IF You Make 100K plus Annually, Does Working 10 to 12 Hr Days Seems like a Lot ?

I worked that much and got a QUARTER of the pay and the stress was horrible. I'm thinking in this economy she should be HAPPY to have a job to go to.

10-12 hrs a day is still 10-12 hrs a day no matter how much you make. How does money make the number of hrs irrelevant. 10-12 hrs a day is a long work day.

It depends...
Does her job end when she goes home?
Does she work 5 days a week, or 6?
Does she have a huge set of responsibilities?
Is she required to travel?
Is she able to take her vacation and sick days without too much difficulty?
Does she have a pleasant work environment?
Is her pay on par with that of her peers at other financial institutions?

until we walk a mile in her moccasins....well, you know the rest.

Well...to be honest...she sounds very spoiled.

Maybe she should get a job that requires longer hours for less may. Maybe she will quite whining.

Sounds like she's got by by working less or not as hard as others in the same type of position. I say, she needs to put her big girl panties on & quit her bitching. People with that type of paycheck normally don't get there or keep that type of paycheck by being lazy & not working their tails off. So, yes, it seems perfectly acceptable & goes with the territory.

She needs to suck it up...

A friend of mine was a partner at Deloitte & Touche and prior to that a Director at Price Waterhouse Coopers...he worked 1 2 to 14 hour days for his pay...

my husband makes a decent salary and doesn't need to work but 40 hours a week - it all depends upon the position and requirements...a bank runs different hours then when I was growing up...now - there's one that is even open on Sunday!

So my thought? She doesn't like having to put the hours in for her pay? She can quit and go elsewhere...she is a Senior Director- responsibility comes with that title....tell her to put her big girl panties on and suck it up.

My husband make twice that amount of money, so does that mean he needs to work 12,16 hr days...Um no!!! Just because someone makes good money, why does that mean they need to work ridiculous hrs? They are entitled to life just like everybody else. He works 8a-5p, that's the average but not always.

If someone has worked their way up the ladder and is now in a position to make alot of money, why do you think they need to work more hrs than the next person who doesn't make that much money? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not someone who cares how much anyone else makes and most people who know us, don't even know my husband makes that kind of money.

It's too many hours. Period. It leaves no time for balance, family life, personal time. It's exhausting and debilitating and sucks the joy from life. Even if your friend made a million a year, 10 & 12 hour days as the norm are miserable. Even if you LOVE your job, and it's your passion, your life will become VERY out of whack because you will have NO time for anything else.

As everyone who works and "8" hour day knows... it's not. An hour in the morning to get ready and out the door (kids can push it even longer), commute, unpaid working lunches, commute home, minimum of a half an hour "coming home from work". Every 8 hour a day worker knows they're devoting apx 10-11 hours a day to their job. When you work 12, you're devoting 14-15 hours a day to your job. ANY level of management or "on call" people are putting in even MORE hours in working, planning, strategizing, politicking.

It's a LONG day, whether you're making peanuts or bank.

I'd happily work 10-12 hour days for that money. Holy cow.
There are people who work those types of shifts in convenience stores and it could take them 5 years to earn that much.
If you're going to be a senior dirctor or executive of some kind, it makes sense that with more responsibility comes more hours....thus the hefty paycheck.

For the money she makes, I don't think the hours are out of line at all.
That's just my opinion.

It really depends on the job and the work/life balance. My DH is a senior manager and will work longer to fill in and get the job done. However, his job is usually handled in a typical 9-5 except for certain times of the year. Working 12 hour days all the time would leave nothing for his family.

People at that pay level are also either very skilled, have taken additional classes for management and/or have advanced degrees. All those things factor into a pay scale, as does location. 100k in Kentucky is different than 100k in California.

That definitely seems like too much to me. I make 100K+, and if my company required that amount of work each day I would look for a position elsewhere. I put in extra hours in spurts to finish up projects, but it's my choice to do so because I enjoy my job and want to be rated well.
If you include lunch and a couple breaks, that means 11-13+ hours in the office daily. That type of schedule leaves very little time for work-life balance, impacts your health and emotional well-being, and eventually affects your ability to do your job.

Your friend needs to take a reality check and realize that not all people make what she is making. Yes the higher up you go the more you work for that money. Besides she is in Las Vegas which has a large number of unemployed and she should count her blessings. I would love to have that job and be back in Vegas but that is not going to happen. She can always quit and then wish she had the job.

In this day and age if you have a good paying job or a job at all you go and shut up about the things you don't like. Better to have a job then standing in the unemployment line.

I have a cousin whose daughter has been looking for a job for over two years and has exhausted her unemployment benefits and can't get a job. She has a masters degree but then after a said amount of time employers don't want to even look at you.

Good luck to you and your "spoiled" friend.

The other S.

What does one's income have to do with the hours they put in? If a senior director makes 100k and works 40 hours a week then yes they are asking too much if it is long term. It is quite simple really, if that is what they are worth, in other words they can go somewhere else, make the same money, work less hours then they are asking too much.

If on the other hand if there are no jobs in that field or the other jobs pay less or make them work longer hours then your friend is stupid and shouldn't be complaining. She should be happy her job was that easy up until that point.

My BFF is CFO for a large company and prior to that worked to a Big 8 Accounting firm. She has always easily worked those hours (10-12 per day) for MANY years (she's now 46) and makes above and beyond 100K. I think your friend needs to wake up and smell the coffee. With rank comes commitment.

If I were a Senior Director, I should be setting my own hours. No one should be telling me what hours I needed to work, only what results I needed to be creating for the company.

I've made over $100k plus bonus plus stock options in the past (not now as I'm working PT and attending grad school). I was not judged by the number of hours I was at the office, or working from any location. I was not required to track my hours. I was expected to create measureable results ($$$) for the company.

BTW - $100k didn't buy me a big house or fancy car, it supported a family of four in a middle class manner.

I am well paid in my position at work, and I work long hours. However, part of the reason I work long hours is that all my help has been laid off so my company can make more profits. Therefore, I made the executive decision to work from home. I just don't commute into the office anymore, period. As such, I can walk my kids to school in the morning, pick them up from the babysitter right at 5pm, drive them to ballet class, help them with homework... and then after they're in bed, or on weekends, or whenever, I'm working. Sometimes my phone rings with some dire emergency at 2am, and I have to start work then. That's part of the job, sure, and like I said, I'm paid well to do what I do, but by the same token, I will by all means try and have some work-life balance, too.

All that said, I am definitely formulating a Plan B for my career, because whether or not I'm paid $100K+, 12 hours per day is too much to continue to do long-term. I'm really burned out, and I used to love my job. I'd be willing to make quite a bit less if I could work fewer hours and not HAVE to take it all home with me all the time. I can't imagine what it would be like to turn my phone off so I could sleep through a whole night, and that's sad to me that my career has come to this. Nobody tells you when you're applying to Ivy League universities that a high-flying career means that you'll never have a weekend off again. :-/

I have noticed that most jobs that pay well do require a lot. People sometimes think that a CEO just takes trips and signs documents, but really he/she works really hard. My husband is in sales and his earning potential is awesome, but he works HARD!! Lots of hours etc. So to me it seems pretty normal...

That comes out to about $32/hr. I know people who earn a higher hourly wage and work fewer hours, and people who earn a lower hourly wage and work longer hours (and vice verse).
She can always go job hunting, but I bet she won't like what she sees!

If her job normally doesn't require ten to twelve hours a day, then yeah- that's too many hours. She took the job expecting a nine to five job and now is being asked to work more in effct, her hourly rate has gone down. I know most people would be thrilled with a six figure salary but those who already make that don't want to work more hours than they have to... Just like people who make less.

Doesn't seem completely unreasonable, but if she has to do it everyday and also has a family to care for, I can see how she might feel like it's too much. At some point those kinds of hours can get overwhelming.

As an owner of my own company with my hubby....(NON MLM,NO DIRECT SALES) We work 24/7, yes more than your friend because our prime interest is in our own investment of our company and we are glad to put in sweat equity for our end result.

As for your friend.... She sounds a bit spoiled and feeling entitled. A low 6 figure income, plus bonus, for her responsibilities is not that bad. She needs to be thankful and get over herself.

.

Hmm, aren't all jobs cyclical? I mean, banks are having a hard time right now so I am sure more hours are required.
My husband is in the finance industry. My family (mostly bureaucrats) thinks his schedule is "easy." Of course they don't really take into account all the hours he worked himself through business school, or all the YEARS of cold calling and telemarketing it took to build up his business. He spent about 3 or 4 years working 7 am to 9 pm with NO vacation, and no raises or bonuses.
"Don't judge a man until you have walked in his shoes." (Cliche, but true!!!)

Is this only five days per week??? Probably. She needs to buck up and get over it as a senior director. When we move up the corporate ladder (law, medicine or lots of other careers) that's what it takes to do those types of positions, it's not a surprise. If she has children and is now and is regretting it, she can always move down to a nice hourly job. I have always been fortunate that most of the time, I was able to do additional work in my home office after my daughter went to bed and before she woke up in addition to calling on clients during the day.

I've made more than that and I've worked more than that and now I'm retired so this is a retrospective opinion for you. I was also "the boss" so I can tell you what my expectations were for staff that made that much as well. I worked too many hours. I now know I worked too many hours because I didn't develop anything else in my life besides my job. Your friend needs to look at her day and evaluate:
1. Can anything can be done more efficiently or can anything be done from home? We all spend a little time chit chatting with colleagues at work, then they leave our office and we think shoot, now I'll be here an extra hour. Don't waste time with that stuff - work friends disappear.
2. How much time is going to supporting her staff? Some of this is part of the job, some of it goes too far. Watch out for overneedy subordinates, they are huge time wasters.
3. How much is she overanalzying and over worrying? If she is a perfectionist, the world does not appreciate perfectionism. This is a tough one to break. She should step back and look at the priorities of her job and concentrate on the priorities. Make sure that 80% of her day is going to the priorities. If it's not, something else is wrong. Don't pick up the slack from overneedy staff members because of her own drive for perfectionism. Get different staff that meet standards.
4. What is the expectation of her organization? I expected my higher level employees to get the job done. Some of them got the job done in a 7 to 8 hr day. Some of them got the job done in a 12 hour day. Looking back, a lot of the 12 hour a day people were probably in the wrong job and I should have done more to get them out of their positions so that I could have employees with healthy work-life balances but I didn't care because the job was getting done. Most higher level people can expect to work long hours from time to time, because of a special project or something. Most higher level employees are probably not ever going to have a 40 hr. week. But they should not have continuous non stop 12 hour days either. Like me, her boss probably looks only at the result and not at what it takes to get there. So she needs to be the one to evaluate whether she is in the wrong job for her or if she has too many over needy people on her team or if her organization is placing unreasonable demands.
5. If she believes in her competence to be working at this level, and she believes that she doesn't have time wasters in her day, and she believes that she's not overcompensating for other people on her team, then she needs to talk to her employer. If I had a very competent employee, who was appropriately managing her team and not picking up their slack and she came to me and said, I need to work less hours, 12 hours a day is killing me, I would most definitely have listened to them and worked with them on a solution. So is she worth $48 an hour or not? Looking back, I think I had both self esteem and perfectionist issues that made me feel like I wasn't worth what they were paying me. In other words, I was the one requiring that I work so many hours, not my organization.
6. On the other hand, as a boss, I would not have listened if I had an employee that wasn't right for their job or an employee who was staying late doing the work of others. So if she wants to keep her compensation she can probably stay under the radar by working 12 hours a day. She will pay for this enormously later in life.

No, it doesn't seem like too much. First, 10 hours a day only means 8-6 with eating lunch in the office or on business. For a six-figure salary, no this is not too much at all. I used to work 80 -90 hours a week. Big salary, big responsibilities.

My answer will probably not be popular but this is what I think...
Not knowing what her bonus is, she is working for less than $40 hour. That seems kind of low to me since she is a senior director. If her bonus is in the $60,000 range then I think she is doing ok but what is her free time worth to her. Maybe her free time is worth $60 an hour to her.

I'm not trying to be snooty, but I make a pretty good salary, very close to but not what you mentioned your friend making...I work 40 hours/week. If I was expected to work 50-60/per week, I would expect to be paid accordingly.

Salaried workers work more sometimes and less other times, but if you are expected to work 60 hours for a 40 hour salary, something is wrong.

I've worked the same hours (and more) for half that much pay - but maybe she is having trouble finding that balance, managing family time, feeling overwhelmed, etc. I guess the question would be, would she be happy and willing to work less hours if it meant lower pay?

how about flipping this? How about looking at the #s?

There are jobs out there with a standard 40 hour week delivering $100K & more. It can happen. (hmm, wouldn't it be nice?!!)

Looking at this issue from a #s standpoint, for each additional hour you work....you are essentially reducing your "per hour salary rate". In other words, if you go over 40 hours, you are making less per hour......so you end up feeling short-changed.

It doesn't matter what your salary is....what matters is how much time you have to invest into the week to receive that salary. To work 12 hour days.... basically means that you are working an extra 1/2 day (each & every day) just to get that salary. Emotionally-damaging if you think about it!

I can see where this would be upsetting. Not much different from having to have a side job to make extra money. For me, it's not the end of year totals, but the time each week invested......that make the salary & here's why: my husband was a "salaried" supervisor. His salary was a flat-rate each year....whether he was working 40 hours or 80. What would you choose? ....Peace.

People like that make me sick. She's lazy and doesn't deserve the money she gets. No, 10-12 hour days are not too long for that money. I know tons of professions where 12-14 hour days are the norm for 25,000-35,000 per year.

But I get it. Sometimes my husband needs a little kick in the pants. He forgets how the rest of us live. He doesn't make that much money now. But he has in the past and yes working long days wears on the mind and body. Complain too much and the job and the money will be gone.

Ok, I am sorry but that seems a little petty. I've worked 16 hour days for barely minimum wage and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Really you think that she should have no life, miss her family, and work herself to death, just because she makes more money than you? I am sure that's not what you mean but it's kinda what it sounds like. My husband works from 7 - 3:30 see's 25 patients a day in that time frame, hardly ever gets to take a lunch or a break, and come homes exhausted half the time. But according to this, it sound like that's not good enough, now he has got to say till 5:30. Well let's see, that would put him at home at 6:30 and he would get to see his daughter only 1 and half hours a day. That sounds fair.

those titles come with the territory and sounds like the compensation is pretty on target

It sounds reasonable for a high level job except if it was not expected before and they suddenly changed their expectations. It can be hard to plan childcare if you are suddenly asked to work extra hours. I had a lower paying job with a lot of unpredictable overtime. We were compensated for the overtime but the unpredictable nature of it made that job a poor fit for a person with young kids. I left before starting a family even though I liked a lot about that job.

No money in the world would be worth it for me to work those hours and basically never see my kids or have any personal life.
That's just my opinion. I can live perfectly well on less than half of that money without working myself to death - and still have a very happy life. Who needs that big car or huge house anyways...

seems pretty typical to work 10-12 hours for any salaried employee, but the type of work must be considered...

My hubby regularly works 10-12 hours a day and makes a lot less I think it sounds good, lol.

I haven't ready anyones else's answer, but she should feel lucky she still has a job, making that kind of money, in the banking industry. If she's not happy with it, then go look somewhere else and she'll soon see how lucky she is. Very few companies are hiring right now for that level of a position.

I was working those hours with half the pay and still was laid off because my position was eliminated. Took me two years to find another job.

She should be grateful to have a job to complain about.

My husband does make that, and he works 12 hour days consistently on his feet with nothing but bathroom breaks (if someone is there with him). Sometimes I don't think it is fair he does not get a lunch break or anything, but he does make good money so I do keep that in mind.

Keep in mind that many people who are highly paid command that salary because of the skills they bring to the job regardless of how many hours they work. My husband falls in that category, and he commands his salary because he produces the revenue to support it. He does work a lot of hours, but that's not what they're paying him for - they are paying him to bring in business and whether he does that in 5 hours a day or 12 hours a day is irrelevant as long as he brings it in. Keep in mind that if someone makes $100k a year working 60 hours a week they are being paid the same hourly as someone making $67k a year working 40 hours a week - and typically the $100k folks have a lot more responsibility riding on their shoulders.

My husband currently works 12-15hour days 5-6 days a week. A short day for him is 10-12hours. And he doesnt make anywhere near 100k a year. I wish he could work such short hours and make that kind of money.