[smithrj]

I used to think my burnout was from long hours, but I recently got a chance to work on a greenfield project at work and loved every second of the 60-70h weeks just building something really cool with a small team.

The burnout nearly vanished during this time and only recently has started to reappear and I have a much better understanding now of what causes burnout for me specifically.

[AlexanderDhoore]

Is it normal in the US for software developers to work 60-70 hour weeks? I understand this is the case in hip startup culture, but what about normal, boring companies? I work as an embedded software developer in Belgium, and here 40 hours is normal.

[blackeyeblitzar]

Depends on the company. A place like Microsoft or Google, where the company doesn’t really need to try to reap the benefits of their monopolies, a lot of people get away with working 20 hour weeks. Amazon and Meta are known to be harder places to work, so maybe 50-60 isn’t rare - although many just do 40. At startups you have to work long hours but that can be anywhere from 50-70 hours. No one is actually doing the 100 hour weeks they glorify, because it’s impossible to sustain.

The truth is though it’s a broken system. In my opinion even a startup should be able to make it on 40 hours. If they have to put in insane hours for just a slim chance to survive, it’s an indication that there isn’t really fair competition and that the market is too skewed towards existing players.

[shrimp_emoji]

100? That's even more than https://folklore.org/90_Hours_A_Week_And_Loving_It.html

[16mb]

No not typically. In my experience most people work 40-45 hours at the boring companies that I’ve been at

[sovietmudkipz]

In my experience it's usually 35-40 hours "butt in seat" time but 1 mins - 5 hours of work actually happen. The rest of the time is dopamine switching between news, personal communications, and other forms of non-work entertainment.

I count checking emails, work instant communications, and working through bureaucracy (paperwork flows) as work, not just hands on keyboard working on software solutions.

Also in my experience there are people who focus on only work at work, and they usually drag others into performing their job function.

[WWWMMMWWW]

If the only reason I'm doing something is for the company, whatever the task is ... it's on the clock.

[sandwitches]

No, that's an insane workload. Your employer doesn't even deserve 40 hours, let alone 70. Jesus, people, live your lives instead of toiling for the rich people who will take from you until you keel over.

[shrimp_emoji]

Work fortifies the spirit!

[BobbyTables2]

Indeed. The excitement of an interesting greenfield project is hard to beat. Works seems better than play on those days. The harder the task, the better!

In all modesty, I feel I can be a 10X or 100X on such, but it’s hard to let go and end up thinking about work constantly after hours too.

But when the task is to update documentation or fix a random test pipeline failure on a Legacy product, the energy doesn’t come so easily…

[H8crilA]

If there is any causation in a particular case it's often the other way around: burnout can cause long working hours.

[flakeoil]

That's not burnout you had, you were bored out.