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How many hours per week do you work on average?
Just interested to see what hours others are putting in.
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35 Replies
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I now try and pace myself a bit better than I used to. Up until last September I was going at 20 hours a day. Not seeing the wife and kids and thinking "I can’t go until the jobs done!" Then bang! Had a heart attack. Made me realize there is more to life than the job and what isn’t done today can be done tomorrow. But like Mr. Normington and Mr. Childs have stated on here many times if you can’t make it pay doing normal hours you’re doing something wrong. And I was.
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That’s a pretty good point Karl. Only problem is what you determine as making it is.
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I think the problem with one man bands like me, to do quotes, artwork, invoicing, banking, statements, followup, deliveries and other ancillary stuff, 40 hrs a week is just not enough time to do everything.
I’ve got down to a situation that I do the bulk of my physical work in the normal working day, but I do my artwork, at home at night generally. I do my quotes in the evening before I go home.
With working from home in the evening, I accomplish a lot more as the phones don’t ring. I’m also able to see the family and ‘be there’ when the kids want to have a chat.
I have dad that does bits and pieces, but at 72 and in poor health, that is really so he feels that he is contributing more than anything else.
He and mum do my local deliveries, and clean the office and do the bins.
I’ve gone to using couriers for the bulk of my deliveries though, as I can justify a charge. When I used to deliver, it took a lot out of my ‘earning’ day, and clients felt it should have been a free service.
For what it costs me to put it on a local courier for $8, it frees up my time to earn better money.
That said, 60 or 70 hours a week is pretty standard for me.
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quote Karl Williams:I now try and pace myself a bit better than I used to.Posted at 3.10am 😮 You still have much to learn Grasshopper. 😀
But seriously, yes, my opinion is still that we should all be able to earn a reasonable living inside a forty hour week. If we can’t, then why do it? Better surely to get a job in local government and let somebody else have all the anguish. And the pensions are better.
Jason, it’s all down to the individual but, for me, assuming that the advantages of running my own business more or less equal the disadvantages, then I have made it if I can earn a little bit more than I could command in the job market.
So, forty hours to do earn a decent living, then any additional working time needs to bring in more cash to pay for extras. Whether that’s for buying the good things in life now, or sqirreling away for later, is a personal choice. I like to think that I have chosen the middle course – spend a bit now, and keep a bit for later.
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I agree with you John. Reason we had to work so hard the last two years is because we started the business with $500 and we wanted to fast track the growth of our business. We did earn a lot more then a normal person working in a normal job but we used most of it to keep growing the business and investing. We could easily work a 40 hour week and earn more then my friends do in their jobs. I think we choose to work a lot more hours because we can see the benefit of creating something that will earn us more money later in life.
I see it as no different to, if I had chosen to work in the Accounting arena and having to start on a crappy wage just to become accredited wait 5 years and start earning good money then.
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On average 90-100 hours, over 7 days. That is between here and our pub. For example, I left here last night at 7.45pm, today I have been shopping for the pub-food only today, but I got food & booze (additional to deliveries) on Weds. So I spent 1 hour travelling to/from wholesalers, loading/unloading, sort out a few things at the pub (Bikers Rally on this weekend) and now at the shop.
Naomi tells me have n0-one to man the bar this lunch, so I may have to go back to do that. I have a mountain of work to get out today, and I shouldn’t even be on the net!Bye!! 😥
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You sound like my mum Lorraine. She is a cleaner. One time a boss took a swipe at her being a cleaner. She asked him how much he makes and then she just smiled.
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I’m down to about 70 a week between my sign and serviced apartment business at one point point about 10 years was doing 120 a week even last year was doing around 80-90 got more staff now so its a bit better! Hope to get down to 50 over the next month by taking on more staff.
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quote John Childs:quote Karl Williams:I now try and pace myself a bit better than I used to.
Posted at 3.10am 😮 You still have much to learn Grasshopper. 😀
No mate 😀 I wasn’t working…..Just relaxing. This time I didn’t have squeegee in me hand.
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Karl at that time most peeps are in bed 🙄
Lynn
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Like Karl I made myself extremely ill through working far to many hours a week and had no choice but to stop altogether which is one of the reasons that I have been away from the boards for so long.
I’m still nowhere near 100% fit again and may never be but now I have started to do a bit of work again my biggest fear is that I take on to much at one time and have a relapse.One thing I have learnt from the experience is that in most cases people are prepared to wait a while if they want you to do the job and those that aren’t prepared to wait I don’t really want as customers.
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quote Lynn:Karl at that time most peeps are in bed 🙄
Lynn
😀 That’s right Lynn, but at 3am Party People starts on Freeveiw. Like I said…..I was reeeeelllllaaaaaxxxxxing! 😀 😉
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Some very good points here – your body can only tolerate working stupid hours for so long, and sooner or later will say enoughs enough – if you’re lucky you’ll only end up seriously ill and have to take 6 or 12 months off ( during which time your business will suffer ) – if you’re unlucky….
With me it tends to vary – in a busy week I may work 40 or 50 hours maximum over 7 days, normally though it averages out to somewhere around 25 – 30 – but, that will be fairly solid working, not like people in an office who are there for 37 hours a week, but probably only do 2 hours work a day !
Work is usually fairly steady over the year, with winter and spring the busiest, then summer going quiet to average it out, and I always take a good few weeks off over Xmas and new year.
You know its getting bad when you are glad to have a few dead days so you can catch up and have a rest !
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I’ve got down to a situation that I do the bulk of my physical work in the normal working day, but I do my artwork, at home at night generally. I do my quotes in the evening before I go home.
Exactly how I work Shane. I am a one man band and a busy one at that. I like to keep the manufacture between 9 – 3 (I have to get the kids from school and then cook and clean!) and when all is quiet in the house I do my design work. Knackered a lot of the time, good job I love this job!
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Would anyone not agree though, that its no harm doing a 70+ hr week if one likes and enjoys the job….
its only when they get stressed that their health is affected?
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quote Ciaran Rigney:Would anyone not agree though, that its no harm doing a 70+ hr week if one likes and enjoys the job….
its only when they get stressed that their health is affected?thats my thoughts exactly ciaran 😉
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quote Ciaran Rigney:Would anyone not agree though, that its no harm doing a 70+ hr week if one likes and enjoys the job….
its only when they get stressed that their health is affected?
No.
Stress will play a part of course but, regardless of that, I don’t think anyone can keep up ten hours per day seven days a week indefinitely, without ill effects.
Age plays a part though. We can all probably do seventy hours for a while, but the older you get the shorter the length of time you can work silly hours.
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Stress or no stress you may feel fine doing the hours and yes you’d feel a bit tired. But the problem is inside. Your body needs rest and if you’re ignoring it like I did one day things go pop. Stress doesn’t always hit you in an aggregated form. Eating fast can be a sign that you don’t notice. Even going to the loo often can be a sign. The thing is you don’t always know the signs of stress but it’s working it’s horrible way around the body.
I was on holiday a couple of years back. Sunday morning I started doing a full english in the caravan. When I picked up a fork to turn the bacon over my hand started shaking and I drop the fork on the floor.Next minute I was on the floor and couldn’t breath. Then came the pain. My rib cage felt like it was being crushed. The reason for this so the doctors said was that because when I’m at work the body is racing to get the job done and so is the heart. When I was relaxing it was like stopping a car from speeding.
Last June I went downhill. I couldn’t stay awake. Driving was impossible.
Then I felt ok for a bit. In the September I was sat in the car scratching a scratchcard. Then came the central pain in the chest was so bad I blacked out. Next thing I know I was in the QMC.
And only yesterday I was lifting some boxes out of the car and thought I’d pulled a muscle in my back. The pain traveled up my back slowly then round my rib cage. Had to sit down for a while as I felt like cr@p.
For some you can still slow down and not worry before things start going wrong. For me, well I wish I’d listened to others warning me about the hours I used to do but I carried on regardless. Im paying for it now.
The fact is you’re only human and not a machine and at some point something has to give. Sorry to yarn on but hopefully just one of you may take a note and do yourself a favour. You’re a long time dead. 😉 -
Hi Karl
Whilst we are on "True Life" stories, I will tell you mine. Even my family , Geoff included, haven’t heard all of this, cos I don’t want to be a worry!
We took over the pub lease on the Thursday before August bank holiday 2007. We had sold our house next door to the pub in Jan ’07, moved into holiday accommodation down the road, fell out with my best mate who’s mum owned the complex (dogs, noise, too many people in one place, etc etc) moved into caravans on the pub field for 5 months-one of the wettest summers! Mud everywhere.
Landlord raking in all the summer trade money, whilst keeping us on the field (and paying him rent!) and then completed as above, 5pm Thurs b4 BH August. Really landed us in it, but we coped!
Luckily our daughters already worked in the pub, or we would have been really stuffed.
Anyway, long & short-sorry, from now on!
23rd Dec had a bad (strange) pain in my neck whilst I was in bed, worried about it all weekend then saw the GP as an emergency Monday (Christmas Eve, I think) had a hopital appt. that Thurs,
Treadmill, all the usual tests etc., the pain in my throat I had thought for years was asthma, turned out to be angina.
Angiogram showed a blocked main artery.
Now taking 8 different tablets a day.
Now can’t walk more than 50 yards in one go without either getting angina or pains in my legs.
Still working day & night, in the sign shop and the pub,
and have a letter to make an appt. with my cardiologist, which I have put off now for over 3 weeks.Oh, and I am overweight, drink too much and take no exercise.
Moral?
Some people cannot be helped.
But at least I did give up the night job (Nursing.)
as a PS: I was 46 in Dec. 2007, now 48.
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Proves my point.
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I think I’m going to start scheduling short weekend holidays every 3 months after reading all of this.
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quote Jason Xuereb:I think I’m going to start scheduling short weekend holidays every 3 months after reading all of this.
Thats what I do Jason. Every month I spend a full weekend with the family… all my phone calls go to message bank…. Every couple of months, the kids stay a night with their grandparents, and the wife and I do something on our own…. movies… shopping… restaurant… basically whatever the wife wants, I do. We may even stay overnight in a posh motel… but we just relax and take it easy.
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Something I have found useful as well is to set a time to stop work every day, and stick to it no matter how much you have on, as if you were working for someone else.
Doing this means you force yourself to stop working and do something else – even if it is going out doing some gardening, housework etc… the important thing is that you’re not doing the same thing you have been doing for the rest of the week, and if you just chill out and watch TV or listen to some music and read the paper, even better.
Lets be honest here – none of us are performing heart surgery, or fixing emergency gas leaks – we are making stickers and signs, and VERY FEW of these are actually so urgent that the customer cant wait a couple of days extra if it means you dont have to end up working silly hours to get a job done.
Personally I have always seen work as a means to an end – once the mortgage is paid off in another couple of years, I’ll probably look to either cut down the amount of work I do drastically, or even change over to something else that doesnt take up too many hours.
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quote Jason Xuereb:I think I’m going to start scheduling short weekend holidays every 3 months after reading all of this.
A wise move Jason.
You may remember that my New Year’s Resolution for last year was to have one holiday per month. Fair enough, maybe that was a bit excessive, but perhaps, after reading this thread, you can understand why I like my breaks.
Back to the beginning of this thread; you work long, hard hours because you want to build your business. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it’s exactly what I was doing at your age. But I hope you won’t be doing it in thirty five years time.
Lorraine,
You almost had me believing you, but you spoilt it with an obvious fib right at the end. There’s no way you are 48 years old.
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quote Karl Williams:I was sat in the car scratching a scratchcard. Then came the central pain in the chest was so bad I blacked out. Next thing I know I was in the QMC.😮 Scary stuff, but did you win owt on the scratchcard? 😉
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quote Gwaredd Steele:quote Karl Williams:I was sat in the car scratching a scratchcard. Then came the central pain in the chest was so bad I blacked out. Next thing I know I was in the QMC.
😮 Scary stuff, but did you win owt on the scratchcard? 😉
Yup! 2 nights courtesy of the NHS. 😀 😉
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i’m not sure how many hours a week i do, i guess when quiet it can be as little as 20 but, when i have lots on it can be as much as 70-80, i just like to get the job jobbed!
I am better at getting out of here on time, usually i set myself a limit of 7pm, if the mrs is working though, i’ll sit down here til she comes home at 11pm, that would make a 15hr day!
that said, my own health isn’t brilliant, it often makes me tired at odd times (despite maybe getting 8-10hrs sleep) which leads to unexpected siesta’s in my chair – several times i’ve woken up with a keyboard imprinted on my forehead!
finally booked some dates for the bone and ct scans i need, these are firm now as the consultant reckons it needs checking and could be more serious than first thought, and the fact i’ve bumped them for the past couple of months! trouble is that i have to go to hammersmith in london, normally an early app’t so it’s 6am train, tube and buses there and back, a whole day out and £40+ for the privelage of using our fine public transport system!
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Gulp! Just re-read what I put on this morning, didn’t mean to bare my soul, or sound so sorry for myself, although it is all true (and I am 48, you flatterer Mr Childs…)
quote Hugh Potter:finally booked some dates for the bone and ct scans i need, these are firm now as the consultant reckons it needs checking and could be more serious than first thoughtI’m sorry to hear of your worries Hugh, I hope you get on OK.
Lorraine
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quote Lorraine Clinch:Gulp! Just re-read what I put on this morning, didn’t mean to bare my soul, or sound so sorry for myself, although it is all true (and I am 48, you flatterer Mr Childs…)quote Hugh Potter:finally booked some dates for the bone and ct scans i need, these are firm now as the consultant reckons it needs checking and could be more serious than first thought
I’m sorry to hear of your worries Hugh, I hope you get on OK.
Lorraine
thanks Lorraine, I think the Dr’s are more concerned than I, I’ve lived with it for the past 10-12 years or so, most of the time it doesn’t affect me as far as i know, just little things associated with it.. tiredness and a multitude af what i consider to be ‘minor annoyances’! I mustn’t grumble though, worst case would leave me requiring lots of new (well, used) parts! and i’m nowhere near that stage! hopefully! lol.
actually, the falling asleep at impromptu times is less annoying than having to pay £50 to get there when all i really need to do is become a job-shy layabout and it’d all be free!
😀
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They say hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance?
I’m going camping in the Naukluft park this weekend. About 120 000 square kilometres, and less than 200 people in the park this time of year. Can’t wait!!
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I’m still waiting for Normington to come along and tell us that he is ninety years old and still does 120 hours per week, with only a half day off at Christmas. 😛
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quote John Childs:I’m still waiting for Normington to come along and tell us that he is ninety years old and still does 120 hours per week, with only a half day off at Christmas. 😛sssshhhhhhhhhhhh John…..he’s having his nap! 😀
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I found that when I first set up Signscape, I was working 18hr days, 7 days a week, but one of the Directors (Jeremy) pointed out that I wasn’t spending time with my family, or getting enough exercise (he wasn’t around much for his daughters early years).
I have had to discipline myself with exercise in the morning, work from about 8am – 6pm (latest), back home spend time with my daughter, my wife starts work at 7.30 – 9.30 (Physio) when I can spend some time on the computer doing whatever is needed. Try to work less at weekends. The time management took me a while, but it is paying dividends with family and work colleagues alike – and I haven’t felt as fit and happy as this for a while. I also seem to get more done now!?
Hamish
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Hi All
Its not often ill post but just taking 5 Min’s out for lunch, This is a subject Ive been thinking of loads lately as the hours keep mounting up, of late on a good few occasions I’ve been in as early as 5am and not getting home till between 10 and 12 at night , But this is not normal i like to be in for 8am and would normally work till 8 in the evening, I’m am at present working on my own after having to sack a guy who was good at his job but his mouth was just a bit to much and a temperament to match but i now get my brother in for a hand when it gets top busy, its a job i love but find i am spending to many hours here and missing my kids growing up i also have a building company which when i was solely doing the building and excavation i was always home for 5 or so. i was divorced about 18 month ago and i have 4 children which 3 live with me and the other with her boyfriend so there is not much me time left and i also have a very expensive Hobie (motorcycle racing /my 2 boys and myself and my nephew) so needs must and all that stuff but have just booked a Caribbean cruise to get away from it all for a couple of weeks and let my head think Ive been working hard for a good reason and not because I’m to slow ha ha -
I’ve been running my own business now for about 2,5 years. And I’ve been going at it in the same speed for the last year and half, that is about 60 hours in the office and all the rest of my time of enjoying life but constantly thinking about work and work related stuff. So one could say that I’m working constantly… that’s at least what my girlfriend tells me all the time.
I thought that this was something normal for all business starting up . That this was the price one had to pay for starting up you business, until you got it running as you wanted.
But it’s not until recently that I’ve noticed that this path will only take me on one direction, a brick wall. So I’ve decided to change this, I’ve incorporated some new rules that I have to live buy, if I want my business and more important me to survive.
I get to the office at 7 am and work until 17-18 p.m.. I plan my meetings with customers and always leave some empty space in my calendar for all the unpredicted things that pop up during the day that need to be solved. This has been a big stress relief for me, seeing that before my schedule was packed.
I plan my weeks in advanced so that me and the guys know what the need to do.
I make sure that we have our pauses at 9 am, lunch at 12 p.m. and another pause a 15 p.m..
I try to excercise at least 2 times every week and do stuff with my girlfriend, and when I’m home I try not to think of work.
Of course some times I need to do extras, like today I had to print some work for tomorrow. But it’s far less that I used to do before.
To sum it up I found my problems to be mostly related to poor planing! I’m not the world’s best planner yet, but I’m getting there. Plus it’s much more easier to fix something when you know what’s wrong.Hope this helps someone out there.
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