4 ms·

"Today, proletarianized white-collar workers are required to work 50-60 hours a week." This sounds barbaric to the ears of an European salaryman.

dijit 12y ago
definitely, I work 45 hours a week an I'm already drained, I can't imagine working more.. work to live, don't live to work.
- robhack 12y ago
  European here, 35 hours and I'm drained. I'm thinking about negotiating fewer hours when I have more seniority.
  - 67726e 12y ago
    I wonder though how many of those increased hours go into actual work. I'm sure some amount does, but how much time do you think the typical European office workers spends on a Reddit or Facebook as opposed to an American one. As an American, I've worked at a "good" company in terms of expectations of hours and "bad" where one would want to come early and stay late (and make it known on the team chat) if only for appearances. I can say anecdotally that my amount of time slacking off increased with my time spent in-office at the second company, and from walking by, it seemed the case with others as well. Honestly, what with software being salaried and exempted from any overtime, what incentive do I really have to kick out an extra couple hours a day?
savanaly 12y ago
It's also not confirmed by my experience as an American white collar worker.
- enraged_camel 12y ago
  Did you seriously just provide anecdotal evidence to counter a statistic?
  - oh_sigh 12y ago
    Note that there is no source for the statistic, and I don't know anyone who works 10-12 hour days
  - leereeves 12y ago
    > Today, proletarianized white-collar workers are required to work 50-60 hours a week. How is that a statistic? It's simply an overly general claim without any supporting evidence.
    - Roboprog 12y ago
      I worked at a place like that a bit over 10 years ago. I finally came to my senses, and quit. (should have found another job first, but I was just too drained, and needed to do some professional skill set retraining anyway) Most places aren't like that, though. More like 40 +/- a few hours. Not that I would complain if the US went to a 35 hour a week European style regime.

dijit 12y ago

definitely, I work 45 hours a week an I'm already drained, I can't imagine working more.. work to live, don't live to work.

robhack 12y ago
European here, 35 hours and I'm drained. I'm thinking about negotiating fewer hours when I have more seniority.
- 67726e 12y ago
  I wonder though how many of those increased hours go into actual work. I'm sure some amount does, but how much time do you think the typical European office workers spends on a Reddit or Facebook as opposed to an American one. As an American, I've worked at a "good" company in terms of expectations of hours and "bad" where one would want to come early and stay late (and make it known on the team chat) if only for appearances. I can say anecdotally that my amount of time slacking off increased with my time spent in-office at the second company, and from walking by, it seemed the case with others as well. Honestly, what with software being salaried and exempted from any overtime, what incentive do I really have to kick out an extra couple hours a day?

savanaly 12y ago

It's also not confirmed by my experience as an American white collar worker.

enraged_camel 12y ago
Did you seriously just provide anecdotal evidence to counter a statistic?
- oh_sigh 12y ago
  Note that there is no source for the statistic, and I don't know anyone who works 10-12 hour days
- leereeves 12y ago
  > Today, proletarianized white-collar workers are required to work 50-60 hours a week. How is that a statistic? It's simply an overly general claim without any supporting evidence.
  - Roboprog 12y ago
    I worked at a place like that a bit over 10 years ago. I finally came to my senses, and quit. (should have found another job first, but I was just too drained, and needed to do some professional skill set retraining anyway) Most places aren't like that, though. More like 40 +/- a few hours. Not that I would complain if the US went to a 35 hour a week European style regime.