal that way. But most people learn to look busy when workload is low.

maybe you are thinking of places that have a 35 hour work week? with an hour lunchbreak that adds up to 40. but that doesn't include lunch time in the work time because the nominal worktime per contract is actually specified as 35 hours of work.

Not in Spain

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