I suppose this could be a two-part poll, with the second part being how many hours you spend on message boards…
Since the standard here in the US is exactly 40 hours, and I would bet that the most common answer would be 40, yet your poll splits that over two choices.
I teach. 10-12 hours of classes a week, plus 2-6 hours of optional and semi-optional activities. I probably spend two to three hours a week on lesson planning.
I work in an office from 9 – 5 with an hour for lunch so 35 hours a week total.
6 day work week from 8-6ish every day.
I worked for over 10 years as a software project manager, with its stupid macho culture where 90 hour work weeks and missed meals weren’t unusual. Never again. Now I may be a corporate cubicle drone, but I work 40 - 50 hours, and at least I have a life.
I don’t think I’ve ever done a day’s work in my life. My great grand-parents had lives that sound like the Python ‘Yorkshiremen’ sketch. They really did live in rather poor, squalid conditions, up at the crack of down to work 12 hour shifts down filthy, dangerous coal mines with barely any rights or humanity. (Please, MP fans resist the temptation to add ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ quips to this thread.) It was real, back-breaking work in harsh conditions, and of course there was a huge price to pay in terms of injuries, chronic health problems and sometimes even premature death.
All I have ever had to do, even when I had a proper job, was sit in a comfy office and write things and talk to people. I never thought it constituted ‘work’ in any meaningful sense, and to be frank I was astonished that anyone was willing to pay me (rather well) to do it. That was up until 1997 when I decided I had had enough of it all; enough of the 9-5 life and the wasted time and the silly office practices, so I just walked out and decided to see what it would be like to work for myself.
Now I have a more or less fully automated business that generates money, so I don’t have to work more than about an hour a week. All I really have to do is make sure the other self-employed people I do business get paid on time and are happy with how things are going. The rest of my time is my own, and it gets divided between (a) seeing friends, loving life, helping where I can help, and travelling and (b) having good new business ideas.
I don’t know much, but the last ten years have taught me that working for someone else is the slowest, worst and least efficient way to make money ever devised.
For the chemistry grad students you might have wanted to add 60-70, 70-80, and 80+. It varied.
Glad THAT’s over with.
I am required to sign in and out 8.5 hours apart each working day - which includes an 8 hour lunch.
I NEVER donate to the cause, and use every second of my alloted leave.
I do my required work tasks in probably 15 hours per week - sometimes less.
I work 7 hours a day (averaged over 13 weeks - I can do anywhere I choose between 3 and a half and 11 hours on any given day). However I get 10 paid public holidays, 6 weeks leave and up to (I think) 6 weeks sick leave. I have taken 3 sick days in the last 18 months so say 218 days or 1526 hours a year. So just under 30 although I chose 30-40 before I worked this out.
Working, or “at work?” 
Clock in and out 8.5 hours apart, with an unpaid 30-min lunch break. Add a 45-min commute each way - I know it doesn’t technically count as work, but it sure feels like it to me. Also, given that we’re chronically short staffed and we’re a hospital lab (can’t just abandon the place when my shift is up if there’s stuff going on), I’m usually stuck there at least a couple of extra hours per week.
So, 40-50 for me.
I coach high school cross country and track. During each season, my week is about 15-20 hours plus 3 or 4 weekend meets. Off season, I don’t work.
My work week (the question in the title) is 40 hours. How many hours I work (the question in the OP) is about 10. And I’m considered an exemplary employee who not only does all my assigned work, but also extra work building Access programs, doing custom macros, etc. Based on my performance evaluation score, I’m considered one of the top 10% of the employee pool. By working about 25% of the time.
My answer in the poll was 10-20 hours.
StG
My dream job.
I am in the building 42.5 hours a week. Actual time spent working time is rather less.
On my oil rig, I work at least 100 hours a week. I do get lots of time off as well
Uh - that might have been a typo! :smack:
Officially, my workweek is 37.5 hours. My boss doesn’t start to get nervous until it approaches 40.0 (unless I’m on the pager, then all bets are off).
Our work week is 40 hours, so I have to decide whether to punch 30-40 or 40-50. I think I’ll go with the lower amount in honor of the furlough days that we’re required to take this year (and last year).