How effective are you on your 14th hour?

[MOBIUS]

I wouldn't call it boasting, unless you consider working long hours something you are proud of. I agree that long hours are counterproductive but often you have no choice. My long hours (when they happen) are due to external factors over which I nor my firm have control over, such as court imposed deadlines to respond to new evidence or other time critical deadlines with no prior lead time.

Fair point when utterly unavoidable. But most of the posts on this thread are of the ****-waving 'I work 25hr days, 8 days a week, even when I sleep I'm working - just for the hell of it' posts...

I myself have been a victim of being forced to work overnighters and two days straight because of deadlines - but my opinion at the time was that they were mostly avoidable and it was more to do with the idiotic macho investment banking culture I found myself in for a time than any actual pressing need. Especially considering the following week was usually spent unpicking various stupid mistakes made during the 'too important to not pull overnighters even though we know exactly what happens every ****ing year sort of things...'

****ing idiots!

Work smarter not harder. It's a concept that seems alien to most workers in the UK unfortunately - and seems far worse in the US, cos at least we even get decent holidays here.

[Jon Miller]

I've worked up to about 36 hours straight when it was an emergency. But I have found that after about 11 hours, there had better be a damn good reason to still be working because after that, mistakes are more likely and rework will take longer than the time you put in. So after 11, you're wasting time.

My thoughts are similar to this (Although I do them), but it might be 11 or 14 or some other number.

JM

[rah]

It seems to very a little by person but there are a lot of people that worked for me that claimed it was considerably longer for them where after I reviewed their work decided that it was closer to 11 for them too.

[GePap]

I'm sure I remember Gepap, some years ago, suggesting that anyone working ridiculously long hours is obviously not doing their job properly as if they were they'd get it done in a reasonable time.

Memory is a tricky thing.

[Cort Haus]

rah, how far back is the forum searchable?

[Krill]

Well, right now I'm on my 17th hour, and I'm probably capable of revising a bit more. Do I want to though? Hell no, I'm going to bed now for a few hours.

[The Mad Monk]

Fair point when utterly unavoidable. But most of the posts on this thread are of the ****-waving 'I work 25hr days, 8 days a week, even when I sleep I'm working - just for the hell of it' posts...

I myself have been a victim of being forced to work overnighters and two days straight because of deadlines - but my opinion at the time was that they were mostly avoidable and it was more to do with the idiotic macho investment banking culture I found myself in for a time than any actual pressing need. Especially considering the following week was usually spent unpicking various stupid mistakes made during the 'too important to not pull overnighters even though we know exactly what happens every ****ing year sort of things...'

****ing idiots!

Work smarter not harder. It's a concept that seems alien to most workers in the UK unfortunately - and seems far worse in the US, cos at least we even get decent holidays here.

Well, the 20 hour shifts in QC were during our "summer of hell", when a firing and two resignations left the QC lab for a 24/7 spcialty chemical plant with a grand total of two techs.

The twelves I work now are due to absences or products that require three man shifts.

In both cases, I was paid overtime, which has always made it worth my while.

[Traianvs]

Depends on what kind of work it is. I wouldn't have worked 15 hours at that warehouse where I was packing/unpacking boxes.