It is commonly accepted that “full time” employment equals 40 hours per week, but that doesn’t seem to be the reality in the modern American workplace.  I can’t tell you how many coworkers I have (or have had in the past) who routinely work 50 or even 60 hours per week.  Has 50 become the new 40?  Is there even an advantage to working so much overtime?  Or are American’s simply workaholics?

What Exactly Does “Full Time” Mean?

When you’re an hourly workers, the distinction is easy:  by law, 40 hours is considered full-time employment and your employer has to pay you overtime if you work more than 40 hours per week.  So while you may be asked or even required to work more than 40 hours per week, you at least get directly compensated for it.  Many people wouldn’t mind working an extra hour or two per day for time-and-a-half.

Full-time salaried employees, on the other hand, don’t have it so easy.  Being an “exempt” employee means you aren’t eligible for overtime pay (at least in the U.S.).  The prevailing theory is that salaried employees are paid to do a job and should work as many hours as necessary to get it done.  Many if not most Americans buy this garbage hook, line, and sinker.  They waste their youth in the office, neglecting their friends and family in pursuit of the almighty dollar.  The irony, of course, is that the more hours these workaholics work, the lower their hourly pay.  I have personally worked with highly-paid software engineers and managers who, by virtue of their 60 hour work weeks, probably get paid something like minimum wage.

The flaw in the above logic is obvious if you think about it:  just what is meant by “until the job is done?”  If your office is at all like 99.99999999% of the offices in this country, the “job” is never done.  There is an endless stream of work to do.  If you finish today’s task by lunch, it doesn’t mean you get to go home after lunch.  To the contrary, there will always be a brand-new task to get started on.  Does that mean you are ethically obligated to work 24 hours per day (remember, the “job” is never actually complete)?  Of course not.  And yet that’s exactly what you are saying when you say salaried employees should work as many hours as necessary to “get the job done.”  What employers really mean when they say this is that they want you to work more hours for the same amount of pay.  They call it “work ethic.”  I call it inefficient mediocrity.

Full Time Means 40 Hours.  Period.

As a professional, I have to work at a pace that is sustainable for me.  Sure, I could kill myself working 60 hour weeks for what amounts to minimum wage to get tons of work done, but what’s the point?  No job is worth my health, my sanity, or my social life.  And even were I inclined to work  that much overtime, I wouldn’t be able to maintain such a pace forever.  Eventually I’d have a breakdown, and that wouldn’t benefit anybody.

All this isn’t to say I’m completely against working overtime occasionally.  If there’s an important project that requires my attention, I’m asked nicely, and I’m rewarded for going the extra mile (be it via comp time, a raise, or at least a thank you) I am more than willing to work the occasional Saturday.  It’s when working late nights becomes expected by my employer that it becomes a problem.

Do Workaholics Get Promotions?

It’s often said you have to work hard to get ahead.  Those first to arrive in the morning and last to leave no doubt believe what they’re doing will get them a promotion, a raise, or at least a hefty bonus.  Unfortunately, I’ve never seen this actually happen in the real world.  I have certainly seen co-workers who believe their promotions were the result of working so much overtime, but everybody else in the office was perfectly aware these individuals would have been promoted even if they worked only 35 hours per week.  In the end, it’s how efficient you are with the time you do spend at work that counts, not the quantity of time.

Do you think working more than 40 hours is an effective way of getting a promotion?  How many hours do you typically work?

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Tags: Work