# What's the POTUS' workweek like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538 "2011-12-27T17:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/1 "2011-12-27T17:35:08Z")
Being president of the US isn’t a 9 to 5 job but at the same time, you can’t do 100 hour weeks for 4 years without having a burnout. So, what’s the president’s workweek like? Are there times when, short of war, he’s not on call? Does he work 6 or 7 days a week? Are all his meals business meals? How is his time allocated? Does he sometimes stay up for 1 or 2 days? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/2 "2011-12-27T17:44:38Z")
I’m not expert on the subject but my impression is that the President is almost like an expert consultant who’s always on call. He has a huge staff that handles all the paperwork so he doesn’t need to do anything like that. The main part of his job is having people bring him issues so he can make decisions on them (the “decider-in-chief” role). The other part of his job is to be the top salesman for his own administration. He’s the guy who’s supposed to be convincing people to go in the direction he wants them to go. ---
**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/3 "2011-12-28T15:37:42Z")
Read a few pages from [President Ford’s Daily Dairies](http://www.geraldrfordfoundation.org/1975-diaries/). I really got an apreciation for how much work and how long the day is. ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/4 "2011-12-28T16:01:09Z")
I can’t remember where but I read about President Obama’s usual working day. Supposedly he gets up pretty early but spends a couple of hours going to the gym and reading over a long breakfast, so doesn’t usually get into the Oval Office until about 9.30 or 10. He usually tries to leave by 6 or 7 to have dinner with his family. In reality though I suspect he’s almost constantly working. He might get half an hour here and there to go to the gym, eat with his family or play basketball, but almost every other waking moment will be spent reading things or meeting with people. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/5 "2011-12-28T18:01:01Z")
I remember reading somewhere Bill Clinton saying that there was a lot of time when he was free. I cite this not to be snarky (although it was mentioned during Lewinsky). It just struck me that it might very well be true. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/6 "2011-12-28T18:44:12Z")
I wonder if the President can ever lay back and get shitfaced drunk? Let’s say he wants to have some friends over and watch the Rose Bowl? Can he drink a 12er and then pass out for a few hours? That would be a bad time for the incoming ICBMs to start… ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/7 "2011-12-28T19:15:36Z")
[This](http://theweek.com/article/index/206163/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-president) is an article by The Week outlining President Obama’s average working day: > [@](#): > > **1. Obama gets to work at the same time as you do** > Although the president rises at dawn, he doesn’t sit down in the Oval Office until “just before 9:30,” according to Purdum. Obama’s early morning is much like that of any other hardworking, middle-aged dad: a 45-minute stint in the gym, followed by breakfast with his family and a skim of the morning’s papers. Of course, before his working day begins he also reads the president’s Daily Brief, a “classified summary” of intelligence, news, and rumors from around the world to which few working dads have access. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is usually at his desk by 7:30. > > … > > **3. Obama and Emanuel’s Hawaii plans** > From 9:30 a.m. until about 4:30 p.m., Obama’s day is filled with meetings and briefings on everything from intelligence to the economy, federal activity, and foreign policy. “Every day feels like a week,” reports Purdum. The White House agenda became so cluttered and stressful last December that Obama and his chief of staff joked they would quit it all to “open a T-shirt stand on a beach in Hawaii.” Fed up with the difficult decisions of the presidency, the pair would “sell only one color and one size.” Staff meetings would begin with Obama saying “white,” and Emanuel replying “medium.” > > **4. Dinner with Michelle and the kids** > Obama’s working day officially ends at 6 or 6:30 p.m. — though emails and calls from the president resume at 8:30 or so until late at night. In between, Obama makes time for a daily dinner with his wife and daughters, a “rare moment of perspective” in the fractious timetable of his presidential life. “He had a father who abandoned him,” chief aide Valerie Jarrett tells Purdum, “and he always wanted to be a present and involved father.” It is the only part of his day that is “sacrosanct.” > > **5. Obama’s drink of choice: A martini** > The president is neither a high-living nor a hard-drinking man, but he allowed himself a “rare martini” on the night the health-care bill passed in the House. Junior staffers were given a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom, and the night ended at around 1:30 a.m. Obama admitted to being “out of sorts” the next morning, writes Purdum. “I never drink that late,” the president complained to Emanuel. [Here’s](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31050780/ns/politics-white_house/t/day-life-obamas-white-house/#.TvtoNJhHZaU) another piece, by MSNBC, describing the White House on an average day, although it doesn’t focus too directly on Obama himself. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/8 "2011-12-29T23:38:13Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I remember reading somewhere Bill Clinton saying that there was a lot of time when he was free. I cite this not to be snarky… I cite this to say that that reply was tautological. ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/9 "2011-12-30T15:11:20Z")
> [@Perderabo](#): > > Read a few pages from [President Ford’s Daily Dairies](http://www.geraldrfordfoundation.org/1975-diaries/). I really got an apreciation for how much work and how long the day is. This link is fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/10 "2011-12-30T16:01:53Z")
I know that double posting is discouraged in the message boards… Reading the Ford diary for 09/5/1975 and 09/22/1975 show just how difficult it is to be POTUS. On those days the President was the subject of “an unsuccesful assissination attempt” (as blandly stated in govenmental prose) and yet completed two very busy days of public events following the unsuccesful acts. I have a difficult time imagining meetings all day long with bunches of industrialists, politicians and staffers following an assissination attempt. Regardless of the fact that I am not a republican I have admired Ford for his service as president, but that man must have had enormous armored steel cajones to carry on despite people firing weapons at him. I can’t imagine today’s Secret Service allowing public events to continue after this type of activity. New moto for the White House: Shoot all you want - we’ll continue to brief the President. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-potus-workweek-like/607538/11 "2011-12-30T17:43:15Z")
Different Presidents have had different work ethics. Before FDR, from all I’ve read, most Presidents other than Lincoln didn’t find the job especially taxing. Reagan had chunks of his schedule listed as “staff time” that were actually opportunities for naps, IIRC. LBJ in essence crammed two work days into one, with a long nap in-between, working late into the night with a second shift of secretaries and stenographers. Carter insisted that his staff leave him big blocs of time for reading the avalanche of memos which came across his desk. On the other hand, Secretary of State Dulles wrote of once dropping by the Oval Office for an unscheduled visit with Eisenhower and finding the President, with time on his hands, idly browsing through the encyclopedia. Generally speaking, the Presidency has become more demanding over time. > [@jtgain](#): > > I wonder if the President can ever lay back and get shitfaced drunk? Let’s say he wants to have some friends over and watch the Rose Bowl? Can he drink a 12er and then pass out for a few hours? That would be a bad time for the incoming ICBMs to start… A SDSAB report that may be of interest: [Is the Secret Service responsible for keeping the president from getting drunk? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2910/is-the-secret-service-responsible-for-keeping-the-president-from-getting-drunk)