# So how much "work" do you actually do at work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 11, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950 "2005-07-11T06:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/41 "2005-07-12T03:26:24Z")
I work in an emergency department, which is essentially as busy as a place that is only funded for one doctor could possibily be. During day and evening shifts it is an honest struggle to find five minutes to eat meals. Night shifts are unpredictable and can be equally busy, or very slow. I would much rather be busy at work then sitting around. I do a solid fifty hours of genuine work each week. ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/42 "2005-07-12T03:27:08Z")
I’m a gymnastics coach, and I only have 3.5 hour classes. I work the entire time, save a 15 minute break. It’s full on though, keeping control of a bunch of kids surrounded by things to jump on and throw and possibly hurt themselves on. It’s sweet though, I love it. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/43 "2005-07-12T05:06:05Z")
Usually my entire shift, except for breaks. Unfortunately, previous employers have drilled into me a need to always be finding something to do. So if nothing else, I can be cleaning my conveyor, straightening up my candy, etc. I could probably get away with 30-45 minutes of not working a day (not counting breaks), if I wanted to. At my work-study job, though (math tutor), I’d work an average of half of my time, maybe less. There was never anything to do there, so if you go back and look, I have a lot of posts between 12 and 3 when I was in school. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/44 "2005-07-12T05:27:29Z")
**Snowboarder Bo** > [@](#): > > Hey hey, we’re in kind of the same line of work. I focus more on the industrials, tho. We get lots of them here in Vegas, ya know. What a great place to have a lot of time off! Do you do indoor skydiving? Pass me some '47s. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/45 "2005-07-12T06:08:47Z")
I develop business software. In all of my career, I can count on one hand the number of days where I did not have more work to do than could possibly get done. Inevitably, half of those things on the long list of projects and tasks get bumped by newer higher priority projects and tasks such that eventually the lower priority stuff becomes irrelevant due to changes in the business environment. So, in summary, very little non-work time, but I enjoy what I do, so it feels good. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/46 "2005-07-12T06:22:03Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door–that way Lumberg can’t see me, heh–after that I sorta space out for an hour. > > Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I’m working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I’d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work. I _love_ that movie. I work about 85 percent of the time. I’m on the Internet for my job, but I do check email, my blog, and eBay throughout the day. I save SDMB for the evening when I have more time to read them all. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/47 "2005-07-12T12:59:57Z")
Mondays and Tuesdays… Depends how much I have to clean. I work in a lab, but I’m the one that cleans and orders the supplies and keeps the place tidy. Sometimes I’m done with all the stuff and I’m surfing before 10am (I do rounds every other hour to make sure they have their supplies). But sometimes things need good cleaning… Like today, I’m going to spend all the morning changing some bench covers. Wednesdays through Fridays… at this lab I have more stuff to do, unfortunately, it is all stuff that takes hours to process. For example, you put a set of tissues to embed, you’re not gonna actually put them in paraffin until the next day. Even though I have about 3 loads I should do per week, I can only do 2. Same with staining slides, that process takes about 2 hours, if you already know the times. If you’re just tweaking around with the exact combination of stains and how long to keep the slides in the stains, you can waste a whole day on just 6 slides trying to reach the best. And you still have about 120 other slides that need to be stain. At most, I can do 5 per day… but that’s when they don’t have to stay too long in the stains… The upside of that work is… sometimes I leave early because even though there is work for me to do, it won’t get done until after my time out (after 4:30pm), and since I don’t have a car and have to walk to the bus stop… well, the sooner I get out of there the sooner I’ll get to the damn bus stop and go home. Mondays and Tuesdays- lots of time off, but I have to stay until 4:30pm. The other days, little down time, but I can leave early… ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/48 "2005-07-12T20:55:13Z")
**All** of it. Nobody else around here does a damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/49 "2005-07-13T02:07:44Z")
I’m working a ten hour day, five days a week. 45 minutes of that is break time the rest is non-stop physical labor. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/50 "2005-07-13T10:55:20Z")
Do the people in this thread who work an hour or two a day consider themselves under-paid at all? ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/51 "2005-07-13T16:52:43Z")
Yup. Sitting around all day is booooring, and I was making minimum wage. So I deserved more. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/52 "2005-07-13T18:46:05Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Do the people in this thread who work an hour or two a day consider themselves under-paid at all? It would be hypocritcal and ungrateful to say yes, but… yes. I may not do anything for my $20 per hour, but my employer does less and bills the clients $65-95 per hour for my time. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/53 "2005-07-13T19:07:56Z")
Very little. I work as a caretaker for **Gr8Kat** and my days mostly consist of watching television with her with the odd trip to the vet or the doctor. Aside from the ocassional load of laundry and taking the trash to the curb on Wednesdays, I spend about thirty minutes cooking lunch (which she sometimes does instead of me) and an hour or so of browning meat and stirring it into some sort of casserole on my typical day and spend 90% of my time on her couch just doing whatever. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950/54 "2005-07-13T23:12:27Z")
elfkin477: Yes, I think I’m being underpaid in my Wednesday to Friday job. Not that many people are interested in doing histological stuff (ie, working with slides and tissues, sectioning, staining, embedding, along with doing inventory, putting on labels, deeming slides appropiate for teaching, tweaking stains, preparing solutions, etc.). It bothers me that I’ve seen ads for doing jobs similar to mine make $10-$15 an hour, while I make $6.75. Yes, I plan to talk to my boss about it, but unfortunately his mom died recently, and I just don’t know how to approach the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-much-work-do-you-actually-do-at-work/311950.md?page=2)