Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer On 130 Hour Work Weeks

130 hours a week suggests something more like being on call during waking hours when outside of the office, not constantly doing productive work.
That's what I was thinking. I've done that many hours in a 7 day oncall rotation. Though, I found after hitting the 100 hour mark, I was pretty much useless. Being constantly woken every few hours for days on end while being expected to also work your regular 45 hour week is a bit much. I don't see any sane CEO doing this for any length of time, even with chemical assistance.
 
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Been there done that. You get sick after a while if you don't get out and about and take some time out. If not, you will do eventually.
End of the day you are more productive usually in shorter work periods. Work is done much quicker, instead of being fatigued and working slower and twice as long.

Work/life balance is important. Been many years of this stuff almost as a sacrifice, to get to a more balanced life long run, but you learn the hard way. It does pay off eventually.
 
It always strikes me as odd when people equate long hours to productivity or "hard" work.
There is simply no way that someone "working" 130 hours isn't spending half of that time fixing shit they broke because their brain stopped working properly about 40 hours in.

I know it's seen as a badge of honor to pull 80 hour weeks and shit, particularly in the tech industry, but the ratio of clean to garbage code and good decision making has long since flown south by that point.

Next time you use a piece of technology that works in a frustrating and deranged way, or is buggy as shit (which will probably happen to you at some point today) ... thank the 80 hour heroes (or the slave drivers who trick them into it)

It's ridiculous.
 
The dope dealer and his two crack whores behind my shop work this many hours and still cant afford dental care. Thanks obama

When I was a younger man I worked this many hours for long seasons, I always found it to be counter productive. Yes you made good money but lost so much of it because you had to eat out most of the time let alone the loss of being with friends and family. As I have grown older I realize that money is not everything. I have a great wife and a cozy house and good relationship with God and that is all that matters.
 
I don't think i've every done 130 hours. My record is somewhere in the mid-90's. I slept on the hard floor of my office cubicle for a few hours one night - was waiting on a job to complete and needed some sleep. I also recall drinking old coffee - the secretary locked up the coffee grounds when she left for the day, so about 2 am - you'll drink old nasty coffee to stay awake.
I did that for almost 3 weeks in a row as we had a development deadline. My team hit their goals, the other teams did not. We didn't get a bonus but were offered a hard kick to the nuts.
 
130 hrs a week are fine if you want to die early. Unless they are letting you retire with full pay at age 30. And we all know that ain't gonna fucking happen.

And they say Football Players lead tough after-lives!
 
If you work 130 hours a week at Walmart you might want to take your blood pressure up front a few times.
 
Yeah OK, I'll work 130 hours for the same salary as 45 hours. Five hours of non work time a day sure sounds healthy, I'm sure my wife and kids will love it! Just imagine the pride they will have that their father was never around for them, but at least he made the stockholders some money!

Get the fuck out of here with that noise.
 
Unfortunately, some work environments value the appearance of productivity more than actual production.

Well, she is the person who took away the work from home policy at Yahoo. I find I get much more work in an environment of my choosing than a forced environment, but it's all about seeing a butt in a chair rather than results. You see people who put in those 100+ hour work weeks get promoted over better qualified people who put in less time. But if a person needs to put in those insane hours, why can't a company like Google, with supposedly intelligent people, come to realize that maybe they're working those long hours because they're not productive?

Anyone who claims to work 100+ hours a week in my opinion either is:

A) Lying
B) Just in a one time only crunch period where they'll need recuperation
C) Going to die in fewer than 10 years due to health problems
D) Working at a job that's so menial any moron could do it
 
The comment in the article is a theoretical prospect, not something that actually happened. These points have been covered, but a lot of it has to do with motivation, and efficiency. I ran a business from my house for four years. Money was always really tight and I was constantly working on things. I was always working or thinking about the business from the time I got up until I went to sleep around 3-4AM every night. I technically, "Worked" 18 hour days, seven days a week, for four years (126 hour week). I was the only employee and this was my sole source of income so I had to make things happen or else I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. Technically, this is feasible.

Now... I wasn't working every minute of 18 hours, I was terribly inefficient. I'd find myself becoming distracted or wandering around doing whatever I wanted. There were most certainly days where I worked every bit of those 18 hours, but the majority was probably 6-8 hours of physical work, and the rest a mix of planning, meals, and distractions. At the time, would I have traded this for a traditional 9-5 job? Not in a million years because I loved working from home, making my own schedule, and the work I did. I ended up having to move because the owner of the home sold it and that completely derailed my business. I still have all my old equipment (slightly dated now) that I'd like to get setup, but I'm stuck in an office from 9-6 and by the time I get home I have little to no motivation.

Amusingly thought, I'm here for 9 hours a day and do maybe one hour of work. The rest of the time I browse the internet, plan, and read. Two weeks ago was one of my six month reviews and they told me I'm doing an amazing job. I chuckled to myself and just keep doing the same thing. Perceived work versus actual work are two entirely different things.
 
what exactly does she have to do for 19 hours per day? She's no designing anything, she's not coding. Just endless meetings and negotiations?

That's her talking about her days at google, where she did code. I doubt she puts in those kind of hours as ceo.

I don't know how you can put in 130 hours a week. I did about a 14 months straight of 110 hours a week. I was single, in my twenties, and the impact on my health was significant and there was no personal life. It was eat, work, commute to a place to sleep and back and that was about it.
 
Studies show productivity starts to drop around 40 hours per week, and takes a massive dump after 50. So good for her, she spent an extra 80 hours per week getting maybe 8 hours of real work done.

Instead, maybe hire 2-3 other people, just a thought.

It's like looking at German/American working habits. Germans work less hours, but have higher productivity.

Not to stereotype, but I feel we get caught up in the marketing and not the reality - Worker A did 130 hours a week all year, he's promoted! What did Worker A actually get done? Who gives a shit! Worker B meanwhile made 2x as much profit for the company in 1/3 the time, but doesn't appear to be working as hard - no raise for you.
 
Just one more thought. If you are a manager and you have to work 130 hours, that just means you're a bad manager. Either you're trying to micromanage everything, or you can't assign the jobs to your employees properly if you're stuck doing that much.
 
Well, she is the person who took away the work from home policy at Yahoo. I find I get much more work in an environment of my choosing than a forced environment, but it's all about seeing a butt in a chair rather than results. You see people who put in those 100+ hour work weeks get promoted over better qualified people who put in less time. But if a person needs to put in those insane hours, why can't a company like Google, with supposedly intelligent people, come to realize that maybe they're working those long hours because they're not productive?

Anyone who claims to work 100+ hours a week in my opinion either is:

A) Lying
B) Just in a one time only crunch period where they'll need recuperation
C) Going to die in fewer than 10 years due to health problems
D) Working at a job that's so menial any moron could do it

Not that I want to start an argument, but there are some jobs, say building a new satellite, that require quite a bit of man hours, particularly for testing. It would not comply with your four bullets above, and you would get 80 to 120 hour work weeks pretty easily, with multiple weeks back to back.
 
Can you work a 130 hour week? You have to be careful about scheduling your sleeps, showers, and poops.

The nap rooms at Google were there because it was safer to stay in the office than walk to your car at 3 a.m.

This woman is completely full of shit.
 
Studies show productivity starts to drop around 40 hours per week, and takes a massive dump after 50. So good for her, she spent an extra 80 hours per week getting maybe 8 hours of real work done.

Instead, maybe hire 2-3 other people, just a thought.

Perhaps she's doing it for image. My old boss used to put in unnecessary overtime (salaried) just as a means to get away from the house. But it sure made him look good around the office.
 
There have been times I've been up for 22-23 hours non-stop, I don't go around bragging about sleeping 1 hour a day.


Perhaps she's doing it for image. My old boss used to put in unnecessary overtime (salaried) just as a means to get away from the house. But it sure made him look good around the office.
Perhaps there's a nice couch in her office and she actually takes naps when she's tired, and in fact her working is telling other people to get work done then just making sure it was done.
 
You know what else would help get productivity up? Everyone (who can) being allowed to work from home. Oh wait, didn't Marissa Mayer fire a bunch of remote workers? I guess their time is better spent sitting in trafic... That is efficient you know :rolleyes:
 
Hi All

As been mentioned at least here in the US working 60,80,100 plus hours a week is seen as a good thing. Folk have been brainwashed into believing that BS.

I work 40 hours a week. Not a minute more. No one has a problem with that as we all work the same amount of hours. Very happy & productive work place.
 
Perhaps she's doing it for image. My old boss used to put in unnecessary overtime (salaried) just as a means to get away from the house. But it sure made him look good around the office.

At my last job, the director of my division used to do this, would appear out of nowhere to jump into oncall meetings, after hour activities etc. My boss's, boss's, boss.... boss? (I lost track after 3+ levels above me, and I was a vp, LOL)

That f*cker made our lives miserable. We were already oncall working unpaid overtime all night and on weekends and he would chime into our calls and second guess every decision. Oh and if ANY perceived ball got dropped (reality or not) you got your ass CHEWED in public during the next all staff meeting. Dude was/is a total prick and I hope Karma takes care of him appropriately. Not likely though. He's in the golden parachute category.

We always used to say in meetings, OK who is going to buy "the Old Man" a puppy or a hooker or something to keep him busy so we can actually get some work done?

Not my problem any more, but if I ever saw him laying in the street I would be sure to run over him twice, just to make sure.
 
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