80 Hour Work Weeks are Hard - Unless You're Having Fun
Saw a pair of postings this evening that talk about the change in
the workplace, having to kill ourselves to compete with India et al. I
agree with both points ...
- Tom
Peters holds that having to compete against motivated, "hungry" (for
advancement) folks will force us all to work long and hard -
his point is that it might be longer and harder than we are
comfortable with.
- Sure, but if your work is your passion and fun, you'll be
surprised how many hours you can put in and not feel stressed.
Now, I will admit, personal experience says that a sustained
(like, over a year or more) average of 65 hours a week is tough,
and peaks of 80-hour weeks get a bit stressful - just from the
physicality of it. However, I see many folks at work burning too
much energy on the wrong things; even if you are working 30-hour
weeks, if you see 50% of that effort "wasted", then anyone would
feel burnt out. Know your goals
and objectives, focus your effort on those things, don't sweat the
inevitable other stuff that falls by the wayside (even if others
keep nagging you about it), and long hours are no-brainers.
- To me, Evelyn
Rodriguez basically is saying that long hours for the sake of long
hours is a waste - and there is power and opportunity in "creative
laziness"
- Right on - focus on the correct priorities, and
definitely make time for the fun. Note above I said sustained
65-hour weeks with 80-hour peaks.
- I'm also a huge believer in the paradox of the hard working
lazy guy - that's me. I am always looking for ways to automate
tasks, and I'm not just talking about backups and defrags. This
fascination with maximizing the tools of my trade also allows me
to keep my programming fingers in the pie, something I probably
couldn't rely on to feed my face (too boring, trending towards low
pay, too competitive) but certainly something I need to maintain
some facility with, just so I know when the contractors are
pulling my leg.