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If you were given the opportunity to choose how many hours you worked

Jun 13, 2003
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Hypothetically, let's say you are given direct control over your annual income, but the maximum you can earn at your current job is $200,000. To make the $200,000, you have to work 100 hours a week. The catch is, you have to work the same amount every week. So for each hour you take off of your work week, you make $2000 less yearly.

Example: You choose to work 40 hours weekly for the year, in return you make $80,000.

Assuming you are locked in at the beginning of the year in relation to the amount of hours you choose weekly,and it cannot vary week to week, how many hours a week would you work?

I think I would settle at 50 hours a week. 100k isn't bad, and I would have plenty of time with the family.

Thoughts?
 
Why not just say you can make $40/hour and work up to 5,000 hours per year? Neither sounds that good to me.
 
First of all, no one works 100 hours per week. Moreover, in my experience, very few people who "work all the time" work nearly as hard as they say they do. It's just one of those things that people who think very highly of themselves tend to say b/c they think it makes them look good. Just my opinion, but it's been reinforced by those people that I know in my own circle of friends and acquaintances.

That said, I'd probably work ~50, but most of the time, I'd spread it out over 7 days. Work a couple of 10`12 hour days, early in the week to get the bulk of the time in, and then spread the rest out a little more smoothly.

This exercise makes me very happy that I'm not paid by the hour though.
 
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First of all, no one works 100 hours per week. Moreover, in my experience, very few people who "work all the time" work nearly as hard as they say they do. It's just one of those things that people who think very highly of themselves tend to say b/c they think it makes them look good. Just my opinion, but it's been reinforced by those people that I know in my own circle of friends and acquaintances.

That said, I'd probably work ~50, but most of the time, I'd spread it out over 7 days. Work a couple of 10`12 hour days, early in the week to get the bulk of the time in, and then spread the rest out a little more smoothly.

This exercise makes me very happy that I'm not paid by the hour though.
the people in my office that go over their 40 hours by a significant amount are usually awful at time management so they need 60-70 hrs to get 40 hrs worth of work done. They also don't have families, so i don't think they care as much whether they're at home or in the office.
 
I think I get what you're really asking.

Would I rather have a $200,000 year job and no life outside of work? Or, take a $80,000 year job but have a life at home.

I would take the $80,000 year job and the memories of spending time with my family.

Now, bump that up to $1,000,000 and I might take the deal.
 
agree / time with your family is something you won't get back. I made almost every one of my son's baseball games and my daughter's soccer games. Great times.
 
No vacation time? Wouldn't at least two weeks vacation be pretty standard?

I could live with 80k though, maybe even 60k. Time at home (at least right now it is, lol) is the most valuable thing to me.
 
Do I get to live anywhere, or do I have to live where I am now? For where I am now, I'd have to work 50 hours/week. If I can move to rural Montana and get the same deal, I can probably scale it back to 25 hours/week knowing that my money goes a lot further. I can then spend the extra time fishing and hanging out.
 
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Right now, that would be a nightmare for me...I'd have to work 50-60 hours minimum, and I have no interest in that.

HOWEVER, if things go right, in 8-10 years, I'm getting off the career rat race and looking to live on a lot less than we do now. At that point, a job that paid $50k a year for working 25 hours a week? I'd be all over that.
 
Hypothetically, let's say you are given direct control over your annual income, but the maximum you can earn at your current job is $200,000. To make the $200,000, you have to work 100 hours a week. The catch is, you have to work the same amount every week. So for each hour you take off of your work week, you make $2000 less yearly.

Example: You choose to work 40 hours weekly for the year, in return you make $80,000.

Assuming you are locked in at the beginning of the year in relation to the amount of hours you choose weekly,and it cannot vary week to week, how many hours a week would you work?

I think I would settle at 50 hours a week. 100k isn't bad, and I would have plenty of time with the family.

Thoughts?

I'm sure there are people out there who would, but I haven't known anyone who I think would work 100 hours per week for $200k without significant upside in the future. I worked with a lot of people who worked 80 hour weeks and sometimes 100 hour weeks, and some of the more junior people did it for less than $200k, but they had significant upside to make $500k, possibly much more after paying their dues.

As to the question, I would work 40 hours. $80k is enough to get by and time is the most precious commodity. I wouldn't work 100 hours every week for an extended time for any amount of money. I did a lot of 80 hour stress-filled weeks in my past and won't ever go back to that, certainly not for only $200k.
 
Heck if I worked 100 hrs./wk i'd make a lot more than 200k....
Seriously.who would want to work 14 hrs a day 7 days a week or 16 1/2 hrs 6 days a week or 20 hrs. a day 5 days a week or 4 straight days, for a solid year.
I've worked 16 hrs. a day for 3 straight weeks,30 consecutive days 8-12 hrs. a day and 24 straight hrs. 3x in 5 days. They all sucked...
 
When I was in the Navy we worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week when out to sea. I don't mind working a 40 hour work week but I would love to double my vacation to 8 weeks a year. I would take a significant pay cut to do this.
 
I'd work like crazy right now. 70 hours a week for $140k.

No kids, just me & my wife right now. As long as I'm sleeping in my bed, no biggie. I used to work out of town for weeks and months at a time with very few days home between trips. Sometimes a single day. I worked 60-85 hours a week on that job.

So 70 hours, at home, for $140k. I would work backwards at that point ... Go down to 60 hours, 50, 40. $480k in 4 years without losing my life to work. I would then start thinking about lesser hours, maybe like 37 hours for $74k, allowing my wife to do her thing.
 
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