How many hours do you put in?

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

How hard do you work or how many hours do you put in for £75,000? Just got a promotion and I need to understand what I have left myself in for? I know there will be some on call on a rota in evening and weekends approx once every 8 weeks.

Surely that depends on the role, the sector and the employer.

I would imagine for 75k it would very time consuming. What does the job description state?

I just do my hours, I don't work weekends, I work flexi and don't have a client or public facing role so I own my diary (means I can get to apts and school stuff easily) generally I work 9-5ish, 5 days a week, some weeks more, some less (always claim or pay back what is owed)

But that is totally useless information for you because £75k is not a universal parameter of effort, some people will work twice as hard for half that amount, and vice versa.

I earn 78k & big yearly bonus, , so slightly over. I absolutely work my 'hours' plus al the additional hours required to do my job including evening, weekend and early morning travel plus the stress. Oh, the stress to meet targets, I'm v early 40s & could earn a lot more if I would work more. But hey... husband child & .... life. .!

8-6pm. I’d jump on out of hours if there was an emergency, but that wouldn’t be a regular thing. I used to work every weekend to keep my head above water but had an epiphany in January and have totally stopped!

I try to aim for about 50-60 hours a week but that puts me well behind my peers (who are child free and usually single) so I'm still behind their productivity and it shows. But I do do my hours around the DC so I work early morning, during school hours and in the evening and same 7 days a week, if they're not around I'm working, but it does mean I can do school runs and make all the events/performances they do. It does mean 0 'me' time. I never watch the Tv show properly but DH will be watching one while I catch up with work in the evenings so it's on in the background. I don't go to the gym or have any hobbies, never have a lie in or a lazy day.

I work a standard 7.5 hour day. I'm in 10/15 mins early and leave 5/10 mins late. Sometimes I do an hour or two late or do an hour in the evenings - maybe 2/3 times a month.
Also sometime entertain clients in the evening ( 3 evenings this year to date)
Earn around £130k.
It's not about the hours. I don't think high earners work many more hours.

About 50 hours a week, bit less if I have some meeting free time to get things done. I don’t weekends as it just makes me miserable!

I don't go to the gym or have any hobbies, never have a lie in or a lazy day.

For £75k? That's miserable. Not sure any amount of money would make it justifiable tbh.

I work 50 hours p/w for £35k. Does that help ?

That's such an interesting question. I've found working at that level sometimes it is about physical hours (so I'm working on average 55-60 hours on a 40 hour contract) but also about attitude and reaction to the new expectations which aren't always immediately obvious! Knowing when you must act, knowing when you must accept and not argue, knowing when you must have that tough conversation. In my profession I'm paid for my knowledge and experience just as much for my productivity but I have to remind myself of that sometimes!

75k is often the type of role where you are expected to put in a lot of hours. Move a step or 2 up and you will find that you are paid far more for knowledge and experience than the number of hours worked.

In my career there is a very close correlation between salary earned and hours worked with the most hours being worked in the lower salary more junior roles.

I’m now in a very senior role and almost never work outside of my contracted hours. I am able to do nursery drop offs/pick ups and also take some exercise every day while fulfilling my role. I’ve never had a better work life balance than I do now.

I'd work the hours you are paid for an as little extra as you can. If you do have to work extra hours it should be for time critical emergencies.At that salary you should presumably have some staff that tasks can be delegated to ( make sure they aren't working too many hours) and that is expected as part of the role.

You are being paid for your knowledge and experience, not to be a workhorse.

I earned that in the Big 4 and worked 60 hour weeks. Moved in house on the same money and worked 9-5. So it rather depends, in my experience.

Salaries relate to supply and demand, not hours worked. Wait staff aren't low paid because they work little but because almost everybody can be a competent waiter/ress.

Im on about that and work 30 hours a week. Sometimes less.
Go to the gym every morning and pick the kids up from school everyday.

I’m in HR. Our staff should all work a 35 hour week. Many staff on 70k+ stick to their hours, about half work more. Average is about 10 hours extra a week. Anything above that we would consider a cause for concern.

My DH is a senior manager, 90k, he works 8-5. Sometimes he works until 6. Sometimes he finishes at 4. His company understand work/life balance.

It’s not really as good a pay rise if you end up working lots of extra hours to get it. It’s just overtime with more responsibility and more tax.

That's my FTE salary but I work 4 days. I'll reply to emails before I start if I'm on the train and I can do it easily. Otherwise work my 9am - 5pm. I have a hard stop at 5pm as need to go pick up the kids (on WFH days) or I want to make sure I see them before bed (on City days). Again will keep an eye on my phone on the train home and reply to emails if easy and I can, but definitely no work 6.30pm - 7.30pm. Maybe 1/2 nights a week I'll need to do an extra hour in the evenings. I try and keep weekends as free as possible but maybe once a month I'll need to do 1/2 hours on a Sunday or Monday evening (Monday being my NWD).

In case my boss is watching, I'm typing this out while waiting for my laptop to install updates, so it's justified slacking time ;-)

Edit to add: On WFH days I usually try and get to the gym at lunchtime so take a longer lunch break, and there are a few times a month when I need to leave early if both DH and I are in the City (although we try to avoid this). So on balance I'd probably say it works out to about 40 hours a week?

When I was earning that, it was usually about 40-45 hours a week but with reasonable flexibility. Managing my own diary meant school stuff and the odd sick child could be managed with no issues. But when there's a crisis or deadline I'd be expected to step up and do what was needed

£118k here and do 8.30-5, with odd bits here and there in the evening if there’s a pinch point on urgent stuff. That’s fairly rare though. Had to do all-nighters when was very junior and earned a fraction of what I earn now.

DH also earns about the same as I do but in very different role/industry but he works about the same hours. He has to be more contactable evenings/weekends though.