Are You Working Too Many Hours?

If you are salaried, you are what is known as an “exempt” employee. Some say that means you are “exempt” from getting paid for all of the hours you actually work. There is some truth to that for those of you who have fallen into the trap of working insane hours for a fixed annual salary.

There are a couple of things to consider here. If you are exempt and fulltime you usually are required to work a 40 hour work week, The Europeans think we are crazy working 40 hours a week and maybe we are. But think about how many hours you are really working. I bet a lot of you are working 50 hours. Some maybe 60 or 70 hours.

Early in my career I worked almost 90-100 hour weeks for about 6 months and then another 10 months at least 80 hours a week.

Why?

Because I was young and stupid. And my company rewarded me for my stupidity by giving me $500 worth of hotel and restaurant money. I was supposed to get a $12,000 bonus, but the $500 and a rock with the project name on it was all I got. The rock went in the garbage and so did my attitude. I was peeved.

I learned something through that experience. I was going to get my life/work balance straightened out. There have been times since then when I have fallen back into the trap of insane hours, but not anymore. My kids are growing up so quickly and life is too short.

Besides we are being paid for the job we do, our expertise, how well we perform and our value. So our work hours and salary should be balanced.

There will be times when you have to give that extra push and put some extra time in. It should be the exception and not the norm. If your boss is asking you to work crazy hours on a regular basis, I would be looking for another job. You cannot sustain those long hours forever and you are being taken advantage of.

Companies that think they can work their employees to death only get half of the productivity and creativity, if even that much. They typically lose them within a year as well. It ends up costing them more!

So ask yourself, “Am I working too many hours?”

If you answer yes, you have some extra hours to work to correct a serious problem.