Work how many hours a week

So how many hours a week are you expected to work if you are a full-time employee? Even though many people consider 35 or 40 hours a week full-time, the number of hours you are expected to work can vary depending on your employer.

In some cases, it's less; for other employers, it can be more. The same holds true for part-time employment. Company policy determines how many hours per week is considered a part-time job. The standard for full-time employment was typically 40 hours a week in the past.

The U. Department of Labor guidelines provide for overtime pay for nonexempt workers after working 40 hours. Many employers now consider employees as full-time when they work fewer hours i. Under the ACA, employees who work 30 or more hours per week are entitled to health insurance; however, beyond that, companies may set whatever standard they like for full-time compensation and other benefits.

Other employers may set a higher number of work hours per workweek. For example, a hour workweek could comprise five 10 hour days or an additional 6th workday. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act Obamacare , the definition of a full-time employee has been prescribed as a worker who spends an average of 30 or more hours per week on the job.

Employers with 50 or more employees are required to offer health care to full-time employees under the ACA. Organizations can choose a historical period of three to 12 months to assign a full-time status to workers if they averaged 30 or more hours during that period of time. Once designated as full-time, employers must keep workers in that status for at least six months.

Beyond ACA requirements, individual employers are free to set standards for their workforce. There are no federal guidelines that regulate the number of hours employees age 16 or over can work. The Fair Labor Standards Act dictates that employers must pay non-exempt employees time and one-half for any hours worked above 40 per week.

An exempt employee paid a salary is not entitled to overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 during a workweek. He laments that in trying to salvage as much family time as possible, he is neglecting his relationship with his wife. Nevertheless, Alex derives enormous satisfaction from his work. Last year, for example, he prosecuted an accounting fraud case. For him, the case exemplifies what motivates him to work so hard. He not only made sure a criminal was punished for breaking the law; he also helped secure compensation for those who were wronged.

The problem with this great job is its size. As companies gain global spans of operation, there are additional reasons for jobs to become extreme. The need to oversee work in multiple time zones increases not only the travel requirements of a job but also the length of the workday. One oil company executive we interviewed ran a global team composed of colleagues in Angola, the United States, and China.

Other professionals in our focus groups told anecdotes about pulling all-nighters and defying jet lag to attend back-to-back meetings in Singapore and New York. The difficulty of waking up to participate in global conference calls in the middle of the night was a common refrain. Because many companies are expanding globally, senior managers have a larger scope of responsibility.

Take Gwen not her real name , who manages a supply chain for a large DIY retailer. Just three years ago, most of her suppliers were in South Carolina and Georgia; now her supply chain reaches to Eastern Europe and China. Gwen operates in three different time zones and seven different countries. But being away from home half the time—and I mean away away—is really hard on my ten-year-old. Long workweeks cannot simply be chalked up to the crushing effects of a heartless and unchecked capitalist system.

We believe that these are the key trends underlying the rise in extreme work. There may be others. The point, however, is that they represent a mix of positive and negative pressures. Long workweeks cannot simply be chalked up to the crushing effects of a heartless and unchecked capitalist system, as some commentators have argued. The extreme professionals who find their work enormously alluring are not deluded. As she detailed the demands of her job for us, we found her to be downright exuberant.

The pressure is undeniable, but we heard no complaint. If people in extreme jobs are uncomplaining and their employers are happy to have their services, is it reasonable to claim there is a problem? Arguably, the trend toward more extreme work is a boon to national competitiveness. Yet there are, even in the responses to our survey, hints of the dangers afoot.

Asked about the effects of their extreme jobs on their health and relationships, most respondents readily noted the downsides. Extreme jobs may be deeply alluring, but they are certainly not cost free. Our data show that the extreme-work model is wreaking havoc on private lives and taking a toll on health and well-being. Housework and home care seem to be among the first things to go. One executive in a London-based focus group told us that although he had lived in his South Kensington flat for two years, a mattress and a sleeping bag were the sum total of his furnishings.

Health is also an issue. Moms with extreme jobs tend to do better than dads in terms of coming through for their children. Spouses and partners also suffer from the extreme-work model.

Extreme workers dramatically under-invest in intimate relationships. Some of the data are quite startling. These statistics are underscored by the stories shared by focus group participants. In one session, which took place at a financial services company, an executive described how he had lost all credibility with his elderly wheelchair-bound father by canceling so many promised weekend visits.

I had no idea I even had it in me to enter into this other zone, where I was able to focus on my nine-year-old son, and I mean really focus. And we spent hours playing Ping-Pong—a game he loves but I generally have no patience for. These are poignant examples of the costs of extreme work to individuals, but there can be costs at the company level, as well—for instance, when burn-out occurs. Moreover, the next generations of management—the so-called Gen X and Gen Y cohorts—seem less enamored of their jobs than baby boomers.

The ultimate price may be paid in succession planning if maxed-out professionals stop striving for top jobs. Beyond the level of any single company, the costs of the extreme-job phenomenon become far more troubling. The societal costs of income disparity and winner-take-all economics are huge, as many before us have argued. Women in particular stand to lose from the extreme-work model.

The women who do hold extreme jobs, meanwhile, are somewhat less likely than the men to love their work. Our research shows that extreme jobs are much more common among men than among women. Part of the answer emerges from finer cuts of the data.

The U. Men are somewhat more tolerant of such jobs. They see a direct link between their long workweeks and a variety of distressing behaviors in their children. These dynamics play out in homes around the world every day. Tommy clings, pouts, and whips up the guilt. But it sure makes me think about why I go to work—and why I put in a ten-hour day.

Indeed, for many women, the equation is not balancing out. According to research, productivity declines significantly after 50 hours a week and reaches a nadir after 55 hours. Furthermore, failing to take at least one complete day off every week results in lower average hourly performance. As a consequence of our non — stop lifestyle, 48 percent of employed adults feel rushed back for a time, and 52 percent experience considerable stress.

Laura Vanderkam, a managing time specialist, researched how the number of hours you work influences to see how much time you believe you have. The average individual worked 8. And the findings revealed that the gap between those who felt they had a great deal of time and those who would felt pressed for time was just one hour.

Many who felt they would have the least amount of time total worked 8. Working Weeks in the Past: Throughout the past, full-time work was considered to be 40 hours a week. Many workers, however, now expect workers to be full-time even though they work shorter hours i. Staff who work 30 hours or more every week are entitled to medical insurance under the Affordable Care Act; however, employers are free to set whatever standards they choose for full-time wages and benefits.

Working hours, holidays, and other important facilities provided by the Americ to the workers: The United States was built on believing that hard work and honesty be rewarded. Performance and punctuality are strongly regarded in all occupations as a result of this work ethic. On the other hand, workplaces can vary greatly depending on where you live and the industry in which you work. Vacations and working hours: Monday through Friday, a.

On the other hand, workplaces have become much more flexible, with many firms allowing workers to set their own arrangements. Even though the average workweek is 40 hours, many Americans work notoriously conservative long hours. That would equate to a hour workweek. Parents with school-aged children, for example, might be thrilled with a schedule that has them working five days a week with slightly reduced hours each day.

That way, they essentially work while the kids are at school. Or, busy human resources professional might need 40 hours each week to get all their work done, but would benefit from compressing those hours into a 4-day schedule that affords them an extra day off and keeps burnout at bay. Non-traditional schedules are gaining traction in places like Spain and Scandinavia.

So watch this space. And speaking of Scandinavia…. People in Denmark work hard and are just as productive as other workers, but rarely put in more than 37 hours a week, often leaving the office by 4 or 5 PM each day.