To ask, how hard do you work at your job?

[Countrymouse1]

Curious as to how hard you find your job?

Do you do a lot of unpaid extra hours, work through lunch? Is your workload manageable?

What is the most stressful thing about your role?

I am going through a rough time with my work situation, and am eternally grateful to MNetters for just being there with me when I was panicking (a LOT) about it all this morning and over the last few days. I am sorting that with my doctor and going to find a new job. I need to do some serious thinking about what move will be right for me, my confidence is a bit low, and want to make a good decision and see what the norm is for levels of job stress.

I'm full time in a very physically and mentally challenging job (NHS). It's draining, but we put our patients first and regularly go without breaks or end up working unplanned overtime. We do however get paid overtime or if you're lucky, you can take TOIL.

Love my job (most days) though. I worked hard to get where I am - late starter- and feel proud of what I have acheived.

My contract is for 32.5 hours a week. I work somewhere around 60 hours a week. I am a teacher and yep the stupidly long hours makes me less effective at the actually teaching bit.

I have to admit giving a hollow laugh to hearmyroar. Every teacher I know works significantly beyond their contracted hours and if you ever try to say anything, then you just get "professionalism" thrown back at you.

I'm in FE so slightly different but am contracted to work 37.5 hours a week, of which I spend about 25 hours per week in the classroom. This leaves me 12 hours a week for everything else.

I teach 8 different classes a week, and I am left with 1.5 hours per week per class to do the following:

• plan two lessons (see most classes twice)
• write / organise resources for the lesson
• mark essays / student work
• respond to emails about students
• record and track student data electronically

Plus all the other generic work that needs doing. With up to 25 students in a class, it is not possible to mark 25 essays in an hour. That will easily take me 4/5 hours. It takes the best part of an hour just to record their data! I get an average of 20 emails a day. It can take my lunch hour just to sort out my emails.

Term time, I work long hours six days a week, sometimes seven. Holidays I relax a little more, and tend not to work in the daytime but will work every evening once the children have gone to sleep. This keeps it manageable for me. But long hours is not just the norm, it is necessary to survive!

I'm fairly high up in a corporate, so I work hard, I also work the 4 hours I spend commuting (trains and busses) and I typically work through lunch, but I will no longer work weekends or overtime unless it is really needed

I put in a lot of hard graft through my 20's and worked all the hours I could, and if I wasn't working I was self studying to progress my career.

MissMill you are a teacher then yes?
PurpleHonesty Yes, I am, but I didn't want to say so, because we get told off for moaning on here if we say what we do. I can clearly see from this thread that many other occupations work equally stupid hours (not that I ever thought otherwise!).

My week is 37.5 hours and I routinely work late without pay a couple of times a week to go over and beyond because I love the job. If I have designated overtime to do I get TOIL and there is a great give and take culture where I work. No one expects to do the bare minimum and our efforts are appreciated. There's never hassle about doctor's appointments or similar. I try to take the 30 minute lunch breaks where possible but sometimes it isn't. I begin work again at the end of the day most days as I'm also self employed. I usually get home for about 9-10pm.

Another academic here. We have to work hard but with parenthood I have had to get better at prioritising and time management and learn to minimise work bleeding over into family time in the evenings. I probably work 40-45 hours / week on average throughout the year but it is flexible (hence being on internet with cup of tea at 11am!) and ramps up during term time. I take about half an hour for lunch but often have it at my desk.

One thing I am ruthless about is taking all my annual leave. One year I didn't and nobody cared or noticed so now I make sure to take it all.

I work in a heavily regulated, safety critical role in which breaks and time between shifts are mandated by industry regulations. There is no option to have fewer than 12 hours between shifts but by mutual agreement we can work through breaks although it's rare that we're asked and even rarer that we agree - if there were an incident after someone worked through a break they're likely to be hung out to dry.

I work shifts, a 4 day week which is averaged over 13 weeks to be 35 hours. In addition we have compulsory Sunday overtime approx 17 weeks a year but if you can find someone else to do it, or it falls at the start or end of time off, you don't have to do it. First hour of unplanned overtime in a week is unpaid, beyond that every minute is paid.

During my shifts I can have completely manic periods or even days where I'm 'on' all the time, other days it's much more relaxed.

I used to have a professional job where I rarely switched off. I logged in from home all the time and used to stress over the job when at home/on holiday although in fairness that was partly just my personality, I had a fab boss.

I work for a charity, fairly senior role. Contracted for 35hrs a week, the business comes in waves, we are busy Sept - March and quiet April - Sept. I work 35hrs in the quiet times and probably around 60hrs in the busy periods, never take a lunch break though. I try and limit working at home but sometimes will do a few hours.
Like ilovesooty, we get TOIL, and they are very flexible.

I'm 0.6 FTE but shortly about to return to full time work as I am routinely doing a full time job on part time pay. If I worked my contracted hours only I'd be done halfway through the year but that is par for the course with my managerial role. I rarely get a free lunch break but again that is my choice to do extras in that time.

Would I change what I do? Definitely not, although the last person in charge nearly made me think about leaving.

One thing I am ruthless about is taking all my annual leave. One year I didn't and nobody cared or noticed so now I make sure to take it all

I absolutely do this now (also academic), one of the minor perks of the job is that we don't get school holidays but do get slightly more than the average 21 days or whatever, so I do take a week at Easter, Christmas and then I work part-time in the summer over the hols which saves on childcare and is also more relaxing. I then work weekends/evenings where necessary in the busier times.

The best thing about this job is the flexibility, the worst is the mountains of paperwork, I am betting most public sector workers would say the same.

Yes nippey - charity worker here too. I used to earn far more in teaching but was far less valued.

I'm a lecturer with a lot of management responsibilities, it's not unusual for me to still be working late at night during busy times, I don't have long holidays due to the management side but I have some control over my time when things are not so busy. I work quite a few saturdays (think Open days etc) and never seem to manage to take the TOIL. I used to work in industry and reckon my old contemporaries are earning at least 2-3 times what I now earn and are knocking off at 5.30pm.

Wouldn't swap it though, I love my job and I don't do the extra hours for the 'bosses' but for the sake of the students - which is common among those in education and why successive govts have managed to shaft us, pay and pension wise

You have breaks. Im lucky to find time for the toilet. I work for the nhs. Wouldnt swap my job for anything!

Ah yes! That was me a few years ago. I gave it my all and more. I started early, I stayed late. I busted my gut, tried to do everything and please everyone and it still wasn't enough. I told them time and time again but they didn't believe me. So I pissed of out of it left them too it. They realised how much I did when I stopped doing it. I'm a SAHM now and I'm poor but happy.

I have a permanent contract for 0.5 FTE, but am "commissioned in" on a freelance basis for my remaining 0.5+. The upshot of this is that I work full-time with overtime, but only have formal part-time "benefits" (my maternity pay is based on my permanent 0.5, for example).

As I am a specialist in a small team that focuses on major projects with tight deadlines in an environment with poor workflow management (which is innate to the institution I work within and will never change; they commission my department at the very last minute), I end up working stupid hours (12 hour days are common) and I can get very stressed.

No matter what I do, I cannot balance my workflow because of the federal nature of the institution and its departments, and I have burnt out about four times in the last eight years. One of the problems is that I can't really afford to have an "off-day"; I need to be cerebrally at 90 percent or above on a daily basis to solve the never-ending stream of new problems that need solutions.

The positive side to all this, and the reason I have not left, is that I have an incredible amount of freedom and creativity in my job. So long as I produce something "good", I can go about that production in which ever way I want.

I also have a lot of freedom in terms of working from home and the hours I spend in the office. I really get on with my main colleague, and I am totally accepted for the rather non-conventional person I am.

That latter point is really rather important to me, to be honest. I have worked in more hardcore corporate mentality environments and it just doesn't work.

That said, I am under-paid for what I do. If my boss had to commission an external agency to do my work, he would have to pay a good 75% more than he pays me in salary.

It's a compromise. Sometimes, it feels like my work takes the piss; sometimes, it doesn't so much.

When I worked I did about 75 hours a a week but would not count myself as a hard worker. Certainly never worked in my holidays and tried to do the minimum I could whilst doing a good enough job.

I had periods when I worked quite hard and times when I did bugger all which probably makes me someone who overall does not work any harder than the average Joanna Bloggs.

A good 12-15 hours of my week was working at home at a time that suited me with decent coffee and nice surroundings as well.

I was quite well known for saying no or if asked to do something new or additional I would ask where the time was coming from.

Just musing on this some more...last week my child was sick. I didn't havce to think twice about leaving to pick him up. There was no question of how I'd make the time up. So yes, I work hard - like a previous poster said coast for some days then full pelt for the others - but I think it's much easier to work hard when you feel it's two way and that you're appreciated.

I have a senior professional job. I am expected to work as long as it takes to get the job done and I also have a billable hours target of approx 30 hours a week (6 hours a day). However much of what I do is not billable so a day with 6 billable hours in it is probably at least a 9 hour day. I don't start early - 9.30 is usual - but I do often work till 8, 9 or 10pm and someimes into the small hours.

I never feel switched off from the job unless asleep- either worry or the 24 hour Blackberry messages - most of them are not important but I have to read it in case one comes through that is. I find it extremely hard to be efficient and to keep track of my time properly and to juggle the hundreds of different demands on my time, none of which follow a set pattern and can be done on "automatic" mode. I get things done, but often at the last minute and by cutting corners (not to the extent of negligence, though). I sometimes just think "sod this" and go home at 6 leaving things undone. Sometimes nobody even notices, sometimes the shit hits the fan.

I have to be very self directed and it's all about new challenges, personal development and bringin on other people and I am not good like this. To be honest I am pretty lazy. I am probably the shit manager that many of you in the above posts have complained about. I didn't really aspire to this job - I was promoted to support someone else who so desperately wanted me to be the right person for the job that he convinced me that I was, and told me that I was ambitious, when actually I am not. However I have never actually admitted this to anyone. I don't identify with the people who are successful in my profession, I am not motivated by the same things that they are (money, prestige and power).

I often wonder how it can be that my reward for working hard at school and being clever has been a daily grind of stress and worry. Could easily survive on half the salary so I need to leave and do something that fits me better. However I worry that I'll be lazy in any job and am too chicken to let down those who put their trust in me to do this.

I often wonder how it can be that my reward for working hard at school and being clever has been a daily grind of stress and worry. So very true.

I have never held a job where I haven't felt overstretched and stressed. I wouldn't know how it feels to have a normal work life balance. I know this is taking its toll on my health too. I'm trying to reassess and take a step back as of now but it is very hard. People expect a lot of me and, as an earlier poster said, in teaching it is particularly emotive as if you don't do the extra, you feel you are letting down the students. It's shit - there should be directed time within our hours to do the things that we know bring them on, not as an emotionally charged 'extra'.

I do wonder what would happen if people really started to work to rule - only doing the hours contracted in every profession. The problem will always be that some will go above and beyond - as I have in the past willingly - and then a culture that it is expected grows around it and if you don't do it, you are looked down on. For example, if I leave school at 3, it is frowned on even though it is the end of my contracted day. It doesn't matter that I then do another 4 hours + at home!

I have 2 jobs, neither are highly skilled or well paid.

I don't work very hard at job 1 (full time), I do everything I can and my employers are very happy with me but it's a new business and not busy yet. I need to be on the premises all day everyday so so tied to what I can do. I hope it takes off and our plans work out, so I can work really hard at it and reap the rewards. I do watch a lot of Amazon instant videos in the afternoons, but it can be boring.

Job 2 is very badly paid (NMW) and I work very hard, it's physical, can be stressful and the hours are completely antisocial.

yes I work hard , it's full on

when I get home I have to sit in silence with my cup of tea and relish the peace

To answer the OP - I work fairly hard at my job (all day, eves, weekends etc) BUT I resolved a couple of years ago that I will not feel guilty if I do not have the stamina to do something that other people do. Some of my colleagues work until midnight/1am regularly and I am simply not able to do that. For quite a while I felt guilty and as though I was 'shirking' but we can only each of us do what we can manage, and I just don't have enough energy and stamina to work so late and refuse to feel guilty about that (if that makes any sense!).

I often wonder how it can be that my reward for working hard at school and being clever has been a daily grind of stress and worry.

Yep ... I wonder that too.

I don't work at the moment (sahm) but in the past I have worked in a job with a stupidly demanding workload. I was young and naive and like an idiot I allowed my bosses to heap more and more work on me, always with a promise that it would pay off in the long term, there would be promotion opportunities if I did it etc. In the end, my every waking hour was taken up either with work or with job hunting for a less miserable job. At one point I remember thinking that the only option open to me was suicide, as I was unable to find another job and my frantic begging with my bosses for a reduced workload fell on deaf ears. The managers might in theory have worked long hours too, but a lot of it was actually two hour lunch meetings in nice restaurants, and after work rounds of golf with other department managers for teambuilding purposes. The long hours themselves aren't always the problematic part - it's the nature of what happens in those hours. Hours of working quietly through a pile of paperwork and actually achieving something, or attending a meeting and coming away with a plan to work through is considerably less stressful very different to hours of your boss screaming in your face and a constantly ringing phone with every customer insisting that they are more important than everyone else. Even if your job involves eg travelling between different offices, it can give you a chance to unwind a little bit between tasks.

I'm like most people put the average hours in and overtime if/when needed and also slack off (MN, games for approx 20 mins per day).

To be honest if I didn't slack off I'd probably get bored with my work. as it can be quite tedious