Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire the average hours worked jumped to 34.9?

I was listening to a pod cast by Peter Schiff... and he was saying that the average work week for Americans, jumped from 34.7 hours per week to 34.9...

I thought.... HUH ?... my shortest work week for the last 25 years has not been less than 45 hours... and some even broke the 100 hours per work week...

up till last fall... I was working two job... not because I needed to... but because I wanted a new boat and wanted to pay cash for it... I was averaging 64 to 65 hours a week...

With only 62.1% of the population working.... who is it that is getting by on a 35 hour work week ?

I'm starting to think.... That I may be the doing it wrong....

I'm retired and work more than 35 hours a week.

I average ten hours a week OT. That includes weeks with holidays, weeks I’ve taken vacation. I worked 500 hours OT last year and the year before. I have 5 more Saturdays to work. I’ll be done with the OT crap Aug 31. It’s improved my retirement tremendously. I’m tired of that crap, but it has been worth it.

I averaged 9 hrs OT a week last year

Lotta part time jobs out there. Lotta cheap ass employers that only want to hire part timers so they don't have to pay benefits. Wal-Mart and Tractor Supply being two right off the top of my head.

I would assume he is talking about the mass of people in the service sector that work part time

it would make sense that their average hours increased however slightly due to the severe worker shortage in this industry

What he said. Wife cooked at the local college and hospital. Was NEVER able to work 40 hrs. at either so she wasn't "full time" and the cheap
SOB's didn't have to pay, give benefits.

I just hired a lady yesterday. Doesn't want more than 20 hrs. Has some side gigs that pay way more than I can offer, but wants to stay in the industry. Lots of folks working part time while the spouse has a full time job, just to get out of the house, or have some fun money.

There's been plenty of days I've past 34 hrs on the third day of a six day week, but I'm just a dumb farmer, I don't know any better....

I used to put in 80 hour weeks on a dairy farm myself. Ain't much fun having no life other than work, eat, sleep after awhile.

To many responsible people, there is more to life than working. To some, their work ‘is’ their life. To others, it is simply a means to an end...work to live, not live to work. A palliative care nurse who spent a great deal of time with a great many people...for years...in the last three to twelve weeks of their lives noted that every single male patient that she cared for said, “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” They said they missed their children’s youth and their partners companionship. She said that all of the men that she cared for...every single one...over the years, deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

Met a guy here long ago that told me the same thing. He wasn't dying but was a broken man trying to recover from a nervous breakdown after losing his wife and alienating his kids due to being a lifelong workaholic and always putting his career first.

Lot of truth in that. It’s making me think. We had a carpenter die at work early in the year.

If you enjoy what you do, it’s not really work. My son works with me 5 hrs a day Monday-Friday during the summer. My wife runs the office, daughter helps out whenever she can.
I work 6 1/2 - 7 days a week, but always have a couple really nice vacations a year and grab a day to hit an amusement park or trip to some museums etc.. also, never missed one of my kids games or matches, parent conference, etc.. Daughter went two years undefeated in tennis, district champion, plays NCAA now. We’ve made some damn good memories over the years. I know lots of guys that work 40/week, can’t afford to do scheit for their kids and really don’t spend quality time with them. It’s not the amount of time you have to spend with your family, it’s what you do with that time.
Both my kid’s college educations are fully funded which is huge for me. Both have 4.0+ GPA’s. I have no regrets for the long hours I’ve spent working. My kids have learned a lot of good life lessons dealing with our renters and running a construction business. They’ve seen first hand the type of lifestyle they never want to be living, and the value of good decisions and hard work.

Back when I was hourly, I once worked 28 straight 12 hr days. I was in my mid 20’s, money was good and I had a young family. I have been salaried for almost 25 years and still put 50+ in a week. Work has been very good to me and allowed me and mine a lifestyle I could only of dreamed of as a wet nosed kid.

jackmountain, it sounds like you and your wife have done an exceptional job all the way around of being good spouses and good parents. I’m happy for all of ya’. Well done.

When I was 21yo I worked building out a nationwide pizza franchise. We had 30 days from the time they signed the lease to have pizzas going out the door. The longest shift I ever pulled in my life was 5am til 10am the next day, 29 hours. We’d pull 30 days then come home for a week of R’N’R then back on the road. Did that for 18 months and then got married and took a job closer to home.

I don't doubt that at all. On the other hand, I work with my wife, and our business is an integral part of our everyday rhythm of life. Work "requires" us to talk several times a day, which helps us keep in touch on a personal level as well. Work "requires" us to travel to visit customers and suppliers, both in the US and out. I worked with my son for years, and now that he's finishing his college track, we will set up a business together for him to run, and we'll end up working together on at LEAST a weekly basis, if not daily. We will have to talk "about the business", which is about the only way to get an engineering type like him to talk......

The only one I haven't figured out how to bring into the fold yet is my daughter, although she's reviewing some feed formulations we are working on with one of the suppliers (her expertise, though a different species). Another excuse to talk to her every couple of days. For work, you know.

I love what I do for a living, but I have worked very deliberately to incorporate the people I care for in my day to day work life. I chose very early in life to not just trade my time for money.

A bunch of employers started hiring people for less than 40 hours per week so they don't count as full time, and they don't have to pay as many benefits. It got even worse after Obamacare hit.

I was a piece of scheit of a human being (admittedly) for the first 6 years of my adult life. Meeting my wife was an intersection in my life that made all the difference in the direction I took. There’s absolutely nothing that a man can not accomplish with lots of hard work, a little good fortune. And a great woman by his side. I don’t take my good fortune for granted. Successful, productive children are the greatest legacy a man can Leave

We’ll feel the effects of Obama’s policies and influence for the foreseeable future. I truly hope there’s a Hell so he’ll rot there.