If you have a professional job, do you work at the weekend?

[JNicholson]

I’m in a professional sector where I suspect it’s pretty much the norm to do some work at the weekend, even though it’s not officially required. But I don’t want to, and I also just don’t feel I have the stamina to - I need the rest of a full weekend. Just wondering how this compares with professional roles more broadly, and what the norm is. Do you do some work at the weekend, or take the full weekend off?

YABU - I regularly do some work at the weekend
YANBU - I take the full weekend off

I do but by choice, I love my work.

Yes, but only a brief log on to do something that is time sensitive. That's part of my role that sometimes its a need. Not to catch up though.
I have to admit I don't like it as it means im always 'on'

Nope. I work the 35 hours i'm contracted for and paid for and not a minute longer. I haven't worked past 5pm or on a weekend for over a decade, not since I became senior enough to choose my own working hours.

Reading this thread makes me realise how glad I am to have my job. I don't think any amount of money would be worth some of the awful work-life balances on this thread tbh!

I don’t unless it is extremely urgent ( I used to when I was younger) as I need the weekend to recover and reenergise for the following week ahead, I think if I regularly worked at the weekend I would get burnt out pretty quickly ……that doesn’t mean I don’t spend time thinking about issues at work and trying to find solutions though as I find it quite difficult to stop doing that.

I also think that working at the weekend can sometimes be counterproductive as you haven’t taken a proper break so that in itself can possibly have a negative effect on your performance/ productivity during the week ahead.

Architect here

Another teacher. Been in the game over 20 years and have become better at but sacrificing the whole weekend, but there really aren't enough hours in the working day or the evenings.

I only did 3 hours today,but that means I'm going to work tomorrow with loads of things I didn't get done. Managed to mark 30 essays. And I'm fast. But increasingly, sitting down to mark makes me just want to run away. I often wonder what it must be like to be like dh, who leaves work and..... that's it. He doesn't earn vastly less than me, either.

Is working outside of contracted hours not a common thing in the US or is it just not allowed in your industry

Nope. It’s been years since I worked at the weekends. In my early 30s I was doing a masters and working full time too. I’m in my 50s and senior and while I’d work at the weekends if there was a particular reason, I certainly don’t as a rule.

I don’t any more, but when I worked in a slightly different role (but in the same field) I had to be on call 24/7 and do a bit of routine work out of hours, for one week out of four, which included the weekend. I did get a very small extra standby allowance added to my salary for it though.

Nope. Am senior in a charity. V v occasionally there is an evening or weekend event but I get time back.

Generally not (above 10 mins of email checking and occasional response). But the nature of my work is there are maybe 4-6 weekends a year I work straight through as part of a string of very long hours.

Depends what you mean by professional but I work in a care home on the reception desk. They is three of us and I am the head receptionist. We work 1 weekend in three.

Yes, social work. There’s not enough days in the week to keep up with the paperwork. On average, I reckon I work 12 hours a day. We can take one toil day per month but I frequently cancel mine at the last minute.

Not anymore. I was an architect for many years, but I couldn’t sustain the long hours and weekend ask with family obligations. I’m now a senior manager in the property sector and I set very strict boundaries for work, unless they are prearranged events out of hours.

No, Social Worker here & there has been an expectation especially in children's services that you just do many more hours for free because 'you care'. I don't work in child protection & it is not my responsibility if we don't have enough staff to cover our workload. I do care & I do work hard & if I need to stay late or start early to finish a report I always take my time back.

I’m in a senior role and I never work at the weekends. I also somehow manage not to work excessive hours as the norm (not sure how really - a fairly new still tho which probably helps!)

In other similar roles I’ve preferred to work longer in the week than work at weekends if I needed. My weekends are precious!

I try to keep boundaries in place and keep working hours 9-6 most days, I’m not doing unpaid overtime if it isn’t urgent.

But, sometimes I am working on matters that are “crisis management” matters. Those require me to work weekends, and often late nights anywhere up to 11pm for 2-3 weeks.

Altogether, I probably work 6 weekends a year, and 3 periods of late nights. Which really isn’t bad for a corporate lawyer, so I can’t complain.

As an Anglican priest I worked about 80 hours a week in parish ministry, including weekends, and had just one day off during the week. Now that I'm a chaplain I still work all weekends but have one and a half days off each week, and generally do about 52 hours.

Another barrister here.

As an employed barrister in a law firm early in my career I regularly worked all hours, including weekends. After having a child I deliberately stepped away from the US law firms I had been in to a firm a tier down where the pace was slower. I’m now back at the self-employed Bar and rarely work weekends, although it can be necessary around hearings and deadlines.

Agreed, nearly 40 yrs in teaching and the Sunday scaries are real. Probably 3 hrs at least most Sundays and 2-3 hrs in the evenings on may days.

Yes, less so now that I am more senior but if there is something urgent to deal with or during busy months of the year it is the norm/expectation in my workplace. It used to be every second weekend or so, often for a full day but now more like once a month for a few hours on average, plus late evenings once or twice a week. Anyone who wasn’t prepared to do so (not every weekend/late evening but when required) would probably not last long and/or would be unable to progress.

We both work in the City. Day starts super early, on the days we work in the office we are both on 6:32am train, at my desk by 7:45am, train home 5:45pm usually.
I work late sometimes and rarely do any work over the weekend unless I’m very busy and want head start for Monday. This is all about to changed as I’m pregnant 😬😆

Husband doesn’t work work on the weekends but he is on his phone/emails 7 days a week. Due to nature of business and clients being in countries like Dubai where Sunday is a work day for example. He is also way more senior than me, it is expected that leadership is “on call”, it’s an unwritten rule in many places.

That's shift work, the OP is talking about people who do extra work in their own time outside of their contracted hours.

I agree. I think that's the reality in most professions to a greater or lesser extent, at least when you're starting out.

Similar. I’m head of change so if one of my team is implementing a project I will check in but not do work if that makes sense.

It gets to be the norm if you let it. And I have people pleasing tendencies so have to be very vigilant at work as I’ve done a lot of personal development on it.

Law here too. I did when I was younger and in the City and presenteeism was rife. Was very dog eat dog at the firm I was at.
Senior Management now in the regions and no, never. My role has switched from fee earning to Business Development and I probably work differently now - but I paid my dues as a junior and now I have a much better work life balance.
Some firms do expect weekends working and checking emails at night.
I tend to start at 8am, finish about 5.30-6.30pm and then log on and check emails about 10pm before I go to bed just to make sure nothing has blown up. It never has. Maybe have to work to midnight once or twice a year if there is a big deal on or I need to speak transatlantic. But I otherwise work pretty flexibly.

I'm good at my job, they are lucky to have me for the money they pay me and we all know that.