S/O - How much of your workday do you spend working?

[crunchy_mommy]

The nanny/housework thread got me wondering, how much of your workday do you really, honestly spend working? It's probably hard to quantify so just pick the answer closest to what you do most days... you don't have to actually tally your hours and calculate a percentage !!

I worked at least 100% when I started & was paid hourly... worked through lunch etc... but when I transitioned to salaried (without a real increase in pay) I stopped working extra unless it was really necessary/emergent.

However, once I got pregnant, it all went downhill, and got even worse after he was born. It's a combination of being obsessed with DS and having very broken equipment to work with (I'm so used to 'forced' slacking off due to networks being down, low workload, etc. that it's hard to rally up and focus even when everything is working properly). So I probably fall between 20-90% depending on my mood and workload... Which is quite embarrassing to admit!! I actually have a really good work ethic, I'm just so discouraged by the issues I'm constantly dealing with. And it's just way more fun to focus on DS than my broken computer.

Very curious where others fall!!

[major_mama11]

I voted 95%. The expectation at my work is that we will work straight through lunch, chart while eating, and continue to chart and answer phones and call lights in between bites of food.  (unwritten of course, since this is an illegal expectation). Generally, the 10-minute walk to and from the cafeteria IS the break. Sometimes is it so busy that we don't get more than a quick snack and pee break during a 12-hour shift, and have to stay over an extra hour or so to catch up charting if there was no time during the shift to sit down (at those times, I am so thankful that I am hourly). Other times the unit isn't quite as busy, so we have 20 minutes here and there to chat at the nurses' station. Although with the current economy and more attention to budgets by the higher-ups, if the unit is slow, they usually call off most of the nurses, so the nurse-to-patient ratio stays about the same, regardless of unit census.

I'm not complaining, as I knew nursing was like this going into it. And there are sometimes down times, which I really enjoy. The last shift I worked, there was actually a slow period for an hour or so, during which we were able to sit around and chat and play computer trivia games together for a couple of hours. It was really nice.

[HollyBearsMom]

Well I recently quit my  job so I voted 60%.  By end end of my tenure I spent a LOT of time on FB, surfing the web, chatting with friends, emailing etc.

When I was starting out I worked at 150% This was for YEARS. 

When I started fertility treatments I dialed it back to about 110%.

When I finally had my son I worked probably at 95% because pumping, rushing home at night an exhaustion took its toll.

The last 3 years I was so burnt out. Sure there were still weeks I worked at 95-100% but others where I put in maybe 50% so over those years the % I worked kept dropping.

I had been working in the same industry since I graduated from college, close to 30 years. I was a very SR executive. I should have quit 10 years ago......

[limabean]

It varies tremendously depending on where I am in my publication cycle. There are days I work 16 hours, and days I work 5 hours. 

[Indigo73]

I chose 80% but there are days that it's 120% and days it's 60%.  I am extremely grateful for my somewhat flexible schedule as I am going to school too. 

There have been a couple times, in homework hell, that I have closed my office door and stated "I am off the map for 30 mins" while I recreate a lost in cyberspace class presentation.

[marinak1977]

It varies for me from 60 to 100+ so I voted 80 on average. I go through slow spells sometimes and I'm on MDC a lot, but I have a very exciting job and when I have tasks to do I have no reason to procrastinate.

[CatsCradle]

I have a yearly billable hour requirement so I really do need to be doing a certain amount of client work every day in order to meet my weekly goals.  I'd say I'm in the 95% range (I don't take conference calls in the bathroom!) but I do work straight through the day, or if not during the day, I make it up during the evenings or weekends or on the train.  There are times when I'm on hold on the phone or on a conference call and I'll surf the web (MDC is one of those places!).  This is on average though.  There are days where I put  in a good 12 hours and then the next day my work is more relaxed after I've met a deadline.  It comes in waves and just so I'm making or exceeding my billable requirement per week, I'm good to go.  For the past three years I've gotten extra compensation for working over my billable requirement, but much of this was due to intense period of work during certain times of the year which made up for the status quo.

[CI Mama]

I put 80% which is an average. There are a few big projects during my year when I'll work several 15 hour days in a row. That's one extreme. At the other extreme...a day when I feel like putting 5 hours of work into an 8-hour day is pretty good. My "mental break" of choice at work is surfing MDC!

I worked more hours before I became a mom. Duh.

I do have a bit of a morale problem these days. State employees (like myself) are really caught in the crossfire of political craziness where I live. We've been making sacrifices for years (pay was frozen, then we had to accept furloughs). Now we'll have to take another big hit as we have to make much higher contributions to our retirement & health care. I'm hanging on to middle class existence by the skin of my teeth at this point. It's hard to feel taken seriously as a professional and to feel motivated to "go the extra mile" when it's been 3 years since I was able to buy myself a new pair of shoes.

But, I'm doing work in my field with people I like, so that counts for a lot. 

[Alyantavid]

I'd guess I average 50%.  It depends on the time of year, time of month, day of the week.  Some days it's 75%, some days it's 25%.  If I didn't need the money and the benefits, I could do this job part time.  But I have to be here for questions for most of the work day, so I doubt they'd go for that.

[Halfasianmomma]

My vote is always rather "low"...on average 60-75%...some days as low as 40%. I'm lucky because my job has these empty moments throughout the day where I can do some school work (working towards a grad degree right now). However, there are certain periods of the year which end the fiscal year for some of our clients and require 110% of my time and energy. I can't really sustain that sort of pace for more than a few days because I get saddled with migraines.

On a regular basis, I force myself to arrive early so that I can take a long lunch and go workout 3 x a week to keep the migraines at bay. My boss is a big health fanatic so he understands and he knows that in a crunch, I'll drop my workout to do work for him.

In my industry, the bosses and juniors are generally expected to devote their entire days and week-ends to their practice if they want to get ahead. Some assistants try to follow at the same pace but generally burn out after a few years.

[madskye]

My average is probably 60%.  I work from home and I have lots of free time but...my work is cyclical and deadline based and I'm in sales so I'm judged by my numbers.  So, since I started working from home, I don't worry about hours too much--I worry about accomplishments and results.   When I was in the office, a lot of my hours were spent in meetings--now I don't have many meetings.  When I do have a day of meetings that can drastically change the "hours" that I "worked" that week.  But ironically, weeks I have meetings mean that I have less time to do other things that keep business moving.  So, for me to go, they have to be important.  I also spend a lot of time reading about my industry and just thinking-and sometimes that doesn't feel like work, but basically my job is a huge part of my life so it's pretty well integrated at this point.  I also consider myself almost always on call if someone needs something related to my job.  I might be at the mall, but I have my blackberry with email and phone with me, and I'm almost always reachable if something comes up, and I monitor my email to make sure things are going smoothly.

Lastly, I can work less now because I've been at this for several years and I established some great systems that made my work flow smoothly.  Three years ago I was probably working 120% of the time.  Now I have it pretty locked down.

[poorlittlefish]

In my first job, 90%.  After I had DD, 80%.  After I had DD#2 75%.  After I got handed a 15% paycut (along with the rest of the outside sales staff), 60%.  I am ashamed to say it, but there it is.

[justKate]

I tried to vote 50% or less, but for some reason I can't get my vote to go through. Probably because I am on my work computer.    I have 40 hours per week to make 28 "widgets" and return related phone calls.  If I finish them in four days, I have nothing to do on Friday.  So I try to spread my work out during the week.

I sometimes take on extra work, or make up silly things to do, but there is no requirement to "look busy" here, so I just make my widgets, take walks, play on the internet, etc.  I would much prefer to do the same amount of work in 20 hours, but I don't have that option. 

In my last job, I worked about 80% of the time I was at work, and took work home or had weekend duty about 10% of the time.  It was a much better job, although the pay was roughly equivalent.

[JoyFilled]

I put 50% or less.  Yesterday I probably spent an hour out of 7.5 hours working.  I am currently pregnant and I am trying to get social services to place our foster kids some where else.  So I spend all my day worry about kids and making calls on their behalf.  I am also at the beginning of organizing a fairly large and complicated project for myself and sometimes I just don't want to do it.  The main problem with my job is I don't really work with anyone so I am not motivated.