[cj]

> This is both normal and mostly acceptable, in my professional opinion.

Perhaps at large companies?

I would hope people applying to jobs at small 5-20 person startups aren't bullshitting and lying about the work they do. Or to reword the same sentiment, I hope people looking for the easiest possible path target their job search at companies with lots of bureaucracy where people not doing your job is more easily tolerated.

Edit: I like the suggestion from someone else in the comments here to "work in an environment where not being productive is not harmful."

[cogman10]

The 5->10 hours a week is definitely on the extreme end of laziness.

However, I do think if you are doing the full 40+ hours only working you are likely heading towards burnout. IMO, 5->6 hours of work in an 8 hour work day is both normal and acceptable to keep people from burning out and ultimately dropping to the 5->10 hour a week range.

[neuronic]

I think there is also this topic of mental work vs. physical work. When I did physical work I could and did work 8-10hrs per day. Even if I wasn’t motivated, just illness was a problem.

But as a software dev I have mostly 5hrs a day of good work, sometimes 9hrs, sometimes 2hrs… then it’s like a block in the brain. Like running out of gas.

Today I mostly just fixed up a tiny shell script. The last couple of weeks have felt like wading through quicksand. I went from amazingly busy in my last project to burned out and „lazy“ in my new project.

[almost_usual]

At a 5-20 person startup there are probably like 5 engineers, there’s no time to waste and everyone knows what everyone is doing.