Who works the longest hours...

[Mahone]

Some surprising (and not so surprising) results here.

BBC News - How hard do you work?

Also, where are you on the global pay scale:

BBC News - Where are you on the global pay scale?

[Guest rennyleon389]

interesting post. I really liked it.

[ClickyClack]

I seem to have the work week of a Frenchman, but I earn about double the average US salary.

I got lucky, I work in the field that has been a past-time, hobby, and even passion of mine since I was 8 years old. I went to college for something different, but went back to what I enjoyed and was good at, and having quite literally prepared myself since childhood has paid off quite well.

I think that one of the biggest problems that young people face today is that they don't start preparing for (or even choosing) a career path until much, much later than they should. I met a surprising number of people with three years of college behind them who STILL didn't know what they wanted to do.

[Dravin]

I seem to have the work week of a Frenchman, but I earn about double the average US salary.

I got lucky, I work in the field that has been a past-time, hobby, and even passion of mine since I was 8 years old. I went to college for something different, but went back to what I enjoyed and was good at, and having quite literally prepared myself since childhood has paid off quite well.

What's your field?

[ClickyClack]

What's your field?

Computers. I must be a hipster, because I was doing programming, admin, and networking since way before it was cool.

The job that I have right now is about as close to a perfect job for me as I can imagine. It took me years of working my way up, learning even more stuff, and trying out jobs that weren't good fits, until I found this one, and I've been where I'm at for 13 years now.

My sympathy goes out to all of the people who don't have it so well. At one point, when I was young, I spent two years at a job that was absolutely HORRIBLE. But it made me realize that if I wanted things to be different, I had to work even harder and learn even more than I knew at the time. I'm still doing that, learning and improving are just part of my personality.

Edited May 25, 2012 by ClickyClack

[Jennarator]

I work the longest hours. I work a regular 40 hour work week for the company that employs me, but before and after work I am a full time mom, and take primary responsibilities for cooking, cleaning, and taking care of 5 children, including and infant. I work all weekends, all hours, and each weekday as well. I might also be called out from the company I work for to take care of my mothering job. So, yeah, 40 hours or more for a regular company, and 168 for my "other job."

[Vort]

Computers. I must be a hipster, because I was doing programming, admin, and networking since way before it was cool.

It's cool?

[Guest]

Clickity! You and I are in the same boat! I'm Filipino and nobody had computers when I was growing up. NOBODY. A few rich kids had Ataris. I mean, we just had a Betamax at the time and I was the envy of the entire neighborhood.

Anyway, I was 11 when my dad enrolled me in a programming class. Have no idea what that is. My 13-year-old brother was supposed to take that class but he was offered officership training for the military (we are all required to take 1 year of military training in high school - okay, Philippines start high school at age 12) so my dad pawned off the class to me.

My first day at class the first thing the teacher said was - This is a Computer - it was a Tandy Radioshack TRS-80 connected to this little TV and hooked up to a cassette recorder. BUT, the thing was playing PACMAN! I was hooked. Even my one and only friend who has an Atari doesn't have PacMan! You have to pay buckoo money at the mall to play it. We spent most of that first day of class playing Pacman. And afterwards, the teacher said, at the end of the summer, you are going to write your own Pacman game.

That was it for me. I was 11 and I wanted to be a programmer forever. My dad won't pay for more computer classes (he thought we're just playing video games) so I had to work to pay for classes. My first job was to replace the ribbon on the daisy wheel printer at the lab. Now - this is not just a simple matter of pulling out an old cartridge and replacing it with a new one. No, this is the Philippines. We couldn't afford printer cartridges. So, my job was to open up the cartridge, take out the old ribbon, take a regular typewriter ribbon, cut off the two drums holding each end, use a metal clip to press the two ends together to make the ribbon loop, take a lighter to the edge of the clip to fuse the two ribbon ends together, wind the ribbon back into the cartridge, then cross your fingers that the ribbon will not get snagged on the wheel! And I was 12 years old and super proud that in that entire school-year, I never had a single snag! Not once! LOL.

Anyway, I'm still a programmer today, getting paid good money for something I would do for free... and just like you, enjoying every minute of it.

[ClickyClack]

It's cool?

Touche!

[ClickyClack]

We couldn't afford printer cartridges. So, my job was to open up the cartridge, take out the old ribbon, take a regular typewriter ribbon, cut off the two drums holding each end, use a metal clip to press the two ends together to make the ribbon loop, take a lighter to the edge of the clip to fuse the two ribbon ends together, wind the ribbon back into the cartridge, then cross your fingers that the ribbon will not get snagged on the wheel!

Now I think we must be related or something.

My first electronic repair was about the same age... I spilled a large cup of coca-cola into the computer. The screen turned blank, and I reached down and yanked out the power cord. I only had about two hours until my parents came home, so I opened it up, took the mainboard out (this was a C-64), and washed it off in the bathtub with soap and water. Then I dried it with a hair dryer, reassembled everything, and it worked - except for the keys.

Then I realized that the membranes were holding water, so I took it apart again, and took the hair dryer to the keyboard membrane. That got almost all of them working in time for my parents to get home, and they didn't use it that night... so I took it apart again the next day, and got ALL of the keys working, with my parents never having known.

[NeuroTypical]

Greece was surprising for a minute, until it dawned on me the list doesn't take into account their early retirement - it only counts people who are actually working. If the graph charted hours worked over a productive lifetime, I wonder what things would look like then.

[Mahone]

I seem to have the work week of a Frenchman, but I earn about double the average US salary.

What is it that you do in IT? I'm in charge of running a college network, and while my official hours are not that much more than yours, I couldn't do my job unless I did countless hours at home each month on top of my official hours. It just comes with the nature of this aspect of IT unfortunately, and commonly accepted.

[ClickyClack]

What is it that you do in IT? I'm in charge of running a college network, and while my official hours are not that much more than yours, I couldn't do my job unless I did countless hours at home each month on top of my official hours. It just comes with the nature of this aspect of IT unfortunately, and commonly accepted.

The keys to working shorter hours are to be proactive in preventing problems before they arise, and in automating, reducing, and eliminating the repetitive jobs, and those that take your time.

I administer the desktops, servers, and network of an online retailer and their call center. There's a lot to be done, I could never do it if I wasn't extremely proactive in keeping things working smoothly.

Keep a log of each task you perform each day, and how long they take. After a couple of weeks, look at what takes most of your time, and devote resources to improving the efficiency in that area. If you have good superiors, they will let you. But if you don't, they will rather use you up as cheap labor, until you burn out, rather than make any investment in their infrastructure. If that's the case, find better people to work for.

All of that being said, with a third of a century of working with computers, the difference between an average position and salary and the great one that I have has been as much due to work and investment in my interpersonal skills as in my computer skills.

Edited May 26, 2012 by ClickyClack

[Mahone]

The keys to working shorter hours are to be proactive in preventing problems before they arise, and in automating, reducing, and eliminating the repetitive jobs, and those that take your time.

The problem isn't lack of proactivity, or the lack automating and eliminating jobs. You'd be surprised at the amount of time I've spent automating tasks that were carried out by previous teams manually - it's one of the things I'm well known for among my colleagues, I will script and set in group policy things they didn't know were possible, and I'm currently in the process of creating a single web based interface for AD account creation, exchange mailbox creation, cisco PBX directory number creation plus various other things which each new user needs to be set up with, so this can be offloaded from the IT department totally.

Much of my over time is taken up with new projects, or major configuration changes to current systems. Stuff that generally can't be done during working hours due to the nature of the changes, and the potential for downtime. The very nature and culture of a college means this happens on a regular basis.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Mahone