How Many Hours Should I Work?

So this is a hot-button issue for many people. I',m by any means not trying to be preachy and say what's right or what's wrong, this is just some of my perspectives on the matter.  Many people don't like to work more than 6h and thats fine. Given the level of execution I like to play I really think I need more hours. Working as a consultant you really do not have holidays or day offs, you work you get to pay, do not work dont get paid. Even as you get raises and progress in your career as consultant hours will always be a thing. I have that. You easily could call me a workaholic, a victim of the system, or simply someone who gets things done. I'm not saying that people who work fewer hours get fewer things done. Every one was a different moment and whatever works best for you it might not work for me at all or vice-versa. So do not see this as a workaholic-apology. At the end of the day what matters is: (A) Are you getting things done?, (B) Are you healthy or sustainable?, (C) Are you happy in the long run?.  So for today's post, I want to share mo opinions on this matter and also a short video I made. So Let's get started.

 IMHO the issue is not the hours

Working a lot(+10 or +12 hours) IMHO is not a problem at all. Especially if you are doing cool stuff and get paid. For me the issue is getting stressed, there is no money in the world that can pay stress. Working on a toxic project or environment context, 1h is too much already so, of course, you dont want to do more than 6h or 8h. It's okay to go home early and have a life. Working more hours also does not prevent you to have a life.

Hard work pays off

I really believe the only way to ship and growth in your career is with hardworking. I dont think hard work can be done with few hours of practice per day. As engineers, we are knowledgeable workers but we are doing constant discovery of new tools, processes, practices, and approaches. There is lots of interruption at the office-space in sense of meetings, noise, and bad team-comunication anti-patterns in general. Few people claim they time back and often when people do it this is sawed as bad comunication or bad behavior. These factors also change this equation a lot. Several times engineers cannot be engineers. I really like to work, I dont like to get stress, I don't think anyone does.

Video



Cheers,
Diego Pacheco


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