Are you busy? - There's a recession, you know.

Purple said:

I do find it laughable that people who spend 36 hours or less a week in an office complain about their hours and/or being worn out. I can understand why someone like a teacher would be drained but not someone in an office job.

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Not that laughable as it depends on the work people are doing in an office. Even sticking to my core hours, it can be an intense and draining day and all of it in an office. Location and hours of work are not a benchmark of whether or not someone can be worn out from work.

I know your circumstances are different, but I think in places I've worked, the in early out late culture is a bad measure of an employee's suitability or effectiveness. I generally stick to my hours because I want to get home to my family. Every year my objectives are met, budgets gained, clients happy. Every year I get a comment on how it's noticed I don't stay late. Every year they get the same response about them engaging in auto-copulation.

A colleague continually misses deadlines, sometimes by wholly unacceptable amounts, but at least they're here until 7 each day, that's all that counts. Apart from the cost of electricity and everything for all those who aren't that efficient or engage in the charade of being here late.

As I said, I know your circumstances are different, but you can be drained from office work, it depends on the work. Even the simplest work can be draining if it is never ending and you can never meet unrealistic goals. And you happened to have opened up a very sore point for me throughout my career

Purple said:

I hope you don't complain about people who earn high wages by working longer and possibly harder than others.
When I come in over the weekend, which is not often anymore, it's the merc's and Jag's and BMW's that are parked outside the other buildings. It is generally the case that people who earn more work longer and harder than people who earn less.
BTW, I get paid extra if I work longer, just like everyone else here.

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Nope, never. If you work long hours youre more than entitled to be paid well for same. However the higher up the employment food chain you move, the less work you actually do i.e. the more skilled the job, the less you need to do of it to get the same amount of money. Hence its not always neccessary to work long long hours for high wages. I also think there is alot of "martyr-ism" at times with people claiming they work 70 hours a week.

{EDIT}
Actually, I just remembered I went for an interview recently and they asked if I had any issue working outside core hours and sometimes at weekends, since due to the name of their industry this happened fairly often. It was an immediate negative on the company from my perspective. Got offered the job in the end but didnt take it, partly due to the above.
{EDIT}