[dahart]

I've done 80 sustained for long periods multiple times (3mos - 9mos), in both film and games, over two decades. In my experience, more than 80 is quite rare in both industries, and less than half ever get above 70. There simply isn't much time left to do more for any length of time. At 80 hours/wk, you eat, sleep, and work, and that's it. More than 80 and you're cutting into sleep. One guy I know pulled over 100 for a couple months, but we was definitely sleeping inhumanly low amounts, and was taking prescription drugs to stay awake.

The last game studio I worked at measured actual work hours and noted a significant discrepancy between what people thought they worked and what they actually worked. A lot of people over-estimate their load during crunch. Maybe they factor in commutes, maybe they just over-estimate, but a lot of people that though they worked 80 were only in the building for ~60-65. Some people who thought (or at least said) they were pulling 45-50 were actually working 35. Maybe the mental stress of crunch adds phantom hours.

[dpark]

When I worked at Yahoo years ago many people told me about how they worked long hours. It was some sort of point of pride. In reality, most of these people worked normal days or close to it. They’d work til 7-8pm every night but they never showed up before 10-11am. With lunch thrown in, that’s just 8 hours.

People overestimate their hours when they work places that treat long hours as a sign of commitment or productivity. When the culture expects long hours, people fake long hours.

[jermaustin1]

I consider commuting as part of my working hours. If I'm driving to a client, it is billable time, if I'm using public transit it is a reimbursed fare plus I do work on the train/bus for them or another client (so it's billable). Commuting especially in heavily congested cities should be calculated as part of your "work hours". If not to increase your pay, so you know what your hourly rate actually is.

[dahart]

That is great if you can bill for or otherwise count your commute hours. In film and games, that is sadly not the case for any studio I've ever seen. Work hours are usually defined as being physically in the building working on the production. In some studios, lunch is even deducted. If your commute is an hour each way on top of an 80 hour work week, it just means you're away from home 90+ hours per week. I've done this, and it really sucks, there is zero time for family life, social life, exercise or hobbies during the crunch. Even before we get to niceties like everyone counting commutes as working hours in dense cities, it would be great if we could get rid of crunch times altogether.

[vvanders]

Yeah, it's easy to inflate. In this case I lived a few blocks from the studio(and was tracking my hours since I was accused for 'skimping' because I came in at 8am instead of 12-2pm).

Either way crunch has no place but that industry has so many wide-eyed people clamoring to get in that I don't see it ever changing.