What does it feel like working 40-hour weeks?

grass is always greener. I went from 80 hour weeks to ~50 hour weeks. now im bored and feel like i lost an edge that i knew i had, not only in my industry but just a general sharpness. funny thing is my new job is 'better' and people i talk to think I'm the smart one and people at my old job are the dumb ones when in actuality the opposite is true.

40 feels awful coming from working 60 to 90 a week. You lose your sense of purpose; next thing you know, you looking for stimulants in the wrong places.

Twats.

It's great. With that said, I'd rather work 10 hours a day Mon - Thu, and have a solid 3 day weekend.

Boring.

Don't understand how you "lose your purpose" because you're only putting in 40 hours a week instead of 80. Time to find a hobby..

You people are losers.

I’m contracted to work 38 hours a week. In actuality I am prob there for like 33 hours a week and in that time the actual work I do is maybe 30% of that time. I love it.

I have other pursuits and have a business making 3 times what slaving away for someone else does (although as shown above I don’t really slave but stuck in an office all day is lame).

Get a life. I dunno go on a date or something - you may just find you like pussy.

I remember my first part time job....

Also, nothing worse than people having a dick-measuring contest over who's spending the most time at work.

"Man, had to stay 10 hours at work, all week, finally a day off!"

"That's nothing bro, I'm putting in 90 hours a week, like real men should"

"You pussy, I literally haven't been home for six days now, I just sleep under the desk and shower at the gym"

Unless you're 50+ or are completely financially independent, don't work 40. The minimum you should be working is 50, and anywhere up to 60 is sustainable in the long run

This is funny. If you are losing sharpness or purpose coming to a lower working hour job, then it's either your fucking own problem for not taking initiatives and doing meaningful work, or you exited into a shitty job. There are plenty of opportunities with lower hours that don't require you to work countless hours.

Try not to jerk off more than twice a day.

When you guys are older and / or actually have real skills and talent, you'll realize that it's not about hours, but rather, results. If you could get the same results in half the time, why wouldn't you? If you can't figure out what to do with the free time, that's pretty scary. The ones who "get it" try to figure out how to earn more while working less, not more. Then you get to choose how to spend that extra time. Some choose to apply it back to work and make 2X or 3X. Others volunteer or start new businesses. Others develop deep hobbies, travel, etc. Regardless, why wouldn't you want the choice?

35-50 and couldn't ask for anything better. Get home at a decent time then go out or cook dinner for the lady and wrap up the evening with a heavy lift.. I'm more than content. Curious where thebrofessor falls on this one

My father was a top executive of Kansas City Life Insurance in the 1970s. His philosophy was that if you can't do your work in 40 hours then you're not working hard enough. That's not true for all jobs, but for most jobs if you can't do your work in 40 it's because you're dicking around.

Right now, I'm working my f*cking ass off doing about 42-43 hours per week. I get a ton of work done.

Currently at uni: 20 hours of lecture + 20 hours of personal work. Life is not boring, just find a passion on the side to do from 5 pm onward and before going to the office at 9am. For me, I am doing intensive triathlon training. All the free time allowed me gain a competitive level and to compete at the UK Championships.

All else equal you should be trying to make more money in less time.

If you feel bored after working 40 hours a week, then you should find a side hustle/hobby/part time degree program or something.

Between friends, girlfriend, sleeping 8 hours a night, going to the gym every day, playing sports, and pursuing my other hobbies--40-50 hours a week is plenty of work.

It's quite amazing, actually. Plenty of time to workout 4x a week, cook dinner everyday, time for other hobbies etc.

Best part is because I only work 40 hours, the weeks fly by and I don't dread Monday morning like I used to in IB.

You couldn't pay me double to work double the hours. Just not worth it to me... working 60-80 hours on the regular is extremely unhealthy.

Awesome. Actually work 1000-1600 on the days I'm at the office. When I'm on a business trip, I book an extra two days if it's a new location. I work non-stop on the days I'm there for work, so I have two days left to explore the city. I don't have a normal schedule, but it's something like this:

Mon, Tue, Wed: 10-4 Thurs, Fri: Work up to Friday night Sat, Sun: Free/Fly back (leave Saturday night if I'm in EU)

You get to eat ass the 128 hours you aren’t working

Pretty boring tbh. I work around 45 hours but I would love to be working much more because its typically more demanding roles that require this. Luckily though I am able to fit in a good gym session every day and study for professional qualifications whilst applying for other jobs and fit in martial arts training throughout the week.

I can't remember the last time I actually worked that much for my day/career job. I bet it'd get boring and I'd feel like a chump making other people money

Depends on what you do with your time. I personally think the proper equilibrium is a bit higher than 40 hours because I like working and might struggle to meaningfully fill that much free time, but I have friends who work at tech firms where they genuinely work 9-5, and they do awesome stuff outside of work. I also have friends who work 60 in consulting but waste away all of their time doing drugs and watching tv and complain that they have way too much free time. It's all individual and what you make of it.

In FP&A and do 40-45. It’s so boring but I was fortunate enough to land a position on the board of a local nonprofit and spend the remainder of my free time reading about O&G.

I use to work in banking and now work in a corporate gig. The biggest thing I’ve found is that bankers coming to corporate can’t stop chasing the carrot, everyone still wants to be a BSD and get validation. It’s like everyone forgot that they only did banking so they could “chill” throughout the rest of their lives. I blame shows like Billions for making all these people think they can all be hot shot hedge fund managers.

Newsflash: Most people in banking will revert to the mean. I’m sorry, it’s just life.

For me, not so much about the amount of hours, but it's the flexibility. Within reason, I can come and go based on my schedule, have 25 days off, can work from home no problem if calendar permits, and have a significant amount of autonomy. The balance is really great, esp when you start to factor in expanding the family

probably feels pretty nice, but I'd never know

I just left a job where I was working 35-40 hours a week (35 w/summer Fridays, 40 rest of the year). Worst week I ever had was ~45 hours. I don't think you can judge a job based solely on the hours alone. Personally, I'd love to always work 35-40 hours a week. I have a very active social and personal life and always found ways to make use of the extra time, be it gym, reading, dates, dinners, TV, beers with friends, etc. From that perspective, it was fucking awesome. However, a lot of jobs that provide that kind of work week lack other things like challenge, upside, and intellectual stimulation. My perfect job would be one where I was mentally stimulated, was rewarded for high performance, and still got me out by 5/530 with no weekend work. Those are very hard to find, so I ended up moving to a new job with slightly longer hours (45-50 per week and more travel) because it compensates for that in other ways.

What’s it like? Pretty sweet actually. Gives me plenty of time to do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, learn languages and study philosophy all while having an interesting job that pays well.

Sure I’ll never earn the mega bucks meaning that I have to drink Four Roses Single Barrel rather than Pappy, smoke Monte Cristo’s instead of Cohibas, ski in Meribel rather than Courcheval and drive a Mercedes rather than a Porsche. Also my commute to work is 10 minutes longer and I only have four bedrooms rather than 5 but the trade-offs seem worth it to me.

I realised early that other things in life interested me more than accumulating vast sums of money. You still need to have things you want to achieve though and I still value my career.

At the end of the day Einstein worked in a patent office and Kafka worked as an insurance clerk. I spend 40 hours a week in the office but spend about 60-80 hours a week total working towards the things I want to achieve, I think that’s the key factor.