Topic: Bring Back the 40-Hour Work Week

[Neutral Milk]

From being the classroom, I am SERIOUSLY considering homeschooling my girls. Maybe Funda could give me the names of some good, non-religiously based programs. Why should I go to work to teach other people's kids if I can do it at home with kids who actually appreciate me! :/

From being in a public school classroom my fiancee wants to send our kids to private school. I'm not convinced it's better.

My school is a center site for bad kids, so it's hard for me to judge regular public schools based on the environment where I work.

[Skeptress]

From being the classroom, I am SERIOUSLY considering homeschooling my girls. Maybe Funda could give me the names of some good, non-religiously based programs. Why should I go to work to teach other people's kids if I can do it at home with kids who actually appreciate me! :/

I use a big mish-mash but if you get serious pm me and I can send you a list of what I like.

NM: Sorry it is easy to get defensive because I have people questioning me from all sides all the time, and yesterday I was majorly questioning myself (as I do every few months).  I have sacrificed a lot to homeschool them and ultimately I do it because the oldest (in grade 5) would have been to 5 different schools at this point.  I can't imagine doing that to her on top of the moving house constantly.  I can't imagine how messed up she'd be academically. 

[Neutral Milk]

From being the classroom, I am SERIOUSLY considering homeschooling my girls. Maybe Funda could give me the names of some good, non-religiously based programs. Why should I go to work to teach other people's kids if I can do it at home with kids who actually appreciate me! :/

I use a big mish-mash but if you get serious pm me and I can send you a list of what I like.

NM: Sorry it is easy to get defensive because I have people questioning me from all sides all the time, and yesterday I was majorly questioning myself (as I do every few months).  I have sacrificed a lot to homeschool them and ultimately I do it because the oldest (in grade 5) would have been to 5 different schools at this point.  I can't imagine doing that to her on top of the moving house constantly.  I can't imagine how messed up she'd be academically.

Makes sense. From state to state or even district to district you'd find huge differences in the curriculum.

I can't even imagine how a kid would be successful in that kind of situation. Even within my small school one class will be doing fractions while the neighboring class in the same grade will be doing long division. A kid getting thrown into one class or the other will be either playing catch up or sitting bored.

[SQ the ΣΛ/IGMд]

I do at least 60 hours every week.
On a typical week in the field I usually hit over 100.
And yes, everything over 40 is OT.

Must make that 'End of SQ' thread seem like a bad dream now.   

Yeah no shit.
I was on the verge of losing my home and much more before this job came along.
Let's just say the mortgage is no longer an issue, but my health is.
 

[YouSayPotato]

There's a big difference between attending work and 'working'.

Most jobs involve attendance, with periods of productivity. In the social sector, my presumutamte is 3:8 hours of productivity per day, and in the private maybe 4:8.

Of course, re: public sector, sitting behind plate glass for a living is less productive than working in ER.

Working for yourself and running a biz is entirely something else. 50 hours pw of productivity is not unusual.

The Greeks apparently put in more hours than anyone in Europe, but compare that with Germany, which has less hours put in but high productivity.

I really doubt there'll ever be a scientific way to measure real work versus job attendance.

[Johnny Slick]

Yeah, I don't know... the thing about those "sitting behind plate glass" jobs (I assume you're talking about the DMV and the like) is that you basically have no choice but to be some approximation of productive every minute you're on the job. Even if you sneak a phone or something in (IIRC those are not allowed at all in government institutions, at least not if they have a camera, and practically every phone made today comes with a camera), you can only fool around with it so much before it becomes obvious. You may not do your job as rapidly and efficiently as it could possibly be done, or have a level of customer service which would be acceptable in the private sector, but I've also yet to go into a place like that and see people hanging around a water cooler for 20 minutes when they're not on their break or chit-chatting with the customers for 15 minutes on a job that would normally take them 3 to finish.

I have a similar kind of job. Maybe one of the reasons why I don't enjoy working there 40 hours a week is that a pretty high percentage of my time is productive. I do get onto the Internet in between calls a bit too much but I still have one of the highest average of calls taken per day in the center, so overall my relative lack of productivity (which isn't *that* bad, comparatively) is more than made up for by my efficiency.

[Miisanthrope]

Because of my work, I often speak on the phone to the people who are in the work team I used to be in, and am shocked at the rules and oversight that goes on. It was going on when I was there too, but I just had never seen it from the outside and thought it fairly normal. So it is rather ironic that I work much harder now with shorter hours and essentially no Big Brother watching than I ever did where I had to clock in and every moment of my day was analysed and any anomalies investigated.

Oh, and I HATE calling American companies, as the customer service is so slippery and grovelling, it's as if they could lose their jobs at any second if they don't figuratively prostrate themselves before any and all callers, that I wonder how those people don't go postal after a few days and feel really bad for them. Plus, that sort of oversell and over-apologizing always makes me feel really dirty afterwards, like these people are so used to just being punching bags and lying in order to get by.

[smithkhome]

These days, I typically work a little more than 40 hours/week.  Though, being that my work e-mail is on my phone, I'm sure that checking my work e-mail while at home is worth a couple extra hours.  Can't really complain...my work is fairly flexible.

[Kayto]

I was on the verge of losing my home and much more before this job came along.
Let's just say the mortgage is no longer an issue, but my health is.

My situation is similar --- but not as severe. I live in an area with REALLY bad unemployment (Detroit). And I can't really sell my home either (in order to move without bankruptcy). The economy crash hit extra hard here (the housing problem + the auto market problem.)

My average work week is probably 50. But sometimes 40, 60, or 70. I've done quite a few 70 hour work weeks in 5 days. AND the company is in trouble. Which is part of the reason I am working so many hours. They staffed-up heavily in another department then lost a big contract, and will not hire for the department that I work in.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I was on the verge of losing my home and much more before this job came along.
Let's just say the mortgage is no longer an issue, but my health is.

My situation is similar --- but not as severe. I live in an area with REALLY bad unemployment (Detroit). And I can't really sell my home either (in order to move without bankruptcy). The economy crash hit extra hard here (the housing problem + the auto market problem.)

My average work week is probably 50. But sometimes 40, 60, or 70. I've done quite a few 70 hour work weeks in 5 days. AND the company is in trouble. Which is part of the reason I am working so many hours. They staffed-up heavily in another department then lost a big contract, and will not hire for the department that I work in.

This sucks.

[cgervasi]

My wife and I are both freelancers.  We take the work when it's there.  That means we usually work a lot and make pretty good money.  We sometimes ask ourselves if we should turn stuff away or outsource or refer out more projects.  It's hard to know.  I like time with the kids, but I like money too.  It's really just our choice. 

It's up to people who want more work to go out and find it, and it's up to people who are buried to turn some of it down or add an employee as a way of buying back some of their life.  I don't have all the answers, but it's something I think about a lot.