I’ve just finished my first week at a new job. I like the job, but it’s the first time in several years that I’ve had relatively standard 8 hours a day, 5 days a week as my schedule. The last time I did was in 2019 or so, and then I went and got back into graduate school for the interim.
Now that I’m back to standard hours, the commitment of time and energy seems to be quite a lot, more than I remember from prior ft experience(It could well be that this job is actually mentally demanding, whereas my prior full-time job was pretty brainless) and I’m not sure how I will make room in my life for anything else.
I like the job I’m doing, and I don’t feel as if I’m being unreasonably pressured at work (Boss even said to go out of our way not to work overtime, and it’s a salaried position so I know they’re not trying to skimp on hourly pay), so I guess I’m mainly wanting to ask how the rest of you full-timers do it.
And does it get easier to manage as you start to get used to it and make a routine?
Maybe it feels like quite a basic or rudimentary to ask… But these are things I’ve forgotten in the interim since last working 40-hour weeks.
-laughs in construction worker
6 ten hour shifts a week is normal for me. Sometimes we’ll end up on 40 hours if various constraints slow the job down. Other times we’ll have an opportunity to 7 days 12 hours. It’s beyond brutal.
But, a 40 hour week brings me home about $1500 us in a week. 60 hours about $2300. Working seven days 12 hours I’ve seen take home of around $3500. For one week. It’s amazing the problems you can solve with that kind of money.
So it becomes an addiction for a lot us. We chase the hours, because we’re trying to have hobbies and vacations, not just survive. Need a new roof on the house? Time to hit the OT. Have some debt racked up? Crush it in a month of hell.
That said, it’s fucking brutal, physically and mentally.